[survivor, the hard way]↣ p. parker | t.s. daughter

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The elevator dinged, and out of it walked a woman who looked terribly like me. My mother was a short, blonde woman with a small nose and full lips. My nose was her nose. My lips were her lips.

I was staring at her, standing up, like a deer in head lights.

"Aurora," she said, softly, taking a few steps toward me. She stopped when she saw me step back away from her.

"Ari," I corrected. Not that it mattered, but it did.

"Ari," she said. She took a few more steps in. Then, she saw my dad. "Tony."

( quick a/n: i literally skimmed the chapters in this book bc i thought i gave her mom a name but ?? idk if i did actually . anyway we're just gonna call her amber now bc that's my moms name )

"Amber," Tony said.

I looked at Peter. I sat down next to him, turning my back to my "mother." She walked around and sat next to my dad.

"How have you been, Ari?" she asked.

I laughed. How had I been, lately? How were things, for the past two years of my life?

"I'm sorry," I said, stifling my laughter, "I've been fine."

"Yeah?" she asked, nodding hopefully.

I shrugged. "Well, there was the cancer thing. And then the getting beat up by a super soldier thing. And then there was an abusive relationship, and I became a rape victim before I could even get my drivers license. And then I got kidnapped. And then I was brainwashed." I listed everything out, in order, and then shrugged again. "Now I'm here."

"Ari-"

"Why are you here?" I asked, cutting off whatever she was going to say next. I wasn't interested. "You just wanted to see how I ended up or something? Well, pretty shitty, Mom. I ended up pretty fucking shitty."

"I wasn't- I couldn't have taken care of you. Not how I was back then," she said. I looked at Peter, for a second, before looking back to her. "I've been clean and sober for a few years now. You were too young to remember, probably. It wasn't good for you. I was in no place to take care of myself, let alone a toddler."

"You could have come back," I said, shaking my head.

"I didn't want you to see me how I was. You were just a baby, then. But you were smart. So smart. You were talking at six months and walking by nine. I couldn't have done anything good for you. It was so beyond me."

I looked at her. I stared, how my dad stared at me a few minutes ago before this awful family reunion swung into full effect.

"I watched everything on the news when you were gone. I knew when you got sick, and when you lost your leg. I was there at your 6th grade graduation, too. And your science fair in 8th grade, when you and this gentleman sitting next to you won first place."

She was there? Why was she there? She cared enough to check from a distance.

That didn't mean that much to me.

"What's your name?" She asked, addressing Peter instead.

"Peter Parker," he said, offering a hand to shake.

"You must be Ari's boyfriend," she said knowingly.

I was disgusted.

"Yeah, Yes, I mean," he stuttered. I grabbed his hand.

"And Tony approves of Peter?" She asked, looking over at my father.

"One hundred percent approval rating. In fact, Hey FRIDAY?"