Life before the storm
October, 1941
You open your eyes to a beautiful Saturday morning, the worries of the week behind you. The aroma of fresh coffee and toast fills your nose, the smell of home.
From the living room the first chords of your father's favourite song reach your ears. In your mind, 'Looks like someone is in a good mood this morning.' You smile imagining the scene you are going to find in the kitchen and to no one's surprise there is your dear father trying to convince your mother to leave breakfast and dance with him. "Good morning, mom, daddy," you greet.
"Victoria dear, good morning. Can you continue breakfast while I dance with your beautiful mother?" Mr. Davidson is a morning person, always in a good mood first thing in the morning. You smile as you walk over to the stove to relieve your mother of her chores.
"Mom, you better dance with him or we'll never have breakfast"
"Thank you dear" Your parents walk away and start dancing to Glenn Miller and his excellent band.
You smile and shake your head as you finish preparing and serving breakfast, when you have everything ready on the table, you call "Lovebirds, breakfast is served!"
They all sit at the table
"Mrs. Miller's son asked for you yesterday." Your mother's comment makes you choke on the toast you're munching on.
"No mom, NO!" You reply after swallowing "Tony is an idiot and no matter how many times he asks for me I'm not going on a date with him" You really dislike fighting with your mother but her tireless attempts at matchmaking have exhausted your patience.
"Miss, that's not proper language for a lady" You roll your eyes at your mother's comment "That's not acceptable behaviour either Victoria"
"Mother, please, I don't want to have this conversation again, excuse me" With a gesture of annoyance you get up from the table and go to your room.
After a relaxing bath you get ready to go out. First you brush your thick black hair from temples and sides into soft curls behind your ears to accent the oval contours of your face.
Then you apply foundation, a soft brown tone on the eyelids, then the powder, well applied with a huge velour puff. After removing the excess powder, a delicate line of black eyeliner to frame your grey eyes, mascara and red lipstick.
From the closet you choose a yellow shirt, dark green pleated pants and a pair of brown oxfords. 'Today I'm in the mood to piss off mom'
You hear someone knock on the door and you open it to let your father in.
"Dad, if you're going to ask me to be patient with mom, I'll let you know that I'm already at my limit" you tell her as you put the finishing touches on your hair. He walks in and closes the door without taking his eyes off you
"Honey, I know you're not going shopping with Beth" You freeze in place not knowing what to say, not knowing how he's going to react or what he's going to say to you.
"You don't need to go anywhere to ask for a job" You immediately try to defend yourself "Dad, I'm old enough to fend for myself"
With a wave of his hand your father stops your speech "I know what you want the money for, I saw the application form to law school" Your eyes are getting big with fear "From Monday you start working in the office with me, you're going to be my secretary, but I'm going to teach you everything I know about law and at night you'll go to university , I'll take care of convincing your mother"
You hug him tight, flooded with gratitude and love for the man who constantly supported you in every crazy idea of yours. "Thanks dad! This means the world to me"
You feel that your life is beginning, you are going to make a difference, being a lawyer is going to mean that you are going to be able to help women who do not have the same possibilities that you have.
Tears flow freely down your cheeks, tears of happiness.
"I'm going to talk to your mother, but please try to antagonise as little as possible...Less pants, more skirts? How about that? And yes, Tony is an idiot, but don't tell your mother" You laugh while you dry your tears before answering "Well, I think even mom knows he's an idiot, but she doesn't have a better candidate"
You laugh together at the occurrence while he wipes your tears and gives you another hug.
"Don't let your mother see that you've cried" he gives you a kiss on the head and leaves the room.
While you fix your makeup you hear the doorbell ring and you wonder who it could be at this time on a Saturday, your mother's voice quickly answers your question. "Victoria, James is here"
With an awful feeling in the pit of your stomach you rush out.
Not a word has to come out of your best friend's mouth for you to understand why it's there, after all you've known it since you were born, you can read it like a book.
"When?" It's all you can ask while your eyes fill with tears. "Two days ago, it was all very fast, the funeral must have ended by now, I found out because my mom talked to Mrs. Morris"
"And he never said a word?" Bucky sadly denies. Your parents are in shock, they have known Sarah for years.
“Come on Buck, we need to find Steve” You grab your jacket and head out with Bucky following close.
You meet Steve at the bottom of the stairs leading to his house.
The first thing you do is hug him tight, as if that were enough to tear the sadness out of his heart. "Hey sweetie, why didn't you tell us?" He sadly replies "Wanted to be alone, say my goodbyes."
The three start to go up the stairs "How was it?" Bucky asks. "OK, I guess."
When they arrive at the door of his house you speak again "And how are you?" Steve sighs sadly "I don't really know, I have to find a way to tell myself that she's gone."
Bucky puts a supportive hand on his shoulder, "But you don't have to be alone. We 're here to help. You can come to my place." You nod
Steve searches for the keys and doesn't find them, Bucky grabs the keys from under the brick. "Please think about it, just like when we were kids." you beg
"Thank you, but I want to do this on my own." He says he's playing with the keys.
"You know I'm with you till the end of the line pal..."Thank you Buck!"
"Hey! Don't you dare forget me, you two." You try to change the mood of the conversation "Who will keep you both out of trouble?"
Bucky laughs "OUT? You always get us in trouble."
You roll your eyes at the comment and look Steve in the eye "If there's anything you need, please tell me. I'll come by later with something for you to eat."
Bucky scoffs "Will YOU do the cooking? Are you trying to kill Steve or set the house on fire….AGAIN"
You give Bucky a death glare "My mum will cook JAMES…You don't have to remind me of that little incident." Your cheeks turn pink.
"Little? My curtains still smell burnt, and I live next door." bucky teases you
"Guys please! Don’t start arguing again. Victoria, you know he likes to tease you. And Buck, you ’re going to end up with her heel nailed to your foot… AGAIN." Steve retorts a bit amused.
"Sorry sweetie, we're here for you. Just let us know if you need anything." You hug Steve again and look into his eyes in an attempt to comfort him, but you know him, you know he's going to disappear until he has processed the death of his mother. If he allowed it, you would stay by his side facing everything.
Steve enters his house and you leave with Bucky. He offers to walk you home, but you need to be alone with your thoughts for a few moments and you're going to walk to Beth's house, Bucky leaves.
As you walk you remember the day you met Steve, your mom had taken you to the hospital because you had a fever that wouldn't go down.
Sarah was your nurse and in the bed next to her was Steve. Despite him also being sick at night he would get up and sit by your bed talking and keeping you company.
When you recovered you started going every afternoon to keep him company. One afternoon you went with your cousin Bucky and from that moment they became an inseparable trio. Steve and you getting in trouble and Bucky defending you.
You review all the good times you had together, until the day you realised you were falling in love with him.
Steve got sick and had to be hospitalised, it wasn't the first time it happened, but this time it was different. They wouldn't let you in to see him, his condition was critical and he was very close to dying.
Sarah kept you up to date with everything with an increasingly sad and worried expression. Your own concern grew day by day until it turned into despair, what would become of your life without your friend, without your Steve Rogers.
Just thinking about never seeing him again, about not laughing with him anymore, tore at your soul.
And at that moment you realised that you had fallen in love with your best friend.
What a cliche!