Into the Light | Peter Parker x OC

Chapter Fifty-Nine

A/N: hello and welcome back!

not much to say other than how they hell is july almost over and august is right around the corner? i swear this year is flying.

in other news, i finished reading the assassin's blade and i just want everyone to know that i will never recover from that emotional damage for the rest of my life :)

currently reading ** and i'm very upset because i will never get to be a lethal assassin living in a castle, fighting magic and the like while being friends with the captain of the guard and the prince. clearly celaena is doing something right that i'm clearly not. isn't she only 18/19 y/o too? why is being a regular human so boring 😭

anyway, here's a chapter in the life of a not so regular human

————————————————————
"Wise men say,

only fools rush in..."
————————————————————

Tony had been furious when he saw the cuts and bruises on her face, but she assured him she was fine. And also that Griffin looked worse. The billionaire apologized for forcing her to go see him, but, actually, Adelaide was glad she had gone to New Orleans.

Sure, the black eye might have said otherwise, but she had sort of repaired her relationship with her brother. Emphasis on sort of. She still wasn't too sure where they stood at the moment, but she would have liked to visit him again. Or maybe have him come to New York. Either way, she just wanted to get to know her brother.

After losing so many people that she loved, it was all she could do to hold onto the ones that were still here.

"So your birthday's coming up," Pepper said as they were having dinner. The billionaire noticed the sour look on his teenager's face.

"Hey— come on, it's a big one," he said.

"Exactly," she said quietly, "I'm turning eighteen."

And he's not growing older with me, her silence seemed to say. Tony and Pepper shared a look. Their teenager was turning into an adult in less than a month and she couldn't have been more upset about it. It was heartbreaking to see.

"Honey, you can't not celebrate your birthday," Pepper said softly, reaching out to touch her arm, "Life is short. We should celebrate everything we can."

"I don't want to celebrate it," she muttered, moving the brussel sprouts around on her plate with her fork.

She didn't want to turn eighteen. She and Peter were supposed to turn eighteen together. And then they were supposed to go to the same college together in the fall. But here she was now, a high school dropout, turning eighteen in a few weeks with no prospective future. She'd barely had a present this past year, the future always just felt so distant. But now it was here and she wanted to slam the door in its face.

Growing older without him was the single hardest thing since his death.

If she couldn't have him again, she wanted to be the Adelaide that had just lost him. The sixteen-year-old Adelaide whose skin still held his lingering touch on the surface. The Adelaide whose memories of him were still sharp and fresh in her mind. Growing up meant that she was getting further from the last time she'd held his hand.

And she loathed every second of it.

"We just want you to be happy, Adelaide," Pepper said after a moment, squeezing her hand. Adelaide didn't know what to say to that so she just nodded.