a promise unkept

Chapter Five: Gone

Peter's POV

I slowly maneuver myself through the door of my house. I try the best I can to not make much noise as to not draw Aunt May's attention, especially seeing as I don't even have a cover story yet.

"Peter? Is that you?" she calls from the living room.

"Uh yeah! I'm going to go to bed now. Good night!" I quickly call to her closing the door to my room and letting out a sigh of relief when she only responds to bid me goodnight as well.

I make my way over to the mirror and examine the bruises. There is a deep cut on my arm from the knife's blade, and I know better than to wrap it up in a bandage and hope for the best. The blood has stopped, but I can already tell it won't be long before it starts to swell.

A knock on my bedroom door interrupts my thought. "Peter," Aunt May says through the door, "Someone is here to see you."

What? Who would come and actually visit me at ten o'clock at night? I hadn't even talked to anyone at school in the last few weeks, unless you counted Gabby Condal, but I highly doubted she would come all the way to my house just to boss me even more about science and how "I wasn't putting enough effort in our project."

"Who is it?" I call, frantically trying to take off the suit.

"It's me, Peter." Gwen. All I can see is Lance Howler inviting her to the school dance, and a sense of longing invades my body. Just as I am about to come up with an excuse to make her go away, Gwen says, "And no more excuses, please Peter. I need to see you."

The way she is practically begging makes me feel immediately guilty, and quickly hiding my suit, I open the door and motion her inside. I sit on my bed, while she stands. It's obvious she feels just as awkward as I do, and it saddens me to see us the way we are now. Practically strangers, all our conversations awkward.

Her eyes go right to the blood on my arm, and I silently curse myself for not putting on a long-sleeved shirt. But instead of questioning about my bruise, she says, "Where were you today?"

"What do you mean?" I stupidly ask. Of course I know what she means. After witnessing her and Lance I left the school and just wandered around, before stopping the Abernathy house burglary.

"You know full well what I mean, Peter Parker. Why weren't you in school today?"

I decide to play dumb, and respond with, "What do you mean? I was there, you saw me when you walked in, before going to your locker."

"Gosh, dang it, Peter!" Gwen says, her voice rising, "Why can't you just answer a simple question? Can't you see I'm just a little concerned? You obviously haven't gotten much sleep, and you're late to almost every single class! What has happened to you?"

This puts me over the edge. "What do you think has happened to me, huh Gwen? I'm Spiderman, okay? That means missing a little bit of school, but it's all worth it when the city gets saved. It doesn't help having you always trail after me and get mixed with my personal life! So please, just leave me alone!"

Once the words are out, I instantly regret every part of it. The last thing I ever wanted was for Gwen to leave me alone. Seeing the look on her face, and the way she lowers her head to hide the tears forming in her eyes, I immediately start to apologize, "No Gwen I didn't mean it like that-"

"Yes you did Peter, and don't deny it," she looks up at me and her tears are visible in her bright green eyes. Her voice is no longer demanding, it's much softer, quieter. "I can leave you alone, in fact, I will leave you alone."

"Gwen, no! I don't want to leave you alone, not at all! It's just the promise I made-"

"Peter, stop it would you?" It breaks my heart to see the evident pain on her face, and to know I had caused all of it. "Don't keep using the promise to my father as your excuse. I know my dad didn't ask you to become a cold and heartless jerk to everybody, including me. So I think it's time we just let it go, I'm going to put you behind me. I need to put you behind me, for once I need to think of myself and my own needs."

At this point I'm literally begging, not bringing myself to be able to believe my ears. "Gwen, please, I'm sorry, I need you!"

But Gwen only shakes her head, "If you needed me, the past couple weeks wouldn't have happened." She walks to the door, and looks back at me as tears begin to make their way down her face. "Goodbye, Peter." And then she leaves.

I slowly begin to sink to the floor, sobs racking my entire body. "I love you." I say, but of course nobody was there. She had left me. Gwen was gone.