"Peter?" I wrapped my arms around myself against the cold as I followed my twin brother's gaze after MJ as she trotted towards Flash and his new car. "Peter!" He finally looked up at me. "Oh, hey, 'Bekah," he grinned happily up at me, "Have I had a day! Just wait til you hear about it!" I rolled my eyes and held the door open as he obediently followed me inside.
"Where have you been, Peter? I've been trying all evening to keep Aunt May and Uncle Ben from worrying about you, but exactly who was there to keep ME from worrying? They had to paint the entire kitchen by themselves and no way I could help much with THIS," I pointed to myself in the wheelchair, "in the way! What happened to you?" I slowed down some when I saw the guilt written all over his face...along with something else.
"Peter? The school called...they told me about the fight when Aunt May and Uncle Ben were out getting paint. What happened?" I'd let my irritation with him get out first, and now I regretted it. I was supposed to be the ever-sympathetic twin sister, not the griping mother hen!
I watched as my brother turned away, suddenly angry, with a muttered, "It doesn't matter. I'm going up to bed." I watched sadly as he leapt up the stairs. I had done it this time, and I wasn't even sure what!
Shaking my head wearily, I picked up his backpack and wheeled over to the trashcan to empty Peter's daily stash of wrappers, scribbled out class notes, and, as always, the love poems dedicated to MJ. These last I always kept, adding to the already-full box of mementos of Peter's affection for our lovely neighbor. I pulled out the love poems and was gigglimg over one particularly awful rhyme('Beautiful Mary Jane, for thee my heart sang') when I saw IT. The Spider.
Gah! I hate spiders! I squealed and tried to push the backpack off my lap, but a strap caught on the arm of my wheelchair and- aahh! The stupid bug was walking up my shirt! I swatted at it and managed to dislodge it from off my chest, only to have it bite my hand just before I smushed it with Peter's Chemistry book. I stared down at the tiny blue-and-red arachnid bit of goop as I heard Peter tearing down the stairs behind me, alarmed by my shriek.
"Rebekah? What's wrong? What happened?" His eyes widened when I pointed at the remains of my attacker. In fact, his expression was something akin to absolute horror. I looked down as the tiny bite wound began to swell.
"It came out of your backpack," I told him calmly, when I noticed his panic attack. "I swatted it, and it but my hand. I didn't wake up Aunt May or Uncle Ben, did I?" I asked anxiously, then stopped at the look on his face.
"The spider from the laboratory," he whispered in horror. "The super-spider that bit me. It must have climbed into my backpack! And- and it bit..." His voice trailed off, and he suddenly shook his head, I assumed to clear it.
"Peter?" I was more than a little freaked at how he was acting. Shaking his head again, he startled me by sweeping me up out of my wheelchair and carrying me up the stairs. Wow, I thought, He's really strong. I suddenly thought of how much I loved my twin, even when he was doing crazy things like punching the daylights out of some boy or carrying me upstairs to his bedroom for no apparent reason. Well, I changed my mind suddenly, Maybe for the apparent reason of telling me why he's acting so weird. Maybe.