Only Option
In the nick of time, Peter carefully rushed through the door, ensuring he had carefully taken of his shoes and carefully placed them on the rack. That was the key to living with the Wilsons - doing everything carefully.
He gripped tightly to his bag and tried to tame his mop of curls to appear presentable. After a few short breaths that did nothing to calm his nerves, he entered the kitchen carefully.
The room was filled with smoke and suffocated with an tense atmosphere that made Peter cringe.
Tommy was sitting at the table, with his back strangely straight and up right - an unnatural position that filled Peter with a sense of unease with an angry looming figure standing over him. Inspecting the thirteen year old more closely, a bright red mark blemished his cheek, accompanied with swollen, tear stained eyes, Peter could take a good guess at the scene he'd walked in on. Suddenly the ease turned into a sick dread.
”You're late,” snapped a harsh voice.
”Actually I'm exactly on time thank you very much,” he replied with an attempt to smirk rebelliously. The relief that flooded Tommy's eyes is enough to confirm his fears.
Peter shuffles towards the kitchen side, causally leaning against the side.
“So gotta any snacks or anything, or - oh wait should I save my appetite for dinner?” he questioned.
The menacing glare he received was answer enough.
”Get upstairs, you brat before you regret talking like that,” Mr Wilson barked back.
Peter took the out quickly, and retreated still clutching onto his school bag. A quick nod of the head drew Tommy with him and they both climbed up the creaky stairs, desperate to get of that kitchen.
As soon as the sound of the bedroom door signified their safety, they released a chorus of relieved sighs. They sunk onto a bottom bunk bed, squeezed into the corner of the already cramped room, with immaculate military standard cleanliness despite the four teenage boys occupying it.
”You okay?” Peter asked kindly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. An awkward gesture from someone clearly uncomfortable and inexperienced with intimacy but with good intentions.
”I didn't - I-i didn't mean to - I said I was sorry but - i-i did mean,” Tommy stuttered awkwardly, wringing his hands in the bottom of the jumper, “I didn't realise it hurt that much,” he whispered, a red flush of shame climbing his neck, lighting up a greenish, purply bruise already beginning to form.
”It's alright - it ain't your fault. Some people are just really shitty,” Peter replied comfortingly, “anyway isn't your aunt picking you up soon?”
Tommy have a shaky nod in response.
”There you go then, you'll be out of here in no time - I bet that'll never happen again, wanna okay some cards?” Peter rushed out, trying to prevent some awkward kind of therapy conversation with a bruised kid clearly in a volatile, vulnerable position.
”What about you?” a soft voice questioned.
”Me? No worries kid, I've been in system years now so I know how to handle some shitty foster parents don't you worry.”
”But - I...”
”Listen kid, do you wanna play cards or not ?”
Peter appreciated the care but honestly he didn't need to explain to another well meaning person that this shithole was the only option he had.
He didn't remember his parents - which in some respects was a good thing. It meant the reality of them couldn't tarnished by the idealized version imagined by Peter when things got hard.
He dreamt that he had the kind of mum that baked cookies and visited science fairs and clapped at awards. He dreamt his dad would have drove him to school every morning and talked with him about the news, or helped with his homework. Every adult he'd ever met had failed him, including his parents since abandonment was the basically the same thing as death, but at least it wasn't intentional and Peter clung his own imagined version of his parents and their goodness with a death grip.
After their unfortunate death, he had been sent to his paternal uncle and his wife, Ben and May Parker in a small apartment on bad street in Queens.
May Parker was an angel of a woman, worked tirelessly as a nurse trying to keep up with rent and bills and children's stuff. She had cared and loved and played with Peter since he was small. Patched up knee grazes and whispered stories at night.
However, anger issues came in the form of Ben Parker whose rage consumed their small little apartment and volatile temperament ruined every nice moment May struggled to create. Despite, the one to many broken bones or painful bruises and few too many concerned looks in her direction, she was always remarkably resilient with a shining smile that would forever been engrained into Peter's brain.
But ultimately, cancer defeated her. Turned the beautiful May Parker into a shell of a woman until she closed her eyes permanently.
Ben Parker's anger only increased, targeting a different victim instead. But this victim, furious from the pitiful life of his beloved aunt who lived in fear of a man supposed to love her, and unable to leave due to dire poverty, was not a willing victim. Peter fought back at every turn,which he found out from his own personal, painful experience, only resulted in more intense anger and harder hits.
A concerned anonymous helper reported some issues and he was dumped into New York's great foster care system, which was just as shitty but in a different way. The only good thing that remained was a scholarship at Midtown high - his ticket to a better life and he wasn't willing to give it up, not for anything. He'd kick and scream and cry and do just about anything to keep his scholarship. Ergo the shitty foster home that was apparently the only home close enough to walk to school.
Peter also reckons that no other foster home would take him - his constant fighting with his own uncle and resistance to any form of discipline meant a label of a troubled, high maintenance young adult otherwise know as bad, dangerous teen boy.
So it was this shithole or some lock in group home with strict rules and weird uniform. He'd heard a couple of older kids in his last home describing some of their own experiences and quite frankly this was Peter's best option right now. Only two more year till college, right?