Stay Safe

Exposed

Peters POV
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It already Monday and I feel both dead inside and out. Sure that's kind of normal for a teenager or really anybody at any age, but I have genuine reasons to feel dead. My body is completely soar from being beaten and my eyes are bloodshot from getting no sleep other than when I blacked out. I wish I had the option to stay out of school today, and honestly I thought I'd be able to since I'm covered in fits and bruises...guess miss Deborah and Chad are too stupid to realize their own mistake. Them making me go to school today just lead to a whole new problem.

I get to school and see my little group of friends; Ned, Mj, and Harry. Recently, I may have been kinda sorta ignoring them...? Well, at first I didn't mean to, I was just so caught up with figuring out my super powers and adjusting to my new Spider-Man life. But now I just kinda ignore them. I'm too busy with Spider-Man, getting good grades, hiding the fact that I'm Spider-Man, hiding the fact that I live in the worse orphanage to ever exist, and most importantly I'm hiding the fact that I'm unhappy. I always try to put a smile on my face, but no matter how hard I try it always seems to fade away. I also really don't want them to worry about me; I'm managing my life as best as I can and nothing they do can make it better. I've kinda lost hope at this point, I mean, nobody even comes to our orphanage and if they do, they take a younger kid.

When I walked up to the three of my only friends, they all looked extremely concerned. "Hey guys, is something wrong?" I ask them and that was when all hell was about to break lose.

Trigger Warning >>>mentions of self harm

Mj dragged me into an empty classroom while Ned and Harry followed suit. The door slammed shut and I felt a knot in my stomach form. "what. the. fuck." Mj says slowly. I'm a little confused so I tilt my head a little and cock an eyebrow in Harry's direction. He's got his head in his hands and Ned is just standing awkwardly in the corner, pacing back and forth. "what did I do?" I asked and before Mj could answer, Harry was already popping off.

"What did you do? Oh Peter you didn't do ANYTHING! NOT AT ALL. NOPE. YOU TOTALLY HAVENT BEEN KEEPING SECRETS FROM US. Look at yourself! You told us you used to cut yourself but you stopped! and here you are, covered in cuts and bruises wearing hoodies again even though it's literally 85 degrees out..." Harry rants to me and I'm shocked.

Leave. Leave. Leave....just run....

I felt my face become red and tears were threatening to spill out. I'm such an embarrassment...
"G-Guys...I don't c-cut myself anymore...I told you." I try to impossibly cover up my arms more. I didn't want them to see any more of the cuts I had.

"Peter..." Ned begins, he already has tears rolling down his cheek. "we know you're cutting yourself. There's no other reason for all this, and you've been acting strange. Just- please...let us help you"

It was silent for a while, probably about 3 minutes before I spoke up. "you guys can't help me. If you wanted to help me then you'd get me in a place that isn't run by abusive assholes..." I mumble but it was still loud enough for them to hear it. "they abuse you?" Mj asks as I nod my head. "because of it...that's why I do it..." I say.

" do what?" Ned asks me and I slowly lift up the sleeves on my sweatshirt to reveal my self-inflicted cuts that dug deep into my skin. Everyone's faces went blank. "I-I do these to myself b-but they do worse things to me..." I say as I left my sleeves back down. "I already tried telling my social worker, but she said I was just an exaggerated teenager...even with evidence she didn't care. I can't leave unless someone adopts me which probably w-won't happen since I'm already a teenager with a bad record."

The bell rings and we all have no choice but to get to class or else the teachers will come looking for us. He silently made our way out of the empty, abandoned classroom without saying another word.

Harry's POV
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As we left the empty classroom that would soon begin to fill with kids, we were all silent. I think we were all too deep in thought to even care about what was happening around us. We just went about our day as if nothing happened...even though we WANTED something to happen. Peter told us we couldn't help, which is kinda true...he has already told his social worker and that's as far as he can go.

Eventually, lunch came and left without a word from any of us. We didn't feel like talking, just thinking. At the end of the day, me, Ned, and mj all met up as Peter walked home. We tried to discuss ideas of how to help Peter, but it was no use. Nobody had anything.

BACK TO PETERS POV HAHA
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As the school day ends, I walk to the orphanage since Tony told me not to come to the Tower since he has some "business work" to do. When I got there I did what I normally do, homework and chores. I played with the little kids for a bit and then dinner time came around. Dinner time was supposed to be silent unless Miss Deborah told us otherwise. Tonight was going to be an open discussion which was never fun since it was normally her picking on a child victim and making them feel bad about themselves. It was only open discussion because she'd want the other kids to make their roommate feel bad. It was all horrible and even worse, the really little kids think all of this is normal and have a high risk of growing up to be stuck up brats. Anyways, she starts off the open discussion by asking, "so, who wants to be the main topic tonight?"

Of course nobody answers her, and the little kids would've if they weren't already fast asleep. They go to bed and eat dinner earlier than the older kids since we have more homework and they get cranky. "No suggestions? Oh I guess we'll talk about my FAVORITE annoying brat! Or maybe he doesn't deserve the title of being a brat...no...no...he's different than the rest of you. Ah, yes, a fag! That's it!" She says and tilts her head to me. That's nice. I guess I'm the fag...

She went on for another 45 minutes about how horrible of a child I was and all that jazz. She then made me do the dishes by myself. Some of the other kids tried to sneak into the kitchen to help me, but I told them not to since I didn't want them to get in trouble. As soon as I finished doing the dishes, I was about to head upstairs when I hear the front door slam.

Chad. A drunken dick of a man.

And soon enough I wouldn't be given the pleasure of the closet, but instead I was given the luxurious place of the sidewalk. I was kicked out for the night, but I knew tomorrow they'd let me back in....but I guess in my dazed mind and beaten body I decided to it wait and to do something else....

Happys POV
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I gave Tony the adoption papers for Peter and it's been about a day now and I'm a little surprised he's not finished. He literally rushed into his room to work on them and vowed to himself not to go to sleep or leave until everything was complete. The whole adoption process is supposed to take about 2ish weeks AFTER we give the social workers and owner of the orphanage the papers. I know that's not how it actually works but deal with it lol.

It's currently midnight and I can't go to sleep. All I can think about is Peter. Tony had told me that Peter cut himself and his orphanage was abusive, but it's clear that there has been other traumatic events that has happened to him. I wonder if tony knows? Or maybe he doesn't because there's nothing to know...? I was getting really deep in my thoughts, but was unfortunately interrupted by a loud ringing blaring through my silent room. Who's calling me at this hour? And the next thing I knew I would be hearing from the sobbing child I was just worrying about less than 5 minutes ago. That's also how I somehow found myself picking him up off the street of his orphanage while he was covered in bruises and could barely stand.

yuh. 1513 words.

Xoxo - Mayflower 🌷