Taking Hits | P. Parker

Chapter 33

The footsteps echo off the floor as they come back towards me. The person is clearly running. I panic knowing it's them, they are coming back to hurt me again.

My body tightens in reaction and I curl myself into a ball on the floor of the locker room so if they do try to hurt me again it might not hurt as bad. Key word being might.

"Peter!" The voice echos in my head and I shut my eyes, trying to shut it out. "Peter, look at me." I refuse, I shut them tighter. I don't recognize the voice because of the echoing but I don't want to open them. This is a trick. "Please." The voice sounds desperate, even as it echos around my head but I hold myself tighter.

I choke out a noise as the person peels my fingers off the top of my head, making it so my head is unprotected. The person tries to sit me up on my own but when I fall back they sit me up against a locker.

"Peter Parker, look at me." The voice, definitely male, says and I sense that he going to touch me. I flinch and pull my head into my knees. "I'm sorry Peter." He says and sounds sincere. He pauses for a moment before continuing. "I promise I won't hurt you." He sounds hurt. He means it. I don't want to look up but at the same time I do.

It's Dean.

He looks down at the ground. His bright blue eyes that were just filled with no emotion are everything but that now.

He must feel my gaze because he looks up at me. We stare at each other for a solid minute. I break the silence.

"Why are you here?" I ask trying to make myself sound stronger then I feel right now. I don't know why he is here.

"I... don't know." He states and his look goes cloudy. "I just figured you wanted someone to be with you." He says with a look that I can't place.

"Why would you care?" I touch my head and almost pass out at the sight of the red liquid on the tips of my fingers. "You did this."

"Don't touch it." He says grabbing my hand as I go back up to touch it with my hand again. "And I don't care, Parker." He says as looks me up and down.

My lip quivers and the air conditioning that I'm usually grateful for, is just causing more damage then help right now.

"Your cold," He says stupidly and I give him a look.

"No, really?" I say sarcastically and he raises an eyebrow. He rolls his eyes and takes his maroon sweatshirt off. He holds it out to me.

"Take it." He mumbles. I hesitate but end up taking it because I am, in fact, cold. He gets up and goes over to the coach's office and opens it. He must see me staring confusedly out of the corner of his eye because he looks over his shoulder. "Coach keeps some stuff in here, he won't mind me going in. Football, y'know." He explains before going in.

I completely forgot Dean plays football. I assumed he was always with Flash and there friend group, doing whatever they wanted to do.

"Okay. So," he walks over with a little white box, a first aid kit. He kneels down in front of me and he meets my eyes. "Sit still."

He cleans up my cuts, with not help from me. The alcohol hurts them and I try to keep from squirming but I still do. When he's done, he helps me stand up.

"Dizzy?" He says and I shake my head no.

I don't understand why he is being so nice to me. He's so much different usually. At the same time though, I can't help but remember the smile that he gave me earlier.

That doesn't really count in my mind though. After all he was leading me right into a nest of snakes.

"I have to go." I mumble, looking down at the ground.

"Ok, see you tomorrow." He says with a slight smile and I start to walk away. I can't help but limp because there is a sharp pain in my right leg and heel. "Oh yeah. Parker." Dean calls and I look back at him. "This, what I did, means nothing." He says no smile on his face. His face wiped clean of the warm smile that had been there no more then a minute ago.

I nod my head and back to my locker, looking for where I dropped my phone. My wet clothes stick to my skin but Deans hoodie traps some of my heat against my body. I can't help but notice the hoodie smells like smoke from a bonfire or something like that.

I find my phone and glance down at the screen.

29 Missed Calls:

Dad (19)

Pops (2)

Aunt Nat (4)

Ned (4)

And then there were all of the texts. Pretty sure my phone would kill me if it were a real person.

I shoot Dad a quick text telling him that I've been on patrol and got caught up. I told him I would be home soon.

With that I put my headphones in and walked out of the building. As I cross the street to get to an alley where I can change into my suit, I see Dean staring at me. I look to met his eyes but he looks away and climbs into a white expensive car of some kind.

As I change into my suit, all I can think of is why he helped me. He probably felt bad for everything. Or maybe he just wanted to help. Or he wants to get my trust to break it. Most likely the last one.

I throw my clothes, along with Dean's hoodie, into my backpack and start to swing home.

I don't really pay attention as I go on my way. Yeah, I help people. Stop as needed to prevent car crashes, robberies, and a bunch of other things but my mind really isn't on them. I keep thinking about why he would do it. I come to the answer that, he really just did it because he wanted to use it against me in the future.

When I get home, everything is normal. Which is nice. I change into loose sweats and throw on Dean's hoodie and go out to the living room. Everyone is sitting down for dinner.

"Hey Pete, How was your day at school?" Pops asks and I smile as pleasantly as I can.

"It was something." I cringe internally because I shouldn't have to lie to them but I feel the need to because I put them through so much already and they don't deserve that. "What's for dinner?" I grin, changing the topic and sitting down in the living room knowing I probably wont eat much again.