Finally the chapter is up! Yay! (Ahem) Sorry it took so long.
Pietro does what every guy does when he's depressed, gets drunk. You can imagine where this is going. Warning: Chapter has some strong language.
Chapter Sixteen: What do you do with a drunk Quicksilver?
It's all my fault that things turned out the way they did. But it's too late too fix this mistake. It wasn't our right or our place to decide what was best for Toad. I can't help what I'm feeling deep inside, it must be guilt. I don't want to feel this way even though I know that I deserve it. How did it get like this? Why did it have to turn out like this? It wasn't supposed to be this way. I wish that I could go back and prevent this mess I made. It's eating me from the inside out. Swallowed up by my own misery. How did I end up like this? Why do I feel this way!? Is it really all my fault?
Pietro was sitting slumped over the bar table. He had emptied two bottles of Vodka and was on his third. The bartender was looking at him strangely. Pietro noticed this.
"What?"
"You think you had enough there son?" He asked.
"I'll have had enough when I can't feel anything."
"You know I could get in trouble for giving you alcohol."
"Hey I'm paying you aren't I?" He said a little irritated.
A girl sat down next to Pietro. "I'll have a glass of water."
Pietro turned his head to look at her. His vision was slightly blurred but he could make out short straight cut dark red hair that went just past her face, tanned skin, and auburn eyes. She had to be at least sixteen. Pietro went to take another swig of vodka but the bottle was empty.
"Gimme another drink old man."
"I think you've had enough." The bartender said.
"Damn I'll tell you when I've had enough!" Pietro yelled. "Don't fuck with me! I'm a drinker on the edge!"
The bartender sighed and slid Pietro another bottle. Pietro popped open the lid and started to drink out of the bottle.
"Something wrong?" The girl asked.
"Wrong? No, everything is just fine in my rotating world of pain and misery." Pietro said sarcastically.
"Girl trouble?"
"Not that it's any of your bloody business but no, because the girls flock to me."
The girl smiled a little. "Oh really?"
"Really."
She rested her head on her hand with her elbow propped up. "So if it's not girl trouble you're having, then what is it?"
"What do you care? And what makes you think I'd tell you?" Pietro snapped.
"Well, it's always so much easier just to say or do things out loud than keeping them bottled up inside. Believe me, I should know."
"I don't even know you."
She leaned in so close he could see a few small freckles that ran across her nose. "Exactly, so what do you have to worry about?"
Pietro thought about this, and couldn't think how to argue with logic like that. "It's my friends." Pietro explained. "See, I did something, and now they're all mad at me."
"What did you do?" She asked.
At this Pietro turned his head away. "A lot of things."
"Well, don't worry." She gave a slight shrug. "I'm sure they'll cool off."
Pietro looked at her. "You think?"
She nodded. "Definitely. Unless they carry grudges."
Pietro shook his head slightly. "I don't think they do."
"Then you have nothing to worry about. I should know, I deal with that sort of thing with my friends almost everyday."
"Really?" Pietro asked.
"Mm-hm." She nodded again.
"What do you do to get them mad at you?" Pietro asked curiously.
Her smile turned mischievous. "Let's just say I can be very provoking sometimes."
"Mmm." He said understanding.
"But all we can do is just accept whatever happens and move on, and all the mistakes we made, we just try not to repeat them."
He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "You're a real philosopher, you know that?"
"Well I can be serious when I want to be."
"What's you're name?" Pietro asked.
"If you give me yours," She said in an almost tempting way, "I'll give you mine."
"Pietro." He said. "Pietro Maximoff."
She brushed a stray hair out of her face. "Melody Jacobs."
"Nice to meet you."
"Same here."
He started playing with his fingers. "So Melody, I've never seen you before at school here."
"I don't go to Bayville, I don't even live here." She played with her hair as she said this. "I'm just visiting."
"Do you visit here often?" he asked slowly.
She smiled at him. "Off and on."
"Maybe if you found time," Pietro leaned forward a little, "you and I could get to know each other a little better."
Her smile grew wider. "Maybe."
Had there been no interruptions, the conversation would have most likely gone on forever. But alas... three tough-looking bikers walked through the bar door of the pub. They spotted the two and walked up to them.
The biggest one approached Melody. "Hey sugar. Why don't you dump this piece of trash and hang with a real man."
"What did you say about me!?" Pietro said angrily.
"Get lost you losers." She glared at them.
"Heh heh." He chuckled. "I love girls that play hard-to-get."
"Hey back off," Pietro said heatidly, "I saw her first!"
"And if we don't?" He challenged.
"I am not in a good mood right now so you better back off." Pietro warned.
They just laughed. "Hey boys look at this. The girly man's upset."
"At least I don't have a face that looks like my ass." Pietro sneered.
"Why you little...!"
The guy lunged for Pietro. Pietro zipped around him and kicked him in the back so that he flew forward hitting the side of the bar table with his head knocking him out. One of the guys grabbed Pietro's arm. Pietro punched him squarely in the face and he was out. The other guy tried to grab Pietro from behind. He zipped behind him just before the guy was about it seize him. He smashed his bottle on the guys head and he fell to the floor unconscious. Pietro looked around to see that the girl had left. She didn't even drink her water. Pietro gave them another kick before sitting back down at the bar table.
He looked at his smashed bottle, then said as if nothing had happened, "Another round old man."
The man shook his head firmly. "No."
"You wanna see my drink all over the place?" Pietro threatened.
"What drink?" The bartender asked. "You have none left." Pietro doubled up a couple of times before throwing up all over the bar table and onto the floor.
Pietro fell out onto the street. The bartender had shoved him out of the small pub.
Pietro shook his fist at him. "Don't expect any business from me again!" The man slammed the door shut.
Pietro got up and started stumbling down the street. Suddenly a police car drives up.
"Oh, terrific." Pietro sighs.
Two police men got out of the car. "I'm sorry sir, but we're going to have to arrest you for getting drunk in public."
Pietro pointed to the building. "Hey I got drunk in there and they put me in public. Arrest them!"
"Look kid, just come with us nice and quietly." One of the officers said.
"Come on, I..." Pietro suddenly pointed behind them. "Look! A distraction!" The two officers looked behind them to see what Pietro was pointing at, and caught on a second too late. When they looked back, Pietro was gone.
"I can't believe we fell for that." One of them said.
"I can't believe they fell for that." Pietro said as he was running. Suddenly Pietro tripped over a rock and his shoe came off. "Aw shoot." Pietro started digging for his shoe. His hand found a solid object and he put it on his foot. Or at least he tried to. As he struggled trying to get his shoe back on two guys were walking by.
They stared at Pietro. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" he said in frustration. "I'm trying to get my shoe back on."
"Um, that's not a shoe." One of them said. "That's a rock." Pietro looked at the thing he was holding in his hand. It was indeed a rock.
"Well who asked you anyway!?" Pietro snarled.
"Come on man." He said to the other and they walked off.
"Yeah, you better keep walking!" Pietro shook his fist at them. When they had left. Pietro had found his real shoe and put it on. He stood up and walked back to the sidewalk.
Suddenly a cat ran across the street in front of Pietro. "Arf Arf!"
Pietro scratched his head. "I know there's something wrong with that, but I can't quite put my finger on it." He sighed heavily. "Where to go now?" He looked around and spotted the park. "Hmmm..."
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(Back at the Brotherhood house)
Lance, Tabitha, and Fred were sitting in the living room in a gloomy atmosphere.
"What are we gonna do Lance?" Tabitha asked sadly.
"I don't know." Lance rubbed his head. "Everything is happening before I even have a chance to see it coming. It almost makes me scared thinking what's going to happen next."
"I know things always get worse before they get better," Fred said solemnly, "but it just seems to get worse and worse and I think, how could it possibly get better?"
"How long has this been going on?" Tabitha said exasperatedly.
"That's a good question." Fred scratched his head. "When did this whole thing start?"
Lance thought for a moment. "It's been about two months since that day we forced Toad out of bed."
"How could all of this happen in just two months?" Tabitha asked.
Lance shook his head. "I don't know. The days seem to drag on forever and speed past at the same time."
"Why did we let this happen?" Tabitha's voice was sad.
"I don't know. I keep trying to think of how I feel but... it's just... I don't know!" Lance grabbed his head and buried it into his lap in frustration.
Tabitha patted Lance gently on the back. "It's okay, just calm down."
Lance took his head out of his hands. "Why do we have to have so many problems?"
Fred shrugged. "I guess we're not that lucky."
"Does luck even have anything to do with it?" Lance asked gloomily.
Fred shrugged again. "I don't know."
Lance sighed. "Well, if it does, we're having a bad luck streak."
"We've had lots of bad things happen to us," Fred said, "but this one takes the cake."
Lance nodded. "Yeah, we really are in a rut."
"That's enough!" Tabitha suddenly shouted. They both jumped.
Lance stared. "Tabitha, what's wrong."
"I'm tired of it!" Tabitha yelled. "I'm sick and tired of lying around with this feeling grinding away at my sanity, I'm sick of the fact that two of our teammates hate us, I'm sick of not knowing what we could've possibly drove Todd, Serena, or Pietro into doing, and I'm sick of the fact that we keep complaining about all these problems we have and we're not doing a thing to fix them!"
"What can we do Tabitha!?" Lance shouted back. "Toad won't even look at us let alone speak to us, Pietro's to angry and stubborn to talk, and Serena probably wants to kill us!"
"Well we should still do something about it!" Tabitha screamed.
"Don't you think I want to do something about it!?" Lance yelled at her. "Do you really think I like sitting around thinking what a jerk I am for letting any of this happen!?"
Tabitha's face saddened and she shook her head. "Serena was nothing but a friend to us. We were jerks to her, and all she wanted was our friendship. I can't even remember why we ever wanted to drop her."
"We were jerks to Toad too." Lance said quietly. "He had never had a girlfriend before, and when he finally has one what do we do? We chased her away. Now I hate myself for it."
"Poor little guy." Fred sniffed. "And he was so happy with her too."
Lance stopped him. "Please Blob, don't bring up painful memories. There will be a time to tell that story, but not now."
Fred looked down at the floor. "Sorry."
"It's okay."
"I just hope Pietro's alright." Tabitha said worried. "If anything happens to him, it'll be our fault."
"Yeah..." Lance said and shuddered slightly. "I know."
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(In the park)
Pietro was sitting on the monkey bars gazing up at the stars, enjoying the peaceful quite of the park. But it didn't last long. Three motorcycles drove up. The three punks from earlier were riding them. They stepped of their motorcycles and made their way towards Pietro.
"What do you want?" Pietro asked savagely.
"I think you know." One of them said.
Another one was grinding his fist in his other hand. "You disrespected us and now you have to pay the price."
"Sorry, I'm broke." Pietro quipped.
The biggest one shook his head smiling. "You need your mouth washed out punk. Here, we'll even do it for free." They started to advance on him.
Pietro leapt off the monkey bars and started to run but he didn't get very far. His vision was blurry and he couldn't see very well. He tripped over something and landed hard on the cold concrete knocking the wind out of him. He tried getting back up on his feet but he felt four strong hands grab him by the arms and pulled him up.
"Let go of me you jerks!" He felt a few fists hitting his body and his face to shut him up.
"This punk needs to learn some respect."
"Yeah, let's wash his mouth out."
They dragged a struggling Pietro over to the fountain and dunked his head beneath the water. Pietro struggled trying to get free. He somehow managed to yank his head out of the water. He coughed and spluttered trying to get air. One of the guys holding him grabbed the back of his head and shoved it into the water again. Pietro tried to wrench free but the three guys held him tight. Pietro was starting to feel light-headed. I'm dieing. He thought. I'm gonna die. He felt water drench his entire body, and his vision went dark.
"You always were the one for trouble weren't you Pietro?" A tall man glared down at a cowering little boy.
"Dad, I... I'm sorry." The young, scared little white-haired boy stuttered. "I... I didn't mean..."
"You are always causing me grief."
"I didn't think..."
"You never think Pietro! You never think ahead of time to consider what your actions may lead to!"
"But dad..."
"No Pietro!" He sighed. "I am sorry it has to come to this, but I can't have you as a burden."
"Dad..." His voice quivered slightly. "Please..."
"Have your things packed by tomorrow." Magneto turned and started to walk away.
Pietro viciously fought back the tears that were forming in his eyes. "Just give me another chance!" He said in a high-pitched voice.
The man stopped and turned to look at the small boy. "I've already given you more chances than you deserved Pietro. And in real life there are no second chances. You need to wake up!"
Pietro blinked and saw the dark starry sky above him. He was lying on the cold concrete next to the fountain. His whole body was bruised, soaking wet, cold, and shivering. He sat up and looked around him. The three bikers were not around. The only person there was Serena sitting against an empty fountain. He guessed what had happened. When she saw he was awake she got up and walked towards him. He scooted back a little. She looked menacing in the dim lamplight. She stopped in front of him and stared. He stared back. Then he did something he didn't expect. She bent down and reached out a hand to him. He blinked in surprise.
"Are you alright?" she asked. He nodded his head slightly. She waited for him, hand outstretched. He hesitated, then took it. She pulled him up onto his feet and let go of him. He swayed a little where he stood and almost fell down again, but Serena caught him. "Maybe I should help you home." She pulled Pietro's arm over her shoulder and started to walk him home.
As they walked Pietro looked at Serena vaguely who said nothing. Thoughts raced through Pietro's mind. Why is she helping me? I thought she hated my guts. Has she forgiven me? Is she just doing this to make me feel bad? Why am I thinking about this? Pietro decided to break the uneasy silence.
"So how ya been?" She didn't answer straight away. She glanced at him through those glassy looking eyes. She redirected her eyes ahead of her.
"Awful." She said flatly.
"Oh." Pietro said downcast. "How come?" Again, she didn't answer directly. Pietro knew what she was probably thinking, how stupid can this guy be?
Finally she said, "Does it really matter?"
"That bad huh?" He asked.
"Don't you have enough on your conscience?" She said bitterly. "You do not want to know what I've been through."
"Actually I do." He said certainly.
"Why?" she asked.
He looked down at the ground. "Because I want to know just how much damage I caused."
"Oh, were you aiming for a high amount?" She said with contempt.
"I wasn't aiming for any amount." He said a little hurt.
Suddenly Serena's body went tense. "No..." she whispered. "Not now..." Her body started jerking violently as if an electric current was running through her body.
She let go of Pietro who fell to the ground. "Hey! What the...?" But he stopped we he saw what was happening. Serena had grabbed her head and was whispering things. But it sounded as though two voices were coming from her mouth.
"Kill him..."
"No..."
"Remember what he did."
"Stop, leave me alone!"
"What they all did."
"Go away!"
"Serena?" He said apprehensively. She backed up against in brick wall and slid down it. She sat there breathing heavily. Pietro just stared at her not knowing what to do. "Are you alright?" he asked uneasily.
She brushed her hair out of her face. "Yes, I'm fine."
She got up and helped Pietro onto his feet again. They continued walking. Pietro thought it was best not to ask her what had just happened. But he asked her what had been on his mind the whole time.
"What were you doing at the park?"
"It is unimportant." She said quickly.
"Were you following me?" He asked suspiciously.
"Why in this unforgiving world would I do that?" She asked in disgust.
"Well, then why?" He prodded.
"None of your business." She said firmly.
"If you tell me why you were there, I tell you why I was." He offered.
She snorted. "I know why you were there."
"Why?" Pietro challenged.
"Because you were drunk and somehow stumbled your way over there." She said as a matter of factly. That had shut Pietro up for the rest of the time they walked. When they had finally gotten back to the Brotherhood house Serena let go of him. "This is your stop." She had turned to walk off but Pietro stopped her.
"Wait." She stopped. "Why did you help me?"
She didn't turn around to look at him. "You don't need a reason to help people, Pietro. You should never need one." And without another word she walked off and disappeared into the darkness.
Pietro stared after her for a period of time, then turned and knocked on the door. After a few seconds somebody answered it. It was Lance.
"Pietro?" Lance looked him up and down. "What the hell happened?"
Pietro blinked dazedly. "Uh... who are you?"
"Aw man, you're totally wasted! How many things of beer did you have?"
"I didn't have any beer."
Lance crinkled his nose. "Then why do you reek of alcohol?"
Pietro sniffed a little. "I don't smell any alcohol."
"That's probably because your senses are shot."
"No they're not. See look. Spider senses... tingling...... wait for it." Suddenly Pietro smacked himself. "Okay I'm ready!"
Lance grabbed Pietro and looked hard at him. "Okay, seriously man, how many beers did you have?"
"I told you I didn't drink any beer!" Pietro looked down slightly so as not to look Lance straight in the eye. "I had Vodka."
"Oh, really? You only had Vodka? Thank gaud. You know that really makes the situation a whole lot better!" Lance said in profound sarcasm.
Pietro squinted his eyes, as if straining to see something. "Lance?"
Lance rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache. "Ugh, come on inside." Pietro stepped inside and Lance shut the door.
"Well at least you're okay." He clapped Pietro on the shoulder. Suddenly a look of nausea came over Pietro's face and he zoomed off. "Whoa! Geez!" Lance said in surprise.
Tabitha walked into the living room followed by Fred. "What's going on Lance?"
Lance pointed with his thumb. "Pietro just got back."
"Really?" Tabitha said in surprise. "Where is he?" Loud noises of regurgitation came from the bathroom.
"Right now he's doing the porcelain prayer."
"What happened?" Fred asked.
"Apparently he got drunk." Lance shrugged.
Tabitha's eyes widened. "He got drunk?"
Lance nodded. "Yeah. I think he also got in a fight."
"What makes you say that?" Tabitha asked.
Pietro stumbled down the stairs and somehow managed to get to the couch before his legs gave out. Tabitha and Fred looked at his bruised body and his slightly torn shirt.
"Just a hunch." Lance shrugged.
"Hey man, we're sorry for being so rough on you." Fred said.
Lance nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sorry buddy."
"We're sorry Speedy!" Tabitha gave him a tight hug.
"OW! OW! OW!" Pietro cried out. His body was still sore all over.
"Oops, sorry." Tabitha let go quickly.
"Thanks but, I can't really say I blame you guys." Pietro said gloomily. "I did bring a lot of this on myself."
"Pietro, taking responsibility for his actions?" Lance said in surprise.
"It's just one thing after another." Fred said shaking his head.
"Leave him alone guys." Tabitha scolded. "Still, when you get drunk you do things you wouldn't normally do. So maybe getting drunk actually helped Pietro think."
"Oh shut-up!" Pietro shoved her away playfully.
"Let's just hope that nothing else bad happens." Lance said.
"Yeah, that's just what we need." Pietro grumbled. "Another thing to come back and bite us in the ass." Tabitha slapped him. "OW! Hey what was that for!?"
"Don't use that kind of language, or I'll wash your mouth out!" She scolded.
"Sorry! Gosh." He looked around. "So where's Toad?"
"Still in his room." Tabitha said quietly.
Pietro rested back against the couch. "I figured as much."
"So what did you do while you were out?" Lance asked.
"I saw Serena." He said.
"Really?" Tabitha said in slight surprise.
"So how is she?" Lance asked.
Pietro's face turned dark. "I think the situation is a lot worse than we thought."
Talk about a constant play of misfortunes. You'd think there was some sort of conspiracy going on here...
Anyway, on the next chapter Kurt tries to cheer Serena up hoping he might be the one thing to replace what she's lost. Will he end up helping? Or just making the situation worse? Stay tuned!