Eric Hastings was an aspiring journalist that would do anything for a good picture and a first-page deserving article. Peter Parker disguised as Spiderman was desperate to bring attention to the growing violence and weapon trafficking in the dark st...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Eric and Peter stayed a while in silence eating their doughnuts and licking their fingers. Peter was really happy to have Eric there, he didn't know that the boy actually cared for him, having another friend apart from Ned was good. Ned was awesome, but having the opportunity to listen to different opinions, ideas and theories also felt nice.
"So I kinda joined your Academic Decathlon club" Eric said.
"What do you mean?" Peter asked sitting up with some difficulty.
"I got really late for school without my parent's permission. So I cut a deal with the principal, if I joined the team he wouldn't get me into detention and wouldn't tell my parents about the absence"
"Okay...? But why were you late to school?" Peter inquired.
"I was writing a story about Spiderman and the fight he had at that bank agency. I found this really good source of information that even shared with me the footage of the criminals" Eric explained and Peter felt shortness of breath for a few seconds "Tha- that's really nice. Can I see the video?"
"Sure, it was broadcast on CNN earlier today" Eric said grabbing his phone and looking for the video on CNN's youtube page. Luckily their media team had already posted the recording of the breaking news.
"Here ya go" Eric said handing Peter his phone.
The images were really good, Peter was afraid that something that could compromise his secret identity might be in the video, but from what he saw everything seemed fine. Eric's article was exciting as well, Peter liked the way he portrayed spiderman as a super important hero and how he prevented a larger crisis if the bandits weren't scared off.
"Wow you were on the TV, that is so nice" Peter said giving Eric's phone back.
"Yeah I was" Eric didn't seem too excited about that.
"What's wrong? You didn't like to appear on the TV?"
"I don't like to be the center of attention, that's why I'm an intern at a newspaper and not at some TV company. I'm happy when my stories get many readers, but I don't like to feel it personally. It's a type of social anxiety. I almost blackout today in school"
"Sometimes I wish I could hide behind a mask, like Spiderman" Eric mumbled laying on the floor.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, I'm sure many people have that panic before getting on stage" Peter tried to see the bright side in that problem, just like he did with every other problem.
"It's not like a normal anxiety, everything gets dark, breathing gets harder and I start to feel lightheaded" Eric explained.
Peter sighed in response, he didn't know what to tell Eric, he never experienced anything like that so he felt helpless.
"I'm sorry to know that" Peter whispered.
"There is no need to be sorry Pete" Eric said back.
"Pete?" Parker sounded intrigued.
"Oh sorry! Too soon for nicknames? I won't call you that"
"No, it's not that. No one ever gave me a nickname, so I guess I like it"
Eric smiled in response and got up, picking up some of the mess he made in Peter's room "I need to get home otherwise my parents will be mad. So try to get better soon" Eric said.
Peter got up from the bed and accompanied Eric to the front door "Bye Eric, see you soon. Thanks for stopping by" Peter said. The boy was already feeling better, probably due to his super healing abilities, however, having Eric over was also super nice and Peter was left with a strange feeling of wanting more.
~X~
"Eric do you have any idea of how dangerous that is? They said your name on TV and showed your picture! What if those guys want to retaliate and hurt you? Did you think about that before running around town for some shitty story?" Eric's dad screamed at him.
Eric felt his eyes feeling up with tears, but he wasn't going to let them run down his face. Not in front of his dad, otherwise, the man would also say that "He deals with his problems like a little girl" and Eric hated it, he hated the fact that all of his feelings were undermined and ignored by his parents.
"I'm sorry dad, I'll be more careful next time" Eric said looking down "Next time? There won't be a next time! I want you out of this internship as soon as possible. Do you hear me? New York Times is not a good influence on you, they are too progressive" Chris shouted.
"Babe, let's give him a second chance okay? He's too young to understand some things" His mother intervened in the discussion. The man seemed to ponder for a few seconds and simply nodded in agreement.
"Now go take a shower, dinner is almost ready and you need to be clean to eat" The woman said again.
Eric went upstairs faster than usual and turned on the shower to muffle the sound of him crying, he though he was able to hold back his tears it wasn't as easy as he thought. Eric allowed the tears to run freely down his cheeks as they got mixed with warm water coming from the shower.
He allowed himself to cry for five minutes, after that he was getting back together at least to go downstairs and have dinner. After that, he could cry the entire night if he wanted to.
The boy dried his body and dressed his Captain America pajamas. Once he was down at the dining table he kept quiet, his mother and father were making some small talk, but neither of them tried to include the teenager in the conversation.
