Spider-X: A Spider-Man Story

Chapter 25: Panic Attack

When Peter walks through the hall on the way to English Lit, it takes until the fourth person fist bumps him for Peter to stop anticipating them throwing something at him. He shakes his head, still struggling with the idea that people like him here. He has friends. He finally sees the fun social side of high school instead of just the academic. Even with the negatives of being thrust into a new dimension and tasked with saving it against mutant traffickers and a mad mutant, some things are... better. He's not alone in this universe.

His eyes find Jean as soon as he walks into the classroom. She can sense it too, and turns, her face lighting up slightly when she spots him. Her red hair is braided back today, but a few strands have escaped, and she brushes them behind her ears.

"Hi," she says as he passes her on the way to his seat.

"Hi," he replies.

Robbie looks between them, eyebrows raised. He smirks, "do you want to trade seats, Pete?"

"Uh, no, Robbie, I'm good." Peter drops his head, catching a glimpse of Jean's neck reddening before he turns to walk to his desk. He drops his bookbag next to his chair and smiles at Rogue, who, as usual, rolls her eyes, already cross at the world.

When Mrs. Reilly walks in, her clothes are disheveled and her bag is slipping off her shoulder, like she quite literally ran from the metro stop to the classroom. As usual, Peter can't take his eyes off of her. She looks exactly like his Aunt May today, with her hair frizzed and the air around her hurried. May was always in a rush. No, she was always late, Peter corrects.

After his talk with her weeks ago, Peter always comes to class. He does his assignments, though he is by no means the top student. He rarely participates in class discussions, simply because it's tough having Mrs. Reilly's attention trained on him. It hurts when she talks to him like everyone else. Like it wasn't just the two of them for years. Which is fair, because it wasn't the two of them for years. They'd never met before this year. So he keeps to himself, he gets as close as he can without it causing him more pain.

So like most days, he spends the class period awake but not quite taking in anything. The only thing different today is the added knowledge of Jean and Rogue sneaking glances at him. Both girls have been in his head. Jean's only seen May's face –Mrs. Reilly's face– dead, but Rogue... if Rogue truly saw Peter's memories, she saw him hold May while she died. Peter keeps his face emotionless, especially whenever he sees Rogue look over.

He almost gets away with it until ten minutes before the end of class. His spider sense doesn't go off, because no one is technically in danger, but he jumps along with the entire class when a bird smashes into the window on at the front. It flies so hard it breaks the window, causing surprised screams from boys and girls alike, but mostly from Mrs. Reilly, who is right in the blast zone for the window glass.

The poor bird twitches on the ground before going still, but Peter doesn't spare a thought for the bird. His eyes are locked on blood. May's blood, a stream trickling down her neck. More blood on her hands. And a small cut on her forehead. Peter is out of his chair before he knows what he's doing. He grabs a tissue and presses it to the wound in May's neck, his hand trembling; heart racing. This can't be happening again.

"Oh goodness, thank you, Peter. It's just a flesh wound."

Peter takes a step back, "what?" He meets May's eyes, concern filling them, but he can't stop looking at the blood. So much blood. No–not really. Not anymore. Not here. Flesh wounds. She's fine. May's fine. No–Mrs. Reilly is fine, just a couple scratches. May's not fine.

His heart feels like it's beating out of his chest and his throat is closing up. His eyes catch on the blood again. Blood in the same spot as before. He has to get out of here. He can't be here. He can't watch her die again.