The Other One(STOPPED WRITING)

Chapter 20: Promise?

I sit, legs dangling off of Stark Tower.
Peter was beside me.
"H-hey. You alright?"
"Uh- yeah." I say.
"I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry?"
"I suggested we go to the roof...if I hadn't suggested it.. you wouldn't have seen that.." he whispers.
"It's alright, Peter. I'm used to worse." I try smiling.
He smiles back.
I wasn't lying. I was used to much worse.
Much. Worse.
He didn't even know all of the details. He never would. It'd scar him.
Like it scarred me.

The night air always smelt the best. The starts twinkled down on us.
I wish I was a star.
A star. A star shines in even the darkest of times. Even when it was dying. There were billions of stars in the universe, yet not one shined brighter than the other. They all shined the same, yet they were all different. Differently placed.
I wanted to shine bright in my place. I wanted to be seen. Even if it meant that other stars had to be seen first.
"The galaxy is really beautiful, isn't it?" I say.
He looks over to me.
"Yeah..yeah." He says, looking back at the stars.
We sit in silence for a while, admiring the night sky.
We didn't talk much to each other.
But sometimes we needed silence.
We needed to think.
Other times, we needed distractions.
Because we didn't want to think.
"What do you think space is like?" I finally ask, breaking the silence.
"I dunno. M- maybe it's pretty bright." He says.
"Bright?"
"Yeah.. I- I mean, the stars light has to go somewhere." He smiles.
"Yeah... oh and," I start, "Why do people describe space as dark?"
He shrugs.
"Because it's dark."
"But they have a whole ass sun. They're trying to tell me the sun could brighten up earth, three planets away from the sun... but it can't brighten up a whole lot of space?" I laugh.
He laughs, "Maybe because it has nothing to brighten."
"What about the sky? Or the atmosphere, I guess. I mean, the sun brightens our sky, and at night when it goes away, it doesn't. The sun needs to be fired."
"Sarah."
"What?"
"The sun is already fired." He laughs.
I laugh, too. He wasn't wrong.
It was a big ball of fire, basically.
The silence starts again as we look out into the distance.
We were up really high, but I didn't care.
My feet just dangled around the edges.
I look down at New York City. I loved seeing all the tiny people walking by. All the bright lights that never went out.
There had to be billions of lights. But it was beautiful.
Then I remembered. I forgot to ever ask the simplest questions.
"Hey, wait, Peter."
"Yeah?"
"Um. What year is it?"
He laughs a bit, "2017."
"Oh, okay." I smile.
My heart sinks. Its been a long, long, time.
Almost 100 years of torture....
And it was still happening.
"Hey, Peter?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you really think they could help me?"
He thinks for a moment.
"I- I think so...they helped Mr. Barnes.."
"How?"
"Well- I think it had something to do with this place called Wakanda."
"What's that?"
"I have no idea. But he was, like, there for a long time."
"I see.."
"So.. yeah."
"How did they help him?"
He shrugs.
"I don't really know, to be honest. I mean, I don't think he gets triggered by these words anymore. I think it was something like.."
I cut him off.
"Don't say any of the words."
"Oh- yeah, right. Sorry I didn't think..."
"It's alright."
We stay silent for a while again.
We didn't talk much.
"Um.. can I ask you something?" He says, wearily.
I nod.
"I - I just... why don't you talk a lot..." he asks, carefully.
He didn't want to make me upset by asking.
"Not sure if you could tell, but I'm not exactly a people person." I laugh.
"You talk to me though, and Mr. Barnes."
"Yeah. I do. You're the only exceptions." I smile.
"Cool."
We sit in silence, again.
"Are you okay, though?" He begins, "After everything you've been through?"
I think about the answer for a while.
He notices the length of time I take to answer.
"Sarah?"
"Um, yeah. I'm okay..."
"You promise you're okay?" He asks.
I smile, "I promise."
I don't know why I promised that I was okay.
I wasn't. I never was.
I felt alone.
I felt damaged.
I felt broken.
But I wouldn't tell him that.
Our legs continued to dangle off the tower. It was quite unsafe, really, but we didn't care.
I didn't care about anything in the moment.