secrets - peter parker

e i g h t

The weekend passed and Monday morning swiftly followed. It was a struggle to get out of bed, but the aroma of mom's famous pancakes certainly made it easier. After literally licking my plate clean from whipped cream, I was out the door.

Placing my books into the locker, I noticed a familiar brown-haired boy next to me.

"Morning, Violet." Peter put his own books away in his nearby locker.

"Sup, Parker. Have a good weekend?" After shutting it, I approached him, leaning against the others as he continued to put away his things.

"It was alright," He then went on about all the homework he did, and something about how he did his entire chemistry project on his own because his partner claimed he was too 'busy'.

But then I zoned out his voice as my eyes fell on his bicep as he lifted his books and the way I had to now glance up at him slightly, about five inches more than I used to. Puberty did him good; a little too good. Then I looked to see who was making his way up the hallway.

Flash and his pathetic group of followers stomped past everyone in their path. But my attention focued onto the gash on the side of his jaw, only just beginning to heal. Alright! I knew my rings would come in handy one day.

Peter's eyes followed mine and too landed onto the blonde boy, letting out snicker at the sight of the scar. A smile played on my lips as he walked past, deliberately avoiding my eyes; just the way I liked it.

As people muttered under their breathes around us, Peter turned to me.

"So, I was uh thinking...maybe..." he said, tripping over his own words. It was almost painful to watch. Like he wanted to say something so badly but he didn't know the means nor the vocabulary to express it. You'd think that someone as smart as Parker could get his words out masterfully, but I guess he was only good at that kind of stuff on paper. "Yeah... I dunno, like afterscho-"

At the ring of the bell, I gave a pitiful smile, not really sure about what Peter was insinuating. "Have a good day, Peter." I said, to which he returned with a curt nod as I moved off into the direction of my class.

Why did teenagers have to be so darn complicating all the time?

~

Monday was done. My eyes barely stayed open during last period, but unfortunalty I stayed behind an extra two hours to work on the school paper. I was hoping I'd have Peter to keep me company, seeing as he's the only real friend I've made upon my return. But he was a no show.

Slipping the burgundy scrunchie from my wrist, I tied my chocolate brown hair back into a loose ponytail as I began my walk home. The sun was beginning to set nicely on the city, a painting of lilac and orange across the cloudless sky, but the sleepless city was nowhere near settled just yet.

My mom had always warned me not to walk home this specific way. It was a short cut, but the crime levels were sky high around these blocks. She would always express how she'd rather take the longer route around the 'safer' parts of the city than have me take this route. But today was an exception – I was exhausted from the crappiness of high school.

That was until I could hear footsteps and low grumbling voices approaching me from behind. Suddenly I was wide awake, and starting to sweat a little as my legs stepped forward into much larger steps.

Apparently, I wasn't fast enough. My forearm had been harshly grabbed, pulling me into the nearest alleyway. I scream excaped my lips but was soon silenced as a filthy hand clamped over my mouth. I wasn't compelty helpless of course. Inscitcs forced me to rember my intensive training at the institute, and so within seconds I had spun around, twisting the stranger's arm only to knock him back with a sharp kick to the stomach.

But once again, my attempts were too delayed. My shoulders were being painfully pushed aagsint the brick wall behind me, the two men coming into view as each one held down a shoulder each.

"We got ourselves a fighter." The one to my left spoke, his toxic breath causing me to srunch my nose in disgust, as the other man simply grinned in response, relaveing his missing teeth and animalistic eyes.

"She's a pretty little thing ain't she." The latter responded as I struggled to remove myself from the grasp.

"I haven't got anything you want, alright? I left my wallet at home and my cell phone is worth two bucks." I tried to hide the desperation in my voice, coating it with an exterior chacarter of fearlessness.

"Oh you've got something we want." The one on the left conveyed a sinister grin, his eyes trailing across my body. 'That tears it' I thought. At this point I didn't give about a damn about the rules we'd learnt. About how we should never use our powers to harm civillians. To hell with that, these jerks had it coming.

"So, which one of you goons is going to start crying first?" My eyes met the two of theirs as I stopped struggling under their grasp.

"What you talk- AAHHH!" The one with sparce teeth jumped back, reaching down to grab his foot which I minorly balsted with my palm. Not hard enough to pierice through the skin, but certainly hard enough to cause some damage.

As he groaned, the larger man looked down at my faintly glowing palm with wide eyes. "You're one of them freaks!"

"We prefer the term Mutant's" I snarled, taking advantage of having the first guy groaning on the floor. My palm raised to blast the larger man in the knee, feeling sliglty pleased with myself as he cursed in response. However, I didn't keep him down for as long as I expected. So another one was fired into his shoulder with a little more aggression, knocking him to ground with a thud hard enough to knock him out.

I spun around to find the smaller man charging towards me, his fist inches from my face before it was slammed against the wall. We both had equally confused expressions on our faces until we saw the source of what kept him stuck to the wall.

Webs.