Recollection ★ Bucky Barnes

Suddenly You're The Villain

The morning sun shone brightly through the hotel room windows. Marlena's eyes fluttered open and fell upon the large, male body lying on the mattress next to her. As she looked up at him, she remembered what she had planned for him today, and she perked up almost immediately. She sat up as carefully as she could without disturbing her back injury and proceeded to poke Bucky in the face in order to wake him. She found that it was much safer and much more effective to poke him awake, rather than shake him awake. It was also fairly amusing to her, especially so early in the morning.

Bucky groaned in protest, and before long his eyes were fluttering open as well. When he took notice of Marlena staring down at him, he smiled, one of which she returned.

"Wake up, loser. I have a surprise for you today," Marlena informed him as she got off of the queen-sized bed.

"What kind of surprise?" he inquired as he ran a hand through his hair. Some time during the night it had managed to maneuver its way out of the elastic, leaving a tousled mess of chocolate brown hair on top of his head.

Marlena strolled over to hers and Bucky's suitcase and began rummaging through it in search of an outfit to wear for the day. "A lovely surprise." She smirked up at him and gathered up her clothes. "I'd get ready if I were you."

Without another word, Marlena took off down the hall towards Hallie's bedroom. She headed into the bathroom and sat her clothes down on the counter before heading back out to where Hallie lay in her bed. She was fast asleep and also laying in a rather abnormal position. Marlena laughed at her friend before gently shaking her shoulders in an attempt to wake her up, finally succeeding after about three minutes.

Hallie's eyes flashed open, and she shot up, cradling her aching head in her hands. She was now regretting her actions last night and wished she would have listened to Marlena after being told drinking wasn't a good idea; she could definitely feel that it hadn't been. She looked up at Marlena who stood in front of her with her hands pressed against her hips and a rather stern expression plastered on her face.

"You have a hangover, don't you?" Marlena chuckled.

Hallie nodded and grabbed at the bottle of water on her bedside table. "I feel awful."

"Well, that's too bad," Marlena told her. "Get up and get dressed—we're going out."

"Can't I just stay here, please?"

"No, you may not. Especially not when you forced me out of bed last night to go exploring with you," Marlena answered with a smirk.

Hallie groaned and downed the water in the bottle. "Marlena—"

"No! When I get out of the shower I expect you to be clean and ready to go," Marlena said to her before heading back into the bathroom.

She started the water and began stripping herself of her clothes, careful not to agitate her spine. She couldn't wait until it was completely healed or at least completely absent of pain. It was a very inconvenient injury, and she most definitely would have been okay if Bucky had simply sprained her wrist or something that wasn't her back.

Marlena spent about twenty minutes in the shower before finally getting out. Once she was dried off, she began clothing herself, and in minutes she was dressed in a flowy white shirt, a pair of leggings, and a black leather jacket. She brushed her damp hair out and pulled it into a bun, as she wasn't very keen on dealing with it throughout the day.

Hallie's room was empty when she stepped out of the bathroom, so she found herself strolling back into hers and Bucky's room. Bucky sat on the bed with his focus on the flat screen TV hanging on the wall. The news was playing, and when Bucky noticed Marlena heading into the room, he wasted no time at all in switching off the monitor. His actions confused Marlena, but she didn't stray on them for too long.

"Where's Hallie?" she asked as she pulled her black oxfords out of her suitcase.

"I'm pretty sure she's in the kitchen overdosing on pain pills," he informed her as he pulled on his boots and his jean jacket.

Marlena chuckled and walked over to sit down beside him. She held the shoes out to him, and he knew then what she needed. It had become sort of a thing since the incident happened. Marlena couldn't bend over very well without inflicting serious pain, so that meant she couldn't tie her shoes without harming herself further. Bucky decided that because her injury was his fault, he would do whatever he could to make it up to her, even if that meant tying her shoes for her.

"Thank you, Buck," Marlena said to him as she stood up.

"Not a problem, sweetheart."

She couldn't help but smile at the sound of the name. Day by day he was becoming more and more like his old self, and that was all that Marlena had wanted since the day she first met him.

"Can we please stop for coffee somewhere? And possibly a bottle of ibuprofen?" a groggy voice sounded.

Marlena looked away from Bucky to see Hallie wandering slowly into the room, her appearance shocking Marlena in the slightest. She wasn't dressed up in her normal "girly getup," but instead she was dressed in a black tank top with a grey cardigan sitting over top, a pair of dark wash jeans, navy blue converse, a  dark beanie, and some sunglasses to shield her sensitive eyes from the blinding lights.

"Are those my converse?" Marlena questioned.

"Precisely."

"Hopefully she doesn't vomit on them the way she vomited on my pants," Bucky sassed, eliciting a snicker from Marlena.

Hallie glared at him through the sunglasses although he couldn't see her. "I said I was sorry, okay? Gosh, you make one mistake and suddenly you're the villain."

Marlena shook her head and grabbed her purse. "You've actually made several mistakes if you wanna count everything you did between freshman year and senior year."

Hallie scoffed and pulled the hotel room door open. "High school in itself is a mistake; I think I'm good." Marlena just laughed in response, and before long the three of them were heading out of the hotel.