Never be the same (Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier)

Chapter 39

"The universe has existed for billions of years and by chance we ended up living at the same time. That counts for something."

"Try on that white one!" Cindy exclaimed over the loud music that was playing as she was rummaging through her clothes.

I looked down at the dress she had thrown at me, before looking up and giving her a disapproving look, even though she couldn't see it since her back was turned towards me.

After sensing the fact that I wasn't moving, she finally turned to face me, her eyebrows were raised as to ask why I wasn't trying it on yet.

"White? Really?" I raised my own eyebrows at her.

Then the realisation seemed to finally hit her and she looked at me with embarrassment evident on her face, "Oh right, sorry."

However before I could tell her that there was no need to be, she started laughing unexpectedly.

"You alright?" I asked before stepping closer to make sure she wasn't laughing through tears.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright." She had a genuine smile on her face as she said it, "that hasn't really changed about you, you know? You never really used to like white clothes, or colourful ones in general."

I didn't know what to say about that and thankfully she didn't really give me enough time to think of an answer before she shoved another dress in my hands, black one this time.

I let out a sigh while looking at it, I couldn't believe I was doing this. I couldn't believe I had agreed to get dragged to one of Stark's regular parties, but then again, Romanoff- I mean Natasha, Wanda and Cindy can be very persuasive.

So here I now was, holding a dress in my hands, looking around the room at the other girls who were frantically trying to find something to wear themselves. This felt so normal, like something I was supposed to be doing all along, I bet that's what normal people did all the time. This was just another one of the many things I had missed out on.

"Earth to Adriana!" Wanda waved her hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, yeah, I'll change now." I just mumbled quickly and turned around to remove my jeans and shirt slowly.

As soon as I removed my shirt I heard someone gasp, "What have they done to you?"

My whole body tensed up and I was unable to move. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest as the owner of the voice stepped closer to me. A whimper left my lips as soon as Cindy's cold fingers met the mangled skin on my back.

"Oh my god," her voice broke, "what did they do to you?" she asked again as she lifted my hair to reveal another nasty scar on my neck and probably few other minor ones on my back.