A Bad Idea (Spideychelle)

Ch. 24: On A Roller Coaster

Peter POV

The first few weeks after we started dating, MJ had more anxiety than usual. She was constantly worried about being suddenly evicted, despite being told by her dad's lawyer that autopayments couldn't be cancelled while he was in custody.

Thankfully, her dad hadn't been offered bail, so we knew that she was completely free from him for a couple of months before the trial.

She had convinced herself, though, that her dad was gonna get off, so she'd been constantly checking apartment listings, trying to find a cheap studio apartment close to the university.

I didn't think much of it at first, just tried to help with her anxiety where I could. I didn't realize exactly how bad her anxiety was until she brought it up right after sex.

We were laying next to each other, tangled up in her sheets, both catching our breath, and then she rolled over and grabbed her phone off of her nightstand.

"What are you doing?" I panted.

"Checking the listing for the apartment right next to NYU." She swiped her phone open.

"Em, you're getting a little obsessive."

"I need to find a place, so sue me for getting a little obsessive."

"You know May and I would take you in if you needed it for a while. And Mr. Stark could help if rent was steep."

She sighed, resting her phone on her chest. "I don't want anybody's help, though. I kinda just...I feel like I have to do this on my own."

"But you don't. And, honestly, in this economy, you might not be able to."

She paused, and for a second I was terrified that I'd made her mad, but then she put her phone back on the nightstand and turned onto her side, facing me.

"I hate it when you're right."

"Well, luckily for us, it doesn't happen often," I teased.

She laughed, then leaned in and kissed me.

God, it felt good to just kiss her.

"Okay, no more obsessing. Got it. I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

She got up, grabbed a change of clothes, and disappeared into the hall.

-———————————————————————

A few days later, I went with her after school to talk to the prosecutors. For the most part, I let them ask questions and her answer, and just held her hand under the table and squeezed when her voice wavered.

But then there was one directed at me.

"Mr. Parker, what did you know about Miss Jones's home life before the night you called the police?"

I hesitated. "Not...not much. Most of it I pieced together on my own. I knew that...Mr. Jones hit MJ fairly often, that he belittled her artwork, that he-he pressured her to have perfect grades. I knew that he...sort of traded MJ as a sex object to her uncle for some...corporate benefit. I don't know what exactly. I knew that it was fairly frequent, that MJ had no say in it. I could always tell when something had happened, too. MJ's entire demeanor would change for a day or two after. She'd have bruises all over, sometimes a couple of cuts."

"Do you know how many others knew about her home life before the night you called the police?"

I shook my head. "As far as I know, it was just me."

"And what did you see on the night in question that encouraged you to call the police?"

"I, um, well, our apartments are two floors apart but right on top of each other, so I walked up the fire escape to check on her, see if she was doing okay. When I looked in through her window, her bedroom door was open and I could see into the living room. She was on the couch, and her dad was behind it, holding her wrists. Her uncle was kneeling in front of her with his hands up her skirt."