Silence

Thirty-One

I headed back into the city, nursing my broken hand. "Peter you've got an incoming call." I double tapped my hearing aid and Dad's angry voice came into my ear. "Peter where are you?" I looked around and spotted the top of Pym's house about a block away. "A block away." I started to jog and came to a stop in front of the house. Dad saw me from the front steps and hung up. He grabbed me by the shoulder and brought me inside. Everyone nearly blew up once they saw me. "You've been gone for hours! God what if something had happened to you!" Steve shouted and I sighed, cradling my hand. "Look I did something that I had to do. Bruce, can you help me?" Bruce shook his head. "I'm not helping you this time. And maybe not next time or after that. You can't just sneak off like that!"

I sighed and put my left hand over my right. I bit my lip and popped my knuckle back into place. "Fuck." I mumbled and shook out my hand. "That was completely irresponsible of you. For someone that is almost an adult, you're immature. We brought you here so you could have a break! Not so you could sneak off and be reckless." Dad snapped and I sighed, switching my weight to my left foot. "Uh guys?" Scott interrupted and we turned to him. He turned the TV up louder and a news story came in. "A man walked into Ice Box prison today and assaulted a prisoner! Reports say that the prisoner reportedly sexually assaulted this man before. Before the prisoner was punched and had his nose break in three places, the man had said," it cut to a grainy image of me. "You want to know what people do to sick fucks that rape children?" It shows me punching Wilson and I turned away. "They get what they deserved." My face wasn't on camera and neither was any distinguishing features. I grinned and put my finger over the split knuckle on my right hand.

"He's got a pretty strong nose ya know?" I said, gathering everyone's attention. "Peter..." Sam trailed off and I smiled tiredly. "It had to be done. Ground me all you want but I've been wanting to do that for months. He took everything from me. Sage, my emotions, my sleep, my family." I shrugged and dropped my bag on the floor. "I wouldn't change what I did." I went up to my room and sat on the windowsill.

Clint
"Clint." Sam mumbled and motioned for me to follow him outside. I did and he stopped on the bottom step. "That was it." I looked at him strangely and he sighed. "He escalated. He blatantly lied to me and escalated. First it was the breaking his shoulder and skipping the meeting, then he nearly killed himself trying to destroy the carvings on his body. He told me he only wanted to see Scott and Cassie. He looked content with being here. I had..." He shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "I can try and help him still. But from this point on, he's going to be different. Whether that's good or not, I can't tell you." I looked up at the sky. "You can try. But I don't know how far we can get. He graduates soon. Maybe we can wait it out and when he gets into college, separate ourselves from him." Sam looked at me, his face fearful. "You want to disown him?" I shook my head and then shrugged. "I want him to grow up."

Peter
My feet dangled out the window and I looked at the skyline. I don't regret what I did at all. In fact, I feel so much better afterwards. I felt like I got all the pent up anger out. I could feel the disappointment in the house. It was all pointed at me. I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't eavesdrop on Sam and Dad's conversation. And I'm not going to lie and say that it didn't hurt to hear them planning on disowning me. But I guess I deserved it. In the past seven months, all I've done is lie and hurt people. They don't deserve what I've done and it's only caused stress. Maybe I should leave. On my own. I have enough money saved up to get a small apartment and I've already applied to a  plethora of colleges.

My door opened and I quickly shut my laptop, I had been apartment hunting. "Pete." Dad grabbed a chair and pulled it to sit in front of me. "What were you looking at?" I held up my SD card for my camera. "Jameson wanted me to edit pictures." I lied and Dad eyed me over. "We leave in two hours." I nodded and he went to get up. "Hey Dad?" He stopped and looked at me. "From this point on, anything that happens is not your fault. You are a father figure in the life of a child who so desperately needed one and I took that for granted. So sorry in advanced and sorry for the things that I've done." He furrowed his eyebrows and I saw a flash of fear in his eyes. "That sounds awfully a lot like a death note." He breathed out and I shook my head. "Nope just an apology." He nodded and left the room. I quickly packed up and opened up my laptop. "Hey Karen, how much is in my college fund?" I looked out the window and debated whether I should really be doing this. "Seven hundred and fifty thousand sir." I hummed. "How much are in my savings?" I was given all of May's savings as well as what I've saved up. And the Daily Bugle pays really well. "Ten thousand sir." I shut my laptop and stood up. "Search of houses with up to five acres of land, not too far away from Queens." "Yes sir."

I boarded the Quinjet and sat as far away from anyone as possible. I looked at my bruised hand and shook my head. "Pete." Bruce sat down next to me and gently grabbed my hand. "It's healing nicely. How did you know how to reset it?" I looked at him slightly and stared forward. "I've been learning how to deal with minor injuries." He nodded and put my hand down. "I'm sorry for snapping at you." I waved him off with a small smile. "I'm sorry for dragging you into my problems. You don't deserve watching me hurt myself for gratification." He looked at me in shock before getting up and patting my shoulder. "I hope that your stunt is what you needed to put you back on the right path." I nodded and he left me to my own devices.

We were halfway to New York when my phone began to ring. I got up and went to the back of the plane, answering it. "Hello?" A person on the other side began to talk, "Is this Peter Barton?" I saw Tony get up and look at me weirdly. "This is he, what is the nature of this call?" I leaned against the plane's cargo hold and picked at my nails. "In order to preserve paper, we've chosen to call our acceptants into Empire State. Congratulations, you've been accepted in and will start classes in the Spring. Will you be needing a dorm on campus?" My mouth dropped open and a moment later a large grin replaced it. "Uh..no, I'll be staying with family. Thank you." We exchanged a few more personal information stuff. "We look forward to seeing you in the Spring Mr. Barton. And Sir?" I looked up at Tony, who had come to see me talk on the phone. "Yes?" "You've been accepted on a full ride, your STEM background is extraordinary and it's a pleasure to have you." The lady hung up and I laughed out in shock. I got accepted into college.

Yeah, I don't regret what I did at all.