Really quick before we begin:
McSqwizzle: YOOOOOO thank you for reviewing! I love your work, in case you didn't know. And yes; it's a good thing you came late, though the story's already finished so all I'm really doing is editing as I post lol. Also; there's a scene where Wanda's in the bathroom which may look familiar because it was inspired by your story Fightin' Flightless, so thank you for the inspiration!
pervertedlemon: Yeah, I wanted to take a darker twist to how controlling Mama Cosma can be, and believe me when I say it was reeeeeeeallly hard for me to write that section, but, all part of the narrative. And I promise you, the CxW ship is not completely tanked! It ain't Titanic over here lol
Now that that's over, on wit da sho'
Floating through the double doors of the school, Cosmo started his journey back home. He'd managed to evade Wanda the rest of the school day, flying the opposite direction from where she was. He just couldn't face her, so he avoided her. Mama Cosma threatened much worse if he didn't break up with her, but he just loved her too much to break her heart.
"Cosmo!"
Crap: she was behind him.
He pretended she was a gust of wind brushing passed his ear, ignoring her screams for him. However, Wanda forced him to face her as she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. His eyes met hers, and his heart sank from the puffy red veins prevalent in her eyes.
His Wanda had been crying.
Wanda stared into the pain behind those familiar green orbs, distressed and broken. She wished she could trade places with him; he didn't deserve to suffer like this. "Cosmo…" Wanda outstretched her hand onto his shoulder, searching within her to find any positive affirmations. "…it…it'll be okay…w-we'll get through-"
"No!" Cosmo shoved her hand away from him, his eyes swelling with fresh tears. "It won't be okay!"
Wanda was taken aback by Cosmo's rejection. Even in the worst of times, he'd never pushed her away before. "…Cosmo-"
"Mama HATES me!" Cosmo cried, tugging his hoodie by the chest as if to control his hitched sobs. "She doesn't even look at me unless she wants to yell at me!"
"M-maybe she just needs time." Wanda licked her lips, trying to believe her own words. "…y'know…to get over it-"
"She won't!" Cosmo countered. "You're not helping!"
His words dug a knife in her soul. Why couldn't she make this better?
Cosmo wrapped his arms around himself, closing his eyes as tears threatened to fall. "I…I'm so confused…" He opened his eyes, his cheeks becoming soggy. "…I…I love you…I wanna be with you…but…I-I hate when she's really angry with me…"
His words slashed another wound in her soul, digging deeper in her core. She merely stared at him, a complete loss for words. Her chest began to tighten, hands shivering in anxiety. None of this could be happening…it couldn't be. Wanda watched him as he began to cry, his body trembling with sobs. He was really hurting, and she felt completely helpless. She floated towards him, reaching an apprehensive hand towards his cheek-
"Stop!" Cosmo yelled, floating away from her. "Just leave me alone!"
He quickly vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving Wanda stranded in the middle of the sidewalk.
The long walk home to her parents' mansion proved torturous; Cosmo's miserable eyes repeated on a loop in her mind, his sharp, biting words, his soft, tender tears. She felt as if she were losing him, losing her love, losing her rock. What was she supposed to do? She and Spike weren't as close as Spike was to Cosmo, and all Susie ever focused on was her developing relationship with Alewandro as he was all she ever talked or thought about anymore.
No way, Cosmo couldn't just be done with her, because she wasn't done with him. Sure, it was one of the roughest patches they've ever had to deal with, but their love had to be stronger than this...
Big Daddy and Little Mamma talked through their itinerary for the upcoming vacation on the living room couch when they heard Wanda entering the home. Big Daddy turned towards his daughter, and upon her entry, immediately sprung from his seat, approaching her with a firm expression. "And just where have you been?!"
Wanda had taken a bit of a detour on her way home from school; mindlessly strolling through streets and sidewalks throughout the city, and by 'bit of a detour,' she was three hours passed her normal time of arrival. She didn't think about how her parents would notice, and she honestly didn't care.
"Nowhere." Wanda replied in a simple, lackluster tone. No way was she in the mood for this.
"Nowhere?!" Big Daddy already lost most of his patience. "Blonda came home from cheer practice an hour ago! There's no way you was nowhere; you tell the truth right now, young lady!"
Conveniently, Blonda entered the living room as she was on her way to the kitchen to retrieve a drink of water, and she just so happened to see her sister, yet again, on their father's bad side. Deciding to watch the show, she cockily leaned against the wall nearest to the entry way of the kitchen, enjoying every second.
"I was with Susie, okay?!" Wanda lied, just wanting to go to her room. "We were studying and lost track of time."
"Yeah, right!" Blonda scoffed, folding her arms. "Don't lie; you were with that green haired cretino and you know it!"
Eyes like darts shot towards her sister as a proud, snotty smile curved Blonda's lip. Of all the freakin' times…Thanks to her, Wanda now had to prepare for the absolute worst yet.
His eyes changed from firm to furious, balling his knuckles to the point of turning white. "Are yous SERIOUS!?" Big Daddy growled, his face beginning to redden in rage. "You…were with…that deficiente?! Behind our BACKS?!"
"Unbelievable." Little Mamma interjected, standing up to put her hands on her hips. "You go and frolic with some lowlife Cosma! For how long?!"
Wanda stood silently still, keeping her gaze towards the ground.
Big Daddy tried his best not to strangle that girl. "ANSWER her!"
"Two years." Wanda spoke, barely audible. "Were friends longer than that…"
"What?" Little Mamma flew from her position next to the couch to float next to her husband. "You mean you two were DATING!?"
Wanda's eyes glued to the ground. She did not need this right now.
"Oh, that's just great!" Big Daddy exclaimed. "Instead of focusin' on ya schoolwork, you go sleepin' around with some deadbeat punk-"
"Sleeping around?!" Wanda shifted her gaze to meet her father's eyes. "Is that what you're calling it?! And what do you call Blonda's little fornication with Luther?!"
"Oh, hush!" Little Mamma warned. "Your sister has nothing to do with this!"
"YOU are grounded!" Big Daddy ordered, resentment fixed in his brow. "For two months! You go's nowheres but school and back, ya hear?! No hangin' out with Susie, and most definitely no hangin' with that retarded dingdong!"
As her eyes glossed with tears, Wanda couldn't hold back anymore, shouting louder than she ever shouted before. "I can't believe this! You NEVER treat Blonda like this! She can do whatever, with whomever, whenever she pleases and for however long she wants! She could have straight F's and you guys shower her with gifts and inflate her ego! She literally has ZERO responsibilities, and if you give her any, you just end up making ME do them! In YOUR eyes, she LITERALLY can do NO WRONG, yet I can't seem to do ANYthing rights! It's not FAIR!"
"Are yous finished?!" Big Daddy crossed his arms. "Or are yous just gonna keep complainin' about all that nonsense?!"
Wanda made no motion to stop the tears from streaming down her face. She lowered her head, feeling the sting of her parents' hot glares. Of course, they wouldn't listen to her…
"Good." Little Mamma reacted to Wanda's silence. She pointed in the direction of the hallway. "Now get out of our sight!"
Without a fight, she did as told and floated to her room, passing Blonda as she smirked in conceit.
After Wanda shut her bedroom door, Wanda leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor as the dam broke in her eyes. Her breathes became uneven, curling into a fetal position against the wall. She removed her phone from her skirt pocket, thinking she would call Susie. She needed an outlet, and since Spike wasn't exactly keen to emotional messes and Cosmo wanted nothing to do with her, she had no other immediate options. Dialing her number, Wanda reached the phone to her ears only to hear the phone click straight to Susie's voice mail. Crap: she forgot. Susie had a date with Alewandro after football practice. Of course, she wouldn't answer her phone…
Wanda made her way towards her bathroom connected to her bedroom and slammed the door shut, overcome with emotion flooding through her veins. She felt her chest tighten, felt her lungs collapse, felt her head spinning. A wave of pressure flushed over her; she couldn't take it anymore. Acting on pure impulse, Wanda released an aching shriek as she flew to her mirror and smashed her fist into the glass, particles shattering into her sink and onto the tile floor below.
She glared into her broken reflection, shuddering as her hand bled. She observed the damage of her rage induced hostility, praying that no family in the household heard the commotion of shattering glass. Quickly, she drew her wand with her injured hand in her back pocket and erased the evidence, the round glass clean of any cracks. She narrowed her eyes at the disgusting trash staring back at her.
It was a few moments before Wanda took notice of her knuckles riddled with cuts. She stared as droplets of blood trickled to the surface and down her fingers. She could almost feel a sense of release, almost as if her tensions soothed with every drop of scarlet regret…
She had an idea.
Wanda reached into her medicine cabinet and found a fresh razor sitting on the bottom shelf. Not thinking much of it, Wanda rolled sleeve to her left arm. With the razor in her right hand, she chose a random patch of skin and firmly pressed the sharpest edge to her arm, dragging the blade an imperfect horizontal line. At first, she flinched from the sting of splitting skin, but as the blood began gushing from her wound, she felt her tensions soothe as if she were freeing the tormented soul within.
Placing the razor softly onto her sink, she assessed the deed, watching lines of crimson snake down her forearm. Her breathing slowly returned to as normal as she could muster, and the spiraling of her mind began to fade. Tears dropped into her wound, observing how deep of a gash she'd created. She didn't know why she did it…she just felt she had to…
Juandissimo leaned against the wall closest to the entrance of Mr. Gryffindor's classroom the next day, hands snug in the pockets of his letterman jacket. He returned a few friendly greetings from classmates, but for the most part, he observed the moving crowd of students traveling from class to class. Their science project was due, and he and Wanda agreed to turn in their reports at the same time. Though, it was strange; Wanda was usually in her seat before he even approached the classroom. It was two minutes before the bell would ring, and she was nowhere to be found.
That was, until he saw her floating towards the classroom.
As she flew closer, he lifted himself from against the wall, a gentle smile on his face as he greeted "Hola."
"Hey." Wanda replied softly, mustering the strength to return her own small grin. Wow, did it hurt to smile.
Juandissimo soon took notice of her right hand wrapped in bandages, along with some what seemed like new yellow fingerless arm warmers. "What happened to your hand?" He asked, genuinely curious.
"Accident." Wanda lied with a melancholy shrug.
Juandissimo stared at her quizzically. "And…when did you start wearing those things around your arms? Are you cold?"
Wanda stared at him with her own perplexed expression. "You ask a lot of questions…"
"Oh…" Juandissimo sighed. "Lo siento."
"Got your report?" Wanda changed the subject, though the tone in her voice seemed…weary.
Juandissimo took note of this but decided not to think too much into it. "Si. Do you have yours?"
"Yep." Wanda adjusted the straps of her backpack. "Guess once we turn them in, we can go back to our regularly scheduled lives…"
Juandissimo was confused. "What do you mean?"
Wanda was confused as to why Juandissimo was confused. "Y'know…you go back to your world, I go back to mine…live our separate lives again…
Juandissimo paused. "…is, that what you want?"
Wanda sighed, wondering why he was making it so difficult to understand. Sure, she was there for him in his moment of need that one time, but that was purely for the sake of getting his head straight to focus on the project at hand. At the end of the day, he didn't know anything about her. They were done with the project; he can stop pretending to care.
Instead of expressing those opinions exactly, though, Wanda simply replied "We didn't associate before the project…why would we now?"
Juandissimo stared into her eyes, eyes that seemed broken beneath her composed exterior. If these last few weeks were just business only, then why did she travel all the way to Fairy Falls to be there in his darkest moments? Did that seriously mean nothing to her? Because it meant a lot to him, more than she realized…
The school bell resonated throughout the halls, signaling the beginning of the new class period. Wanda lowered her gaze and flew passed him into the classroom, saying not another word. Juandissimo let out his own heavy sigh, forcing himself to come to terms the reality at hand, and begrudgingly entered the classroom as Mr. Gryffindor came to close the door from behind.
Y'all I didn't realize how short this chapter was (the next chapter's way longer I promise.)
I also wanted to say that I've read a LOT of FOP fanfiction, especially the darker ones (tend to be my favorites) and I've read some where Timmy self-harmed and Cosmo self-harmed, but I don't think I've read a fic where Wanda self-harmed, and I thought it'd be interesting for her character. She sort of strikes me as someone that needs to be in control, and, unfortunately, as someone that suffered from self-harm, I get what it feels like to have so many emotions that you feel out of control, and you need some kind of release just to keep yourself together.
It only gets crazier from here folks, so buckle your seat belts.