2. GOODBYE
When he got home, Peter quickly dressed in regular clothes in the safety and comfort of his own room. He guessed that he got in rather noisily since he heard his aunt yell his name. "Peter?" She called. "You in?"
"Yeah, Aunt May!" Peter pulled on his shirt over his head and flattened it down on his belly.
"You're on the news again!"
It was so weird now that May knew about Peter being Spider-Man. Trust me, that was not a pleasant conversation that they had when he first accidentally revealed his identity to her. There was a lot of cursing and worrying and yelling, but Peter managed to calm her down and explain everything. Since then, May wanted to strangle Tony Stark with her own fingers.
"He should have told me!" she muttered to herself. "You should have told me! Somebody should have! Peter, what were you thinking?"
But Peter told her to ignore the danger that he might find himself in, and focus on all of the good he could do. He was a friendly neighborhood guy, just helping out his community. Once May saw it like that, she was more lenient to the whole affair. Still, she worried, but to a less extreme.
Peter walked out of his room to see Aunt May working in the kitchen on dinner. She pointed to the tv using her elbow since her hands were preoccupied.
He saw the shield webbing and the sports car, but most importantly, the man in shame who was glued to the sports car. Peter laughed out loud and walked over his aunt to give her a light kiss on her cheek. "How are you doing with that?" he asked.
"Struggling," she admitted.
Peter peered into the pot with a frown. "What are you making?"
"It's called soba salad with grilled tofu," May sounded pretty pleased with herself at the meal. "I'm not sure if it's any good, but Danielle recommend this for dinner tonight and what the hell."
Peter made one move and his aunt called out to him to get the Hawaiian bread and set the table since her girlfriend was going to be here soon. He did as he told and once he was done setting up the table for dinner, he grabbed a small load of Hawaiian bread and bit into the sweetness.
May saw him from the corner of her eye and she gasped. "Peter! Save some for dinner, geez!"
"Don't know if I can!" Peter hopped over the sofa and sank into the plush seat. He reclined back and flipped through the channels on tv, suddenly overwhelmingly bored.
He thought back to the earlier events of today and whether or not he should even mention his little girl problem. Peter did have to ask if he could attend the Halloween party this Saturday night... which was in two days. "Aunt May?"
"Hm?" She hummed in response.
Peter cleared his throat and pulled at the collar of his shirt. "So there's this Halloween party on Saturday, the 31st, Halloween, of course-"
May filled three bowls with soba noodles and began to mix in the salad. "You want to go? Whose party is it? Where?"
"Yeah, and it's Flash's."
"Peter." The sternness in her voice made Peter twist his body to peep his head over the top of the couch. She stood in the kitchen with her hands on her hips. "Flash is that rotten kid, right? Why would you even want to go to some rich snob's party? You know what you should do to teach him a lesson?" She lifted her fists and pretended that she was boxing someone in front of her. "Give him hell!"
Peter gave his aunt a wide smile. "You know I can't do that, Aunt May."
"Yeah. But it would be fun too, I'd bet."
He nodded his head in an agreement. "Well, technically he doesn't want me at his party, but Michelle is letting me be her plus one."
"Michelle?" May pondered at the name. "Oh, she's the new captain of the Decathlon team, isn't she? Didn't you say she's... weird?"
Peter pursed his lips. "Yeah."
"And she's your date?" Her head tilted to the side.
Peter cringed at the word date. So, Ned was right about it being an actual date. Wow, he couldn't get that out of his head. Michelle Jones asked Peter on a date. If you told him this would have happened, he would have laughed.
May shrugged her shoulders. "Well, sure you can go. Hopefully, you'll have a lot more fun at this party than Homecoming. But don't you think it is too late to get a costume?"
Peter didn't think about that. He didn't even have a costume. Nothing would be worse if he showed up without a costume to a costume party. Even Michelle would be proud of him. He bet she would say "Stick it to the man, Parker." He didn't want to stick anything to anyone!
Then, he gave May the look. May scoffed and she shook her head. A string of "no's" had already come from her mouth as her disapproval.
"Please Aunt May!" he begged. He climbed off of the couch to even go on his knees and he clamped his hands together. "Please!"
"That's too risky!" she cried. "I thought you wanted your identity kept as a secret! You're doing an awful lot to not keep it as a freaking secret!"
Peter explained, "It's hiding in plain sight! I swear! Tony told me that one time he went to a comic con for fun and people didn't even recognize him. Someone even said that his cosplay as Tony Stark was horrible!"
"But did he wear his suit, Peter? His multi-million dollar suit full of weapons and gadgets and doohickeys?"
"Well, no-"
The doorbell interrupted their little dispute and the both of them stared at the door, completely forgetting that they were expecting a guest. Peter scrambled up on his feet tot get the door while May turned around to finish making the finishing touches for dinner.
Peter swung the door open and he greeted May's girlfriend, Danielle with a smile. He opened the door wide for her to come inside. "Hi Danielle," he said.
"Hi, Peter." Her voice was drained of energy. Danielle's eyes had bags underneath them and he swore that they were red and puffy. She brushed by him and Peter tried to ask what was wrong when she called May's name.
May came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands dry with a towel since she had just washed them. "Danielle? Are you okay?"
Danielle took a deep breath, "Listen, May, I think I should be honest." May, confused, bit her lip and listened. "There's no easy way of saying this, but I am actually... I am married. I have kids and honestly, I was feeling a little lonely at my house so I reached out to you. I should have never done that and led you on like this, but I think that we should end things."
Peter felt a knot form in his chest. He glared at Danielle, his face contorting to utter fury at the woman. He glanced over to his aunt, who was still dumbfounded by the news. Peter could only imagine what she was going through right now... her relationship turned out to be a lie... how cruel. How wrong.
May clenched her fist above her heart. Her voice was soft and her eyes wandered away from Danielle as she spoke. "I... guess this is goodbye."
Danielle began, "I'm sorry-"
May suddenly lurched out and grabbed the nearest thing at her disposal. She chucked a bowl of her soba salad at Danielle and screamed with her voice going out, "I said fucking goodbye!"
Danielle yelped in surprise and she ran for the door, covering her head. She slammed the door behind her and ran off.
Peter's eyes went from the spilled contents of dinner and to his aunt. Her legs wobbled and her face went red as tears poured down her face. She cried out and she clutched onto the wall to steady herself. Peter went by her side at once and held her tightly as she cried into his shoulder. He rocked back and forth, whispering, "I'm here. Don't worry, Aunt May. Don't worry."
He held her for what felt like a lifetime. Finally, May pulled herself from her nephew and stared at the mess she made. She wiped her face with the back of her hands and sniffed hard. "Oops," she said softly and laughed. "Look at that mess."
"I'll clean it up, don't worry about it, please." Peter gripped her shoulders and forced his aunt to look at his face. "You know what always makes you feel better?"
She hummed softly, eyes tired and defeated.
"A long bubble bath with your therapy music and candles. You want that?"
May shut her eyes to imagine the scene. She nodded. "I really need Micheal Buble right now."
"Then let's make it happen."
Peter helped her up and she shakily walked herself to the bathroom. While May drew her a bubble bath, Peter ran all over the house. He grabbed the speakers and set them up in the bathroom and multiple candle stubs. He set them all over the bathroom and lit every single one. Peter turned on the music and turned off the lights for her.
He left her in the bathroom and he sighed. Today was... certainly, nothing he expected. Peter suddenly felt as drained as his aunt once he saw the massive mess of noodles and tofu, but he set out to work. He cleaned up the mess and scrubbed the floor clean.
Peter knocked on the door of the bathroom and slipped her dinner in without a word.
He sat by himself and ate his own meal in silence. When did things start to go haywire?
The next day, Peter wasn't in the mood to talk much. He kept his mouth shut and barely focused on what his teachers were saying. His subjects passed by with a blur. Ned tried to cheer him up by talking about the upcoming comic con, but Peter shrugged off the matter.
"Sorry man," Peter sighed. "I just don't really feel like talking."
"Oh okay," Ned nodded. "I'm here if you need anything, okay?"
"Thanks."
His glum mood must have really been noticeable because Michelle caught wind of it. She plopped herself in front of the boys during lunch, her tray slamming against the table and she stared at Peter intently. When Peter ignored her and focused on picking at his lunch, she glanced at Ned. "What's up with Parker?"
Ned truthfully said, "He hasn't told me. He's not really in the mood for anything, so talking is useless."
"Yo, Peter," Michelle snapped her fingers in front of Peter. Peter cringed and bowed his head to avoid looking at her. "Shutting yourself out won't solve your problems, hope you know that."
She doesn't make any damn sense, he thought. "Shutting myself out?" scoffed Peter, lifting his head to her, his eyes narrowed in anger. "The hell do you know?! You always shut yourself out, Michelle! You have no damn friends so you hang out with Ned and I because you think we like you! That's not fucking true! We are the only people here that actually tolerate you! Maybe if you weren't such a fucking loser people would like you!" Somehow, Peter stood up in his rant and he didn't remember when. Peter felt his breath draw out from him as he glared down at Michelle, finally satisfied with this confrontation.
But the look she gave him. Peter saw her jaw clench. Her eyes were dark and stormy- a terrifying mess. She tensed up, her hands pulling into fists. She sucked in a breath and released a puff of air through her nose.
The stare off between them was electric and dangerous. People gawked, Peter's little monologue had gained some unwanted attention. Ned, next to all of this madness, looked absolutely horrified. His eyes were wide with fear and his head kept snapping back and forth between the two.
Peter saw it coming. He did. But he knew he couldn't stop it, even if he wanted to. With his heightened senses, he saw Michelle's slap from a mile away, but he let her slam her hand across his face. His head moved with the action and his cheek buzzed as if a thousand bees were there. The color of his skin tinged a deep red.
Michelle huffed and she stormed off, grabbing her lunch tray. She slammed her unfinished lunch into the garbage. She pushed an unfortunate bystander out of her way as she marched away.
Peter watched her go. His words began to settle in, as well as the throbbing pain on his cheek. He blinked. Peter glanced down at Ned. "What did I... do?"
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top