Spider-man: Alone in New York

~ Chapter 1 ~

I opened the door silently, hoping that Aunt May would not wake up. A wince escaped my mouth when I heard the door creak as it mewled like a cat in pain. I paused, using my heightened hearing sense to listen for any movement coming from May's bedroom. After a moment with no sounds besides the car honks blaring outside of the building, I kicked my shoes off and slowly made my way to my room.

I passed by the kitchen, ignoring the grumble of my stomach that declared hunger loudly. May wouldn't be happy if she found I was eating more than I should, and I didn't want to face her wrath if she found out. It was especially difficult because now, being Spider-man, I required much more food due to my quick metabolism. However, I still had the same portions as before, and May would get angry if I ate more- speaking plainly from experience. It's not like we had a lot of money, with May working part-time just enough to pay the cheap rent for this apartment. I worked for the rest of the money that allowed for food but was in the end mainly spent on alcohol.

Almost there, I thought as I turned to my door, pulling down the handle and opening the door. My eyes widened when I saw Aunt May standing, her glasses were crooked on her nose as a vein pulsed by her temple. She flicked the lights on, benefiting her sight more than mine and glared down at me.

Her voice was calm. Too calm. "How many times do I have to remind you? Curfews at 10 o'clock." She glanced at her watch strapped to her right wrist. "Not at 2 am." With a sickening feeling, I realized what this was: the calm before the storm.

I stammered on my words, trying to bring some lame excuse for why I wasn't in bed at the time I was supposed to be, "Well... yeah, but Ned, Ned and I had to, you know, work on a p-project, but, but it took um, a while to finish. It's for Physics. We had to take a, we filmed ourselves with waves, like electromagnetic waves and mechanical waves and matter waves and-"

"And what? I know that's a bunch of bull, Peter!" May cut me off, shouting now, "I know what you do every night when you sneak out and come back late! I know!"

"You-you know?" My eyes widened. I hadn't been careful enough. Oh no. I couldn't suppress the shiver that raced up my spine. Had she noticed how fast I healed? Probably not. She never cared about me and my bruises. Had she seen me climb in with my suit? That would be a dead giveaway.

"Yes, of course I know! You go to parties and get drunk. Of course, I'm not surprised. A boy like you would do dumb stuff like that!" She yelled at me, shrieking at the top of her lungs. She thought I went to parties and got drunk? Hours I spend outside, stopping criminals, helping the police, and aiding the community, and she thought that I was getting drunk? Did I look drunk to her now, too?

I was left gaping like a fish. "But, but that's not true!"

"Spare me your lies, boy. I will teach you what it means to disrespect me!" She grabbed my hair and dragged me out of my room and into the kitchen. For some reason, I couldn't stop her. I was frozen as she threw me down to the ground. Thankfully, the landing didn't hurt me, but my lack of pain only lasted a couple of seconds. She kicked my stomach, chest, and back, not stopping until she was exhausted herself, inhaling and exhaling quickly. I was a groaning mess on the ground, trying not to move too much as that would make the pain worse. She bent down to my level, grabbed my hair and slammed my head into the stone floor.

I let out a cry, grasping my head with my hands. I felt something warm and thick trickle down from my forehead, and a smell of iron met my nose. I was bleeding. Head wounds always bled so much and took a while to stop bleeding.

May whispered, "That'll teach you, you ungrateful, selfish child." She stood up, brushing the wisps of hair back that fell into her face from all of her kicking. Before leaving the kitchen, I heard the clink of glass as she grabbed two beers from the fridge and got back to her room. Aunt May wasn't always like this. Thinking back, I could remember her being sweet to me, loving me, even. When Uncle Ben had died, May changed. Stricken with grief, she needed someone to blame rather than herself. I was the only person there, so she rightly put the blame on me. She used alcohol to escape from her life and the more time that had passed after Uncle Ben's, the more reliant she grew on alcohol. That's when this all started.

I shook my memories out of my head but stayed on the floor, not wanting to move too much. I asked myself, what would Spider-man do if he were in this situation? Easy. He would pick himself up, brush off the dust, and clean up the blood and any injuries. I was Spider-man. I should be able to do it. I hardened my jaw as I rose to my knees, then to my feet. I wrapped an arm around my waist and used the wall beside me for support as I hobbled to the bathroom. Pain bloomed along my body, and I knew the bruises were inevitable. It was a question of how long they would be there for rather than if they would appear.

I reminded myself not to cry out in pain, so I simply gasped quietly whenever I made a move more painful than the last. Pushing the door open, I stepped into the bathroom and looked into the mirror. Shoot... how was I going to cover it all up? I decided to figure it out later and instead stop the bleeding for now. Opening a cabinet, I searched for a bit, ruffling through the stuff, before I pulled out gauze and pressed it against my head. Hopefully my faster healing would get rid of it, preferably soon. I lifted my shirt with my other hand and saw the red spots around my body. At least that was easy to cover up, I thought as I dropped the shirt back down.

I stood there for around fifteen minutes when my head finally stopped trickling blood. I cleaned it quickly and finally could go to bed. Without bothering to change into pajamas, I slipped into bed, sighing when the tension around my shoulders and muscles relaxed. Finally, I could rest and-

"Ding!" My phone received a notification. I huffed but grabbed my phone from my nightstand. I blinked the blurriness out of my eyes and read the notification.

Email: Congratulations! We are pleased to...

A crease appeared on my forehead as I clicked the notification, swiped right, and typed my passcode in.

Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you an internship position at Stark Industries due to your outstanding....

I stopped reading anything after that. No way. No freaking way. I got the Stark internship! That was amazing! I had signed up for that before I had even became Spider-man. In fact, I had forgotten about it because it was so long ago. So many things happened between then and now.

Cold dread filled me next. How was I going to balance school, work, being Spider-man, and an internship? That was practically impossible. I would have to sacrifice something to hold up the rest, and I feared my amount of sleep would decrease even further.

I could reject the offer, though. As soon as that thought came into my mind, I crossed it out. I wouldn't reject something that I had wanted for so long. It would be worth it, in the end, I hoped.

With those thoughts and mixed feelings swimming around in my head, I shut off my phone and got back into bed. I'd worry about everything tomorrow.

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