Spider-Man | Doesn't Need Help

CHAPTER 17

"Are you sure you're able to go to school? You can stay home, really, Peter..." May assured me.

For the second time that day, I looked at her, tilting my head slightly to the right.

The last thirty minutes had been spent with the woman reassuring me that if I still wasn't up to going back to school, I could stay and rest. But I was already feeling really good.

It's been four days since the train incident, and four days since I felt like someone had crumpled me up like a piece of paper and then straightened me out again...

"It's really all right now, you don't have to worry." I repeated the same thing from yesterday evening until today.

To be honest, I may not have felt my best yet, but it was worse when I was sitting in my apartment, constantly hearing someone banging on the walls in the hallway or whatever the homeless people were talking about. I also felt bad because Aunt May was worrying too much, despite her assurances that nothing was seriously wrong with me.

"I'm so worried, Pete." She placed her warm little hand on my cheek, and I unconsciously flinched.

The brunette noticed this as she smiled apologetically, slowly moving her hand away.

After several seconds of silence, she sighed in resignation, shaking her head in amusement.

"You're as stubborn as your father." she said, smiling warmly.

Automatically, at the mention of one of my parents and the fact that I resembled them, my walls shook a little.

I wanted to know more about them, but I didn't want to talk. I know it wasn't related and I had no other source than May.

"Did you know that Mary and I were sisters?" she asked, and the question surprised me greatly.

How were they sisters? I never knew or remembered that my mother had a sister. Of course, I knew that Dad had a brother who was May's husband. But that the two women were siblings?

"Really?" I raised my eyebrows higher.

My aunt automatically, for reasons unknown to me, became sad, and her attitude also changed. She became more tense.

"Sorry."

I don't know what I was apologizing for, but it seemed like the situation called for just that.

In the children's home I had to apologize for literally everything. And now it's backfiring because I don't know when to use that word properly and correctly.

"It's not your fault, your curiosity won, you're just a child after all."

I mentally rolled my eyes at the words, "you're just a kid."

"Well, you see, Pete. Our family was... Quite peculiar. It's a very long story, and I'd be happy to tell it to you over a nice, plain cup of tea."

I narrowed my eyes, slumped my shoulders, and hunched my shoulders slightly as I looked at her with resignation.

Either this really is a long story, or May is just being sneaky and trying to leave me in the apartment, which I didn't understand.

"I'd love to." I began, pausing for a moment. "But if I don't leave soon, I'll be late for school."

Now the woman narrowed her eyes, but still smiled.

Not that I have anything against it, but she kept smiling...

"I can't even stop you with that, can I?" She asked, and I smiled slightly.

"No." I didn't want to lose at my own game.