Chapter 3
Darcy rubbed her temples as she wondered how in the hell she was supposed to focus on Spanish after what happened today. Sure, she had a test coming up that was a quarter of her grade, but the debate of her sanity seemed more pressing. She thought about drowning out the thought with her music, but then that led to the hour long thought if Steve would be able to hear her music. Her roommate kept fiving her odd looks across the room every time Darcy would jump from her desk only to pace around the room. She just shrugged and gave the lame excuse of not being able to focus, which in a way was true. Trying to shower had been an ordeal on its own. Darcy was secretly counting down the minutes till Diane left to hang out with Chad (gag me).
She ate through a packet of noodles without really tasting the, but to be honest they were tasteless anyways. When Diane finally announced her departure later that night, Darcy tried not to jump from excitement. She gave herself a good five achingly long minutes before closing her eyes and trying to focus on Steve. It was fuzzy at first, giving her the beginnings of a headache before she could finally feel his feet moving and him talking under his breath.
“Talking to yourself?” She remarked with a grin.
Steve stopped moving and gave a startled laugh. “Talking to you is kind of like talking to myself.”
“Right,” Darcy muttered before taking a deep breath. “So this is really happening, huh?”
“I guess so.” Steve looked around him, or he guessed her. “Where are you at?”
“Oh!” Darcy began to toss the piles of laundry in a corner. “This is basically equivalent of a prison cell.”
“Prison?”
“I’m kidding, Steve. It’s my dorm room. I’m in college.”
“So this is what the future looks like, huh?”
“Please don’t remind me of that,” Darcy groaned. “This is already weird enough without adding time travel to the mix.”
“Tell me about it.” Steve snorted.
Darcy kept moving around her room without realizing she was moving towards her mirror. She looked up and heard Steve gasp.
“Is that, um, you?” He sputtered.
“Shit,” she cursed, quickly turning from the mirror. “Um, yeah. That’s my bod.”
“You’re…”
“I’m?” She pressed.
“Well, a…” Steve mentally cursed himself. “You know, I’m not really good at talking to beautiful dames.”
“Dames?” She teased.
“Aw hell,”
“You just gave me a compliment, Steve, it’s alright.”
“I just…wow, you’re…”
“Steve, it’s still me.” She reminded. “Is it really that much harder to talk to me now that you know what I look like?”
“Can I-can I, um, see you again?”
Darcy bit her lip for a moment. “Okay,”
She turned slowly back towards the mirror and let her eyes drift over her figure in the image. She heard Steve take another deep breath as she met her own eyes in the mirror.
“Tit for tat, Steve.” She said lightly.
“Huh?” He replied so eloquently.
“Can I see you, too?”
Steve gulped. Here he was with a gorgeous woman talking to him and for once couldn’t see him. Once she saw how he looked, he wondered what she would say. Or what would she say every time he couldn’t breathe or would be bed ridden for days?
“I don’t really…” He let the lie drop.
“Okay,” Darcy shrugged. “So how weird do you think this is gonna get before it’s normal?”
“Do you think talking to a person in your head will ever feel normal?”
“No, I guess not. But why us? Why now? I did some research and according to it I’m mentally insane.”
“I don’t really know what to say to any of that.”
“By the way, before we officially ‘met’ yesterday, did you get into a fight or something?”
Steve stilled. “How did you know?”
“Because at work it felt like I got my ass handed to me.”
“Oh god!” Steve ran a hand through his hair. “I’m so sorry. There was this guy and he wouldn’t stop harassing this nice lady. I never thought…”
“Chill, Steve. Not the first punch that’s ever been landed to my face and certainly wouldn’t be the last.”
“Really?” Steve asked skeptically.
Darcy sat on her bed and dug her toes into her turquoise rug. “Yeah that honor goes to Maggie in the sixth grade.”
“What happened?” Steve leaned against the wall.
“I had this friend Regina, and well she was kind of new and kind of had a lisp. The teacher was an ass who forced her to read in front of the whole class. Later I caught Maggie teasing her in the girls bathroom. Maggie and her girls were ganging up on Regina and let’s just say I couldn’t stay out of it. That was a hell of a meeting for my parents.”
Steve chuckled lightly. “You talk different from other dames.”
“Oh god! Ladies of your time are too ladylike to cuss in front of a guy, aren’t they? Does it bother you?”
“No, no!” Steve assured. “I like the way you talk.”
The sound of the door knocking shocked them both. Steve popped himself upright just as Bucky walked through his door.
“You ready to go, Stevie?” Bucky called from the door.
“Who’s that?” Darcy asked.
Steve tried not to cringe but failed. “Yeah, Buck. Just give me a minute.”
Bucky gave him a strange look before nodding and closing the door behind him.
“That’s my best friend, Buck. Look, I gotta go.”
“Got a hot date?” She teased.
Steve snorted. “Yeah, sure. I’ll talk to you soon though?”
“Yeah, I’ll talk to you soon, Steve.”