QUENTIN BECK
Flashback
I trudged back to our office, trying to come up with some excuse for why I didn't fire the missiles. My hair and clothes were wet and sticky from the lemonade Peter poured over my head. The liquid trickled down the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. I felt like I was at the lowest of lows.
It was just the look on his face, no words even had to be said. Just gazing into his deep brown hues could've had me crumbling to my knees before him. I'd never seen a person look so utterly hopeless, so betrayed, so hurt. It was like I felt every single emotion he was displaying. If he hurt, I hurt.
"And thank you for breaking my damn heart, Quentin Beck."
The reminder of what he had told me sent a pang of hurt to my swollen heart. I was heartbroken, too. But I brought that upon myself.
The thing about Peter was that he blamed himself for everything, even when it wasn't his fault. He worked so hard and still felt like a disappointment anyway. I wanted him to know he wasn't, but I think I just convinced him even more.
I wanted to cry. But I didn't let myself.
"Beck!" Jack yelled, "what the hell happened?"
I stood in front of the door, a small puddle of lemonade underneath me. "Spiderman found out." Everyone in the room had angry looks on their face before gasping. "Is everyone who went in okay?"
Amber shook her head violently. "No, the guards caught all of them. They're probably going to jail for a lifetime!"
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose.
I just find a way to disappoint everyone, don't I?
"What did Spiderman do?" Jack asked curiously and looked me up and down.
"He broke EDITH." I exhaled, "and poured a glass of lemonade over my head."
He blinked at me in confusion. "That's it?" He said, dumbfounded. "He didn't do anything to hurt you?"
My words caught in my throat... he was right. Why didn't he do anything worse?
"I um, I don't know," I said in realization.
Amber let out a bitter laugh. "I guess that gullible idiot really did fall in love with you."
I gulped down the knot in my throat and tried to hold myself together, as much as I could. At this point I couldn't even be angry anymore. All I felt was hurt.
Anger is a secondary emotion. So whenever we feel it, it's because underneath that, we're hurt. And Peter stripped down all the walls I had built up and all I could do was lay in the same pain I bet he was feeling right now.
"What are we going to do now?" Jack murmured after a moment of silence.
I shrugged and everyone else in our office gathered around us. Now, it was just the five of us. Me, Jack, Amber, Azaria and Marcus.
"I don't think there's any other way to escape this one," Azaria admitted. "But we could still aim for revenge, just in a different way."
I cocked an eyebrow. "What kind of way?"
She pondered over the thought for a second. "We could come up with something. Spiderman is gullible enough to fall in love with a stranger he barely knows. So he obviously isn't the smartest. It'll be easy to trick him."
I deadpanned defensively, "Peter isn't stupid."
Everyone looked at me in shock. "That's it!" Marcus cheered, "I can't believe we didn't even realize!"
I scanned over his villainous grin. "What's it?"
Marcus patted me on the back. "It was foolish of us to forget you know his true identity. Now, we expose who he is to the whole world."
I froze, stunned.
There's no way I just initiated ruining Peter's life even more. There's no way. No. None. It isn't possible.
"How should we do it?" Jack started to pace back and forth. "Capture him and pull off his mask in public?"
"No way," Azaria rolled her eyes. "We should post a picture of him online."
Amber stepped in. "Children, children, listen to me." She scoffed. "Anyone can wear the mask. Anyone can photoshop a picture. We have to convince the world that he's the bad guy. Then the whole world will want to kill him just as much as us!"
I would never kill Peter, and I'd be damned if I let any of them either.
I clenched my fists together tightly. "And how do you suppose we accomplish that?"
"You have to plot something bad again," she noted. "So that he has to show up. The world already thinks you're a superhero, so if we post a video of him trying to kill you then he's done for. We win."
Everyone started to cheer and toast to such a 'great idea' while I stood frozen in my place. I can't let them do this. I had already hurt Peter once, I need to show him that I won't ever do it again.
"Guys," I tried to cut in but they all ignored me, "guys!"
They all fell silent and looked at me expectantly when I groaned, not believing what I was about to say.
"We can't do this," I proclaimed, "we won't."
Jack let out a snicker. "Yeah right." I glared at him in response and that's when everyone realized that I was being completely serious.
"You aren't messing with us right now?" Azaria asked, totally confused.
"I'm not kidding." I stood my ground.
"What, did you actually fall in love with the idiot?" Amber joked. I didn't say anything, I just averted my eyes and tried to force the right words out of my mouth. But my hesitation was an answer enough I guess.
"Seriously?" Jack gasped, scrunching his nose up in downright disgust.
I straightened my posture and puffed out my chest in an attempt to look more intimidating. They were all nerds, anyway. I was inches taller, more muscular, more intelligent than all of them anyway. Not to be a douche. They all knew it too.
"Yeah, seriously, I imitated him. "Do you have a problem with that?"
She nodded at me with a look on his face that said 'duh, yeah I do.'
"Of course I have a problem!" he shouted, "I can't work with a fag."
Marcus tried to step in, "Quentin, it's fine if you're gay. But did you really have to pick Spiderman out of everyone?"
"He's despicable! He's a stupid, gullible, disgusting, worthless little faggot-" Jack went to talk but I cut him off by shoving him harshly against the wall and nobody else dared to speak this time.
"Go ahead. Say it again," I spat at him, poisonous venom leaking from my tone.
"Okay. He's a f-"
I slammed my fist into his face, the crunch of his nose audible in the room. Azaria squeaked in fear and surprise but I ignored her and everyone's protests when I pummeled my fist into his gut this time. He let out a loud cry of pain that he was hopelessly trying to keep in, but failed to do so.
"Don't you dare," I growled, "say that about him." Jack cowered away in fear, pure terror trapped in the depth of his bland colored eyes, "Or next time you'll get more than your nose broken, you little bitch," I roared.
I let go of him completely and he fell to the ground. Amber and Azaria bolted toward him to check if he was ok and console him as I let out a scoff.
I just turned around to leave the building once and for all but Marcus grabbed ahold of my shoulder right before I could walk out. I glared at him and tugged my shoulder back. "Just listen to me." He whispered, "I'm sorry Jack is an arrogant, homophonic asshole, but none of them are going to stop here."
"Oh yeah? And what are they gonna do?" I sneered, silently appreciating his acceptance. It was unspoken, but I knew that he knew I was grateful nonetheless.
"They already have EDITH downloaded onto our network. He still has the power to do whatever he wants. Jack can obliterate anyone he wants within seconds."
I stared at him in shock. "You think he'd actually kill me?"
He shrugged and shifted the weight from his right leg to the left. "Maybe not you, but definitely Spiderman."
My chest filled with a dangerous amount of rage at the thought of anyone hurting Peter. Not only was me hurting his feelings enough, but touching him physically was off the table. Not an option. No one would even dare to.
"I won't let him," I seethed.
"Just be careful." Marcus sighed and patted my shoulder, trying to comfort me. "Peter, right?" he asked and I nodded. "He's a good looking guy, real sweet. If you guys really love each other, I'm happy for the both of you."
I let out a genuine smile and leaned in to give him a quick hug. "Thanks, man."
"Of course." He mumbled, "I'm sorry the rest of our friends suck so much."
I laughed. "I wouldn't call them friends."
Marcus nodded. "Maybe this revenge thing wasn't so smart after all. If I knew it was Peter and not some random, thirty year old guy, I would never done this," he admitted
"You know him?" I questioned him, curiously.
"A while ago, I met up with some guys, looking for some guns. I never wanted to hurt anybody and I couldn't actually shoot anybody. It was more of a protection kind of thing.
"When I met up with some guys they were super sketchy. And they didn't have regular guns. I don't know the specifics but they were crazy dangerous. Spiderman showed up to stop the guys but his phone rang so the dudes thought I called the cops on them.
"One of them pointed a gun at me and Peter yelled 'if you're gonna shoot somebody then shoot me!' It takes some serious balls to do that. He's a good kid," he ended, a reminiscing smile placed on his lips.
I grinned at the thought of Peter doing something so kind.
He really is perfect.
"How are you going to stop Jack?" he switched back to our previous subject.
I sighed. "I don't know yet. But I'll figure it out."