From the Shadows | PETER PARKER [2]

| 25 |

"It's times like these that I really wish I was bitten by a radioactive spider," Eloise grumbles as she's lying down on her stomach on her bed. She's wearing cotton shorts and a sports bra with no shirt, a variety of several bags of frozen vegetables resting on her back to soothe her bruised skin. Eloise's parents left for work an hour ago, as did May, so Peter is hanging out with her at her apartment for a while. Normally the two would be out patrolling the city together since school doesn't take up seven hours of the day anymore, but Eloise doesn't have Peter's super-healing abilities and isn't in shape to help out. And Peter doesn't think patrolling Queens without her would be much fun, anyways.

Her chin resting on her crossed arms, Eloise glances over at Peter sitting at her desk playing with the crane MJ gifted her on her birthday. "How's your neck?"

"100% healed," Peter replies smugly yet playfully. He sets the crane back down on the desk and lets his eyes wander across the little pictures pinned to a cork board above the desk. Some are Polaroids, but the majority weren't. Most of the pictures don't contain Eloise but her friends. He smiles softly at a selfie of her with Elena. He realizes he hasn't seen that smile on her face recently and frowns, turning.

Eloise raises a brow at the sudden action.

"Before that attack yesterday, you were upset," Peter brings up with a furrowed brow. It has been two days and he meant to talk to her about it sooner, but it must have slipped his mind. "Is everything okay?"

Eloise buries her head in her arms and groans. She loves her friends, but even thinking about them right now makes her head hurt and her chest tighten, especially after their last altercation. She loves putting on her mask and fighting crime, but the responsibility definitely has it's downfalls. "I'm a terrible friend."

"What?" Peter nearly scoffs, the words incredulous to his ears. "Why would you say that?"

"Lucy and Elena hate me," she mutters, her voice muffled by her arms. "I don't blame them, though. I have been lying to them a lot and I ditch them all the time."

Peter stands and sits on the mattress next to Eloise's head. As the bed dips under his weight, she looks up and meets his conflicted eyes.

"I used to lie to Ned all the time," he says, shrugging. "Even before he knew that I'm Spider-Man, he didn't hate me for it. He was upset sometimes, but he kinda understood that I wouldn't lie to him unless I had a good reason to."

Eloise sighs. "I don't know. I feel like all I do is disappoint people," she confesses quietly.

"That's not true."

"But it is," Eloise counters. "I disappoint my mom, my dad, Lucy, Elena, my teachers, and I'm sure I disappoint even more people that I'm not even aware of."

Peter looks down and takes her hand, squeezing it gently. His thumb runs over her healing knuckles before placing a soft kiss to them. "Well, if it means anything, you don't disappoint me."

Eloise bites back a smile. Peter notices and leans down, pressing his lips to her forehead.

When Peter leans away, Eloise doesn't even try to fight her smile. She looks up at him and loses herself in his warm brown eyes and his faint freckles on his nose. "Thank you."

"I don't know if you remember this or not," Peter says carefully, thinking about each word before he says them, "but when you were all loopy from pain meds after you got shot, you said that you felt unwanted."