Endearment ▶️ Pietro Maximoff

Twenty-One

Editing**

2 months. It had been 2 whole months since I last saw him and my head hurt just thinking about it. A migraine had began growing and I couldn't get rid of it no matter how many pills I swallowed. I groaned, gulping down the said painkillers before heading out.

Another day at work, at this point nothing made sense to me anymore. I had come to live with the fact that I held zero importance to anyone and I had to learn to just accept it. And living I was. Like a damn zombie. I hated myself for it, but I couldn't help the feelings that followed either. I envied people who could hide their emotions, people who felt nothing were superior. And also kind of psychopaths..so no, not really?

"Morning, Charlie! You're not supposed to be working today, remember?" Tracy, our receptionist, called out as I walked inside the building.

Luck didn't seem to like me very much these days. I groaned, wanting nothing more than to smack myself hard in the face for being so stupid and forgetful.

Of course it was my day off; it was my birthday. Yay me.

"Trace..do you have a gun you could just shoot me with? I'm stupid, end my stupidity." I didn't realise what I had just said until I heard her gasp.

"Charlie don't say such things!" She chided, frowning at the negative energy that rolled off me. "Now you're gonna turn that cute butt around and go home, it's your birthday honey!"

Before I could respond, my phone buzzed in my coat pocket and I saw it was Thea calling. I knew exactly why she'd called, it didn't take a genius to figure that out. "I know. I'm stupid, I'm coming home now. Bye-bye." I spoke into my phone before she could say anything and ended the call. I looked at Tracy sheepishly, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind my ear.

"I'll see you later Trace." I waved, finally making my way outside.

"Hope you have a great birthday Charlie!" She replied. I smiled, or at least I tried to. I think I just looked in pain. Wasn't that far from the truth..

****

"Baskin Robbins? Seriously Thea? What am I? A child?"

We sat in an unusually quiet Baskin Robbins with multiple ice cream bowls in front of us that each had a different flavour in them. And they were all melting away because there was no way in hell we could all finish every single ice cream that lay in front of us. It was impossible.

The highlight, however, had to be when the staff began wishing Maira a happy birthday assuming it was her whom Thea had referred to when she was ordering us the entire ice cream truck. And that little girl was enjoying every moment of it, she looked so freaking adorable in her peach dress and a little tiara rested on her head so I couldn't blame the staff for just assuming. I mean, jeez..it's Baskin Robbins.

When Thea eventually told them that it was my birthday, their faces, lord their faces, they tried so hard not to react and sang the happy birthday song to me despite my protests. I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole, trust Thea to keep up with the tradition of embarrassing me every year on my birthday. I sighed.

I wasn't one for celebrating my own birthday but I always loved going all out for my siblings'. I found more joy in seeing their happiness than I did on my own, but it honestly never bothered me. I did, however, try to take the day off just so I could relax for a bit, but never to actually celebrate it with a party or whatever. I think birthdays were great until you grew up and had to learn how to survive in this world.

"With the way you've been acting lately, I'd say you were around 12. So yes, Baskin Robbins it was. Honestly, even Maira's behaving better than you and she's not even 2." Thea's sassy response had me narrowing my eyes at her as she took another spoonful of the mint chocolate ice cream.

She had a point though. I had been acting weird lately, I thought I was being subtle but clearly I was not. Maira didn't seem to have any complaints as she happily took small clumsy spoonfuls of ice cream from one of the bowls. "Hey, hey not too much little missy. Can't have you brain freezing on me." I had to remind myself that she was starting to grow up now, her little face always made my heart melt. I just couldn't believe how fast she was growing up. It's true what they say about kids, they grow so darn fast.

Before the damage could become permanent, I moved the bowls as far away as possible and wiped her face with a wipe. Maira began to pout as I wiped the chocolate off her cheeks, a way of telling me that she wanted more and I almost gave in. Almost. "No Merry bear, you'll get c-co-cold" I said, earning a little giggle from her. Such a good girl she was, I wish Thea had been more like her when we were growing up. I didn't realise I'd said that out loud until Thea smacked my arm. Man, I couldn't keep my unfiltered thoughts private these days.

"Okay, let's go home now. I wanna relax a little bit before I go back to work tomorrow."

Thea hummed in agreement and we made our way outside with Maira in her arms. It was still a little chilly but nothing compared to how it would be back home around this time of year. Suddenly, Maira started to coo and make weird noises that I've only heard when she's around-

Almost instinctively, I turned around and my heart nearly jumped out. It couldn't be, could it? The air surrounding me began to suffocate me slowly as I stood frozen in my spot. I inhaled sharply, blinking rapidly to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. I was not.

There he stood, on the opposite side of the shopping mall, the boy responsible for all the wrong things happening to me. Was this real? I was breathing hard, oh, it was him. It was definitely him, I could just feel it. It's him, I know it.

He was looking at something in his hand that I assumed was a phone. He looked...different. Not in a bad way but, just different. His unique silver hair was cut short, I must have gone crazy but he also looked huge, like he'd been working out nonstop. My eyes traveled to his chiselled face and I couldn't help but gasp silently, he looked mature, serious, like a man on a mission. This wasn't the Pietro I had grown attached to, who was this man?

All of a sudden he moved and I got a better view of him before he lifted his head up, probably sensing our collective stares. Our eyes collided and I gasped at the sheer intensity in his blue eyes. I wanted to pinch myself to see if he was real or just my imagination but I didn't need to. I just knew it was him, no one looked at me the way he did. My eyes began to get blurry as tears stung my eyes, threatening to fall down in waves.

What was he doing here? I was confused, I thought he was on a—

Maira's little burst of giggles forced me to break our eye contact, which was much needed considering I was seeing nothing but blurry things at this point. I looked at Thea, her expression mirrored mine. She was shocked too but refused to say anything. She also knew..

I couldn't help the hurt that I felt when it dawned on me that I was right about this entire thing. Had he been here this whole time? Did he just need an excuse to avoid me, specifically? A familiar ache in my chest wanted to let me know that I was hurting, and it was because of him. I turned around to face him and his eyes were still on me, his body tense like he was about to bolt.

From the corner of my eye, I saw someone approach him, it was a man and then a woman followed in suit. "Hey man, let's go the movie's about to start!" The man slapped his tense shoulders before placing an arm around them, forcing him to start taking steps.

His gaze suddenly hardened and I froze, he wasn't looking at me like he used to, like he knew me. No. He looked at me like a stranger would, not a hint of acknowledgement was visible in his blue orbs as he finally looked away and walked inside the theatre, leaving me to stare at his retreating figure.

And just like that, the tiny beating organ caged inside my ribs was shattered to pieces in a span of few seconds.

It was too good to be true, I knew that. But that didn't stop the pain trying to eat me alive. I think when it came to ranking my worst birthdays, today had finally made it onto that top spot I'd been saving; I just never thought it would be him who would take that place.

Happy birthday to me, yay.