~Broken Family~

Free Plant Therapy! (Sponsored by Steve's Flowers)

Harley was seated in a tiny plastic chair that was too small for him in a dimly lit room, facing a man opposite of him. The wooden table was no bigger than a nightstand, with colorful flowers painted onto the surface.

"What was the problem again?" the man asked, setting something he had been cradling back down on the table and picking up a clipboard with more flowers on it. He opened a crayola marker with a snap and began scribbling down stuff.

"I broke up with Gwen," Harley mumbled, sounding more congested than when he had a cold.

"What?" The man cocked an ear. "I can't really hear you. Speak up, if you please."

"You know what happened, Steve," Harley snapped, crossing his arms across his chest. Steve frowned, scribbling something else down on the clipboard.

"I told you, for patient confidentiality purposes, I am no longer Uncle Steve. I am now Horace." He straightened the nametag that said HELLO! My name is Horace.

"Steve---"

"And another thing," he straightened Cap Jr, who was sitting in a chair next to him, "you didn't give Cap Jr. your free hug yet."

Harley sighed. "Steve, I'm not hugging a cactus."

"You're going to hurt his feelings!"

"Steve, for the last time. You brought me in here because you said you needed to talk to me." Harley rubbed at his splint, remembering the way Sophie had driven off and left him stranded in the parking lot. It'd taken Tony an hour to get there from his meeting. "Either you talk to me, or I'm leaving."

"Yes." Steve scooted forwards a bit in the tiny chair that looked like it was super close to breaking. "You talking to me. Come on, son. This is free gardening-therapy. Be thankful I don't charge you three hundred sixty-two dollars and thirty-nine cents."

Harley scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine. I feel upset."

"Upset, yes..." Steve scribbled away at his clipboard. "What else?"

"Upset, angry, guilty, sad, frustrated with Gwen for thinking I would give away her identity, furious with Clay for somehow figuring it out and lying about it, and most of all disappointed with myself that I let Gwen down so much."

"Mm-hm." Steve finished scribbling and looked back up at him with intense blue eyes. "Have you tried talking to her?"

"We haven't talked since. I talked to Clay a bit, and he said that Gwen told him she was the Ghost Spider. Maybe she accidentally did or forgot, but I know it wasn't Clay's or my fault. Homecoming is the day after tomorrow, and I don't know what's up or down anymore. She--she just walked away without giving me a chance to defend myself when she promised she wouldn't."

"Ah I see." Steve threw the marker over his shoulder, which hit the tiny butterfly lantern and knocked it onto its side, making the lighting even creepier.

"Steve, what the heck are you even writing?!"

Steve shrugged, tearing out the page and showing him. "I dunno. You tell me." They were scribbles.

"Steve!" Harley tried to stand up from the chair, but his butt got stuck in it and he stumbled, managing to stand with a chair-butt. "Steve, this isn't a joke. Gwen was all I had. Now I have nobody."

Steve tried to smile. "You have me! And Cap Jr! And Matilda." He gave the little succulent he had had on his lap a pat. "She's a Chinese Jade."

Harley grunted as he spun around the room in circles, trying to yank himself out of the chair. "That's nice---"