Disclaimers: I don't own the F4 characters, I never have and never will (unless I win heaps of money and am able to take over the Marvel franchise entirely).
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Maria sat in the front of Johnny's car waiting for him to come back out of Starbucks. Knowing him, he'd have been swarmed by screaming girls by now, and loving every moment of it. It only took a pretty face to make him forget him forget everything…
She was so lost in thought that the sound of the door closing made her jump out of her skin. "Sorry," Johnny apologised, looking guilty. Maria smiled, "I got you a coffee, milk no sugar and a glazed doughnut," he handed her a small container and polystyrene cup.
"Thanks," she took them, hoping she'd managed to control the shaking of her hands a little.
"So, you wanna go home now?" he asked, "Or do you wanna go to the movies or something?"
Maria shook her head, "Home…" she let the word out slowly, "Yeah, I'd like to go home," she said down heartedly. She began to ponder the meaning of the word, home is where the heart is, but why did she feel her heart wasn't there?
Johnny nodded, noticing her expression was glazed with sadness, then wandered whether or not to press her. "You're not in happy place right now, are you?" he asked gently.
Maria smiled a sad one, "You can read me like a book, can't you?" she asked as he pulled out of the parking space they were parked in and headed to the Baxter building.
Maria looked at Johnny, she wanted to tell him everything she was feeling. Her fear of not knowing what was happening to her, her fear of not getting into the University and starting a career. The fear she felt for the safety of her dad, and the rest of the Fantastic Four-ers. She wanted to tell him how left out she felt that she couldn't be apart of it, and had to watch from the sidelines. She wanted to tell him of the fear that gripped her when he jumped off the Baxter building, and pray she said that he didn't hit the ground.
No one had asked her how she felt about all this, and she pondered whether or not to wait to be asked, or to just talk to someone. Johnny often spoke of his need for therapy when he felt awkward around Sue and Reed, when in fact it was probably her who was in the need of the therapy after all.
No one asked her how she felt about her father being made of stone, all they did was crack jokes, asking if it ran in the family. Debbie threw her out after she found out, and it wasn't even Maria's fault, not that she minded much anyway, she and Debbie never got along very well. She felt that Debbie was taking her father away from her… but wasn't Alicia doing the same thing? Maybe, but Maria liked Alicia, she didn't know why, maybe because she was treated like an adult and not a child. Didn't yell at her the way Debbie did, or make her do the washing when it wasn't even her laundry. Or it could even do with the fact that Alicia accepts Ben for being different, as she is also different, and isn't so materialistic the way Debbie was.
"Hey," Johnny touched her arm, bringing her back from the land of her thoughts she was dwelling in. "You gonna eat that?" he asked pointing at her doughnut.
Maria glanced down at her hand, her doughnut was untouched. She put her cup between her knees and divided the doughnut into two pieces, "Race you," she playfully challenged him to the eating game.
Johnny smiled, "No fair," he said. "I'm driving," he stated.
Holding the two halves in the palm of her hand, she took hold of her cup, "Now we're even," she said.
Johnny smiled taking a half, "Ok, on three," he said, slowing his driving down a little so he had more control. Counting up to three the two stuffed their half into their mouth.
"Finished!" each said simultaneously, before erupting into laughter. Maria shook her head slowly and took a sip of her coffee, grimacing as it now had gone cold.
"Let me fix that," Johnny said, sending a tiny fire ball in the cup.
Maria's eyes widened, "You idiot!" she cried, "The cup is melting!" she sat up straight in her seat so fast her seatbelt jerked, causing her to flop back down on the chair.
Johnny quickly grabbed the cup from her hand before she could burn herself, and threw it out the window. With all the commotion going on inside of the car, Johnny failed to see lights had gone red until it was too late.
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End of chapter
