All My Life

30| Because he's your father!

Peter's pov.

I force my stinging eyes open at the sound of my bedroom door opening and watch Aunt May walk towards me as I lay buried under my soft comforter. She gives me a sad look before sitting on the bed, beside me. "Peter, it's been two days, honey. You gotta get out." I stare at her, not moving in the slightest, the mere thought of having to get out of the safety of my room making me nauseous.

I jerk my head away from her when I feel my eyes water, the incident from two days ago whirling around in my brain, playing on an endless loop which doesn't have a pause button. She sighs before her palm wraps around my wrist and I push back the tears before turning back to her. "Honey, you can't skip school, again. I can't convince them anymore."

I notice the slight tremor in her voice and the unusually weak grip she had around my wrist. She is right, she can't convince them anymore and I have to go sooner or later. I hesitantly nod, knowing she doesn't have any choice. A feeling of utter gratitude washes over me on realising how she was continuously supporting without even knowing what was going on in the first place.

There have been times when she inquired, trying to get even a sentence out of me about the entire ordeal but not even a single word escaped my mouth as I found myself unable to put the pain in words without feeling like a complete wreck. "I-I understand, I'll get ready. Thank you so much." My voice comes out worse than I expected it to.

She runs her hand through my hair before planting a kiss on my forehead. "I'm sorry, baby." I manage to pull up a small smile on my face, trying to reassure her that I was fine. "It's okay. Don't worry, Aunt May."

**************************************************************

"Peter! You're okay." I turn to Ned as a relieved sigh escapes his lips and I notice Mj approaching towards us. I force a smile on my face, "Of course, I am." He frowns at me, staring at my face in confusion but shakes his head without saying anything. "Dude, you came just on time. There's this party organized by one of the seniors and guess what, everyone's invited!" I watch Ned's eyes gleaming with excitement but can't find myself able to mirror the same emotions.

A party to celebrate a loss?

"You look like shit." A small chuckle escapes my lips at Mj's remark as she smirks but the expression soon disappears. "What has gotten you all worked up?" She asks and I push away Mr Stark's words towards the back of my mind.

We are done...

"Had a fight with May?" Mj asks and I shake my head hurriedly. "Something about the internship?" I freeze at the next question, my heart beating erratically in my chest and I find myself unable to form a response. "So, it is the internship." Mj mumbles and I feel a burst of annoyance inside me at the continuous repetition of the word.

"There is no internship. So, just leave it, will you?" I unexpectedly snap at them but soon regret doing so at the look on their faces. "I'm sorry, I-"

"That's not possible." Ned cuts me off and I let out a bitter laugh as Mj continues to stare at me with an unreadable expression. "Well, it is." Ned shakes his head and gives me a look of disbelief. "But, Mr Stark can't just fire you!"

"What is so damn difficult to accept about this, Ned?" I can't help but yell at him, feeling as if someone was poking a wound that hadn't even started to heal. "That's not possible because he's your father!." My head jerks to him at the wild statement and for the first time, I find Mj just as shocked as me.

"You didn't know..." Ned mumbles and I blink at him, trying to understand if he was playing some sick joke or he had gone insane, both the options seeming completely reasonable to me.