A Family of Flaws

Chapter Ten; Pills and Questions

*Peter's POV*

  May's first day back had seemed alright. She was tired when she got home, at eight at night, but she ate the dinner Peter went out and bought and she drank two water bottles. So Peter felt like she was doing better. She was getting healthy again and he thought things were going to go back to normal.

  And then he came back from school one day, there was a small bottle of pills on the kitchen counter. May was sleeping at the kitchen table, head resting in her arms and small snores emitting from her. Peter froze, staring at the pills. Pills. Neither of them took pills. Peter knew neither of them needed pills.

  Why did May have pills? Peter tried to breathe normally as he grabbed the bottle and read the title. They were sleeping pills. So May took one and fell asleep at the table? That made a little sense, but why did she need them? If she was having trouble sleeping why wouldn't she tell Peter? How long had she even been taking the pills?

  Peter placed the bottle back on the counter, backing away from it. May was sleeping because she took pills, but she wasn't hurt. And sleeping pills weren't that strange. Plenty of people took them because of normal things like insomnia and other problems with sleeping. He could just let her sleep for now and talk to her about it later.

  Peter tidied up the kitchen and living room, feeling misplaced in the apartment now. Just the thought of May taking pills when he was unaware of it was a strange thought and his mind kept flashing back to when he found May passed out on the couch from dehydration. What if there were other pills that she was taking? What if they were bad pills? May would never do that, right?

  Once there was nothing left to clean in either rooms Peter moved on to the bathroom, where he grabbed all the laundry and put it in the laundry bin which he would take down to the washing machines in the basement of the apartment building later. Then he straightened the shower curtains and cleaned the mirror, sweeping the floor and throwing all the dust, crumbs, and anything else he gathered into the trash bin.

  The sink and toilet were next, which went by rather quickly, and he then put all the clean towels and wash clothes into the small closest. There was nothing much left for Peter to do, leading him to grab the laundry bin and drag it down to the basement. It was fairly easy with his super strength, but sitting in the dingy basement so no one would steal the laundry was a long and boring task that left him far too much time to think.

The room was cold and smelly and small and it felt like it was trying to hold Peter captive. May was stuck upstairs, probably downing pill after pill that would kill her and this room was trapping Peter. And he wanted to cry and scream and pull out his hair as he stared at the wall, cracked and covered in unknown substances.

Peter felt like his whole world was flipped upside down when anything happened to May. Because, no matter what happened, she was always a constant factor. If Peter got a bad grade, May would still be at home. If Peter couldn't be Spider-Man anymore, May would still be at home. If Peter was hurt or sad or anything, May would still be at home. But now there was a chance that she wouldn't be at home one day. And Peter couldn't take that.

Call him dramatic, but Peter had never felt his life spiral so far out of control. Even when Ben died and he was bit by the spider, Peter was still Peter and May was still May. His amazing aunt who loved him and slaved away every single day just to make sure he was happy even if she was sick and sad and acting like she wasn't May anymore.

It didn't matter to Peter if it was only dehydration at first. So what? That was still terrible and concerning and his aunt knew better because she was a nurse who saw stuff like that everyday. She knew exactly what the symptoms for dehydration were and she ignored them. And then she was suddenly taking sleeping pills without saying anything. Peter's mind was spinning. Sleeping pills could be just as addictive as other drugs, and they could lead her to take worse pills.