Chapter 7

Thanks to SPIDEYISAWESOM for favoriting. Thanks to ChainGangSoldier45 for following the story, and thanks to destroyerofzombies1 for following me (stalker).

Marshall woke up in his and Kendrick Durham's dorm room at Midtown's Finest.

Saturday, Marshall thought. Time to visit the 'rents.

Marshall looked in the bunk bed under his.

Kendrick was still gone.

It had been three weeks since Kendrick's fight with his brother Drake, and he hadn't been seen since. No phone calls, no texts, no anything.

Marshall felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He already knew who it was, so he didn't bother looking at the collar ID.

"Hello," he asked half sleep.

"Is Ken back?" Marshall heard a voice say on the phone say.

"No Jen," Marshall said to Jen Farrell.

They had a little small talk, nothing worth mentioning, then they both hung up the phone. Jen had been calling Marshall everyday to see if Kendrick had returned during the night. The same answer had been given every night.

Marshall turned on the TV in the corner of the room. He looked at the Childish Gambino poster right over it in sadness, knowing it was Kendrick who insisted on putting it up. The news came up, and Marshall again felt sadness. Because the truth was, he had seen Kendrick recently.

As Spider-man.

It's been seen a lot recently. Criminals being caught in large spider webs, displayed for all to see. On a rare occasion, you'd even get a glimpse of the red and blue costume. No such luck this time. Marshall got no new news on his best friend.

Marshall got out of his bed and sluggily pulled on his clothes. Normally, Kendrick would go with him to see his parents, but since he's been gone, he'd have to deal with his parents alone.

An hour later, he walked out of the school. He looked back at it with sad eyes. It took only days for the school to move on after the school shooting, already replacing Mr. Dent. This time, their teacher was an Justin Bieber look-alike, who all the girls were obsessed with. Marshall wondered if he had spider pheromones too.

"Hey Marsh," Marshall heard a voice say behind him. "Wait up."

Marshall turned and saw Kim Gray walking up to him.

Don't embarrass yourself, Marshall said to himself repeatedly.

"Hey Kim," Marshall said.

"Hey," the beautiful girl said. "Any news on Kendrick?"

"None," Marshall said.

"Do you think he might be...dead?" she asked with a worried expression.

"No," Marshall stated matter-of-factly. "I know for a fact he isn't."

"What, you guys have a connection or something?"

"You do know we're not gay right," Marshall said.

"Oh," Kim said. "Kendrick told me you, in particular, are gay."

I'm gonna kill that asshole, Marshall said. If he's not already dead.

"So, let me get this straight," Marshall said. "He told you that I was gay, and that he was my straight best friend?"

"Yeah, I thought it was nice," Kim said.

"I'm not," Marshall said. "Gay, I mean."

"Then why is your hair bleached blond?"

"That's not...!" Marshall said, then started to walk away. "Never mind, I gotta visit my parents."

Kim walked after him quickly.

"I was kidding," Kim said. "Don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad," Marshall said. "I just want to go ahead and visit my mom and dad."

"Can I go with you?"

Marshall turned and looked at her. Did he hear her right?

"You want to go with me," Marshall asked. "To visit my parents?"

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean for it to be weird."

"It kinda is," Marshall said.

"Look," Kim said. "My...my parents are in jail, so on these 'visit parents' days, I don't have anywhere to go."

"Oh," Marshall said.

"Sorry," Kim said. "It was stupid."

"No, it wasn't." Marshall said. "You can come with me."

"Really?"

"Sure," Marshall said smiling. "Do you have any idea how much street cred I'll get for walking home with you. You're doing me a favor."

Jen typed furiously on her computer.

She'd find Kendrick. She knew she would.

She had hacked into the street cameras, and was running facial recognition, so if Kendrick had passed any traffic cameras in the city, she'd know when and where.

The big red words popped up on her screen: NO RESULTS.

She banged her hand on the desk. Nothing.

Kim laughed furiously.

"Oh my God," she said. "That did not happen."

"It did," Marshall said. "I swear."

"How did you get the gunpowder out?" she asked.

"Very careful pooping," Marshall said.

Kim covered her mouth to keep from laughing. Marshall laughed too, until he say where they were.

His house. His parents house.

"Well, uh," he said. "Here we are."

"You don't look very excited to see you parents," Kim noticed.

"Uh," Marshall said. "Let's go in."

They both walked towards the house, their steps in unison. Marshall reached in his pocket and pulled out his keys. Very slowly, he put them in the door and opened it. Inside, he saw trash everywhere. Trash, beer bottles, and junk food.

"Home sweet home," Marshall said.

"It's..nice," Kim said smiling weakly.

"Darold!" they heard a voice say. "Darold, I think Marshall's home!"

"Then go answer the door you stupid bitch!" another voice said.

"It's okay Dad," Marshall called out. "I brought my key."

Then, two short white people walked out with messy hair, t shirts, and torn jeans.

One was Marshall's father, Darold, and the other was his mother, Janice.

"Oh my God," Janice said. "He brought a girl!"

"A damn chocolate girl," Darold said.

Marshall looked at Kim, and her caramel skin and chocolate brown hair.

"Dad," Marshall started.

"All right, all right," Darold said. "Nice to meet you, young Easter Bunny."

Marshall and Kim walked from his house. The rest of the visit had gone pretty much the same as that. Kim was surprisingly cool about it. That kinda bothered Marshall.

"Sorry about my dad," Marshall said. "In case you couldn't tell, we're kinda..."

"White trash?" Kim asked. "Uh, no offense."

"None taken," Marshall said. "That pretty much sums us up exactly."

"It wasn't all bad," Kim said. "Your mom's nice."

"Put some beer in her, and we'll see if you still think that way." Marshall said sadly. "Come on, let's go back to the school."

Marshall walked into his dark dorm sadly. Why did his parents have to embarrass him at every conceivable level? At least his dad didn't start hitting him.

Marshall sat down on his bed and sulked for a few seconds. Looking around the room, he realized two things. One: he had left the door open. Two: the window was wide open. He knew for a fact that he had the widow closed before he left. He knew it. That could only mean one thing. Just one...

"Close the door Marsh," Marshall heard Kendrick's voice say from the darkness.

Kendrick was back.

"Ken," Marshall asked to the darkness. "Kendrick, is that you?"

"Marsh," he said. "The door."

"Marshall got up and walked to the door. He closed it and locked it. He turned back to the darkness.

"Ken," Marshall asked. "Ken, where have you been? Your parents have been worried sick about you. So are Jen and Kim. So am I, dude."

Marshall waited for an answer, but he got none.

"Ken?" Marshall asked. "Ken, are you okay?"

Marshall heard something moving around, then the lamp on their desk turned on. Marshall almost had a heart attack right there.

There, sitting on the desk, was his best friend Kendrick, in his Spider-man exoskeleton, with a large bloody hole on his side with blood come out of it quickly. Marshall could see a blood trail leading from him, to the window across the carpet.

"Marshall," Kendrick said weakly. "Help me..."