Walking the Wire | PETER PARKER [1]

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Eloise steps out the front door, headed towards Alev's house to pay the family a visit, and locks it as Peter unlocks his apartment door. She expects him to look up at her and smile like he usually does, but he keeps his head down.

"Hey Peter," She says when he doesn't greet her.

He struggles with his keys, fumbling with them in his hands. Eloise looks at him a little closer and realizes that he's shaking slightly.

Softly, she asks, "Are you okay?"

Peter's hands stop fumbling with the keys. After a few seconds, he lets out a shaky breath.

"Yeah."

She steps over to his side and lightly places her hand on his arm in attempt to comfort him, but he flinches away and looks up.

Eloise gasps.

"Oh my goodness, what happened?" She asks frantically, taking his face in her hands. He pushes her hands away and steps back.

"Nothing, nothing, I'm okay," he insists.

"No you're not!" Eloise exclaims. He has a yellow fading bruise on his cheek, a yellow and purple ring around his left eye, a scabbed cut above his eyebrow, and another healing cut on the bridge of his nose. The sight of his banged up face makes her heart ache. How in the world is that okay?

She steps closer to him. "Please," Eloise pleads when he steps away again. "I don't like it when you're hurt. And, quite frankly, you're hurt a lot."

When he doesn't reply, she sighs.

"Peter."

"I'm fine," Peter repeats quietly, almost sounding guilty. 

"I know I'm not as close to you as Ned is, but it still hurts me seeing you hurt," Eloise says. "Please tell me what's going on with you."

His sad eyes flicker between hers. "I can't." He swallows. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Fine," Eloise says, even though it's not fine. But what can she do? Everyone has boundaries. "I understand."

Peter nods and slowly looks away. He starts to open his door, but before he can disappear behind it, Eloise stops him.

"Peter."

He pauses, glancing back at her.

"Just know that you can come to me for anything. Okay?"

He nods. "Okay."

🕸

Eloise returns home sometime in the evening. The sun's setting, the colors in the sky turning different vibrant shades and the temperature dropping.

She walks through the kitchen on her way to her room, snatching a bag of chips and a chocolate bar for dinner. When she walks into her room she closes the door behind her and flips down on her bed, exhausted. She was just at Alev's apartment. She originally went over to see how her mother was and say hi, but she was asleep and Alev was busy cleaning. So, Eloise helped her clean. She dusted and vacuumed the carpet as Alev put things away and folded laundry. Once all was said and done, Alev and Eloise just hung out for an hour and watched Netflix on Eloise's phone.

She rips open her bag of chips and glares at her backpack resting on the floor, full of unfinished homework that she's not going to get around to doing. It's not like she understands it anyways, so why bother?

🕸

"Heyo, what's good Ellie?" Luis asks as he slings his arm around Eloise's shoulder.