Spider-man: Alone in New York

~ Chapter 4 ~

Ned gasped. "Why do you have a big bruise on your arm?"

I sighed, so tired of it all. "Its nothing, Ned." I had tried to sneak in last night without alerting May, but it was no use. She had been waiting in my room for me again. A few screams later, the beating began. Luckily, no blood was shed this time, but I did end up with a noticeable bruise on my arm that had been caused by May's kicks. I wore long sleeves to cover it up despite it being a warm day, but I forgot I had Gym today. The mandatory clothes for Gym were a t-shirt and shorts. Bruises weren't that unusual to see. I mean, people bumped into stuff all the time, and if a person had a sport, then the amount of bruises quadrupled. My bruise, however, was not the size of a cent, dime, or nickel, but slightly smaller than the size of a dollar bill, and it was dark blue.

"Peter..." He trailed off.

My mind immediately flicked through different excuses and landed on one, "You know how um, I tripped down the stairs. That's from that."

"Okay, Peter." Ned didn't say anything the rest of Gym class. The Gym teacher had asked me about the bruise as well, and I used the same excuse. He nodded and waved me off without another thought.

As we walked back to the locker room, Ned hesitantly said, "Peter, you know that you can trust me, right? With anything."

I frowned. "Of course, Ned. You're the only person I trust in this world."

"And May," he added, and I hardened my jaw.

"Yeah... and her." I looked at the ground, remembering the series of events of last night. The bruises that had faded from two nights before were replaced by the ones last night. I wondered if I could ever see my skin unmarred from her treatment of me. I had to understand, though, that that's the way she was dealing with Ben's death. I was helping her, in a sick way. I was her release. She could let out all her pent-up anger and frustrations out on me. I owed her that much to let her do that. The only thing I wished for was that she would stop drinking alcohol.

I waited for the bell to ring, signaling that everyone would move to their next destination. I had lunch with Ned next, but I waved him ahead so I would have the privacy to change. He was used to me spending a couple of minutes after the class Gym ended. He didn't know why. I didn't want to show the bruises to other people. I stripped my Gym t-shirt, throwing it to the side. My body was a painting of blues, purples, and greens. Looking down at my body, I couldn't help but feel anger. Anger at myself. I let her do this to me. I could fight, but I didn't. I was a coward.

I didn't want to see myself anymore, so I shrugged on my shirt. I picked up my backpack and threw it on my shoulders. I gripped the straps that hung down and walked out of the locker room. My spidey sense tingled and told me to side-step left, but I ignored it. Not in school. A nerd like me wouldn't know how to fight. So I let myself be shoved into a wall.

A glance showed me my attacker: Flash.

"You didn't think you could escape me, Penis Parker? Huh?" Flash seethed into my face. I chose to remain quiet. He reached out and gripped my bruised arm strongly, earning a yelp from me. A smile formed on his lips at my pain. "You're weak, you know that, right?"

"Flash, please just leave me alone," I pleaded, but it just made him laugh.

"You wish." He raised a hand and punched me, throwing my head backwards. My head banged on the wall hard, and I dropped to the ground. A part of me told me to fight him, the other told me it was too risky. If I showed the school what I could do, it would turn heads, and I didn't want any unwanted attention. He kicked me in the stomach, causing me to roll over and start coughing.

"See ya, Penis." He kicked me once more, leaving me gasping on the floor as he strode to his next class with his last. Forcing myself to stand up, I groaned in pain. If only there was a release from all of this. Slowly, I made my way to the cafeteria. When I arrived, I grabbed a tray and moved on to the lunch lady at the cashier.

I typed in my student identification number, causing the lunch lady to give me a pitying look. "There is no money on your account."

"What? No that can't be right. I'll try again." I typed in the code. Maybe I got it wrong the first time.

She gave me a sad smile. "There is still no money on your account."

"But yesterday, yesterday everything was fine!" I told her, feeling my stomach growl from not eating anything since lunch yesterday.

"Maybe someone removed the money from your account." A sick feeling settled in my stomach, replacing the hunger. May...

"Okay. Thank you." I dropped the tray back where I got it from. Sweeping across the cafeteria with my eyes, I skipped over laughing students and narrowed in on Ned. I walked over to his table, greeted him, and sat down.

"No food?" Ned asked me, chewing on a chicken nugget.

I shrugged. "Apparently I have no money in my account."

"Huh. Here, let's share mine." He pushed the tray, so it would be between me and him.

"Ned, I don't want to eat your food."

"Don't worry. You know my mom cooks great at home. I'll be fine." I saw his determination and knew he wouldn't budge, no matter what I would say. A compromise would have to do. I sighed and picked up one chicken nugget. I ate it quickly, and my stomach gave a satisfied grumble. I licked my fingers. It was school food, but at least it was food, and it made it even tastier since I hadn't eaten in a whole day.

"You've got the internship today, right?" Ned asked me.

I hummed. "Yeah and work, too." I usually had come to work right after school, but because of the internship, I had asked my boss, Mr. Delmar, and he was okay with me coming a little bit after 5 PM and working for three hours.

"So when do you get home?" Ned asked, taking another chicken nugget and a french fry.

"Late. 8-ish."

"And then homework."

"Yep. I do my homework whenever I'm in the subway or bus. When there are no customers at Mr. Delmar's, I can also do some homework. Let's see if I can finish some homework at Stark Tower. The rest is left for the night," I explained, leaving the fact that I went out as Spider-man in the night as well.

Ned noted, "That sounds stressful."

I shrugged. "Maybe.. I don't know. I guess so?"

The bell rang before he could respond, so we stood and walked to our next class. Since we didn't have the same class next period, we said our goodbyes at the stairs. I climbed up the stairs, while he continued down the hallway.

I couldn't wait for school to end.