Help Me If You Can, I'm Feeling Down

Peter had had a good day.

He got more than four hours of sleep the night before, barely saw Flash at all during school, and aced his spanish test. He was now laying on his bunk bed, staring at the bottom of the bunk above him, with his Spider-Man suit on. He was idly shooting different web combinations upwards and talking with Karen.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang. Little did Peter know, this one phone call would alter his entire life. For the worse. Probably just Ned calling about Physics, he thought. But the Caller ID said Queens Memorial Hospital. Huh. Probably May calling to say she would come home late from another night shift working as a nurse at the hospital. He'd noticed she'd been taking those lately to get the extra money.

"Is this Peter Parker?" Said an unfamiliar female voice on the other end of the line. An unsettling feeling started to grow in Peter's stomach. Who was this? Where is May? Is it a trap?

"Uh, y-yeah. That's me. P-Peter Parker." He responded, his stuttering getting the best of him.

"I'm sorry to inform you Peter, but we have unfortunate information regarding May Parker.

Please come to the hospital as soon as possible." Replied the woman. Ironically, her monotone voice didn't sound sorry at all.

"Wh… What? Wait, no no no no. When- I- W-What happened?" Peter panicked. His stomach leapt up into his throat as tears started welling in his eyes. He was having trouble breathing. If anything happened to May…

"May Parker was involved in a bad car accident. Her car was hit by a bus. She has a punctured lung, broken ribs, and multiple other contusions. We tried everything we could, but… I'm sorry, she didn't make it." The voice started to sound more genuine this time, not that Peter cared or was paying attention to that. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He hung up and immediately collapsed onto his knees and started to hyperventilate as tears streamed down his face relentlessly. No, no, no no nonono this can't be happening this isn't real she can't be dead she can't die… salty tears started to reach the flow under Peter and thoughts of May raced through his head a mile a minutes.

A familiar robotic voice broke Peter out of his thoughts. "Peter, you appear to be in extreme distress. Would you like me to contact Mr. Stark?"

"No, Karen," he choked out through his sobs and gritted teeth.

A wave of nausea suddenly hit him as he sprinted to the toilet and ripped off his mask just in time to vomit up his entire lunch into the toilet. Peter couldn't handle this.

Then a thought hit him. A thought that hadn't crossed him before that made him even more sick to the stomach. May was his last living relative; where would he go now? He couldn't keep being Spider-Man in the foster system, it was too hard. Maybe… maybe he could live on his own. He could get emancipated, drop out of Midtown, get a job at Delmar's. Maybe he could make it.

No. That was stupid. He couldn't make it and he would be alone together, without May… May. The last thing Peter had to hold onto. A fresh load of sadness drowned Peter and he was left to cry by him himself in his room.

After a while, a wave of anger that he'd kept in started flowing freely. And let me tell you, an angry teenager mixed with super strength does not end well. Peter tore the room apart. With his rage, the whole destruction of his room was a blur. He didn't even process what he was doing. Once he calmed down, though, Peter looked around his room to see a splintered door frame, clothes and sentimental belongings covering the floor, and multiple holes in the wall from Peter's punching.

"Peter, I highly recommend notifying Mr. Stark. This level of distress is not healthy and can be very dangerous if you have a panic attack-"

"Shut UP, Karen!" Peter yelled.

He was mad at everything. Mad at May for leaving him Mad at the doctor for not saving her. Mad at the fucking bus driver that hit her and especially mad at himself for not being on patrol at that time. "Sorry," He quietly apologized to Karen.

"It's alright Peter. I'm not mad. Anger is a normal symptom in many growing adolescents." Karen innocently apologized.

But maybe Karen wasn't wrong. Peter had started to calm down and think straight. May was blocked out of his mind and he had no tears left in him to cry and no more energy to wreck his whole apartment. Maybe Mr. Stark could help. Just maybe Peter could get out of this.