Spider-man: Alone in New York

~ Chapter 29 ~

"Sure, would you like me to notify them of the delay?" She asked.

"No, no. It's fine. I'll be quick. Please hold the elevator for me while I take care of something," I said, and when we arrived at my floor, Friday allowed me to run to my room, drop off the bag, and hurry back. At least that was taken care of.

Before I was ready, we reached our destination too soon. I flinched when the doors opened and hesitantly walked out. Mr. Stark, Clint, Bruce, Natasha, and Steve were all in the living room, standing and facing the elevator, eyes on me with obviously relieved faces. 

I rubbed the back of my neck and awkwardly said, "Hi."

Mr. Stark hurried over to me. My mind went through hundreds of different ways he would respond. I hunched a bit when he came closer and slightly angled away from him, in case he was mad and would want to hurt me. 

He opened his arms, and my face grimaced. 

And then I was engulfed in a hug. It shocked me so much that I just froze for the first few seconds, my eyes wide as my side slightly flared in pain at being touched. Why wasn't he screaming at me? Wasn't he mad? 

Finally, half a minute in, I realized I should probably hug him back, but he already pulled away. His hand was on my jaw, turning my head around to see if I had any injuries.

"Why is there a bandage on your forehead? Are you all alright? Did someone hurt you? Who hurt you? I will find them and kill them." Mr. Stark's jaw clenched in anger. 

"It-it's nothing. I just... someone tried to rob me." I saw Clint, standing a couple of feet behind Mr. Stark give a slight shake of his head in disappointment and start to leave the room, so I centered my focus back on a worried Stark. 

"Someone tried to rob you?! Where? We can check if there's any surveillance footage and track-"

"Mr. Stark, it's fine. I just got punched, that's all. They didn't take anything because I didn't have anything on me."

Natasha spoke up, and I could see her leaning on the wall, "And the bandage? Where'd you get that from?" Her head tilted to the side as she studied me. Did she see that I was lying? Did she think that I was trying to fool them?

At least this part is true. "Oh, I stopped by one of my friend's house. Her mother's a nurse, so she knew how to take care of it. It wasn't a big deal. Just a little bit of blood."

"Head wounds bleed a lot," Natasha said, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Bruce came up and stood beside Natasha. "I could take a look at it."

I shook my head. "It's fine. Really. MJ, my friend, knows how to do stuff like this. She wants to be a doctor." That seemed to convince them enough to back off, thankfully. 

I turned my attention back to Mr. Stark who pushed a hand down his face. "Why didn't you at least call me?"

"I would've but I, uh, I don't have a phone." I knew the phone conversation would come up. I bet all my money that I currently have that he's going to offer to buy me a new one.

Mr. Stark frowned as if the idea of a teenager not having a phone was nuts. "What do you mean you don't have a phone? I thought I had seen you using one."

I shrugged it off. "It kind of shattered when those people attacked me. It fell off the staircase and to the bottom."

"And you're telling me this now? I would've gotten you a new one." I knew it. Does that mean I get some money for betting correctly? 

I rubbed the nape of my neck. "Oh, that's not necessary." He didn't need to spend any money on me, even though he already had as my brand-new pair of shoes could attest to. I decided I wouldn't need the other pairs he had bought me and put them on eBay to make a few bucks off it. Yes, I felt bad about it, but if Mr. Stark had a change of heart (most likely because he would figure out I was the thing he hunted) and wouldn't want me around or if May was found and I would be re-kicked out of the apartment, I would at least have some money on hand for emergencies.