Disclaimer: Yeah, I know it's a shocker to you guys, but I still do not own X-Men: Evolution.
Chapter Eleven –
"Yes, mother," Brianna said after hours of talking and arguing with her mom, sounding a bit defeated. The next three sentences that came from her were rather forced. She didn't want to say them, but she knew that if she didn't, only more trouble would follow. "No, I understand. I love you, too. Goodbye."
She gloomily slumped the phone back onto the hook, and started off for her room. Ray was fussing about Brianna being too lazy to click over when someone else called in, but she didn't even care.
"Hey!" Kitty said when she saw Brianna, but that cheerfulness in her voice vanished when she noticed the sadness etched across Brianna's features. "What's wrong?"
"I'm going home," Brianna replied, not looking to Kitty as she said it.
"Wait, what… like, you decided?" Kitty tried to hide the fact that she was furious. She couldn't believe it, though… she had finally found that cool best friend she had always been wishing for, and now she was just going to pack up her things and ditch her before things even got that good between them?
"No, I didn't decide anything. My mom did. She's getting a divorce and needs me to be there for her."
"Oh." Kitty paused, not so sure if she should say what she was itching to say to her friend. "Well, why does she, like, need you? Didn't you say that she, like, wasn't all that into this guy?"
Brianna shot her the most poisonous look ever cast, and then walked off as she said, "She kind of liked this one! This isn't the time to be making fun of my family!"
Kitty sighed, audibly. She knew that she should've kept her lips locked, but she went against that instinct and did it anyways. Now, she had made Brianna horribly mad, and no good could come of that.
"No, Brianna!" Kitty called after her, trying to catch up and murmuring an apology when she got close enough for Brianna to hear.
A couple of days later, when Brianna was waiting in line to get her lunch, Pietro chattering into her ear about something stupid, she realized that she couldn't keep the news from him forever, as much as she wanted to. School was ending in a couple of weeks, and she was scheduled to return to California the day after summer vacation began. She had to let him know, and she had to do it right then and there, before she had the chance to tell herself that waiting might be a better idea.
"So, then, Blob stepped on my shoes and there was mud on his feet so I—" Pietro had been babbling.
"I'm going back to California," she blurted out, interrupting him midsentence.
"Huh?" Pietro hadn't really heard what she said, because his mind had been set on his little story. It had to be important, though, because he thought that his story was quite entertaining, and he knew that no one would interrupt a story like that unless something really significant was on their mind.
"I said that I'm going back to California…" She looked down to her feet, not wanting to see his face drop in sorrow. She wasn't sure if it would – he was kind of a jerk sometimes, but just in case it did, she made sure not to peer into his eyes.
"What?"
"It wasn't my choice, Pietro," she snapped.
"And who's choice was it, then?" Pietro snapped back, only it was obvious by the way he talked that he was far angrier than Brianna was. "That drunk mother of your's? Oh, there's a great person to have running your life!"
Brianna got in his face, not caring to meet his mean eyes, now. "Well, for your information, she's my mother, so I kind of have to listen to what she says. What she says goes. But, of course, you wouldn't know a thing about a normal parent-child relationship, because—"
Pietro was glad to hear the lady working the lunch line tell Brianna that it was her turn to order, because he knew what she was going to say next. Brianna would coldly bring up how horrible Pietro's father is, and he just wasn't in the mood, already upset with her.
She didn't even wait by his window, for him to get his corn dog. She just proceeded to their table.
When Pietro smacked his tray onto the table, cracking the cheap, pink plastic it had been made out of, Brianna flinched.
"Stop," she growled. "You're being selfish."
"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry that I care. I guess I won't do that anymore."
"Yeah, well…" She couldn't think of anything to fire back with, so after moments of fighting it, she let a meek, "I'm sorry, okay?" escape from her mouth.
"All right." He knew that Brianna wouldn't appreciate the glorious expression he had going – he finally won one of their little brawls – so he pretended to be extremely interested in the stick that held his corn dog.
After school, Pietro's body was stretched out on the living room floor of the Brotherhood Boarding House. He was thinking about what he could do to make Brianna stay without seeming like a total emotional girly man.
"Get up!" Toad instructed, hopping up and down, excitedly. "Get up! Lance needs to get Kitty a birthday present, yo. We're gonna help him – everybody is – and I thought we'd stop by Victoria's Secret, and, well, y'know!"
Lance frowned, spinning his key ring around his finger. "No one's helping me, so stay where you are. You've been sitting there ever since we got home – being all quiet, so it would just be a waste to stop all of that now."
Pietro popped up from his spot, and quickly got to his feet. "Wait! I know, uh, what Kitty wants. Take me with you and I'll show you."
"Why don't you just tell me what it is so I can pick it up myself?" Lance suggested, shaking his hair from his eyes. He opened the front door, letting daylight pour into the house.
Wanda could be heard screeching out in protest. This light was a new thing to her, having been all cooped up in the darkness for such a long time. She hadn't even been to school in two weeks – she just sat around, and Lance got the idea that she lost that freaky boyfriend of her's.
Apparently, she had also sprouted a nice pair of fangs, as well, because Fred screamed out in fright. "She's a vampire! I told ya!"
"Well, I could do that, Lance, but, no," Pietro said, wanting to get out of this insane asylum and ask Lance what he should do to get Brianna to stay. He darted out of the house, passing him by in the doorway. Lance's hair flew right back into his eyes, and he irritably shook the loose strands out of his eyes once again, before joining Pietro in the Jeep.
He noticed the skid mark that Pietro had created, leading up to the side of his car. This was a familiar sight to Lance, for Pietro was constantly running at full speed and then abruptly stopping, leaving these sort of marks every here and there. This particular skid mark was especially dark, though, and made him wonder if Pietro's sneakers were okay.
"What did you really come for?" Lance asked, suspiciously, as they casually browsed the girl's section of Abercrombie.
Pietro wasn't really ready to ask Lance for his advice, so he just brushed the question off by motioning to some stylish jacket. "Can you believe it? This is over one hundred dollars, and it's not even nice. Wow."
"I repeat – what did you really come here for?" Lance was sure that Pietro wouldn't tag along with him and try to help out of the goodness in his heart.
Lance saw, out of the corner of his eye, an employee giving him a hard look, as she refolded some polos, as if he was about to whip out a gun, rob the store of all it's goods, and then kidnap any wandering child.
"Let's get out of here," Lance said, making haste. "This place makes me dizzy."
"Did you see the way that chick looked at me?" Lance asked him, after selecting a table at the food court. "It's as if they think I'm a criminal or something."
Pietro kept in a snicker, and he kept in all the words he was thinking, about how Lance was a criminal, and how he probably deserved those looks he received.
"What is it that makes people think they're so much better than me, huh?" Lance said, and this one didn't happen to be a rhetorical question.
"Maybe it's your hair, or your clothes." Pietro seemed more than happy to supply Lance with the flaws of his appearance.
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"It's just that it's getting greasy and it's just not all that attractive."
Pietro felt everything shake a little bit, and could clearly see that Lance was the culprit.
"Hey, calm down!" Pietro shouted, grabbing onto any limb of Lance's that he could reach, which happened to be an arm, and he squeezed it the hardest he could, until the shaking stopped. "We're on the second floor, you idiot. If you mess with the bottom floor – we're going down. I don't feel like dying today. Thanks."
"Oh, really?" Lance asked, raising a single eyebrow and taking a sip at his Orange soda. "You've been acting like you don't care if you live or die, lately – moping around."
"What are you trying to say – you think I'm suicidal or something?" Pietro laughed at the mere thought. "Why would I want to die? I mean, c'mon. I can see someone like you wanting to die or whatever, but I have a pretty good life."
"Oh, yeah, and great hair to match. You know, I've got better hair than you ever will. What's with the two flippy things?"
"It's natural," Pietro muttered. His eyes swept off and then stopped at some cute redhead, who giggled when she saw him looking. Pietro winked.
"What's with that?" Lance was surprised. He actually thought that Pietro only had eyes for Brianna for a while, but he guessed that he was wrong.
"What's with what?"
"You winked at that girl."
"What's it to you?" Pietro said, but then gulped, letting his guard down a little bit. "Brianna's moving back to California. I might as well get over her, right?"
"So, that's what you're all sad about." Lance's lips slowly separated and curved into a smile, and there was a twinkle in his eye, as if he was happy to see Pietro suffering.
"What are you smiling at?"
"You guys are just alike – so full or yourselves and completely unbearable."
"Yeah, thanks," Pietro shook his head, and set his focus on the redhead again, who was whispering with a friend, occasionally looking over to him.
"What are you going to do?" Lance questioned.
"What do you mean?" Pietro opened the lid to his soft drink, and scooped out some ice with his hands, throwing it into his mouth and grinding it into tiny bits with his teeth. The girl he had been flirting with didn't seem to find this very attractive, because she then lost interest.
"What are you going to do to get her to stay?" Lance clarified.
"What should I do? It's me against her mom – what could I possibly do?" Pietro was pleased that he didn't have to bring it all up. This way, he didn't have to appear to be the desperate loser that asked for relationship help.
"Maybe you should buy her something."
That wasn't exactly the brilliant guidance that Pietro was wishing Lance would enlighten him with. "Do you have anything better than that? 'Oh, please, Brianna, don't leave me! Here's a teddy bear.'"
Lance leaned back in his seat. "Well, it wouldn't be a stupid teddy bear, that's for sure. She'd probably take that as an insult – giving her anything less then a couple hundred bucks."
"Yeah, probably… Dad's barely giving me enough to take care of all you losers." He reached into his pant pocket for a crumpled pack of Camels. Getting what Pietro was trying to say, Lance nodded and joined him outside the mall for a smoke.
"I thought you were going to quit," Pietro noted, after seeing him exhaling the smoke in a passing girl's direction.
"I just said that to make Kitty shut up." Lance smirked.
Pietro couldn't help but wonder if Lance was really the type of guy he should be going to when he needed help with a girl. Sure, Lance loved Kitty and all, but he made his share of dumb moves. "Any other suggestions? I'm not buying anything."
Lance thought. "You can tell her how you feel."
After taking a long, thoughtful drag, Pietro shouted, "No way!" Pietro wasn't about to trip all over himself for Brianna… not for anyone.
"Well, you're not going to get anywhere if you won't do anything." Lance grumbled. "Well, have you guys had sex yet?"
Pietro blinked multiple times. Were they supposed to have gotten that far yet? He wanted to know, but he wasn't about to ask. He definitely didn't want to be known as the guy who 'liked to take things slow.'
"You haven't?" Lance stifled a laugh.
"What's so funny about that?" Even though Lance was trying to keep a straight face, it was obvious to Pietro that he found humor in this.
"I'm just surprised." Lance took a break from the conversation to breathe smoke into yet another unfortunate, glaring woman's face. Once that was over with, and he had successfully ticked her off, he turned his back head over to Pietro. "I would think that you would… Brianna just seems a little slutty."
He wasn't about to deny this statement, because it would just make him seen like a naïve fool, and he knew that she was better than anyone. "Maybe so, but at least she can form sentences."
"Kitty's smarter than people give her credit for. But, anyways, maybe you should try hooking up with her. Maybe that will make her stay… actually, I bet it will."
Pietro wasn't sure if that was a good or bad idea, but he liked it, and it wasn't costly, so it was worth a shot. In the matter of one minute, he had formulated a plan.
Since she was grounded and wasn't granted any visitors, he would have to sneak his way into Xavier's, by speeding in while the gates were open. The gates would be released for the kids when they were coming home from school, so he would follow Scott and Jean or whoever into the Mansion, without them knowing, of course. He wouldn't stop running until he found Brianna or her room. Pietro had an idea where her room was, having seen her exit the building out of her window before. He wouldn't be seen when he was running in – he'd done it before, when he was delivering a message from Mystique.
"Okay." Pietro tossed the cigarette to the concrete beneath his feet, and put it out with his shoe, in such a manner that made him look like he was squishing an especially annoying bug.
When he looked over to Lance, he could see a brand new cigarette dangling from his mouth. Lance was trying to light it, and when his lighter finally decided to cooperate, he let out a sigh of contentment.
"Hurry up," Pietro whined, impatiently. Who smoked two cigarettes in a row? Now that he got what he wanted out of this mall trip, all he wanted to do was get out of there and stop looking around.
