Senioritis 3

Love Of My Life

Peter crept down the stairs, looking to see if anyone was in the living room.

He felt like a twelve-year-old again; he would wake up to a sudden pain in his chest. The pain would come whenever he had those dreams about his parents. He'd wake up to the sound of May and Uncle Ben arguing. They were always arguing about something. Then he'd come out of his room and sit on the landing of the stairs. He'd pretend he was a spy as he'd sit there in the dark, peering in between the railings.

Most of the time, they'd argue about money. Uncle Ben would get fired from another one of his jobs. May would be exhausted, working over time. Peter's middle school was expensive and a lot of kids that were better off than him went there. Kids like MJ, Flash and Liz. May would shout at Uncle Ben and say that they couldn't afford it. Uncle Ben would shout back and say Peter was a bright kid and he was prepared to give him the world...no matter what it cost.

Peter's memory of Uncle Ben was starting to fade away too. But Peter remembered he was smart and loved science. Peter would come home from school and he'd do science experiments with Uncle Ben in the kitchen. They always made a mess and sometimes the experiments failed, but Peter loved every second of it.

Uncle Ben taught Peter how to code at a young age. He picked Peter up from school most days. He was an excellent cook - even better than May - and he always made Peter the most insane packed lunches. He gave Peter the talk when he was eleven. Peter remembered feeling weird when he went into school that day, looking at girls in a way he'd never really looked at them before.

Uncle Ben could never keep a job, because he was restless and always wanted to do something more 'worth his time.' He loved May but he would drink a lot and get angry sometimes. Peter always wondered if he learned how to be angry from him. He'd disappear some weekends and May would say to Peter that he was sleeping with other women. They never really found out if that was true.

May blamed herself for never really resolving things with Uncle Ben before he died, and it was sad for Peter to see.

Peter just wanted her to be happy.

It was past 7am and the sun hadn't even fully risen yet. The lights were on in the living room and May was indeed in the kitchen, with a towel around her neck and her gym clothes on. She must have been in the garage on her Peloton bike, Peter thought.

"You're up, Tiger?" May said, looking up at him as he came down the stairs.

Peter was trying to pretend that he hadn't just helped MJ climb back out of his window in the early hours of the morning. He'd watched her again tentatively, scared she was gonna fall off a ledge and break her leg, or something.

It was weird lying next to her because it felt normal. And it shouldn't really have felt that way. He'd woken up a few times at night, turning to see if she was still there and she was. She still slept with her hair all over her face.

"Yeah." Peter said, walking up to the couch and stretching. "I just...woke up a little earlier and couldn't get back to sleep."

That wasn't exactly a lie. He'd woken up and just stared at the ceiling, his heart beating out of his chest. Partly because he'd wake up randomly with panic attacks anyway. Partly because he was so aware that MJ was still lying there and he needed to get her out before Happy or May found out.

And also because today was the day. Happy was gonna propose to May. Peter was gonna get everything he'd always wanted - an actual family.

He kinda felt more nervous than Happy was, and he didn't know why. He felt like he was giving May away. For so long, he'd been the only person she really cared about.