Alone

55: Sharing a Secret

One day Later...

Elizabeth POV:

"Are you sure you want to bike there? I can drive you, it's no problem," Happy said as we walked out of the bike store.
"Yeah, it'll be fine," I said with a reassuring smile.
"Okay well please let me know when you get to the book store cafe thing,"
"I will," I said as I got on my bike, and texted MJ that I was on my way. "Bye Happy!" I said as I now began to bike away.
Soon I arrived at the bookstore that MJ recommended we meet at. I sent Happy a text letting him I know I had arrived. I walked in to see Mj sitting at a small table in the corner reading a book with a cup of coffee beside her. She was leaning back in her chair seeming to be completely comfortable. She looked up and smiled giving me wave as I walked over to her
"Hey!" I said sitting down,"Whatcha reading?"
"The Lucifer Effect, it's about why people do bad things, it's pretty good," she said closing the book and taking a sip of her coffee. "So, how did yesterday go?"
"Uh, good it was a lot of fun, but.."
"but..?"
"Well it's just, I thought Peter was going to ask me out,"
"Tell me what happened," MJ said as she sat up and put her elbows on the table. I then briefly explained what had happened; leaving out what Peter had asked about my suit. "Hmm, well it just kind of sounds like he was nervous, you know."
"You think?" I asked, unconfident that he even liked me more than a friend. "It's just been a month since homecoming, I just thought that he would've asked me by now."
"Elizabeth, just don't worry about it okay. It's obvious he likes you, just give him some time." She said with a reassuring smile.
"Okay, Ill try my best." I said with light laugh as I sat back in my chair.
"Now, go order yourself a drink and grab a book," MJ said picking up her book and sitting back in her chair.
I nodded and stood up and walked through the aisles of books, running my fingers along the spines of the books as I read the titles. I stopped when I got to the romance section, I looked through multiple cheesy novels before getting to one that seemed good. Once I took the book off the shelf I walked to the cafe and ordered a hot tea, then sat back down at the table with MJ.
It was a little over an hour before I finished my book and tea and MJ decided to take a break with her book.
"Hey you wanna come over?" MJ asked nonchalantly, "We can watch movies or something,"
"Sure!" I said with a smile, "I'll just go put this book back and we can go,"
I placed the book on the shelf and walked back to MJ who was getting on her bike.
"Ready?" She asked with a smile. I nodded in reply. We biked about a mile before getting to her house. We parked our bikes in her driveway and walked into her house.
"My mom is working late tonight so the house is all to ourselves." MJ walked into her living room, and sat down on the couch, "You can make yourself at home."
I smiled and sat down beside her as she turned on the tv, she flipped through channels before staying on a reality tv show.
MJ laughed and shook her head as one of the women through her drink at another person across the table, "They're so dumb."
I laughed as the drama continued. We watched reality tv for almost two hours.
"Are you hungry? We can order some pizza," she asked turning to me.
"Pizza sounds great!"
As the night went on MJ and I shared laughs and watched weird youtube videos.
"You know I don't think I know much about you," MJ said pausing the video and turning to me. I thought about how everything I hadn't told her was supposed to be kept a secret. I turned gave an awkward smile.
"Um, I guess you're right, where do I start?" I said nervously as I played with my necklace.
"We don't have to talk about that sort of stuff if you don't want to," MJ said nicely.
"It's okay, I mean we're close and I trust you so, I don't mind," I said with a reassuring smile. MJ smiled softly and sat up and faced me. "I just don't know where to start,"
"Okay how about I'll ask questions and you can answer them if you'd like?"
"Okay, shoot."
"So, you're from Sokovia, right?"
I nodded in response.
"were you there when everything happened?"
I nodded again.
"What happened? If you don't mind telling me,"
I thought for a moment about everything that happened in Sokovia and I felt a soft ache in my chest.
"There was so much that happened. It was just chaos and a lot of people died," I paused, "including my brother, who saved me."
"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked," MJ said softly and guiltily.
"It's fine, really," I said trying my best to reassure her.
"What did you do after?"
"My sister and I were taken in by a group, we moved here to the U.S. and we were treated as family,"
"You have a sister?"
"Yeah, but um I haven't seen her in a while, as well as some of the other people in the group because there was a misunderstanding and they had to leave. So, it's just me a few others now."
I looked at Mj who seemed to be thinking, my palms began to sweat as I worried she was figuring out who I was talking about because I was being to obvious about my past. But a part of me wanted to tell her everything, because I really trusted her and I knew she'd be supportive of who I really was, or at least I hoped she'd be supportive.
"Do you want to go bike around?" I said trying to change the subject.
"Sure." Mj said with smile.
It was dark outside now but the city still buzzed with activity. We swerved through the streets on our bikes, letting our hair flow in the breeze.  After about an hour of biking we stopped at a park called Kissena Park and sat on a bench and looked out over the small lake. We talked for a while before we could hear someone walking up behind us, I turned just as a tall man grabbed MJ's shoulder and tried to pull her towards him. MJ screamed and I gathered the darkness and it rushed around his arms and feet and lifted him in the air and quickly threw him into the water. I grabbed MJ's hand and we ran to our bikes and left the park.
"Elizabeth! Stop!" MJ yelled pulling to the side of the road.
I pulled to the side and MJ dropped her bike and ran her fingers through her hair nervously.
"What the hell just happened!?"
"Look i'll explain everything,"
"You threw him on the air! How did you do that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," I spoke quickly and nervously.
"Elizabeth," MJ looked at me seriously and I sighed.
"My last name isn't Voronov, it's Maximoff, and I have... abilities," Mj looked at me with confusion. I sighed and pulled Mj into an alley nearby and made sure no one was around. I gathered the darkness to surround my hands and her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Oh my god!"
"You can't tell anyone. This stays between you and me," Mj nodded and held out her pinky. I laughed and wrapped my pinky around hers, signifying the promise, "Come on let's go."
We quickly biked back to Mj's house, the rest of the night I told her my story, leaving out the details about Peter of course. And in the morning, Happy came to pick me up. I put my bike on the bike rack on the back of the car and sat down in the front seat.
"So how was the sleepover?" Happy asked as I put my seat belt on
"Fun," I said with a smile.
"Anything happen?" For a moment I thought he knew and I began to panic, I turned to him to see he was completely unaware and sighed in relief.
"Uh no, totally uneventful actually. We just uh watched movies and talked." I said earning a pleasant smile from Happy as we drove off.
"Well Tony has a surprise for you when you get home," Happy said smiling as he drove.
"What is it?"
"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you,"
When we finally got home I walked to the kitchen where Tony and Vision were talking. Tony looked past vision and smiled at me, causing Vision to turn to me. Tony walked over and I could see he was holding a letter in his hand.
"I've got a surprise for you," Tony said, handing me the letter.
I took the letter in my hands and stared at my name written on the envelope, I immediately knew who it was from.
"How?" I said with disbelief.
"I visited with wanda for only a moment she just had enough time to write you this letter," Vision said, "It's not safe for you to see her yet, but she misses you more than anything."
I hugged vision, "thank you," I said as we parted.
"Your welcome." Vision said.
I walked up to my room and closed my door staring at the letter in my hands. I gently opened the envelope as to not tear it, I opened the letter to see Wanda's neat handwriting.

Dear Lizzy,
I have so much to say but only so much time to say it. I wish I could see you but it is still too dangerous and I do not want to risk the life you've made for yourself in New York.
I hope that one day soon we will be able to see each other, but I am happy to just be able to send this letter to you. I want you to know that not a day goes by where I don't think of you. Where I'm hiding out there is this small garden and when there is no one around I sit by it and admire the carnations when they bloom because they remind me of our family. Do you remember the carnations that mama would get from the market to set on the kitchen table and Pietro would always pick three of them to put in our hair and his pocket just to give us luck for the day. Mama used to always get mad at us for that. I miss those days before everything changed.
I hope that things have been getting easier for you, I know it's been hard for you, because it's been so hard for me. I miss talking to you and seeing your smile and hearing your laugh.
I'm running out of time, I hope this letter finds you. I love you Lizzy.
Sincerely, Wanda

A tear rolled down my cheek as I closed the letter. I opened the envelope to see a single carnation, it was dry but still had it's pink shade, and it's soft fragrance. I walked over to my shelf where the pictures I loved the most were, I put the letter down and then gently placed the flower on top of it. I admired the picture of our happy family and I smiled softly before wiping another tear from my cheek.