Underdog
“So how was your day?”
May Parker chewed the chicken patty sandwich, before cutting the buttered broccoli into pieces and stabbing it with her fork. She pointing her fork at the fluffy brown-haired boy sitting across the table. He was nibbling at his sandwich, lost in thought.
“Peter?”
Raising his dazed eyes towards his aunt, Peter mumbled something that resembled a small apology.
“How was your day?” May repeated, surprisingly pleasant and upbeat for the lack of attention she was receiving.
“I’m good.”
Peter wasn’t trying to be rude. It’s just, at fifteen, he was so preoccupied with school and extracurricular activities that he needed some alone time to process it all. May thought he had time to process in his room after dinner, but what she didn’t know was Peter snuck out every night to protect the city he lived in, the city that never sleeps, good old New York. Peter was what most citizens called “Spider-Man” or in other words a superhero or vigilante. But Peter preferred the term superhero. That’s the term Tony Stark would use.
Mr. Stark.
Peter’s frown deepened as he replayed the words his mentor said to him over and over again. Don’t do anything I would do, and definitely don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Really, what was that supposed to mean? It didn’t even make any sense. Peter angrily pierced his broccoli with the spears of his fork trying to figure it out.
It’s been four weeks since Mr. Stark promised he would call, and yet, Peter heard nothing. No phone calls, no texts, no emails. It’s like Mr. Stark totally forgot about him.
“Really? Because the look on your face says it was a bad day.” May stated, licking the butter off her fingers.
Peter straighten up in his chair, “No, no. I’m sorry. It’s been a good day.” He didn’t want to worry May so he threw on a smile. It’s not like he could tell her about Mr. Stark ghosting him.
“Well that’s good.” May smiled, her thumb running over the two rings on her middle finger. A nervous habit. “I’m doing pretty well myself.”
“Yeah? Anything in particular happen lately?” Peter placed his half-eaten chicken patty on the paper plate and pushed it away. He was absolutely starving after a long day of school and running around the city, but if he had to eat one more chicken patty then he was going to barf.
“Actually, there is something I want to tell you.” Peter hummed, rested his hand on his chin and focused on the purple edges of his paper plate. Maybe he should call Happy Hogan? Would calling five times in one day make him look desperate?
“I’m not quite sure how to say this,” May whispered, “It’s good news! So don’t freak out.”
“That’s great.” The purple swirls on his paper plate formed a flower pattern, and the words ‘Dixie Ultra’ was part of the design.
“Peter, can you look at me.”
He lifted his gaze to meet her tired eyes. What had she been saying? “Sorry.” He uttered softly. May gave him a gentle squeeze on his wrist.
“Ever since you came back from that trip with Tony Stark you’ve seemed distracted. What’s up?”
“Nothing,” he laughed awkwardly, muffling it with a cough.
May sighed. “I have some news I wanted to share with you.”
Peter held the gaze, and May took that as her sign to continue.
“So I met someone a month ago in the office and he’s really nice.”
A wide grin spread across Peter’s face and he reached for a glass of water. “Oh, I see and is this ‘he’ attractive?”
“He is, very much so.” May said with a mischievous grin. “We’ve been getting serious in our relationship.”
Peter choked on his water, lurching forward to slam his cup down. He spluttered, coughing a few times. Quickly, May dabbed the spilled water droplets with her napkin. She made a bunch of sympathetic noises as he hacked up a lung, but all Peter could hear were wedding bells dinging in the background.
“You’re getting serious?! Wait? Wait. Wait. You’ve been dating him? For how long? Why are you just now telling me?”
“I was thinking it was time for him to finally meet you. If that’s okay. I know it hasn’t been that long since Ben di-“
May stopped herself right before she finished and Peter turned his head towards the window. He hated talking about Uncle Ben’s death. Any conversation around Uncle Ben was like picking at a scab wound on his soul until it started bleeding.
“I know it’s only been a year...” May whispered, grabbing Peter’s hand but he retracted it away quickly. Angry at Ben’s death, and even angrier at himself. Peter pushed all this rage onto his aunt for brining it up in the first place. It wasn’t fair. He knew it wasn’t fair to May, but Peter couldn’t help himself.
“Peter... I know you miss him, but no one I date will ever replace him.”
“Yes they will! Of course they will! That’s what re-marrying means, May. It means you moved on. How could you do that?”
May slammed her hand against the table as hard as she could, and Peter flinched at the sound.
“That’s enough.” She said, dangerously low. But her eyes were betraying her as they welled with tears, and Peter instantly felt awful. Shamed for his words.
“I’m - I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to - I’m sorry, May.” He knew no apology was going to make it right but he couldn’t contain his own outburst. It was childish, and he hated himself for reacting that way. The whole thing just caught him off guard. If he could take it back, he would.
As he watched May turn her face away, her shoulders shook in her orange tank-top. She tried to keep her tears silent and Peter felt his own eyes grow moist.
“That wasn’t okay... what I said. I’m sorry. I just… I miss him so much. But you deserve to be happy and - and if this guy makes you happy then that’s great, May. I’m really happy for you.” God, he hoped his voice sounded genuine. He did want her to be happy, he did. But this was going to take time.
Slowly, May turned to face him again. “It’s okay.” She whispered. “I know it’s hard for you to see me with anyone other than him. But Peter, I have to try to move on.”
“I know... I understand,” Peter said quickly. “I’ll meet him.”
“You will?” May dabbed her eyes with the napkin.
“Yeah.” If it would make her happy, he would.
She got up and walked over to him. “Promise you’ll be nice?”
Peter bit back a laugh. “I promise.”
She hugged him, kissing his cheek. “Thank you, honey. I think you’re really going to like him.”
“Can’t wait.” He mumbled, eyes drifting back to the paper plate.
__________________
Two weeks later, and Peter was sneaking into his house later than May preferred. He walked through the apartment door since his Spider-Man suit was well hidden in his backpack, and spotted May on the couch.
“Hi there!” She laughed, eyes glued to a funny movie, Brides Maids, on TV.
“Hey,” Peter responded meekly, hurrying into his bedroom and closing the door. He let out a sigh of relief now that he was home, and safe in his room.
Collapsing on-top of his soft bed, Peter shut his eyes, soaking in the heavenly feel of soft blankets and pillows. His body could fall asleep instantly, but his brain knew he needed to hide his Spider-Man suit in his closet or else May might find it when she went through his backpack.
He couldn’t bring himself to move, every muscle screamed for him to remain still and just succumb to sleep. Right when Peter was about to drift into a well-needed slumber, he heard shouting from across the street. His sixth sense wasn’t tingling, but his superhero instincts told him to check it out.
Miserably, Peter dragged himself off the comfy mattress and limped over to the window. It amazed him how sore his body felt after laying down for only a few seconds. Normal people, their muscles hurt the next morning, but not Peter. His ached immediately after resting.
Glancing out the smudgy glass window in his bedroom, Peter saw into MJ’s apartment. Her bedroom was below his on the bottom floor of the building across from him.
MJ went to school with Peter since the fourth grade. They’ve been neighbors for a while, but they never really talked. MJ liked to stay quiet, and when she did speak it was to spit out weird facts that no one cared about. She was weird, for sure, but sometimes Peter liked her weirdness. It made MJ unique. Besides, if there was one thing Peter could understand, it was being different from everyone else. He pulled his Spider-Man suit out of his backpack thinking to himself, Yeah, I understand being different for sure.
The shouting was coming from MJ’s apartment. But it wasn’t MJ shouting, it was her parents. Peter could see them through the other window, getting in one-another’s faces and screaming about everything from leaving wet towels on the floor to the lack of sex in their lives. Lovely.
“All I wanted was a warm mouth after my nap, and you couldn’t even do that.”
“You son of a bitch! I’m your wife not a sex toy.” She picked up a bottle of jam and smashed it against the table. “There you go. There’s your ‘dessert’ you wanted so badly that you had to hook up with the hot blonde upstairs.”
Peter’s face twisted in disgust. He really wished they would quiet down so the whole two apartment buildings didn’t hear them. Poor MJ. She was sitting on her bedroom floor, headphones over her ears, and writing something in one of her notebooks. MJ was always reading or writing these days.
After a while, Peter tore his gaze away and went over to his closet. He stuffed his Spider-Man suit in the secret compartment in the back, and then covered it with his clothes that were dangling off of the hangers.
“Whatcha doing?”
Peter jumped out of his skin, spinning around so fast he felt his heart give out.
“May! Oh my God. You can’t sneak up on me like that.” He clutched his thumping heart.
“Sorry, hon.” May unclipped her long brown hair, letting it fall freely. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She wrapped an arm around his neck and guided him over to the bed. They sat next to one another, peacefully, not saying anything for a little while. Then it started to feel awkward. Peter tucked his feet under his bum, and wrapped his arms around his knees.
“Are you okay?”
Ah. So that’s what she wanted to know.
“You hardly said anything when you came home.” May brushed a strand of hair away from his face.
“Uh yeah. I’m - I’m fine. I thought maybe your boyfriend was here and I was interrupting that’s all.”
May wrapped her arms around him, squeezing tightly. He leaned into her touch. It was nice being alone with May. He rarely ever gets to be alone with her anymore.
“I miss my kid.” She whispered, as if reading his mind. “Come on, talk to me a little. How was the Stark internship?”
Peter smiled, remembering his evening as Spider-Man. He saved a little kid from getting run over by a car, so it was a great night in his eyes.
“It was really good. But I’m just tired, you know. Lots of work and stuff.”
May nodded. “You work so hard, honey. I’m so proud of you.”
Peter swallowed thickly. “Thanks, May. I - I love you.”
“Love you too, tough guy.” She stood, dropping a quick kiss on the top of his head. “I guess I’ll be getting to bed. I have to work the early shift tomorrow.”
Peter frowned, “Yuck. I’m sorry about that.”
May paused at his doorframe. “Thanks Pete. I’m probably going to stay late tomorrow too, so I might not be here when you get home, but Beck will be here if you need anything.”
She turned off his light. “Goodnight, tough guy.”
With those words, she closed the door leaving him wide awake in the pitch blackness.
Beck will be here tomorrow.
Peter threw his head back as hard as he could against the mattress, and smothered his face with a pillow.
Awesome.