the trial of the spider || peter parker

chapter fourteen: transparency

I walked into the front door of the house and pocketed my key. With a heavy sigh I came around the corner and froze at what I saw.

Nat, cuddled up with my father, dressed in his clothes, laying against my father's bare chest, fast asleep. There were a couple empty beer bottles on the coffee table and a black and white sitcom movie playing in the background.

This just tops off my day doesn't it.

I stormed off to my bedroom and slammed the door shut. I then locked it. Knowing my dad would try and come in eventually.

I heard hushed voices down the hall and was just about to huff and give them a piece of my mind about their situation, when I remembered what those girls said at the mall.

My heart ached and I just plopped down on the floor in front of my door. And cried.

They're right. With what they said about me and Peter. I probably am putting a lot of stress on him. That one time he called my father about my second episode.

And then how I terrified him with the first one. Not to mention the entire Diamondback situation. He told me himself he barely slept.

Now he's probably sick because of me and everything I've put him through. Stress affects the body. Physically. And it's my fault he's sick.

"Athena? Is that you?" I heard my dad's voice on the other side of my door.

"Go away, dad!" I sniffled. "I don't wanna talk to you! Or see you!"

"That may be the case," He sighed softly. "But you came home instead of Peter's. I'm guessing that means dad is needed in this situation."

"I need to be alone. Just leave me alone. Please."

"Whatever you need, kiddo. I'll order us some pizza."

I want to be angry with him because of what I saw. I don't wanna see Natasha either. At all.

I don't wanna know what the hell they had to have gotten up to last night either. They've never been indecent around each other.

So the fact that they finally have only means one thing. And my dad said he'd always clear it with me before getting into any kind of relationship. He promised.

And some may think that's just me being petty. And that I'm controlling my father. But it was all his idea. He promised that he'd always tell me about it if he was ever getting into a serious relationship.

And based on the fact that those two have been hanging out a lot lately here at the house, I'm assuming last night was the night they made things official.

Nat's never slept over before. Ever.

In a last ditch effort to distract myself, I put my clothes away in my closet and grabbed a pencil for my shoes.

I didn't have any idea what I was sketching until the image of a spider outlined itself on the front of the shoes. I looked around the rest of the pair and saw that I'd designed a web. And a spider.

With a heavy eye roll I tossed the shoes aside and climbed onto my bed. A long space of time full of tears later and I cried myself to sleep.

—

"Hey, kiddo," My dad's knock on my door woke me up. "You okay? Wanna talk about things? You've been in there all day."

I rubbed my eyes and sat up. That's when I realized that it's dark outside.

The stars had just begun peeking through the last of the dusty clouds in the sky. The street lights were on, giving the concrete below a golden glow.

I also noticed that I had a blanket draped over me and my room had been straightened. Probably a product of my dad's guilt knowing what I walked into the house to see earlier.