Lost in Reality

02

The crowd around me breaks into gasps as a photo of Peter is flashed on every screen in Times Square. I look up to see Spider-Man, his eyes wide in shock. He swings down into the crowd, picking up a girl and swinging off, desperate to avoid prying questions.

Crowds form, following him. I stay frozen in shock. Peter Parker is Spider-Man...

A boy I'd known my whole life was Spider-Man. I couldn't wrap my head around it. The line for coffee had diminished, but suddenly I didn't have an appetite. I left the now deserted Times Square and went home, trying to clear my head.

I walk up to my apartment building and enter apartment 72B, a small, empty space. My phone was blowing up, the news of Peter spreading like wildfire.

I flop down on my bed, rolling over to face my bedside table. On it, there was a photo of Peter and I still in diapers. Peter's mother and my mother were best friends in high school. When they both got pregnant at the same time, it seemed only fitting that their kids become best friends as well.

It was hard when his mother died. Even though we were young, it hurt it the worst way possible. We still stayed close, however, when I visited him at his Aunt May's.

A few months after Mary died, my mother died as well. She was coming to pick me up from May's when her car was ran off the road by an 18-wheeler.

After that, it was just my father and I. He tried really hard to be both a father and mother for me. I could see his struggle, but he never tried to let it show for my sake. May watched me when he would work. It stayed like that for 11 years.

When I was 15, my father became ill. He grew weak, unable to keep a job. I convinced him to got to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with a stage 3 brain tumor. When that happened, my whole world fell apart. I couldn't bear to lose him.

Peter tried to help where he could. He knew I was breaking down. But as time wore on, he seemed to forget about me. Then the snap happened.

I was gone for 5 years. When I returned, life wasn't the same. I went to my apartment, to find it empty. Completely vacant. I had no clue where my father was.

I went to May's, desperate for answers. I knocked, and she answered the door, surprise on her face.

"My Makayla!" She cried, enveloping me in a hug. "I'm so glad you're back!" I could feel her tears through my shirt.

"What happened? Where's my father?" I'd asked.

She looked at me with sad eyes, and I knew. My father passed away a few months after the snap happened. She took me to his grave. I sat and cried for I don't know how long.

"He asked me to give you this, if you ever came back." May said, extending an envelope to me. I never opened it. I'm not sure why, I couldn't bring myself to. It still sits on my bedside table to this day, covered in a layer of dust.

I haven't spoken to Peter since the snap. We'd both changed so much. He was dating MJ now, something I'd never expected. I was glad he was happy.

I still wished the best for him. I hope he knew I didn't hate him, when it seemed like the rest of the world did. I knew if he needed me, I'd be there. But I knew he wouldn't. Spider-Man didn't need anybody, right?