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MY DRAMATIC COMING-OF-AGE MOMENT WAS THWARTED BY THE WIND.
For some reason, I wasn't expecting the winds to be as strong as they were on that seven-story rooftop, but as I maneuvered past the landing zone and towards the ledge, the wind surrounded me in a deafening blanket.
I let out a heaving sigh, dangling my legs over the edge. Color seeped out from the sky as lit windows climbed up the towering skyscrapers. I remembered why I wanted to live here so much when I was younger, as the sky's light was replaced by the building lights. It really was the city that never slept.
I closed my eyes, mind drifting to everything going on in my life just then, with the Roots, and the tabloids and my life spiraling into chaos as I watched. But before I could devolve further and collapse into myself, a familiar voice piped up from behind.
"Hey, Dom!" Peter called, as a red and blue figure ambled towards me. I acknowledged him with a nod and he shifted to sit next to me, dangling his legs over the ledge as well. He paused for a moment, gesturing to the skyline in front of us. "Nice place to brood," he commented. I could tell he was smiling behind the mask.
"Yeah," I answered, my voice scratchy. "You sure you still wanna associate with me?"
Peter laughed as if it was the funniest this in the world. "What, you want me to ditch you over a Bugle article?" he grinned, gently knocking his shoulder with mine. "They're just tall tales." He looked at me, the mask covering any emotion that could have shown on his face. Then, in the softest voice I had heard from him til then, he said, "I know you."
He was more confident with the mask on, I noticed, less fidgety. He knew I knew him under the mask but I guess the existence of the barrier served as a reminder that he was a hero, that people trusted him. He held more value in Spiderman than he did in Peter Parker and had yet to realize that they were the same person.
I shook my head of the thought. I could psychoanalyze my friends later.
"You know, they've said shit about you too," I murmured, shifting slightly closer. "Aren't you supposed to be a menace to society?"
"Hmm and I eat babies in my spare time," he laughed, leading me to let out a short laugh as well.
A brief silence followed but it wasn't awkward like I was scared it would be. The silence was... nice, you could say. Comfortable. "It wasn't just the Bugle," I whispered after a few minutes. "It was... I don't know, it was just a lot. They've been saying stuff about me for forever but they've never been this... negative, which sounds spoiled and bratty but..." I took a few deep breaths, trying to remember what Dr. Cross had said... "I guess it was just the tipping point?"
