The Masks we Hide Behind || Peter Parker [1]

three: spider-woman

"No, Michelle. I'm not going to leave you there." I tell MJ over the phone.

"Well, it just seems like something you would do. Football games are lame, but I'll go, I guess." She says.

Wow, it only took forty-five minutes to convince her to go. I'm shocked, and I'm not being sarcastic.

"Really?!" I say with a smile.

"Yeah, sure." She says.

"Okay, see you tomorrow, then. Bye." I say.

"Bye," she says before I hang up.

"Madelyn!" I hear my mom call from the kitchen. I hear her footsteps coming closer, and my eyes dart from my door to the suit that's piled up on top of the bin in my closet from earlier today. I scramble up and chuck my backpack on top of it right as she walks in.

"Dinner's almost ready." She says. Her eyes widen as she looks at me. "What happened to your cheek?"

"I ran right into a pole when I was walking home," I lie.

"You ran right into a pole." She says flatly.

"Yeah."

"What really happened?" She asks, leaning against the wall.

"I'm telling the truth, mom. And is dad home yet?"

"He has to work late again." She says.

"Like always," I mutter to myself.

"Honey, we have a roof over our head and food on our table. You're lucky we have jobs, you're lucky you have a place to live." She snaps.

"Sorry," I say quietly. She leaves and I slide my art journal out of my backpack, flipping open to the page I left off on.

I had almost finished the skyline, but not quite. I still had to color it, and draw the Hudson Bay underneath the buildings.

With a sigh I set it on my bed and pull my math homework and textbook out of the pile on my small desk.

I'm in the middle of question twenty-three when I get a text message from the group chat, which includes Peter, Ned, MJ, and myself.

Ned sent a video from YouTube. When I open the message, I realize that it's me. Somebody had uploaded the video of me helping out the lady.

Thank god for masks, I guess? No. Not helping. I'm freaking out.

The title is called 'Spider-woman in Queens'.

Spiderwoman? Seriously?

With a frustrated sigh I start typing.

Spiderwoman? Seriously? They couldn't have come up with a more, I don't know, original name?

I press send and shut off my phone, continuing to work on my homework. I try to focus and to forget about it, but my mind keeps wandering back and forth to the math and the fact that I'm out there, for the world to see.

"Dinner's ready!" I hear my mom call from the kitchen. I get up, leaving everything on my bed and walking outside of my room.

I grab a bowl of spaghetti and grab a glass of water, sitting down on the couch with the bowl in my lap.

"So, how was school today?" My mom asks, sitting down in the armchair next to the couch. Lucas joins me on the couch with a bowl in his lap as well.

"Same old, same old." I say, twirling the fork in the bowl.

"Boring." Lucas says simply.

"Well, there's got to be something that happened." My mom says.

There's a long moment of silence before Lucas finally says something.

"Can I go to the Midtown home game this Friday? I was thinking of taking some friends." Lucas asks.

"Which friends?" My mom replies.

"Liz. Liz Allan." He says, not taking his eyes off of his bowl. He looks up at me for a second, and I return with a smirk and raise my eyebrows. He rolls his eyes and looks back down.

"I don't see why not," Mom replies.

"Could I go, too? I convinced MJ to go with us, this time." I say.

"Us? As in...?"

"Peter and Ned...who else?" I say taking a sip of water.

"Oh. Uh, sure. Just make sure you two go home together. And no going to those parties after the game." She says.

"Yes, mom." We say in unison. I bite back a chuckle at how depressed we sound.

~~~

"Okay. Goodnight, love you." I say to my mom as she closes my bedroom door.

"Love you too." She replies. I wait until I see the hallway light turn off and I hear her walk away, then I turn on my lamp and slip into the white suit. I grab three pillows from under my bed and stuff them under my blanket so it looks like I'm sleeping.

I grab my backpack, stuffing my good colored pencils in along with my journal, headphones, and my phone. I zip it up and pull the hood of the suit up, sliding my window open carefully and quietly.

I crawl out onto the wall and close my window, climbing to the roof and yet again returning to the roof of the bakery.

I decided it would be nice to color the skyline like it was at night. I could color the reflection of the lights on the water.

I sit down in the same spot, my legs dangling from the roof of the building and bumping against the wall every now and then. I grab my journal and pencils and begin where I left off, listening to music as I do so.

My hand drags the pencil across the piece of paper in smooth, quick motions, slowly filling the paper with more and more color.

"So, you like art?" I hear a familiar voice from behind me. I flinch and turn around quickly, turning my music down.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." I say to the spider-guy, dumping my stuff into my backpack.

"No need to pack up," he says, walking over to me and sitting down next to me. I freeze, my hands hovering above my backpack.

"You can continue," He chuckles. I bite my lip and take my journal back out of my backpack, continuing where I left off.

"I saw a video of you." He says after a bit of listening to cars and the quiet chatter of pedestrians passing by.

"Yeah...I saw it too." I say slowly.

"It's okay, you know. You're making a difference." He says quietly.

"I could've passed on the crowd and being recorded," I reply.

"Think about it this way - imagine the situation the lady could be in now if you didn't help. She could be dead." He says.

I stop coloring the buildings for a minute.

"Yes, that's very true, but, I would rather not be all over social media." I say, turning and looking at him. I can't tell if he meets my eyes or not, because of the mask.

"It's not all that bad. Now you have a cheesy superhero name." I hear the smile in his voice as he says this. I smile and look out at the view.

"Spiderwoman," I say, chuckling softly.

"We could be partners." He says. "Spiderman and Spiderwoman."

I laugh and continue coloring. "I guess we could."

It grows quiet again, and the distant sound of police sirens starts to ring in the air. I look up at him, and he shrugs.

"I'll get this one. You're obviously very busy." The grin in his voice is back. I smile.

"It's a great view, by the way. And you're really good." He continues, motioning to my picture.

"Thanks," I say softly.

"See you 'round, Spiderwoman." And with that, he's gone with a shoot of a web.

I smile to myself and continue coloring.

"Spiderwoman." I murmur, starting to fill in the Hudson Bay.