The Weight of Us ｡ Peter Parker [3]

12 - The Multiverse

Multiverse.

How strange that one tiny word could change everything. One word to change the course of history and the very pattern of the galaxy and creation of life itself. A simple word that described a theoretical idea which only existed in comic books and television shows. A word that could paint a world very much like my own, slightly flipped on its head, that was tangled inside, above, beside my own reality. One word that could rewrite the future course of a life without meaning to. My life, if we're being technical.

Peter Parker had brewed a cup of green tea in his aunt's kitchen, worry settled deep within his shoulder blades. He hadn't spoken much, only stared at me during our short trip on the subway. His hand had flattened over my knee, trying to offer support without words. Gwen Stacy, or rather Gwendolyn Poole, had bounced Adelaide on her lap, enjoying my sister's company much more than I could after she had uttered the words that could cause a tsunami to swell inside my chest and bleed from my eyes like rain. This different version of my best friend had no possible idea the meaning behind her slip up, that Colton Parsons was alive and well, and stuck somewhere on my world while looking for a villain. But she would soon enough.

Green tea soothed my upset stomach, but it did not stop my mind from turning a million times over. Sadly, overthinking was my curse today. "What's your world like?"

Gwendolyn had explained her side of the story, cutting out particular key points in which could harm her own mission. Shaking up The Mulitverse apparently was not a very good idea, but she had no other choice in seeking me out. Her rundown of things had been brief; she was from another world, my brother was alive and I was dead, our positions in the car crash flipped and she was on this Earth trying to find her own villain who was set on destroying reality. Apparently, my world was not the only one with big bad villains with God complexes.

"Kind of similar," she answered, moving back and forth in May's living room. She spied all the family photo frames and picked up every single knickknack she could find. "Spice Girls is a huge thing in my world still and Coke died out a long time ago. Super weird how you all still take the subway too. That's like, archaic. No offence."

Peter sat beside me, eyes trailed to this Gwen. He watched her so intensity, like if he blinked she would just vanish. "Is Iron Man still alive?"

"Who?" Gwendolyn questioned, popping pink gum between her teeth.

A strange lump was resting in the back of my throat. "Tony Stark? Is he alive in your world?"

Gwendolyn shook her head. "No clue who you're talking about. Only thing we've got close to an Iron anything is Iron Fist and she's really wicked. Her name's Colleen Wing and her boyfriend's a total softie. She actually dyed my hair. We live in the same neighbourhood, you see. New York's small in every world apparently. But she's like a super celebrity. She's got a perfume and everything."

"What about Thor? Do you have him?"

"She's off world," Gwendolyn shrugged her thin shoulders. "Are you guys friends with Squirrel Girl? She lives in New York too."

Flashes trickled into my mind from a recent vision. "You mean Doreen Green?"

"Yeah!" Gwendolyn smiled, a little relived something about this world was familiar.

Peter caught my eye. "She's not Squirrel Girl here."

"What? No tail? No squirrel friends?" Gwendolyn was generally upset by this news. "Unfair. You guys really lucked out with this world. Does anything fun actually happen here?"

I sipped at my green tea. "Well, we all died. That wasn't fun, but it was something."

Gwendolyn gasped dramatically, dropping into the free chair beside us, hugging the decorative pillow to her chest. "You died?" Her eyes jumped over to Peter Parker. "Even you, Spider-Boy?"