What's Left in the Rubble

Chapter 1 - day 3

Mondays. The worst day of the week, the early start after two days of lay-ins and late nights, the body not quite readjusted to the early start, making you groggy and sluggish. This Monday was a little different for Peter. His back a dark purple, he trudged through the doors with sore limbs and what he believed to be at least 3 broken ribs. Unlike most Mondays, where Peter tended to be beaten and battered in some way the night before but healed the next morning, his enhanced healing wasn't doing its job. In fact, it seemed to be doing the opposite, his injuries more painful and his insomnia worsening with every night since homecoming.

Reaching his locker, he felt and clack on his back and squeezed his eyes shut.
'Peter guess what! You're famous again!' said Ned, shoving a laptop in front of Peter's face. He saw himself, well, Spiderman, in front of the burning debris from the plane crash. It was embarrassing really, but more than that it was painful. He didn't want to remember it. He wanted to block out every aspect of that night from his memory.
'Awesome dude. Hey uh, I'm just gonna go to the toilet so see you in homeroom?'
With a clammy hand, he gripped the handle of the bathroom door and pushed it open, smiling a tight-lipped smile to the guy washing his hands in there. Locking the stall he was in, he shrugged his bag off his shoulders and sat on the closed toilet seat. Every part of him felt hot and constricted, so he gulped down about half a bottle of water, wiping his mouth before leaving the stall. He looked at himself in the mirror on the wall above the sinks and tried to fix his hair somewhat before leaving, wincing when he moved too much.

Lunch came around soon enough and Peter sat down in the cafeteria where Ned and MJ were. He had a banana, a pb&j and one of Aunt May's mysterious experiments, a courgette muffin. Apparently she thought that since carrot cake was a thing she could start putting random vegetables in baked goods.
He picked at his sandwich meagerly but didn't eat much. His appetite was next to none and even though he knew he had to eat because of his crazy high metabolism, he just felt like nothing would fix it; like he was this empty shell that nothing could fill. It would pass he was sure, he'd felt this way and would probably feel this way again.
'Hey loser, what's up with you?' MJ asked from across the table. She was eyeing his strangely like she was reading his mind or something. He sighed and stared down at his uneaten lunch.
'Nothing just miss Liz.' he lied. While he did miss Liz, that wasn't the reason he felt so down. At least he didn't think it was, but how could he know if he wasn't even sure himself what was going on?
'If you say so Parker... So Ned what's up with you since the other loser is radio silent?' That's when Peter zoned out. Everything was muffled, like he was underwater and everyone else was on the patio.

The bell signaling 5 minutes before 5the period sounded. Ned and MJ got up and began to head towards the doors but Peter didn't hear it. Noticing, MJ nudged Ned in the ribs and pointed at Peter, smiling slightly, thinking it was a perfect chance to sneak up on him. Slowly, she tip-toed closer and closer until she was a few inches behind him.
'PETER!' she shouted in his ear, slapping her hands on his shoulders. Peter was ripped out of his fuzzy state, now a loud ringing in his ears. His vision was full of dark patches. Panicked, he looked around, trying to make out what was happening by the shapes and colours.
'That sure was quite a scare, thanks MJ.' he said sarcastically. As he tried to get up, the ringing got more high pitched. When he was finally standing, his knees buckled and he dropped to the ground. A loud this echoed in the cafeteria as his head hit the bench.