instantaneous ▲ tasm [SLOW UPDATES.]

n i n e ; promises

N I N E ; PROMISES

The day of Captain George Stacy's funeral, it rained. It was like a dam had broke in the skies. Romina was sure it would never stop. His funeral was a sea of umbrellas but Peter was not among them.

Peter had visited Romina the night that Connors had tried to turn the whole city into reptiles. He recounted the events that had happened. The Captain had shown up on the roof to help him fight Connors. George gave Peter the antidote, informing him that he could handle the lizard. When Peter found him again later, he was laying on the ground, half-conscious. He had made Peter promise he wouldn't get Gwen involved in any of the Spider-Man business.

Romina could tell Peter wanted nothing more than to be with Gwen but he knew George was right. Gwen would only get hurt. That's why she hadn't expected Peter to show at the funeral. He was trying his best to respect her father's wishes.

When Gwen asked Romina after the funeral why Peter hadn't shown, Romina lied. She told Gwen that it hurt Peter too much to be there, which wasn't exactly untrue. If Gwen saw right through Romina's fib, she didn't say anything.

It rained for two days straight after that. Gwen called Romina and told her that she had went to see Peter. She had realized that her father made Peter promise he would stay away from her. Romina didn't know what to say so she didn't say anything. She just let Gwen cry to her over the phone.

Romina visited Peter, bright and early on Monday morning. She begrudgingly woke up early just so she could walk with him to school. Needless to say, Peter was surprised to see her at his doorstep at 7:30 A.M.

"There's something I need to tell you," he stated as they walked side-by-side down the sidewalk. "Connors said something to me on the roof that night about you. He wanted me to tell you that he was sorry about your dad."

"What would he have to be sorry about? He didn't turn my dad into a human-sized lizard," Romina replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

Peter shrugged. "Don't know. But I think you should go talk to him. He might be able to tell you what happened."

Furrowing her brows, Romina grabbed Peter's arm and pulled him to a stop. She got a few dirty looks from passerby's for stopping in the middle of the sidewalk but she ignored them. "You're telling me, you think I should go visit a man who A: turns into a giant lizard and B: wanted to do the same to the entire city of New York."

"It couldn't hurt," Peter replied, pulling his arm free and continuing to school. "He's behind bars, he can't hurt you."

Romina followed suit with a heavy sigh. "I'll think about it, Pete."

"Good," he stated. He came to a stop in front of an old alley and stared at the wall. He looked back at his friend with a slight smirk. She saw the Spider-Man symbol painted there and rolled her eyes.