Talk Me Down // Spider-Man (BOOK 2)

Chapter 1 - I Need You

So it's been six months. Six months since Captain Stacy was killed by Connors. Six months since my last night of unbroken sleep. Six months since I was scarred for life. And six months since Peter and I admitted our feelings for one another and broke up on the very same day.

In short, it's pretty safe to say I've been living in my own personal hell for the last 180 odd days.

After all the Connors stuff went down and after me and Pete broke up, I promised myself that I wouldn't let it beat me. I vowed that I was going to get on with my life, I was going to move forward, I was going to be happy and I was going to get over Peter Parker. As the old saying goes, easier said than done.

The first thing I did once I was healed up, on my feet again and actually able to leave the house without bursting into tears was to go down to Oscorp and hand in my resignation. I had a supportive Aunt Penny holding my hand the whole way there and I had no doubt it was the right decision. Who knows? Maybe I will end up working for them or someone like them again. Right now though, I just couldn't. I needed time for me.

As far as Pete goes, well that's just been a nightmare. I had every intention of ignoring his existence completely, a clean break. In theory it was a good idea, but when the person in question is fricking Spider-Man then it's pretty hard to get away. I didn't just have to deal with seeing him in school, in the street outside our houses or hearing Aunt Penny and May Parker talking about us both all the time. I also had to deal with seeing him on the front cover of every newspaper in the city, on the news and pretty much everywhere else. It also didn't help that I was still completely in love with him.

Don't get me wrong, we've shared the odd word here and there, a look in each other's direction every now and then. There would be times when Pete's Aunt May would ask him to drop something off at my house and I'd answer the door, or occasions when my Aunt Penny would coincidentally drag me along to the grocery store with her when May had done exactly the same with Peter. I have a seriously strong suspicion that those two are trying to get us back together. Shame it'll never work.

The one good thing that has come out of all the rubbish is my relationship with Gwen. We've grown even closer than we were already. All the time I used to spend with Pete I now spend with her. I think after everything that happened we both just needed someone to cling to. We'd kind of gone through it together so it was only natural that we latched on to one another.

Now enough of all this wallowing in self pity. I better just plaster on a smile and get on with it. Today is probably the best day to start anyway. It is graduation after all.

"Aunt Penny? Can you just come and put some of my cream on my shoulder? I don't want to get it in my hair." I shouted from my bedroom, out to the landing.

"Sure honey," she said in her forced sing song voice. She'd been using that a lot lately.

"Sweetie, the cream is definitely working. Your scar has improved so much since we've been using it. In a year's time I doubt you'll even be able to see it."

"Now that is a joke. Have you seen the state of my arm? Summer's coming up and I'm going to be the only person in the city wearing sweaters. It's disgusting." Do these scar creams really do anything?

The scar that ran along the top half of my arm and over my shoulder blade was a constant reminder of the attack on the Oscorp roof. Aunt Penny said it was a symbol of how close she came to losing me and how lucky she is that I'm still here. To me it's completely different. I'll have the odd moment when I'm not thinking about it. I'll get distracted by a TV show, homework or by a gossip column discussing the likes of Khloe Kardashian's new killer figure. For a second, a few minutes sometimes I'd be content, at rest. Then I'd walk past a mirror, catch a glimpse of my arm in the reflection and it would all come back. I just wanted it gone. I just wanted to forget.