i can't sleep at night (i can't eat a bite)
Peter took shots off of Felicia’s belly as the music blared in the background, people around them cheering as they littered the household with drugs, booze and sex (not like it hadn’t already been riddled with it). His siblings had all been put to bed, apart from Caterina and Valentina, who had all invited their friends, who were older than them, but they didn’t care unless they started acting dodgy.
Peter helped Felicia off of the counter and she slipped a pill into his hands, and he swallowed it with another shot, shooting a sultry smirk at her. Felicia raised an eyebrow and Peter kissed her heavily before pulling away.
“Hey, Peter!” someone shouted. He couldn’t place their face to a name, but Peter had seen him walking around the neighbourhood sometimes. “Great party! You Lombardi’s always know how to do it!” he clapped his back before grabbing a bottle of booze off of the side.
“You’re practically famous round here, Pete.” Felicia said huskily, sat on his lap on the sofa. Peter chuckled as he sipped from his drink. She was setting up lines of coke on the end table, and she passed Peter his card back between her fingers as she bent down, giving him an eyeful as she snorted one of the lines, gesturing for Peter to do the same.
This was Peter’s distraction to get rid of the memories of his mother, who was currently shoved under their old, rickety trampoline equipped with a ratty air mattress and a six pack of beer from the freezer. She was still unconscious, and Caterina was still pissed at Peter.
Caterina thought that he was getting more and more reckless by the day, not showing up for school, not going to his internship, wasting opportunities and opportunities.
But she couldn’t say that. She wasn’t in the best position to judge her brother either, having only have gone to school for like, two weeks a month. That’s shit. Her school were complaining, but it fell on deaf ears. Her mom didn’t care, and her dad was in prison. Who the fuck were they gonna tell?
Caterina knew Peter was in a terrible position. A hard one, too. He couldn’t be a teenager because he was being weighed down by them. He was stuck in place, the place of being a parent, a rock, an idol.
He didn’t think he was an idol, and Caterina knew that. He thought he was far from perfect, and he drowned his sorrows and memories searching for the bottom of bottles, though not all the time.
As Caterina thought before, the parallels between Peter and their mother were so similar, even scary, the fact that Peter could be heading down the same path as Mary was harrowing to even think of.
Mary was not the same as the biblical figure that she used to be. She had never been normal, per say. Caterina thinks it all hit a head long before she was born, but Ricardo and Peter had never given her incentive to think her theory was correct.
Richard, however, her father, was a whole different matter. He cared. And that was the most important thing. She didn’t give a fuck that he had supposedly assaulted a police officer while under the influence. Why would she? He cared. That mattered to her.
Perhaps when his sentence was over, despite the fact she would be eighteen then, he would come and live with them. He would fix everything, make a good wage, support the family, kick Mary out, remember Ricardo, make them breakfast in the morning, make sure everyone went to school.
She was getting lost in fantasies that would never be real. Caterina had her head screwed on from the minute that Ricardo died. From the minute Peter had cried with the realisation that these were his kids. And he would die by that fact, and Caterina knew it.
Peter sucked on the joint he had been offered before he passed it on to the next person, that happened to be Valentina. She puffed on it, coughing slightly as her eyes watered, before she did the same.
The parallels were harrowing.
As the party wound down, Caterina was the one that found herself cleaning up after everyone else, including Peter, as he had fucked off with Felicia. Now, don’t get her wrong, she liked Felicia as much as the next girl, but she was taking her brother away. She was just a quick fuck. She didn’t mean anything to him, did she?
Caterina could hear what they were doing. It comforted her, in a way, knowing that they weren’t in a relationship. The fact they were just friends that used each other for a fuck.
Peter had his own things to deal with.
Maybe that was the reason that the next day, he woke up right on time and stripped his bed, taking the sheets downstairs to be washed. Nothing could prevent him from accomplishing his goals and having a good day.
Praise the Lord, he thought as he kicked the washing machine, as he was also putting toast in the toaster and turning the TV on. He kept the machine going as he flipped the bacon in the pan (some of the leftovers of Ximena’s quick visit).
There were massive portions for everyone, and he made sure everyone got equal. He set up coats and bags and shoes for Carlotta, Mario and Luigi, and Caterina had agreed to stay off school to look after Elisabetta so that Peter could take an end of topic assessment.
“Grazie, Caterina,” Peter said as he put on a science jumper. He held Carlotta’s hand as they skipped out of the house to the bus stop and he showed his pass to the driver, paying the fee required. He got a few weird looks from old women who probably assumed Carlotta was his. Mario and Luigi swung their legs against their seats as they spoke to each other quietly, and Peter bounced Carlotta on his lap.
“It’s been such a wild ride, you know? I mean, I threw a party last night so that was fun, I didn’t really drink that much, and then yeah! I’m here, I aced the assessment, and it’s lunch, so we’ve got one period left!” Peter finished his rant, leaving out the fact Mary had shown up out of nowhere. MJ and Ned raised their eyebrows at each other, but they smiled softly at him.
“I’m happy to see you happy, Pete,” Ned said. Peter stuck his tongue out at him and shot him a thumbs up. MJ agreed, but she called him a loser at the end.
“What, can’t let anyone see you go soft?” Peter asked. “Am I really that bad?” he joked, laughing. His head throbbed for a second, but he brushed it off. “But, yeah, I feel great!”
Friends on the Other side ran through his head over and over again, and he didn’t want it to stop. It was actually a really good song, he realised, and he found he didn’t regret it always being in his head. Dr. Facilier had a way with words, to be fair, and maybe if they sounded so good in song, they deserved to be in his head.
“Oh yeah, I’m going to the Tower today, because Mr Stark actually wants us to get some work done which is good, I mean, I’ve been in such a state lately so now I just want to knuckle down and get things done.” Peter explained as they walked to class together, and they all thankfully had AP US History. He had met Captain America. He didn’t know how much closer to US History he could’ve gotten. Hamilton told him all he needed to know about the American Revolution, so why did they need to learn more?
He ranted about this on the way to the Tower, even though Happy looked like he was anything but, he was in such a good mood. Nothing could bring him down!
In the lab, Tony was in a similar mood. He was happier than he had been from the previous time the two had seen each other. AC/DC Highway to Hell was blaring through the speakers as Peter walked in. He dropped his bag onto the floor, and sat down at his stool.
“Hi, Mr. Stark!” Peter shouted. “Can we change the music?” he asked, already starting to pull his web formula towards him and go over it.
“What’s wrong with AC/DC, kid? But, yeah. Knock yourself out!”
Peter did what anyone else would do if your little sister had been making you watch Princess and The Frog every night for weeks. He put on Friends on the Other side, and the whole soundtrack.
“Before you say anything, my little sister has been making me learn all the songs off by heart. I’m a good brother, Mr. Stark.” Peter explained. Tony cackled.
As they both worked, Peter realised that if he was a good brother, he’d apologise for bailing on Caterina yesterday, even if it was so he could keep his job.
pietro: im sorry ok
caterina: for what
pietro: for bauling yesterday
pietro: i didjtn mean to o swear
pietro: sh =e just brngs that out in me someimes, you know?
caterina: yeah
caterina: besides, i cpuldnt stay mad at you for long. mario n luigi say hi
pietro: i love u all x
“Is everything alright at home, Pete?”
Tony broke the silence. Peter nodded as he started on his well rehearsed “everything’s fine at home, don’t worry, mom just has lots of work”. Tony interrupted him.
“Pete… I’m just, not so convinced. Your dad is never there, for one, and even though I didn’t have the best of childhoods, I wasn’t the only one there. I at least had someone. Your mother is always at work, apparently.”
“The other day was just a little mix up.”
“You’re not convincing me, Peter.”
“Well, that’s the truth!”
“I want to come over and meet your little Parker clan.” he mentioned offhandedly. Peter froze.
“Well, at least give me like, two days to prepare- the kids aren’t used to strangers.”
Lie.
Lie, lie, lie.
It was the only thing that could preserve their family now.
Lie.
Lie, lie, lie, lie.
They’d never see each other again.
“I want to be convinced your safe, Underoos. Tonight, okay?”
Lie. Peter had to repeat this affirmation in his head. They would be split up, they would never see each other again if they Tony got wind of everything that went on in their lives.
It was a miracle he hadn’t found out already. Peter had to keep that miracle going, to preserve his family.
His kids.
Peter had never prided himself on being the best actor, but this was going to be the performance of his lifetime.