Once we get to my apartment I hesitate for a moment suddenly very aware of what was going on. "Uh are you ok?" I'd momentarily forgotten that I wasn't alone. "Yeah fine, just not looking forward to see my bitch of a sister." I shrug telling half the truth, I hoped she'd gone home already.
"Anyways thanks for walking me I'll see you hopefully never." He laughs again and I'm glad I did not need that pitying look from Peter Parker ever again. "That's not realistic Mj you're meant to be smarter than that." I roll my eyes as I turn away from him and push my key into the lock, "yeah yeah, bye Parker try not to get hit by a car on your walk home."
"Where's mom?" I ask once I unfortunately face my sister again. "She's in her room, don't go in there she's asleep." She says once I begin walking in that direction, "why are you here?" I'm being blunt this time. "Moms ill again." I feel like I've been punched in the gut.
"How ill?" She sighs with a shrug, "I don't know, she wouldn't even tell me that she was sick, Curt rang me because she'd been trying to keep it a secret from us. How couldn't you tell Myra, you live with her you should've picked up on this."
"You can't be seriously blaming me for this? I'm still just a kid Gayle, mom works two jobs, she's always tired and I try my best to help her but there can go days without seeing her."
"You should try harder, mom shouldn't have to do so much help out." I gape at her for a moment, "shut up! Don't you come here and start criticising me, at least I do help, you can't refuse to talk to me for years and then start berating me because mom hid her illness from me."
"Girls." We both stop once our mother has joined us. "Gayle leave Mj alone, I thought we'd all agreed to keep it from her."
"You can't shelter her forever sooner or later she'll have to grow up." I scoff, "I need to grow up? You need to grow up."
"Please don't argue, what happened to you girls? You used to be so close, you used to be inseparable."
Neither of us answer, "how sick are you mom?" I say changing the subject, "it's not important." She tries to dismiss it but she should know better, I was so stubborn I would not let this go.
"It is important, it's extremely important and you can't keep this from us, we have a right to know because it's basically just you and me now Mom and if this is serious you have to at least let me know." She frowns as she shuffles forward to wrap her arms around me. "You're my baby, it's my job to protect you, I don't want to worry you not when I don't need to. I just want to you to finish school happy the way you have been."
I guess I should've known better I did get my stubbornness from somewhere, my mom would not tell me this if she didn't want to. I guess I'd just have to give Curt a visit tomorrow. Curt was my moms friend, he was totally in love with her we could all see it except her. I mean she could've known and just decided to not acknowledge it because she very clearly did not feel the same way. Even though dad had left us she really had loved him, she said he was the only man for her. Well after he left I wasn't sure why, I still wasn't sure why they'd even separated not when they'd both loved each other so much. That wasn't relevant now anyways.
I give up the questioning and let mom think that I'd let it go, Conners would cave, he always did. After dad left and basically disappeared into thin air Curt had kind of stepped in and took his role.
***
"Oh Mj...you found out." Conners isn't surprised to see me, "you should've known that Anna would never keep it quiet." I shrug as he mets me into his house. "So doc how bad is it." He wasn't that kind of doctor, he was a scientist at oscorp who was looking for a way to grow his arm, well he was looking for like a cure for everything but he was more so used on his missing arm. "I'm not so-"
"Come on Conners, you know that I have a right to know, it's why you rang Gayle." He deliberates on it for less than a moment before he caves just like I knew he would. My victory is short lived because he tells me that it what she was going through now wasn't too bad but it would develop in time and could end up taking her life.
I sit in silence for a moment as I take in the news, "I'll go and put the kettle on," he says quietly patting my shoulder before standing. I'm pulled away from my overthinking when the doorbell rings.
"Alright Parker are you stalking me?" Peter looks beyond confused on the other side, "Mj? Wha- what are you doing here?" He's more jittery than usual, "what are you doing here?" I challenge making him groan, "can you never just answer the question?"
"Mj who's at the door?" Curt asks as he makes his way over. "Hi, Dr. Connors. You don't remember me. I..."
"The intern from the other day."
"Yeah, yeah. That's right, yeah."
"I'm sure you're very nice, but this is a home. I ask you to make an appointment with my office."
"I'm Richard Parker's son."
"Peter?"
I look between the two before nodding, "right well I have things to do and you have this whatever is going on so I'll see you later." I say turning to Curt before grabbing my bag from beside the door. "N-no I don't wanna make you, uh I can go, I can come back." I shake my head at Peter, he was clearly going through something.
"It's fine I need to go meet flash anyways," his face physically sours at the name mention. "Because I have rescheduled his session way too many times and I need to be a more responsible tutor. Bye Curt I'll see you soon?" He nods as he gives me brief hug goodbye, "I'll try and drop by tomorrow, take care Myra."
I nod in acknowledgment to Peter as he just stares at me. a ton of emotions are flashing through his eyes and I can't place a single one. Ok then he was acting way stranger than usual, I don't know what it was but I didn't need his peculiarity on my mind any longer.
