Taking Hits | P. Parker

Chapter 34

"What's the time, Friday?"

"It's 1:29 in the morning, Peter."

I'm standing in the dark hallway with my against my door. I don't feel tired and being stuck in my room, no matter how many cool things are in it, is making me crazy.

I walk down the hall, looking for light to leak out of the bottom of someone's door. It looks like no one is awake till I reach Clint's room at the end of the hall.

I draw a quick breath before knocking as quietly as I can so I don't wake anyone else up. I hear someone on the other side of the door move and then a second later the door opens a crack.

"Oh, hey Pete." Aunt Nat smiles before her face clouds with worry and I start feeling bad for bothering her and Clint. "Why you up?"

"Can't sleep." I shrug, ready to leave and go back to my room but she smiles again.

"Yeah, us too. Wanna come in?" She says as she opens the door. Clint's room is completely different then mine.

Yeah, mine is messy but it's normal messy. Like books, school papers, clothes and tools for working on my SpiderMan suit.

Clint in the other hand has his room's floor covered in arrows, candy wrappers, soda bottles, Nerf guns and blankets. Clint's sitting on a purple bean bag chair and raises an eyebrow when he sees me.

"Why you up?" He asks picking up his bow from his side and shooting the ceiling.

"Uh... can't sleep." I say looking up at the arrow, now stuck in the ceiling. "Is Dad good with that?"

"Probably not." He shrugs and I nod.

"He doesn't really care about what we do or how messy our rooms are." Aunt Nat explains, sitting down in a red bean bag.

I never really thought of that but yeah. He doesn't care that I make my room a mess, unlike Pops, and he doesn't care that I keep tools from the lab, unless he needs them.

"Wanna play Uno?" Clint grins and I nod.

We play for a little bit but after a while I say that I'm tired and go back to my room.

"You okay, Peter?" Aunt Nat says, following me into the hall. In the background, Clint starts shooting random things around his room.

"Yeah, just tired." I fake a yawn and she gives me a hug.

"Okay, see you in the morning." She says and I hug her back before going to my room.

The door closes and I find myself in the floor. My hand covering my mouth so I don't make a sound as I cry.

I feel so lonely.

No one understands me. No one understands what I'm going through. No one understands my life.

I just wish someone would.

I feel empty. My stomach tugs and I feel like I'm going to throw up but I don't.

Instead, I just climb into my suit and head out my bedroom window. I promise myself that I will be back before dawn.

I sit on the top of the tallest building in Queens that I can find. I look up at the stars and find myself talking to no one in particular.

"Things are so screwed up down here." I start and then rethink what I just said. "Well not everything, I love my new family and I'm happy that I'm not at the orphanage anymore. I just wish that May was here because I could always talk to her about things like this."

I can almost hear Aunt May so I pretend I'm having a conversation with her. I just need to say what's going on inside my head before I have a breakdown.

Aunt May would say something along the lines of 'what's going on Peter?'

"School is horrible. Well not all of it. I'm doing great in my classes and everything like I used too but there's Flash and all his friends. I feel so different then all of the other kids." I pause and laugh at myself. "Well I guess that's because I am different isn't it. Anyways, I need someone to talk to and I feel so," I hesitate looking for the right words. "Isolated." I decide and go back to what I was saying. "Like there are people around me but at the same time it's like I'm the only one going through everything I am going through. And yeah, I could talk to someone but I don't want them to worry about me and they'll probably just tell me 'it's going to be okay.'. You know how much I hate that?" I throw a rock off the roof and then another one. "And then there's this one dude, he's one of Flash's friends, and yeah. He has always been like all the others but today, wait I guess it was yesterday, he was actually nice to me. I don't know why but he just- after Flash and them all did what they did, he just came back and helped me. I'm just confused." I groan and lay back. "Why am I talking to myself?" I ask myself, which is kind of against the point. "Hey Karen, is it normal for someone to talk to themselves?" I ask my AI.

"Mr Stark does it."

"Well yeah. Dad isn't normal." I laugh slightly and the AI comes up with another reply.

"Well then yes. It is normal for someone to talk to themselves as long as it's not done obsessively."

"Makes sense." I shrug and stand up. My stomach growls and I think about a good place to eat. "What time is it?"

"5:49 AM." I smile pulling my mask down my face all the way. Mr Delmar's deli will be open in 10 minutes.

I swing to the shop and sit there waiting for Mr Delmar to open up. When he opens the door he sees me and smiles.

"What would you like Mr Spiderman?" He asks and I drop down from the side of the wall.

"Just a sandwich, anything's good." I say and then think. I'm really hungry. "I'll get chips too. And a candy bar or two."

"Well you best come in then."

When I actually have the food in my hands, I only eat half of the sandwich and then I sigh. I swing around and find a group of homeless people and hand them the food I didn't eat before swinging back to the compound to get ready for my day.