Us Against The World ｡ Peter Parker [2]

31 - The Spider

Dread seeped into my mind the entire night and my bones would not settle, leaving me tossing and turning in my itchy single hotel bed. Each passing hour, my eyes would swing across to land on the alarm clock set upon the nightstand. Slowly and painfully, the time ticked away and all I could think about was Peter freaking Parker travelling to Maryland to locate that vulture like villain and find out more about the weapons he was designing and selling. My mind was so clouded even just staring up at the ceiling and reciting the periodic table didn't help much.

"Manganese, Iron, Cobalt, Nickel..."

Gwen stirred in her own bed with a loud sigh. "What are you doing? It's like four o'clock in the morning."

My eyes snapped towards her in the dim lighting, "Reciting."

"The periodic table? God, you're such a nerd. Couldn't you hum some song from High School Musical or something, that would soothe me to sleep." Gwen rolled over again, her head flopped against her pillow as she watched me. A silence filled our tiny hotel room and suddenly, despite the early hours of the morning, I could feel my best friend's mind turning with thought too. "Are you okay?"

My heart jolted. "Peachy."

She wasn't taking the lie though, not today. "I know everything has been, well, really crappy lately. Things with Pete aren't resolved and I know you hate being roped into playing chaperonage, but you can talk to me. About anything, you know that." Gwen paused for a second, her brown eyes glistening with the watery light slipping through the crack of the ugly patterned curtains. "I know it's that time of the year again too, and things get a little more...bad."

Suddenly, those tiny words were creating a weird void in my chest. Gwen Stacy was right though, the approaching night was coming very quickly and usually, the weeks leading up to Halloween were some of the worst weeks of my life. This year would mark Colton being gone for three full years and that was a reality I didn't like facing even with friends and family offering support. "I'm okay."

Honestly, for maybe the first time my brother's death wasn't so heavy on my shoulders. Maybe because last year a boy had somehow eased that pain with reminding me that my brother wouldn't want me spiralling downwards each year and finding misery alone in the darkness. The reminding of that fateful night was in the back of my mind always, but this time around, Colton Parsons wasn't the only boy that kept me awake in October. "Okay, but if you need a shoulder to cry on, or like somebody to pour your heart out to soon, I'm your girl." Gwen offered out quietly.

"Thanks, Gwen." My voice sounded far away almost.

Gwen pulled her blanket up higher, snuggling back into the warmth. My eyes shifted back to the ceiling, my hands flattened against my stomach. I could feel the burn of tears on the back of my throat but was not about to let them fall, not when the world was still waiting outside and the fear that Peter was in danger flooded my mind still. Why did he have to be a hero? Couldn't he just leave it all alone?

"Copper." A tiny voice sounded randomly.

Confusion took form in my mind. "What?"

Gwen didn't even open her eyes but remained still, waiting for sleep to come back to her and to let her dreams take her far away from the watery sunlight promising a new day. "Copper is next, yeah? Followed by Zinc."

A smile touched my lips softly and I went back to reciting, hoping the ability to try and focus on something else might calm my racing heart and still my mind for a little bit. "Right. Yeah."

***

The day was quickly coming to an end, Midtown winning the Academic Decathlon with Michelle Jones's brilliant mind and Peter still hadn't found his way back yet. All day, my teeth chewed into the flesh of my check in worry. I had checked and double checked my phone at least a hundred times, but nothing. Apparently, Ned hadn't heard anything yet either. Which meant we were just two kids stuck in a continuation of dread.