RUDY STARK - SPIDERVENOM

MOMS AND DADS

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"What were you thinking?" Dad closed the door behind us.

I sat on one of the bigger seats, staring out the window.

"I was protecting people."

"Were you?"

"Can we just drop it." I shuffled my body farther away from him.

"No! I just spent hours in New York, clearing your name! Do you know how many reporters I had to convince?!"

"I don't give a shit!" I turned to him, raising my voice.

"I've noticed! Now I have to go fix this! How many times are you going to mess up until you learn?!"

I swallowed the pain down. His words cut deeper than he knew.

"What's so bad about them knowing anyway?! I'm tired of keeping this dumbass secret!"

"That dumbass secret is there to protect you! If people knew -"

"I can't keep this up! I can't keep telling them I'm something that I'm not!"

"Whatever! Go tell the world! Tell the world where you came from! Tell the world about how you killed people ruthlessly! They'll never trust you after that. Why would anyone?!" He yelled into my face.

My breath hitched. I stepped back with one foot, feeling my eyes gloss over. Dad's eyes widened.

He sighed in disappointment, holding his head in his hand. "I didn't mean that."

I should've seen this coming.

I blinked a few times before twitching my neck. I closed my eyes, forcing the pain down.

"I shouldn't have come back." I grabbed my backpack aggressively from the seat.

"Rudy... please."

"You said it yourself. Why would anyone trust me. So why would you?" I twisted the door handle.

Tears tried to escape my eyes as I opened the door. I took a breath to push them down as I walked out.

"Rudy, I'm sorry." Dad followed after me.

I flipped the latch to the door, letting it slide open. Air rushed in rapidly.

"Rudy!" Mom yelled out.

I turned around to look dad in the eye. His eyebrows furrowed back as he looked at me with sorrow.

I stopped.

He reached out for me, grabbing my arm.to pull me back. He closed the door once I was far enough into the plane again. He sat me down on the seat.

I stared off into the distance.

Dad grabbed my shoulders and looked directly at me. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. Only idiots would've said that to you."

I turned my head away as I felt the hot tears glossing over my eyes again.

"You don't trust me."