Always an ending (Peter Parker)

Chapter 4

(This is the song for this chapter)

By the time Charlie and Cameron had gotten home they were drenched from the evening rain. Charlie's mascaras ran down her cheeks and her dress stuck to her legs, Cameron's white shirt had turned see through and his bouncy curls were flattened. Cameron hurried his little sister into the house, it reeked of alcohol and the lights flickered. Charlie shuddered as she entered the house, the coldness from outside toning down. "Go get into some pyjamas I'll make us some hot chocolate." Charlie nodded and headed upstairs and into her bedroom. Charlie and her brother had been eating chips when the rain started but then it got heavier and the chips were forgotten. Charlie took of her clothes and replaced them with warm fuzzy pyjamas. She headed downstairs and placed herself on the couch as her brother came from the kitchen with two mugs in his hands. Charlie gladly took the mug and held it close to her chest as if it would give her some sort of feeling to stop her aching chest. "How are you feeling?" Cameron placing himself next to his sister. He knew his sister well, they were best friends after all and he knew she was hurting right now but she wouldn't admit it until it became too much, so he had to try and coax it out of her slowly. "I'm fine." Charlie took a sip of her hot chocolate, the warm liquid burning her throat. "Charlie, how many times are you going to say that until you realise your not?" Cameron stared at his sibling placing a delicate hand on her knee. "I just- why did it have to be me, us? What did we do deserve to such a crappy life, we had everything and now we have nothing." Cameron processed his sisters words. "That's not true, we have each other and that's all we need." Charlie nodded her head in agreement. The two Williams siblings sat there in a comfortable silence staring into each others eyes. That night Charlie went to bed with a small smile and a little bit of hope in her heart.

That hope was shattered the minute she stepped foot into Midtown High. Someone had filmed her mothers little outburst and it had gone viral. Somehow someone had figured out it was Charlie's mother and it was all everyone was talking about. Charlie walked through the halls her hood over her head and her head hung low. Everyone was pointing their fingers at her, calling her names or laughing.Tears pricked at her eyes and all she wanted to do was around and walk out. "Hey loser, how's your mum enjoying jail?" "I'm not in the mood Britany." It was true, Charlie was not in the mood, her mother was in jail, her brother was working extra hours to earn enough money to run the house and bail out our mother. "That a threat, nerd?" Britany stepped closer to Charlie so they were face to face. "No." "Didn't think so." Before Charlie could walk away Britany had grabbed a hold of her hoodie and thrown her into the lockers. Charlie winced as the cold metal made contact with her skin. She scrambled to her feet only for Britany to punch her in the jaw. "Your as pathetic as your mother, you'll end up like a drunk, exactly like her." Charlie didn't say anything back but instead let Britany's word get to her. They cut her like a knife. What if she did turn out like her mother? "Get up Charlie." Britany spat. From the corner of her eye Charlie could see Peter and Ned shoving their way through the crowd and just as Peter reached Charlie she stuck her hand out."Peter don't it's ok, I don't want you to get hurt." Britany landed another punch on Charlie and she stumbled back a little bit. "Britany stop, leave her alone." Charlie saw Harry Osborn stand in front of her, she was shocked, he was one of the football guys, the popular guys and he was defending a nerd like her. Charlie knew he was friends with Peter. "You better watch your back Williams." Britney turned around and walked away with her friends scurrying behind.

"Hey are you alright?" Harry looked at the small girl. "Yeah, thank you." Harry gave a small nod to the girl and then turned to his best friend Peter Parker. "Hey Harry, thanks for stepping in." "No problem, no one deserves that, Britany is just snobby." Peter turned to Charlie who was wiping the blood from her lips onto her hoodie and lightly touching her lower back, that was probably going to have a bruise later. The bell rang and they all said their goodbyes before scurrying off to class. "So Charlie huh?" "What?" Peter looked up at his friend in confusion. "Oh don't play stupid Peter, I see the way you look at her." Harry laughed. "What way is that Harry?" "Like she is the world."

Charlie slouched in her seat, slightly embarrassed as everyone in the classroom was talking about her fight with Britany. "Ok class settle down, I have some homework for you..." Charlie tuned out the teacher and placed her head on the table. Most of her lessons went like this, she would walk in, everyone would talk about the fight, the teacher would start talking and Charlie would zone out. When it came round to lunch Charlie was completely out of it. She sat at her usual table with her friends and Harry Osborn had tagged along. "Charlie, did you hear me?" Peter was waving his hand in front of Charlie's face. "Huh? Oh I wasn't sorry." Charlie looked up at her friends and realised that all their eyes were on her. Peter frowned, he didn't like seeing Charlie like this. She seemed so distracted, lost in thought, he wondered what she was thinking about. "I asked if you were going on the field trip to the science exhibit, to see the radioactive spiders." Peter was excited to go on this trip, he would get to see radioactive spiders and some other experiments too. "Oh, I'll ask Cam." "Ok, did you want to study in the library for our English Literature project, we should probably make a start on it." Peter suggested hoping he could bring her mood up at the mention of her favourite subject. "Oh, sure." The rest of lunch the group of friends tried to cheer up their brunette friend and they had succeeded.

Charlie met Peter in the library after her last lesson and they began studying right away. Maybe things were starting to look up for Charlie. Little did she know how wrong she was.