Starkly in Love- A Spiderman x Reader

Chapter 26: I Remember

  The sound of the crashing ocean was the only white noise I needed. It soothed me during many times where I was too confused, anxious, or scared to do anything but lay on my bedroom floor. The soft hushing that slipped through the seal around my windows was like a hand on my shoulder from someone I loved.

  I remembered when I was 4, pressing my nose against the glass of a very expensive car. Being 4, I had no notion of money and what it could get you. I just knew that the man who had taken my hand and my tiny bag of belongs had a shiny car and shiny hair.

  I had watched the ocean fall against unforgiving rocks and heard the sound, too focused on that to see the man taking me into his life watching me with a smile on his face.

  I didn't remember all the whispers about theTony Stark adopting a little girl, I only remember as he carefully showed me his- our- monstrous house slowly over the course of a week because he didn't want to overwhelm me.

  I didn't remember him slaving away in the basement that I wasn't allowed in until I was 10 creating revolutionary technology. I did remember him making me a special waffle maker in the shape of a pair of pants to make me laugh. And I remembered making cupcakes with him after someone made me cry at school. He'd taken me out of that school to teach me himself after that.

  But my favorite memory was a day before school started, my freshman year of high school. I'd convinced him to re-enroll me in public school and he'd wanted to spend a little extra time with me that day. He'd been 'convinced' that he would only see me on the weekend, so he took me down to a tiny strip of beach by the house. I didn't know it was there.

  The ocean was quite that day, and moisture was still thick in the air. We'd taken turns trying to stand up on a surfboard, and I'd laughed as I watched my dignified father fall over so many times that the laughter hurt my sides.

  We'd ended the day by laying on the beach eating more toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches than either of us would ever care to admit. 

  My final memory was the day that I realized I wanted Peter Parker to love me.

  It was about 6 months after my dad had taken him under his wing. Peter was sitting at our large walnut dining table, a laptop and piles of paper around him. My dad sat by him, one watchful eye on him, and the other warning me to stay in check.

  I'd given him a 'cool it, I'm just making oatmeal' look, but I was really out there to look at Peter. We had met up two days prior and eat some pastries and some random bakery in Queens. It was one of the first few times that we had snuck underneath my dad's nose to hang out, and the adrenaline of it all made me giddy. It was that, or the way that Peter laughed that exposed his faint dimples.

  My oatmeal had long-since been done, but I rested my elbows on the kitchen island and let it cool beside me. 

  Peter's brows were furrowed as he tapped away on the computer. The little wrinkles made me smile and my dad briefly gave me his full attention for a quick head shake. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my oatmeal.

  "Owch!" I hissed, dropping the bowl back onto the counter and glaring at it.

  Peter looked up. "What's wrong?"

  "My oatmeal betrayed me," I pouted, holding out my hand for my dad to look at. He had gotten out of his seat the second I dropped the bowl. He pulled me over to the sink and turned on the cold water.

  "Just hold it under here for a minute or two and you'll be good as new," He directed.

  "Are you sure I will be able to finish my homework? Or use a pencil? Or use my hand ever again?" I sighed dramatically.

  My dad shrugged. "We'll just have to wait and see."

  I stuck my tongue out at him and Peter snorted.

  My dad gave him a warning look, though we all know he didn't care if Peter laughed or not.

  I remember that I spent the rest of the night flopped on my couch, going through boring homework. At around 9, though, a little knock was rapped onto the wall near me.

  I looked up to see Peter standing there.

  "I gotta go, but I wanted to say goodbye," he said, a little smile on his face.

  I picked myself off the couch and slipped into his open arms. He squeezed me tight, lingering just a couple seconds longer than you would expect a friend to, but I treasured every little moment of it.

  "Bye," I mumbled into his sweater.

  "See ya," he said, before loosening his grip to let me slip out.

  I watched him go out the door, treading lightly so as to not alert 'Mr. Stark' that he had stuck around longer than he'd known.

**********

  Looking back on it now, there was no way that my dad was fooled by our little escipades.

  But I couldn't look back on it now. My head was no longer my own.