unruly › peter parker

four. no sugarcoating, no lying

🕸

"WHAT ON EARTH happened to you?" Eva asked, worry clearly written all over her face. Rhea knew it was inevitable, so she didn't bother trying to hide the bruise despite attempting to with cheap concealer and foundation, but even make-up couldn't do the trick in hiding the painful, deep purple stain.

"Yeah... It looks really bad," Ned added, stating the obvious.

"Well, uhm... Long story short, I saw a boy getting beat up yesterday, so I interfered, helped him escape, asshole got angry and then this happened," Rhea let out a stiff chuckle, unable to move her jaw too much or else the pain comes spreading throughout her entire cheek. She was low-key (Or should I say LOKI) thankful that her mother slapped the unscathed side of her face.

"And then? What happened?" Eva pressed on, observing the slowly-healing blotch on Rhea meticulously.

"Honestly, I can't remember. I spent the whole night trying to, but I just concluded I might've blacked out, or something."

"Are you sure?" Peter, who has been quiet the entire time they walked through Midtown's corridor, finally spoke up, skepticism evident in his voice.

Rhea's eyes met his intensely, immediately detecting his suspicion. But why would he be suspicious? She thought, does he think I'm lying?

She nodded her head hesitantly, and that seemed to be the end of his wariness. "The only thing I could remember after that was when I reached home with Mira in my arms before heading to the vet."

"Wait, so you could've walked back home while being unconscious? Like sleep-walking?" Ned joked, not really trying to be serious, yet it was truly something Rhea first considered.

"Maybe," Rhea exclaimed, grinning before wincing immensely once again, eliciting lots of "be careful"s and small advice on how to not worsen her injury by Eva which she couldn't catch, all because she was trying so hard to wipe the biggest smile off her face.

-

Eventually, the bell signaling the end of the school day reverberated throughout the entire school. Rhea excitedly slung her bag over her shoulder before approaching Peter, "Hey, you wanna eat the best sandwich in Queens with me? I'm starving and kinda don't wanna go home." And by 'kinda', she meant she didn't even want to go near her apartment building.

His face immediately lit up at the mention of Mr Delmar's sandwiches, "Yeah, I'd be happy to!"

She had wanted to invite Eva and Ned along too, but turns out, they had extra consultations with Mrs Warren, so it was just her and her cute- Peter, it was just her and Peter, of course.

Making their way (downtown) out of Midtown, they begun having small, friendly talk before their conversation topics started branching out from there. They had gone from talking about the upcoming Physics test and Mrs Warren's class to Peter watching Youtube videos on his laptop during lessons, then to Spider-man.

"I saw you watching that Man-Spider video during Mrs Warren's class just now. Hell, I even remember the title, 'Amazing Man-Spider saves bus full of kids'!"

"What the- You were looking at me doing stuff?" Peter's gaze shot towards her as he playfully grinned.

"Well, at least I now know your little man-spider obsession," Rhea smirked with triumph as if she just found long lost treasure, when really, it's just another one of Peter's quirk she found enthralling.

Chuckling, he added, "I'm pretty sure he goes by Spider-man."

"Alright, Spider-man's number one fan."

His smile never faded, not even a single bit. That was when Rhea's curiosity was once again piqued upon recalling his suspicion of her in the morning.

And so, her curiosity got the better of her. "By the way, not to offend you or anything, but why were you suspicious of me this morning?"

He looked at her, puzzled, and the softest "hm?" escaped his lips.

"You seemed pretty skeptical when I said I couldn't recall anything after getting this," she gestured to her unsightly cheek, "why?"

His face fell ever so slightly, but it was subtle enough that Rhea didn't notice. "Well..." he paused to reconsider his words, "In all honesty, I saw what happened from afar. I wanted to run over and help you but Spider-man got involved."

"Whoa, what happened? Did the asshole try to kill me?" She answered light-heartedly.

"Actually... it was the other way round."

She felt a pang in her chest, and she could feel a soft panic starting to grow and gnaw at her insides. "You're not joking, are you?"

Shaking his head, he continued, "You tried to kill him with a broken beer bottle, so Spider-man had to stop you, and even then, you tried hurting him with a glass shard too. And trust me, I checked more than thrice if it was you."

Stopping in her tracks, she held onto his wrist while her glassy eyes drilled into his that showed no signs of trying to deceive. "Peter, you're not lying to me, right?"

He looked at her, eyes filled with utmost sincerity, "I can't lie."

She let go of him and looked down at her feet, and then at her hands. The very hands that tried to claim the life of someone else's. Surely it wasn't her and that Peter was simply mistaken. Surely, it must all be a dream, she had unquestionably no guts to even kill a pesky fly, let alone another person. She wasn't doubting Peter, she was doubting herself. In fact, she believed him. Having been exposed to lies all her life, she knew when someone wasn't being honest.

And with absolute certainty, she knew Peter was anything but a liar.

"I'm sorry... I need time to accept what you've just said, but," she faced him again, a thankful smile caressing her lips, "I appreciate you for telling me, no sugarcoating, no lying."

He returned her a smile, the same one that has been etched in Rhea's head since she first met him, "You're my friend, it's the least I can do for you."

It's the least one could do for anyone.

- - - - -

qotd !! ;
have you watched far from home yet?
: i haven't but i'm watching it soon!! i'm so excited omg