Chapter Nine
Peter's throat felt tight as he looked at the belt in his hand that he was gripping with such force that he was surprised that Scott hadn't ripped it in two already. Peter licked his lips and he could taste the salt from the sweat on his upper lip. Damn, he was sweating already.
He was Spiderman. He had fought against Thanos, and yet what was it about Scott that as soon as he saw him he felt himself sweating and wanting to curl up in a little ball. He was pathetic that was what he was. No wonder Flash shoved him against a locker every other day.
"Scott, you're back." Peter suddenly felt weak. "You're back. You're back early." Peter knew that he was stammering but he couldn't help it. His eyes just continued to go to the belt. Peter suddenly remember how hard Scott had slap him, somehow, he thought that this wasn't going to be just a quick slap.
Scott didn't answer, his face was still cold. "Where were you? Peter, answer me! I won't ask again!" a shiver ran down his spine. His brain seemed to be screaming answers at him. What should he tell him? That he was in detention? Helping the poor? Playing legos with Ned?
"I was at decathlon practice." Peter finally blurted out, but it can clear that Scott didn't believe him. He slapped the belt down on the table and Peter flinched at the sound. "I-"
"Don't lie to me," Scott growled. "I'll give you one more chance because I'm a very generous guy. Where the hell were you?"
Peter tried to hide his trembling voice. His Spidey sense was going off at full speed and Peter knew that it wasn't wrong. It was clear to Peter now that Scott hated him. Well, to be honest he had never liked him in the first place, but he finally saw the hatred in his eyes. "I was at decathlon practice-"
"Don't lie to me!" Scott snarled, his face turning pink from the screaming. "I know that you got detention for sleeping in class again. This is not the first time Peter and this is not the first time that you lied to me or your aunt about it so now I'm going to teach you a lesson."
The belt went flying and Peter's first instinct was to grip it in his hand to prevent it from hitting its neck. He weakly let it go when he saw that this only made Scott even madder. Just let him. It will be over soon, Peter. Don't make this any harder than it has to be. Aunt May loves him. May needs him.
The belt fell again across his arms and torso, but mostly against his back. That's where Scott seems to target most of the whips. His back. Peter had super human strength and usually he could take a punch, but right now he was missing the adrenaline that usually came with the fighting.
Now Peter felt everything. He felt as the belt fell several times. He felt as the belt seemed to cut his skin. He felt the sting and pain as his skin swelled. He felt everything.
His eyes watered a bit and Scott was breathing heavily, but Peter was determined not to cry. Scott let the belt fall on the floor. "Go to your room, your aunt is going to be coming in any second now." Peter suddenly wasn't very hungry. "Peter, you better not get another detention and you better not lie to me again. Next time it will be worse for you."
Scott didn't even wait for a response, instead he pushed him against the wall not caring for his sore skin. Scott opened the fridge and grabbed a beer. When it was clear that he didn't care about Peter, Peter shuffled towards his room and locked the door.
In the privacy of his own room Peter let the hot tears fall. He felt so humiliated. Sad. Confused. In pain. Peter slowly removed his shirt and studied his back in the mirror. There were belt marks across his back that were a deep red, towards his lower back they were slightly purple.
"Come on Peter, you've almost died how many times now?" he mumbled to himself. "You can handle this. You can handle this."
Scott told May that he was asleep that he had a bad headache and had gone to bed. When May had wanted to check up on him, he insisted that he needed rest. Usually May would still check on Peter no matter how Scott had protested, but maybe Scott was such a sweet talker that May didn't come check up on him that night and Peter was secretly glad.
His entire back burned like it had been set on fire and he was sure that his skin was swollen. His eyes were red and he felt so exhausted. Peter was glad that May hadn't come in otherwise she would know that something was wrong and Peter didn't want to tell her.
He didn't know why he didn't want to tell her exactly, he just didn't. He felt uncomfortable about it. Peter didn't want to come off as a whiny kid either. Maybe he did deserve it. After all he shouldn't be falling asleep in class. Beside it wasn't like he could fight off Scott either, he could find out he was Spiderman or Peter could accidently hurt him.
The next afternoon during his last period Biology class, Peter's class was outside picking flowers for an experiment. "This is stupid," MJ said as she plucked a daisy. "We are destroying the eco system for a stupid experiment."
Ned snorted. "It's just one flower, MJ. I'm so hungry." He whined. "Does anyone have any food? Beef jerky? Chocolate?" MJ handed him the flower and Ned playfully slapped him away. MJ chuckled as she grabbed her daisy and headed towards the rest of the group where the teacher was waiting for them.
"Are you ready, Peter?" Ned noticed that Peter was pale and he had a pinched look on his face. Peter perked up and bend down to pick up a handful of flowers. His shirt rose up and Ned noticed the marks on Peter's back. "Dude! What happened to your back? There are marks all over your back and you're bruised."
"Oh," Peter stuttered as he tried to come up with an explanation. "I was patrolling and-I-I got slammed against a trash can and there were a bunch of angry cats. . . and they will heal." Peter finally finished weakly. The truth was he was a little concerned. It had been hours already and wounds like these usually healed in the first two hours.
"Are you ok?" Ned looked concerned. "They look painful. Maybe you should go to the nurse or Dr. Banner-"
"No!" Peter snapped more harshly that he wanted to. He grabbed the daisies and headed back towards the building. "I'm fine. It's just taking a little while to heal. I'm fine, let's just go. I don't need another detention."
Peter called in sick for his work, the idea of being stuck in an ice cold freezer putting milk away for 4 hours made him cringed. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed and put an ice pack on his back. He just hoped that Scott and May weren't home. He really needed a nap and to come up with a better story of why he was acting all funny.
He opened the door of the apartment and heard Scott talking. ". . .yeah, traffic in Queens sucks, it's like everyone had a car now."
Peter opened the door and saw a man in a three piece suit drinking cheap beer in his living room pretending to be interested in what Scott was saying. Mr. Stark.
-End of Chapter Nine-
Thank you so much for your patience babies, I know that it has been a while!
