"mistake" • spiderchelle

fourty seven

Benjamin and Mary are ten months old

•••

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, rolling closer to her. Michelle held her phone up so Peter could see it.

Peter looked for a second, then his eyes widened. "How did someone get this?" Peter asked, handing the phone back. "I have no idea," Michelle said, letting out a sigh.

"It's all over my feed. Not one person hasn't reposted it from our school," Michelle told him, scrolling through her instagram. "Wanda took the picture on my phone, so how would someone have gotten it?" Peter said.

Ben started to squirm in his arms, so he put him down. Ben immediately crawled to the pile of stuff animals that had somehow accumulated in the corner.

"I don't know, but it's clearly a picture of you laying your head on my very large stomach," Michelle told him, watching her son play with a Hulk stuff animal. He kept making the stuffed animal 'smash' random things around the room.

"Parker Luck strikes again," Peter said, leaning his head back. "Why did I agree to date a Parker?" Michelle joked, earning a playful glare from Peter.

"What are some of the comments?" Peter asked. Michelle opened her phone again, picking Flash's picture.

"Is that Peter and Mj? Is Mj pregnant? When did this happen? No way. Parker's got game. Did Peter do that? What did I miss? Why is her stomach so big?" Michelle read out loud. Peter put his head in his hands and mumbled, "I don't know what to do."

Michelle thought for a few seconds, until Ben crawled to her and pulled on her sweat pants. "Yes Benny?" Michelle asked, using her nickname for him. He babbled some, then she picked him up.

"Benny, what are we gonna do? The school knows about you now," she asked him, using her baby voice. "Mama," he said, then later his head against her chest. Her heart melted, and she smiled so wide.

"His first word was mama too," she told Peter. Peter was smiling too, "Dang." Peter rolled closer, and rubbed his hand up and down Ben's back, "Thanks for brightening up the mood buddy."

The three sat in silence, until Peter spoke up again. "We should tell everyone at supper. See what they think." "Okay."

•••

Everyone was at their spots at the table and had started eating. Michelle and Peter were feeding the twins baby food while trying to eat themselves.

"So, how's school going?" Pepper asked the two teenagers. "It's fine, but we kinda have a problem right now. We're hoping someone here might have some advice," Michelle said, wiping Mary's face.

"A picture of me laying on Michelle pregnant stomach somehow got out. Everyone at the school has seen it by now," Peter explained, giving Ben a spoonful of mashed peas.

"How would someone have gotten that photo?" Tony asked. "We don't know. No one knows about them, not even Ned," Peter told him.

"At this point, you might as well come clean," Natasha told them, "There's no point in trying to make up a story." "When?" Michelle asked, getting a bite of her food. "When they ask. If they need to know so bad, they'll ask."

•••

eeeeeeee.

so in english one we have to write a personal narrative. if you've been with me since the beginning of the book, you'll know i have trichotillomania. i'm going to use that as my 'conflict' and how i got glasses as a temporary 'resolution' to my biggest insecurity. this is going to take a lot of me to write about this topic, so wish me luck that i don't have too many break downs.

-Nat