The Broken Spider-Man - A Peter Parker Fanfiction

Chapter Seven - The first glimmer of hope

TW: mentions of death, mentions of depression, mentions of mental health issues, mentions of attempted rape, malnutrition, mentions of trauma.

Y/N's P.O.V

I sat on my windowsill, pulling my jumper as closely around my body as I could as I held the cigarette in between my fingertips. I bit my lip, my mind racing as I thought about my visit to see Peter. Tears pricked my eyes as I revisited in my head what his house had looked like. I knew that he'd been in a bad place, but I had no idea that he was in such a bad place, both physically and mentally. I replayed the moment that I'd seen him for the first time. Fuck, he had looked awful. His sunken face, bony body and track marks made my heart hurt. Had I known that he'd been in such bad shape, I wouldn't have waited for five years to try and see him. I sighed and took one last drag of the cigarette before putting it out on the ledge and hopping down. I headed back into the kitchen and sighed as I sat at my open laptop. I bit my lip and stared at the screen, more accurately at my most recent half-finished article about Spider-Man. Yes, I had already written one, but I also wanted to see how many I could push before I finally got fired by Mr Jameson. Suddenly, my phone started to buzz. I looked down at the screen, and my eyebrows furrowed as it showed an unknown number. I bit my lip as I picked it up and held it to my ear.

"Hello?" I picked up.

"...Hey." My eyes widened as Peter's voice sounded quietly. I gulped, my heart starting to pound against my chest as I looked down again.

"H-hey, Peter, you okay?" I asked.

"Um, y-yeah. I just, um...god, this is embarrassing...I wondered if you wanted to come back over...to talk." The boy stuttered. My eyes widened slightly.

"Sure, Peter, I'd love to. You want me to bring anything over?" I asked. There was a pause.

"Yeah, actually. Some food would be great. I don't have much in the cupboards or anything, nothing good anyway." He chuckled slightly. I smiled and bit my lip, the tiny yet still present hint of happiness in his voice enough to tell me that there was still hope.

"Okay, I'll bring some food over." I nodded.

"Thanks. I'll leave the door unlocked so that you can come straight in, I don't want anything happening to you." He spoke softly. I smiled and bit my lip at his words.

"You want me to come over today?" I asked.

"Yeah. Sooner, the better." He replied. I nodded and looked down, my lip still in between my teeth.

"Okay, Pete. I'll see you after work." I spoke.

"Yeah. See you then." He responded softly. I smiled to myself and hung up before looking at my phone. I quickly saved Peter's number into my phone, the optimistic side of me hoping that this was turning into something for both of us. Though the pessimistic side, the side that had lost Peter and MJ five years ago, was still unsure.

I walked into school and immediately joined the flow of students who also didn't want to be there. I sighed and casually looked up, though butterflies exploded in my stomach the moment that I saw Peter stood at his locker. Without MJ, which was a rarity. I pushed through the stream of students and headed towards the boy that was my best friend.

"Hey, Pete." I greeted, making him look at me. My eyes widened as his left eye was circled with deep purple and blue colouring, making him look like he'd been in a fight. And, by the looks of it, he had won.

"Hey, Y/N." he smiled in return.

"Don't 'hey, Y/N' me, what the fuck happened to your face?!" I exclaimed as I grabbed his chin and turned his face so that I could see the bruise.