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Mel didn’t go out with her friends all that often. Mostly because she didn’t have many friends, and the ones she did have were toxic as heck. Kind of like her boss… But anyways…
Tonight was different. She wanted to get her mind off of the man who had been plaguing her dreams ever since he’d handed his trash- er- business card to her at that party. The one and only Congressman James Buchanan Barnes. So she agreed to go out to a bar on her night off. She’d heard the name of it before, so it must be a decent place.
She arrived in her favorite black dress and heels. Nothing too fancy, but just enough to look great if a guy wanted to buy her a drink. Her “best” friend Annie gave her a hug as she walked in the door.
“Mel! We’ve been waiting for you! We got a booth here by the karaoke. And spoiler alert, Jackie’s already two margs in.” She slung her arm around Mel, guiding her to the booth.
Jackie was weird without alcohol, but after two margaritas she got especially weird. Mainly loud and weird. Their group of friends soon discovered that karaoke was the best way to channel that energy into something good.
As Mel approached the table, Jackie scooted out of the booth and giggled her way over to give Mel a hug.
“Mellllllllllll it’s sooo good to seeeeeee youuuuuuu! It’s been forevvvvvvvvvvver,” she slurred.
“Good to see you too Jackie. Two margs in, I heard?”
“You know it babe!!! Ahahahahahaha.” Jackie flopped back down in the booth unceremoniously, and Mel sat next to her. “Whaddare you gonna drink, Mellyyyy?”
Mel cringed at Jackie’s name for her. Yes, everyone else in the group had the “e” sound at the end of their name- Jackie, Annie, Betty, Missy… But Mel was different. Her full name was Melissa, but she liked that even less in a casual setting.
“I’m just gonna have a water.”
“Water? Yoou’re so borrrrrrrring.”
“No, I just want to drive home tonight.”
“What? Take the subwaayyyyyy, or take an uberrrrrr.”
“Well, I am going to take the subway, but I want to be sober while I walk there.”
“Borrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!”
The girls caught up on each other’s lives. Annie finalized her divorce, Jackie was still looking for an actor boyfriend who actually had money, Betty had no new news other than being excited that Taylor Swift had a song with her name in it, and Missy had a modeling gig in Singapore next week.
“And Mel, you’ve got a promotion” Annie smirked.
Mel’s eyebrows knitted together. “Huh?”
“Working with a bunch of superheroes? That looks like fun.”
“Oh, I really don’t interact with them that much,” Mel lied.
Missy rolled her eyes. “Uh huh. We’ve seen the news, sister.”
“Really, it’s not that much. I’m mostly just working for Val, which is a disaster, let me tell you—”
Betty chimed in “we’ve heard about Val. But now we want to hear about your NEW coworkers.”
“They’re not-"
“They’re not her coworkers, guys,” Annie said. “They’re just eye candy that she’s in charge of watching over.”
“Okay, that is so not-“
“So which one are you dating??”
“What?!? None of them! Why would I be-"
“Come onnnnnnnnnnnn Melly,” Jackie slurred. “There’s liiiike, three of themmmm.”
“And all six of them are kind of insane, so-"
“Let’s make this easy Mel,” Annie said, cracking her knuckles over her salad. “Kiss, marry, kill.”
“Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh, I love that game!” Jackie giggled.
“No way. Kill all of them. They’re all ridiculous,” Mel said.
“Even Bucky Barnes?” Mel looked up at Betty, who was grinning like an insane person.
“Yep. Even him.”
“Bologna, Mel. Last time we went drinking, you said you had a crush on him.”
“A crush! And that was before I got to know him.”
“You totally wouldn’t kiss him? Never thought once about that metal arm wrapping around your-"
“Nope! Absolutely not!”
Then the group started chanting “WE DON’T BELIEVE YOU”. Over and over. Like middle schoolers. And for some reason, Mel took the bait.
“Okay!” Mel said. “You wanna believe me?” She stood up, and walked over to the karaoke machine. Jackie whooped.
“Maybe you’ll understand how I feel about him after this song.” She cleared her throat, and then said into the mic “I dedicate this song to Congressman James Buchanan Barnes.”
The karaoke machine gave a countdown, and then Mel started rapping:
“D-I-N-O-S-A-YOU ARE A DINOSAUR!!! D-I-N-O-S-A-YOU ARE A DINOSAUR an O-L-D M-A-N, you’re just an old man hitting on me whaaaat?!? You need a CAT scan!”
The girls all whooped and cheered her on as she rapped “Dinosaur” by Kesha. And yeah, it felt good. Mel always liked music. There was just something about getting into a song that couldn’t compare with anything else in the whole world.
“Old man, why are you starin’ at me?” She even got into doing some motions, which was fun. She listened to this song as a teenager on her iPod, dancing around her room like she was some sort of backup dancer or something.
“…saw that you were like a billion, and still out tryin' to make a killin'.Get back to the museum!" she rapped, then added "Or back to your freezer in Siberia!!"
Even the crowd gasped at that comment.
"You sit down, buy me a martini, won't go away, my hints aren't sinking..." Yeah, she was definitely dancing now. "Hey, you say. Wanna come with me? I'm about to barf, seriously!" The girls were eating it up, filming on their phones and everything else.
She finished the song, and the girls were all hooting and hollering like it was a football game. She flopped into the booth, and took a long drink of water.
“So,” she asked. “Do you believe me now?”
But just then, a metal arm slid a martini in front of her.
Her jaw dropped as she looked behind her into the steel blue eyes of none other than the Congressman himself.
“Nice song, Mel. Dedicated to me? That’s real nice of you.”
Mel turned back around, looking at the girls, who were grinning like they’d planned this, and then realized—ohhhhhh. This is where she’d heard the name of this bar before. She turned back around again, past Bucky, and saw Yelena, John, Bob, Ava, and Alexei in a booth.
“Hiiii,” Yelena waved. “Nice song.”
“You should sing that again,” Ava said with a smirk.
Mel’s face was now as red as a tomato. This is where they came on Friday nights, to watch the “idiots sing karaoke while we eat chicken fries”, as Yelena had once said. And somehow her friends had caught wind of that, and were trying to ruin her life again… As usual.
Mel looked back up at Bucky. His expression was unreadable. She cleared her throat. “Yeah? Well, you’re welcome. And thanks for the drink, but I don’t want it.”
“You sure?” Bucky asked. “Because the song talked about the old guy buying her a martini. I thought maybe it was a hint.”
“Nope. No hints. Just a song.”
“That you dedicated to me.”
“Yep. Sure did.”
“For no particular reason.”
“I saw you when I walked in. Thought you’d like it.”
“What, the part about getting back to the museum slash my freezer in Siberia? That was real cute.”
Mel swallowed. Her “friends” giggled. And seeing as how she’d only drank water and she didn't have a bill to pay…
“I was actually going to leave after that song, so I’d like you to move. Please.”
“Wanna come with me?” He said, referencing yet another song lyric.
Jackie broke her silence. “Yessssssss girl, get it!!!” But Bucky narrowed his eyes at her, and she squeaked once before shutting back up.
“Uh, I was actually-"
“What, going to go home and sit on your phone and regret your decision to come here tonight with your terrible friends?”
Annie said “hey-“ but then Bucky glared at her too, and she stopped.
“Come on, Mel. It’s clear there’s something we need to talk about.”
He held out his hand to her- the normal, flesh and blood one.
“What am I supposed to do about this drink?” Mel asked him, motioning to the martini.
“Leave it,” he said.
She looked at it with a sigh, grabbed her things, took Bucky’s hand, and walked out of the bar.