Trouble (Marvel Whump Madness 2019)

2

Written for Day 19 of Marvel Whump Madness, hosted by Trekkiehood

Peter stared at the board dully, not comprehending a thing his teacher was saying. The new lines being added to the equation on the board might as well have been written in an entirely different numeric system, because they were nothing more than lines to him. He checked the clock for the millionth time that day and saw that barely a minute had passed since he'd last done so.

His obsession with the passing seconds was nothing new for the last period of the day, but today, it wasn't because he was eager to get out on patrol. Today, all he wanted was for the entire ninety minutes to pass without his phone going off. Because he knew that for him today, no news is good news couldn't ring any truer.

If May got a clear from the doctor... if they was able to give her a prescription or diagnose an easy-to-fix problem and send her on her way with the tools to fix it, she'd just tell Peter when he got home. But if the news was bad... if that resulted in an emergency surgery or scan, or if it was just so crippling that she wanted him to know first thing... that was the situation in which she'd call him.

There was forty-five minutes left of class. It was about one-forty-five, and her appointment had been for twelve-thirty. He was in the middle of the danger zone... but he had to get through it in order to reach an all-clear point.

He drummed his fingers on his desk restlessly, just trying to stay calm with every sense on edge to the extreme.

She'd be fine. She had to be fine.

A crumpled paper landed in his lap from somewhere behind him, and he inwardly groaned. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with Flash right then, and he didn't know how much of the other boy's bullying he could take.

He didn't know why, but he uncrumpled the paper to read it. His life would be so much easier if he could just toss things like it aside without giving them a second glance, but somehow, he never could.

There was, in fact, little on the paper... just a series of sketches mocking him in numerous ways. One of them, which depicted him bawling with his head against a locker and his cell phone held to his ear, made it clear Flash had observed Peter's phone conversation with May at lunch. She'd just been telling him that her appointment had gotten pushed to later in the day than it'd originally been planned for, so she might not be home when he got there. It hadn't been the news itself, but rather the way his aunt had sounded, which was completely drained and like she felt absolutely horrible, that had caused Peter so much stress. She'd been getting worse by the day, every since she first started dropping weight a few weeks before.

There had been no tears, but Peter had stood for most of the conversation with his forehead against his locker, just like in Flash's cartoon. Under that particular picture, the caption missing your mommy at school? was written under it.

Peter's fist clenched by instinct, recrumpling the paper with it. Flash knew he was an orphan, but all he seemed to be able to do was rub the fact in his face and make fun of his relationship with May, or be wholly disrespectful to May herself, mostly in the form of objectifying her body. Most days, Peter had quick comebacks for the disrespect, and could shake the rest off without too much trouble.

But today was not most days, and he couldn't just let it roll off of his back. He didn't miss his mother, because he'd never known her enough to miss her. He'd never had a mother, really. When he looked at pictures of his parents, he could vaguely recall his own stored images, but as for real memories, his mind was blank. And maybe he did miss May today. No, he knew he did.