Ágnostos

Chapter 12

Peter

"How's Thea... Althea..?" Ned asked as we began walking to the bus.

"Yeah I gatta wonder why you didn't tell us your girlfriend is Tony Stark's daughter," MJ said.

"Because of what happened a month ago. Seems pretty reasonable to me," I said, slightly more snippy than intended.

Ever since the events a month ago with Hard-Wire, people haven't stopped asking me about Althea. Even people I don't even know, somehow they know I'm dating her and they want to know what the secret Althea Stark is like, what she does, if she's like Tony, why she was hidden for eighteen years. The rumors won't stop flying and the questions won't stop following me. It makes perfect sense why Tony wouldn't have wanted the world to know about her especially after the Hard-Wire incident.

All I know is Althea won't leave her house and she is obviously scared shitless all the time. She's lost her spark and excitement. It breaks my heart. I just want her to be okay. It kills me to see her in so much pain.

Ned and MJ gave each other a look. They've been doing it a lot this past month and it's really been pissing me off.

"Wanna include me in on your guys' telepathic conversations?" I asked.

"Peter, are you okay?" Ned asked.

"I'm fine..." I muttered.

"We just feel... well we feel like... maybe you..."

"You are taking on Althea's burden, Peter," MJ said when Ned lacked the words.

"I am fine, guys. My girlfriend is struggling more than you guys could understand and yeah it's hard but seriously, I'm fine."

We stopped walking as we arrived at the bus stop. Before we got onto the bus, a loud car horn pulled everyone's attention on to the matte black Acura nsx.

Althea stood by the car as Harley stuck his head out of the car window.

"Aye Papi," Harley called from across the street. "Come here often."

I chuckled, rolling my eyes as I began jogging to the car. I wrapped my arms around Althea, lifting her up slightly before kissing her.

Harley made a gagging sound. "PDA much, geez."

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, intertwining my fingers with Althea's.

"Decided to surprise you!" Althea said with a forced smile.

"Uh, Yeah, no," Harley said. "Tony forced her out of the house. I just wanted to show off this beaut."

Althea glared at the boy as he pulled his sunglasses over his eyes and revved the engine. She rolled her eyes at him, shaking her head.

"Are you okay?" I asked softly, grabbing onto her other hand.

She stared down at our hands, nodding slightly. "I think so."

"If you're not feeling up to do anything we can go to my house and —"

"Peter, I'm okay." She put one hand on my cheek. "Let's do something. Let's go to the beach."

I smiled along with her, happy to see her feeling good enough to go out. Scanning my eyes around, I noticed everyone staring. I thought I should get her out of here before... something caused a scene.

The world didn't know about her being a mutant. Hard-Wire showed her death to only the avengers and as for her coming back — only Harley saw that one.