DIANA RETURNED HOME THAT NIGHT WITH BOTH WARMTH AND DREAD IN HER HEART. Warmth because she had actually met Nicky's roommate—an attractive blond named Rhett Reiser who constantly reminded him to drink water and go out into the sun every few days—and had discovered a newfound sense of purpose in life to help others. Dread because she was about to go back home to the Thompsons who were most likely going to fight.
She sat in the subway train listening to the same music she had listened to on the way there—she listened to the more uplifting songs as she didn't want to dampen her mood by the thought of Peter—and stared up at the lights, trying to find her meaning and purpose in life in them.
She glanced down when her music was interrupted by a call; it was a surprise in of itself considering the subway doesn't usually get cell service. She raised an eyebrow at the sight of Gwen's contact. She chewed on her bottom lip, unsure of how Gwen was feelings towards the family, only to remember that just because Flash wasn't on good terms with her didn't automatically mean that she wasn't.
"Hello?" she said, answering the call.
"You're back home!" Gwen cheered through the speaker, "Wait, this is Diana, right? I can kind of hear you through your accent, but I can't guarantee anything, this is you, right?"
"Yes, Gwen, it's me. How's everything going?" she said softly, hoping that the girl wouldn't bring up her terminated relationship with Flash.
Thankfully, she didn't. "It's been pretty good, I'm working at the Oscorp Internship. It's so exciting and I'm going to be a TA for Mr. Davis, so I get access to the lab at school when we get back, so this is going to be great!"
Diana couldn't help but smile at how excited her friend was. It seemed as though everyone she was talking to was having a great time. Everyone except for her. She shoved the thought out of her mind in favor of being happy for her friend; it was hard, but she managed.
"That's great," she said, still staying quiet so as not to bother the other passengers, "I haven't been doing much, so I don't really have anything exciting to tell you." She didn't want to talk about her time in London, it seemed as though most people didn't want to talk about it.
There was a pause. "How's Flash?"
Diana sighed and leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes and licking her lips. "He's pretty upset, uh...I mean, his Harrison is back and, um, Peter and I broke up, so."
She expected Gwen to shriek, to shout and demand what had happened, to ask if she needed her to talk some sense into him. Instead she was just quiet. She just whispered, "I'm so sorry, Dina," and that was it.
Diana smiled sadly at the sound of her nickname. The only other nickname she had left, but the one she wouldn't get to hear from the person who made it up. "Yeah."
"Are you okay?"
She shook her head. "It just happened last night, so, no, I'm really not."
"I'm so sorry."
She sighed. "It's alright. I heard Harry's dating Johnny Storm, how's that going?"
Gwen snorted softly. "Check Johnny's Insta and add on him Snap, it's been taken over with selfies and pictures of Harry, it's really sweet, actually. Harry, cars, and other famous hero stuff. But mostly Harry."
Diana laughed. "That's really cute." She was then reminded of the camera she had bought for Peter and the pictures of her he had taken and sent which were still on her phone. She thought about deleting them, but decided against it.
"Yeah," Gwen said, "Well, I need to go eat dinner, but this was fun, we should hang out some time before school starts."
"Yeah..." Diana said softly, "Sure. Bye." She hung up the call and winced as the music switched back and screamed in her ears.
She reached her spot three songs later and hopped off along with some of the few people, following them out into the dark evening of the city; she had stayed too long at Nicky's which meant she had missed going home when the sun was still out.
She made her way towards her apartment, listening to music the way most teenagers her age did, Peter included. She groaned as she remembered the boy, trying to push him out of her mind. She reached her apartment and stepped into the lobby, going up the elevator, pulling the key out of her pocket as she rose up the floors.
She walked down the hall and steeled her nerves, standing in front of the door for a few minutes, not wanting to step inside. It wasn't until a voice called out that she realized she had just been standing and made a move to go in.
"You just gonna stand there all night or are you gonna let us eat?"
She jumped, looking around briefly before realizing that the voice had come from inside her apartment; it was Flash. She reached for her key, only to stop when the door opened to reveal the boy who barely spared her a glance, letting her in as he walked towards his seat at the table.
"Where have you been, honey?" Rosie asked from her position at the table. She still sat at the head, Harrison sitting next to her, across from Flash where Jesse used to sit.
"I was at Nicky's," she replied, "We had a lot to talk about and we worked on some stuff." It wasn't all therapy, but they didn't need to know that.
"That shrink?" Harrison snorted, "Rosie, didn't I tell you he was a waste of time."
"It's my decision," Diana interjected, raising an eyebrow; so this was why Flash had to drop Nicky. He had said Nicky wasn't good for the family, she just didn't think Harrison counted as family. Maybe he didn't to Flash, but Rosie was a completely different story.
"Waste of time," he repeated, clicking his tongue before turning back to his plate.
She felt a surge of anger rise up and she bit her tongue to keep from snapping at him. She glanced over at Flash who was sitting across from his father, gripping his fork tightly in his hand. He caught her look and his eyes darted away quickly as he shook his head minutely.
She moved to sit next to him, looking across at Jesse who already looked ready to leave. Diana felt the same; no one could blame her if she did, she had been for the most part of her time living with them, but she wasn't about to just up and leave, not after how tense everything was.
They began to eat and conversation was confined to the 'please's and 'thank you's of passing around food, no one speaking more than they had to. But of course, Rosie had to go and ask Harrison how his day was.
"It was awful," the man ranted, "We got these people working here, they don't even speak our language. These damn immigrants are ruining this country—"
"Mom's an immigrant," Flash said loudly, not shouting, but not just saying either. He had stopped eating and was gripping his fork as though it was the only thing keeping him from dying.
His father just scoffed and waved his hand. "Shut up, boy, you'll understand when you get a job—"
Flash scoffed as well, sounding so similar that it frightened Diana. "I'm not white, so I'm the one you'd be bitching about—"
"Don't talk to me like that, boy!" his father roared, causing everything to jump. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice dangerously low. "I am your father and you will talk to me with respect."
Flash glared at his father with gritted teeth, gripping his fork. "You might be my father, but you're not my dad."
"How dare you—!"
"Bye."
Flash stood up and bolted to his room, so fast that his father was barely able to open his mouth before the door shut loudly, the sound of the lock falling into place deafening in the tense room. He earned his nickname and Diana had never been more happy he had.
"Can you believe him?" Harrison asked, turning to Jesse, "I try to tell him something that happened and he just leaves."
Jesse shrugged, mumbling, "Well, I mean, he's right, dad, we're not white like you and Diana."
"Well, then, Diana will know what I'm talking about," Harrison exclaimed, "It's hard for our kind of people in this world, isn't it? What with all these—"
"You know, I think I should probably take this in my room," she said, turning to look at Rosie pleadingly, "I'm tired and I kind of want to lie down, I'll just leave it there in case I wake up hungry. Okay, thanks."
She didn't even wait to leave, she just picked up her plate and speed-walked to her room, leaving Jesse alone to fend against her father and her mother, who would no doubt agree with the man. It made Diana sick to think of Jesse, who just wanted people to be happy, who could talk the ear off of an empty room, would be forced to associate with a man like her father.
She ate at her desk, trying not to stare at the small circular charm that sat in the corner, starting to gather dust even after the short period of time. She just ate and pulled up a random movie on her laptop, hoping that it would take her mind off of everything.
She hadn't sat at the table for more than ten minutes and there was already a fight. That didn't happen with the Glicks.
After an indiscernible amount of time, she heard a knock on Flash's door. She paused her movie and moved towards the sound, trying to eavesdrop through the door which wasn't as thick as the walls.
"Flash," the man started, "I'm, uh, sorry if what I said 'upset' you or something. Didn't realized you started to care about this PC stuff. I'll try not to say it in front of you. I'm sorry."
There was a pause. Then, "Whatever."
She expected Harrison to get angry. To shout and start beating at the door, demand that Flash come out and show his respect or apologize or something that would lead to the boy getting hit; he never talked back that bad before, imagine what would happen now that he did.
That didn't happen. Instead, Harrison just groaned in frustration and walked away, saying something to Rosie that she couldn't understand. It was the most surprising thing Diana had ever semi-witnessed and she watched Peter Parker reveal himself to be the Spider-Man.
She sighed and dropped her head onto her hand, pressing play on her movie. She was flashed back to the days when she would hide out in her room, trying not to hear the horrors that occurred just outside of her doorway.
It was like she was back in her own dark ages.
She had thought that, with Harrison having been arrested, she never would have to hide out in her room again, trying to avoid everything. But now he was back and everything was regressing, everything she had built up, everything the Thompsons had built up, it was all crashing down.
Well, this time it was going to be different. This time Diana was going to take a stand. She was older now, she was going to protect her family. They weren't the Glicks, but they were the Thompsons and they were her family. Whether she liked it or not.
º º º º º
She woke up to find Flash sleeping at the foot of her bed.
She nearly jumped when she saw him, her eyes the size of saucers. She had to pinch herself a few times to make sure that she was awake and not imagining or dreaming. She even went so far as to poke him which woke him up.
He groaned and stretched, sitting up and running his hands through his unruly hair. He turned and caught her staring at him. Wordlessly, he turned to look at the door and stood up, walking out of her room, closing the door behind him.
She listened as he walked into his own room, locking the door behind him. He wasn't allowed to lock the doors, at least not when they lived without Harrison. Now it seemed as though it was a habitual action.
She wondered if he had slept in her bed while she was gone. The thought made her sad rather than unnerved.
She fell back down against her mattress, her head pressing into her pillow. She took a deep breath and sighed, her heart dropping when she smelled the familiar scent of laundry detergent. Before she had left, her pillow had, more often than not, smelled like Peter. Now, she truly had nothing of him to cling onto.
She shook her head and flipped onto her side, facing the wall. She needed to find something to do, something that would take her mind off of Peter. Sure, she would work with Nicky, but she needed something to do on her own.
She hummed and thought. Flash was focusing on school more than he was focused on football, Jesse was focusing on joining track, and Gwen was focused on her internship and what she could do at school in terms of extra science courses.
Maybe she could focus on school as well. She turned back towards her other side, picking up her phone and opening it with the intention of pulling up Google. She would find something to do, something that would help her. Help her at school, help her take her mind off things. Take her mind off Peter.
She sighed as she stared at her lockscreen. She would start by replacing the picture of Peter.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
( 07.19.17 )
This was pretty filler, but Part Two is more focused on Diana's arc than it is on the action? It's mostly her being her own sort of hero and helping her herself (I'm also kind of following the way the story is taking me rather than the other way around, I don't really have an idea for right now)
Rhett Reiser, just by the way, is the main character of my Steve Rogers fic Past Lives. He's Nicky's roommate. Just needed to clear that up since most people think that Nicky's roommate is Steve or Bucky lol.
I set up an entire story arc in this story (well, a few actually, but they all sort of intertwine and they all focus around): Harrison Thompson. The man causes his family to act certain ways, Flash especially, and that is a big part of this story.
That's all I have to say so...thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!