Z O E E

        "Who did this to you, Zoee?" Laura Atkins smooths and tucks unruly strands of Zoee's brown locks behind her ears. Zoee is laying on the couch, her legs curled into her stomach and her head on her mother's lap. The youngest Atkins member shakes her head, closing her eyes and leaning into her mother's touch.

        "Zoee, this is ridiculous. If no one did this, then how did this happen?" Her mother keeps pressing. Zoee is getting slightly annoyed, her eyebrows pinching together as her eyes remain closed. 

        "We were skateboarding, uh, together!" Peter interjects. Zoee opens her eyes and looks over at his form. He's sitting down on a chair across from them, his body leaning forward while his elbows rest on his knees. He pushes his father's old glasses back up to his nose with his pointer finger.

        "Skateboarding?" Laura echoes. "You only have one skateboard, what—"

        Peter clears his throat and nods, speaking over her. "Yeah, we like to ride on it together sometimes. I steer and she's behind me holding onto me as tight as she can. Today I lost control, we lost balance and fell. She hit her head really hard, I'm sorry."

        Peter wasn't completely lying, they do ride together on his skateboard. Peter is in front, pushing and steering while Zoee is behind him, with her arms wrapped around his middle tightly. 

        Zoee glances up to see her mother's reaction, and her mom gives the Parker boy an unamused look. "How? I got a call during the middle of the day for her injury, and you guys were still in school by then. How were you skateboarding in school?"

        Peter's mouth open and close repeatedly, looking like a fish out of water. As he speaks, he stutters, trying to fix the obvious lie he just told.

        "Dinner is ready!" Aunt May calls out from the dining room, Peter perking up at the sound of the third meal of the day. 

        The Parker boy springs up from his seat, clapping his hands together. "Yes, dinner! Dinner is certainly ready and we should head to that, shall we?" Peter nods and smiles sheepishly, taking a long step to the side before hurrying out of the living room. Laura chuckles at his awkwardness before tapping at Zoee's shoulder to have her get up.

        Zoee lets out a small noise close to a mixture of a groan and a grunt before begrudgingly sitting up. She closes her eyes and sighs out from her nose at the now nuisance pain. She then opens her eyes at the feeling of her mother's eyes on her figure. She raises her eyes at the older Atkins member, her mother looking down at her with her hands on her hips.

       "Don't think you're getting away with this any time soon, I will find out who did this to you." She says sternly before following Peter's direction. Zoee looks up at the ceiling to stop her eyes from watering once more.

♡

        Laughter slowly ceases at the dining room table from the Parker's and Laura. Zoee looks up from her untouched food as their stares are on her. She drops her fork abruptly, the metal eating utensil clattering against the porcelain plate. She looks at them with her eyebrows raised, as if to ask, What?

        "You know you can tell us what happened Zoee. I know you trust Ben, May, and especially me. We need to know who did this so that we can know who to talk to, well so that I can talk to that person or their parents." Laura Atkins rants, staring intently at her only daughter.

        Zoee instantly shifts uncomfortably at her mother's intense gaze. She forces her eyes to look down at her full plate, not before she steals a glance at Peter. He is gnawing on his bottom lip as he looks up at her from over the top of his glasses, his fingers tapping at the wooden table, another nervous tick of his. 

        The Atkins girl's right leg bounces up and down under the table littered with almost empty bowls of food Aunt May graciously prepared for them. She swallows a big lump in her throat, her skin growing hot and the back of her throat burning in pain of Zoee keeping her wet tears in. Her brain just can't take a break at all of the depressed and fearful thoughts.

        She can't help but imagine the embarrassment and pain that Eugene 'Flash' Thompson will put her through if he got suspended or expelled from her opening her mouth. She can't control this effect the bully has on her, she knows he can make her life a living hell.

        And imagine what Peter would go through alongside her at Midtown High. She can't help the selfless side that shows when she's around the Parker boy or when she even thinks of him. Flash knows their close friendship and how close their families are. He wouldn't stop torturing the teens until the end of their high school career. Also at the thought of Peter, her thoughts spiral down the hole of him abandoning her.

        To avoid all the pain and suffering, Peter might stick to Gwen Stacy and leave Zoee behind with her problems with Flash. He might saunter off to the blonde love of his life and forget all about Zoee. This is one of Zoee's biggest current fears, and she has a lot of things that terror her.

        All of these ideas are circling her consciousness and swallowing her in. Zoee doesn't realize that she's started to hyperventilate a little. She can barely see with her blurry vision and with her own hands wiping away the flow of tears. Zoee can't believe she's breaking down in front of the couple she considers her aunt and uncle. She is unable to stop but think that she is such a baby for not being able to delete her thoughts and control her emotions properly.

        With a push to her chair and another wipe at her flushed face, Zoee stands and stumbles back to the living room and plops down on the cushiony couch, leaning her head into her hand with her elbow resting on the top of the couch. She lets her vision go out of focus as she takes deep breaths in and out and counts up to one hundred mentally, a coping skill she learned in therapy.

        Her seat dips from under her, a new weight joining her on the couch. "Hey," Peter's soft voice whispers near her. She forces her eyes from the wall to be able to look at her close friend. His worried expression comes into view, his lips curled down into a frown. "What's wrong, Zo?"

        Zoee lifts her right shoulder to shrug, shaking her head as if to say, I don't know.

        Peter can see right through her and narrows his eyes from behind the glasses lenses. "Zoee..." He warns before giving up right away, knowing that will have Zoee lock herself up even more. "C'mere."

        He lifts an arm and Zoee hesitates into leaning into his warmth. She gives him a wary look before sniffling and eventually leaning into him. He grabs at her free hand and tucks her small smartphone into her palm. She gets his idea and clicks on her phone, going into the messages app where she already has a message from him.

Pete
whats wrong?? :-(

        Zoee's hands shake and her fingers tremble as she tries to type out a response. She grunts as she isn't calm enough to even text. Peter sees this and pulls her in close, nuzzling his face into her hair and pressing soft kisses to her temple. Zoee closes her eyes and sighs, focusing on his careful touch. Soon enough, she's calm and she opens her eyes to see the screen staring back at her. She taps on the screen to write out a message.

Zoee
flash

        That is the only word she is able to type out and send. Peter unwraps his arms from her but leans his head against as he uses both of his thumbs to type something back. He would tell her how he feels but he prefers to type it out. He knows that Zoee likes to scroll through their messages for comfort when he was around to help her calm down.

Pete
this is the last thing u wanna hear but u need to tell ur mom, i already told uncle ben

        At this, Zoee scoffs and starts to scoot away from him. She hears the keyboard clicks from his phone, Peter furiously typing a new response to send.

Pete
flash will get what he deserves and if he doesn't im here to protect u, i swear

        Zoee's eyes fill up with tears again. What if he's not gonna be there like he promises? He sometimes can't help but keep promises he can't keep and that scares the Atkins girl.

Zoee
what if you're not there? what if you leave me

        "Is that what you're upset about?" Peter locks his phone and twists his body to look at her properly. Zoee furrows her eyebrows at how he abruptly stop texting, one of the few changes of his that the young female teen has noticed recently.

        Zoee nods and hiccups before nodding her head quickly, her shoulders shaking with silent cries. Peter frowns and envelops her into a bear hug, stroking her hair and dimpled cheek. 

        "I'm not going to leave you, not now, not ever. Until the day I die." The Parker boy vows, closing his eyes to avoid crying with her. "You're my number one girl, no one is ever going to change that or take your place."

        His words calm Zoee down as she clutches onto him but deep down, she realizes that he knows her jealousy toward Gwen Stacy. Her consciousness warns that he's just saying that to get her off his back and be able to pursue the blonde, but she ignores it and falls asleep into his warm touch. How she wishes that she should've trusted her thoughts for once.