Adorkable - Barry Allen

Chapter 18

Barry stormed into the West house early in the afternoon, anger radiating off of him. He walked in to find Winnie baking some of her "world famous" chocolate chip cookies. 

"Hey, Bare!" She smiled when she saw his face.

"What's going on?" He asked, annoyance clear in his tone.

"What do you mean?" She questioned, furrowing her brows in confusion. She put down the spatula she was mixing the batter with and looked at him, "Isn't it obvious?"

"No! I mean, first Caitlin is badgering me about facing Bivolo by myself and not getting hurt. Then, Oliver has to be so jealous that he ends up literally shooting me in the back with two arrows! He says he's helping me but, he just wants to make himself feel better!" He ranted to Winnie.

During the rant, Winnie had started washing her hands and drying them. "And, you! You're not even listening to me!" He yelled.

Winnie glared at him, "Barry, I'm listening. And frankly, Caitlin is right. You should be more careful, if you have help you should take it. Second of all, Oliver is not jealous. He's your friend and he just wants to try and help you become better."

Barry snorted, "Sure has a funny way of showing it." 

"Barry, Oliver just doesn't want anything to happen to you while you're in the field. He's told me some of his stories and he's seen a lot of friends die or get really close to death, he doesn't want you to go through that. To have us go through that." She tried to reason.

"What do you mean by us?" He sneered.

"Us. As in you, me, dad, Iris? Our family? Jeez, Bare. I think you should take a break. Why don't you sit down on the couch, I'll call in sick for you, and you can eat some of the cookies that I'm making, when they're ready."

"Stop. Stop acting like you care about me. Do you want to know the truth? Truth is, I don't care about you. All those years ago, I took pity on you. Little girl, all alone, scars all over her face. I was only trying to be nice guy Barry. Reality is, you're not my family and you're not my friend. So, stop pretending that we are." He told her, brushing her fingers across his forehead before running off to the CCPD.

Winnie wanted to go after him but, chose not to. He was clearly seething and she was certain she'd make things worse if she tried talking to him again. She felt a tear slide down her cheek as she picked up her spatula and continued stirring.

—-

Winnie was visiting the animal shelter when she felt her newly unlocked phone buzz. She excused herself and found a quiet spot outside to talk. 

"Hello?" She answered.

"Winnie, there's a bit of an emergency going on right now. How soon can you get to Star Labs?" Joe told his daughter.

"What kind of emergency? I'm at the CCAS right now so, I might be a while."

"The kind of emergency where Barry has been whammied and is slowly becoming angrier and angrier until he explodes kind." 

"Is he alright? Did he hurt anyone yet?" She asked, realizing that was why Barry had acted so strangely, so angrily. Immediately, she felt herself worrying for both his and everyone else's sake.

"Not yet, but we're afraid he's going to be hurting someone soon. Come as quick as you can."

"I will." She said, hanging up and rushing back inside to grab her things. She zipped up her pale blue sweater and shoved her phone in her back pocket as she scrambled around making sure the cages were closed.