TWO STEPS BACK, peter parker.

chapter four,

        Shade stood in the kitchen of his home, humming along to some song playing off the music station on TV. Shade had managed to get off work early for once and managed to beat his mother home and as a surprise, Shade decided to cook dinner for his mom. Before he got a job, he used to cook dinner for his mom every night but with his job and long hours, it became rare for him to cook. With both Shade and his mother working, home cooked meals stopped being a thing. Neither had the time to cook. So When Shade's boss sent him home early, the first thing he thought about was cooking for his mother.

          By the time Shade was almost finished cooking, he heard the front door open. He turned his head and watched as his tired mom entered the house. At first, she didn't notice her son— and nearly had a heart attack when she looked up and saw someone standing in her kitchen.

          Her hand went to her chest, "Jeez! What're you doing home? You're never home this early." Brenda finished as she entered the kitchen, pulling her son down to place a kiss on his cheek. "You're cooking?" She looked towards the stove as Shade nodded.

"Yeah. Figured since I got off early I would. Haven't cooked for you in awhile," Shade explained as the oven went off. He turned and grabbed the towel by the stove before opening the oven and pulling the skillet out. He placed skillet down on on the stove top and tossed the towel down. He turned to face Brenda, who was now sitting at the kitchen table.

"What'd you make? Smells good," The woman spoke, taking her shoes off and carelessly tossing them into the living room.

"Found a recipe on google called One Pan Baked Ziti and decided to give it a shot. Tried to find somethin' quick. I was trying to finish it before you got home," Shade explained as he made his way towards the living room to grab the shoes his mother had tossed. "Hopefully, I didn't screw it up and it's edible," He joked while putting his mothers shoes down by the door and heading back towards the kitchen.

"I was gonna move those, ya know. You didn't have to move 'em for me," Brenda laughed, "And I know for a fact that this will be good. Everything my boy cooks is good."

Shade smiled, "Now you don't have to." Shade knew his mother probably would have forgotten to move her shoes, she usually did, but it never bothered him. He enjoyed doing the small things like that for his mother. Shade walked to the cabinets by the fridge and pulled two plates down. He went and grabbed two forks and placed them on the side of the stove. Then, he began putting the food on the plates.

          Brenda stood from the table and made her way to the fridge, "You want some soda?"

          Shade shook his head, "Water." The woman nodded, pulling a diet coke out for herself and a water bottle out for Shade before making her way to the cupboard and pulling two glasses down. She poured the drinks into the cups before placing them down on the table. Shade followed behind with the food. The two sat down at the table and ate a long overdue homemade meal and talked about their days together.

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          After dinner, Shade made his way up to his bedroom to work on homework. He unzipped his backpack and dumped the entire thing out onto his bed. He let out a sigh as he tossed himself down on the bed. He moved his folders around the bed as he searched through the objects for his phone.

           Finally, he found his phone on the inside of a binder. Somehow, the case was caught on one of the rings. He pulled the phone off the ring and unlocked it, checking his messages. He sent quick replies back to his friends before opening his conversation with the kid from Midtown.