Black Star: The Legend Begins

Ŧเ︎Ｆ𝐓︎𝓔︎𝓔︎𝓷

OKAY, so, some of you are going to have to double up,” Clint announces, he and Laura coming back downstairs after they talked privately in their bedroom. “Sorry, but we just don’t have enough room.”

“That’s fine,” Steve says. “Thanks for letting us stay.”

“Of course!” Laura smiles. “Lila, you’ll sleep with Coop in his room, ‘kay?”

“Lexi and Peter, you two will take Lila’s room. Nat and Bruce, you two get the guest room with the queen bed, and Tony and Steve, you two get the guest room with the twin beds.”

Clint and Laura lend you all clothes and toiletries, and you go find your rooms.

“Wow. There is a lot of pink in here,” is Peter’s first reaction.

“And a lot of Barbies,” you add, nudging a few out of the way so you don’t step on them.

“Hey,” Laura says behind you. “Do you want me to inflate an air mattress for one of you? The mattress is supposed to be a full, but it’s really not that big.”

You look at Peter, who shrugs. “I’m fine with whatever.”

“I think we’ll be okay,” you answer. “You don’t have to do that. Thank you, though.”

“No problem. If you change your mind, just let me know.” Laura smiles at the two of you before leaving to check on Lila and Cooper.

“I’m gonna go take a shower,” you say, going into the bathroom joining Lila and Coopers’ rooms.

After you make sure both bedroom doors are locked, you put the white shirt and blue jeans Laura gave you on a hook on the wall, and take your suit off. As you step into the shower, your gaze falls onto the scar on your left arm. It doesn’t feel like that long ago that you and Patricia got into that fight, the fight that changed your whole life.

The hot water falls onto your head and rolls down your chest and back, rinsing away a thin layer of grime. You try to make the memories rinse away with it, but they surface anyway.

★★★★★

“Get off the TV, I need to use it,” Patricia ordered, hanging her knockoff Gucci purse onto a hook as she strode into the house.

“But I’m watching something,” a 7-year-old you whined.

“Okay, and? My show is on soon.” She crossed her arms, evidently impatient.

“Can’t you record it?”

“No, I need to watch it live. Now give me the remote, you little brat.”

Frowning, you passed the remote to Patricia, who immediately yanked it out of your hand. You quickly scrambled off the couch to avoid being sat on by Patricia’s wide body, but you weren’t done yet.

“But Hannah said this is really good, and I promised her I would watch it.”

“Who?”

“Oh, Hannah is the new girl in my class! She moved here from Albany a week ago, and she’s really smart and really nice! We’ve eaten lunch together every day since she moved here. Her mother makes her food to bring to school every single day. She gave me one of the brownies her mother made, and it was really yummy and it had lots of chocolate and–”

“So you made a friend?”

“Yeah!” You nodded happily, forgetting one of the many things Patricia had drilled into you over and over.

“What have I said about you having friends?”

“Um…” you tried to think, knowing you needed to say something — and fast — but you just couldn’t come up with it. “I– I forgot,” you said quietly.