"Peter, are those... red tights?"
"Nope."
"Those definitely looked like red tights."
"I... do ballet?"
---
•The sole thing illuminating her path were the wispy rays of moonlight as she tripped over a trashcan and...
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"I, WAS IN THE DEPRESSION STAGE ABOUT MY EX..." She heard the middle-aged lady in the soft grey blazer say as Eloquin wiggled into her seat of the seminar. Dottie Piper was giving an inspirational talk on The Four Stages of Divorce, and although Eloquin hadn't had a divorce, she deemed it fit when she ran home from Queens balling with mascara running down her face after her she discovered her ex-boyfriend had been cheating on her with a red and blue spandex suit.
"I combined my ex with depression, and I got EXPRESSION!" Dottie yelled triumphantly, to which the crowd erupted into tears. The wrinkled lady beside her stood up and fist pumped the air so hard, the cellulite on her arm jiggled.
ELoquin wriggled away from the old woman, her enthusiasm was dimming her sadness. All of the middle-aged people in the audience did intimidate her, but Eloquin had to admit, this lady did have a point. Her booming voice spun through the microphone and out the speakers in the auditorium, "Stage 1 is Denial, Stage 2 is Depression, Stage 3, Anger, and Stage 4 is Acceptance." And in a heartbeat, Eloquin's mind time travelled to the days before.
Stage 1: Denial
This was not possible. As Eloquin ran through the streets of Queens, panic seizing every inch of her body yet pumping adrenaline through her veins, her mind took her on a rollercoaster of its own. Maybe she should've stayed and listened to his explanation. But he was silent! Silence is basically confirmation, she told herself.
But no way. There was no way! She had talked to Spider-Man so many times before, it was impossible that Peter could've kept himself together all that time, kept himself hidden. He couldn't even a secret for the life of him, like when he invited Gwen to her own surprise birthday party.
Eloquin's eyes flicked up to the sky, watching as the clouds cleared up and the sun peeked through. She tucked a damp strand of hair behind her ear and closed her cheap umbrella. She struggled for a while, the metal scraping against itself before she barely got it shut. She had to buy a new one after she gave her favourite yellow umbrella to--
Wait.
Eloquin was so stupid, she felt the sudden urge to slap herself on the forehead. She had given her umbrella to Spider-Man the first time she had met him, in the alleyway during the thunderstorm. And she had seen that same umbrella in Peter's room multiple times. Wow, she was stupid. As if it couldn't get any worse.
Stage 2: Depression
Eloquin had assumed her natural state to be a crying sloth, because once again she found herself wrapped up in her duvet crying while Gossip Girl played in the back. Adele was on repeat, her sweet voice floating around Eloquin's room and eventually being drowned out by her sobbing.
So, her boyfriend, well... ex boyfriend, was running around New York getting beaten up by criminals while Eloquin was sitting at home doing nothing. The poor thing probably had to tend to his own wounds, come home late at night and barely fall asleep for an hour before getting up and going to school, just to be beaten up again Flash. That's why is grades were failing, and that's why he would always be bruised. That should've been the first sign that something was wrong. He was always bruised and for some reason, instead of thinking he could be in trouble, Eloquin thought he was in a fight club.
