Chương 12: Study Date
The Phantom Spider swung above a crowd of people in Times Square, reaching into the crowd to allow them to touch his hand as if he were a celebrity. Their booming voices were all chanting his name as their hero was finally within their reach. They all loved him, he saved the city from Electro and saved countless lives from being lost during both of their encounters. As the boy swung above the crowd, he noticed a little girl in the center of it all, looking down at the floor.
She was the only one who didn't care about the hero, the only one who saw through the facade.
She knew he was no hero.
She knew the real him.
The child was all alone as if everyone else was avoiding her. No one cared about her, they didn't even notice her existence. The only one who noticed her was the so-called hero himself.
As the girl finally glanced up at him, he immediately recognized her.
Fisk's daughter, once again, was back to haunt him. Her hands were bloodied, though the blood was not hers.
As if he had teleported, the hero soon found himself standing in front of the girl and the crowd was gone. Just like the little girl, his hands were also stained with blood. As he looked at his now crimson gloves, he noticed Kingpin's mutilated body beneath him.
He looked back up at the girl, seeing the dreadful expression on her face.
She was just like him on the night in which he took her father's life.
Spiteful.
Furious.
Yet also heartbroken and terrified.
Suddenly, the sound of his phone's alarm released the sleeping hero from his nightmare. The boy groaned as he reached over for his phone, fumbling with it before disabling the screeching, repeating alarm.
Once again, he was tormented by a similar nightmare. 'Why won't they go away...' He thought to himself as he looked down at his hands. Though they were not crimson as they were in the nightmare, they were still stained with blood in his eyes.
Eventually, the boy calmed down and leaned up from his bed, feeling as if he were made of stone. His body was sore, of course, due to having fought an electrified supervillain, but also due to having unlocked a new ability. His body hadn't adjusted to Godspeed just yet.
Despite not wanting to, the hero had to attend class once again, as it was Monday. The boy did his usual routine before heading to the bus stop as usual. Upon entering the bus, he noticed that everyone seemed to be excited about something. Each student was glaring at each other's phones, seemingly watching a video, the same video of the Phantom Spider fighting Electro.
'Someone recorded me? Humans are so stupid, why didn't they run?' The undercover hero walked past his fellow peers before sitting in the last seat on the bus, which was his preferred seat. As he watched his peers from his seat, he noticed that most of the students had grown a liking for the hero. For once, he felt like his peers accepted him, though that man in the video was only his other half. The loved the Phantom Spider, but he knew that love didn't go past that.
While on campus, the hero noticed that the rest of the students were gushing about the new hometown hero. Even before the Avengers suddenly vanished, there wasn't a hero that the city could truly claim as one of their own. For the locals, having a superhero that lived amongst them felt as if the local sports team had won a championship.
Even Flash Thompson of all people was talking about the Phantom Spider, in fact, he was completely fanboying over him at his locker as Eren walked by. "Bro! Bro! Tell me you saw the way he sprinted up that building as the blue sparks trailed behind him. He's so cool… I wonder if I could get him to appear on my YouTube channel!" Flash was actually an aspiring influencer, using his parents' money to throw parties and make clickbait videos that simple-minded children click on and eat up.
'Not happening.' Eren thought to himself as he walked past his old bully. As the secret hero found himself deeper within the school grounds, he ran into Cindy Moon, who was holding a brown paper bag.
As soon as the two spotted each other, the two teens' eyes lit up and Cindy smiled gingerly. "Oh! Good morning, Eren! Did you eat breakfast?"
"Uh… No." Eren answered plainly, he was thrown off by the question since no one would ever ask him that randomly.
Since the bus ride, he felt a little bit depressed that so many people seemed to care about the Phantom Spider, but not the man beneath the mask. He felt like no one cared about him, but he soon realized those were just silly thoughts in his head. Having an understanding of reality, Eren's once tense body relaxed as he spoke with Cindy Moon.
Just as he gave his answer, Cindy reached into the brown bag and pulled out a blueberry muffin, which also happened to be the boy's favorite kind. He'd mentioned that only a single time, yet she still remembered it. In fact, Eren didn't even remember ever telling her that information, it surprised him.
"Here! I know you skip breakfast sometimes, so I made these. Blueberry is your favorite right?" Cindy smiled warmly as she handed the muffin to the undercover hero before her expression immediately shifted to that of embarrassment.
Immediately, she realized how the sentence sounded, and despite it being true, she didn't want him to know that. "Not that I made them specifically for you or anything like that, that'd be weird. I just made them and I thought to myself, 'Oh, Eren skips breakfast sometimes so I should bring them.'. Not that I wouldn't ever make something for you specifically, I just mean I didn't do that at this moment."
Eren looked at her with a slightly confused expression before taking the muffin from her hand. He was too dense to understand why she was acting so strangely, so he dismissed it. "I love blueberry muffins. Thank you."
"Do I get one?" Harry Osborn said as he appeared from seemingly nowhere, placing his hand on Eren's shoulder from behind him. "Nah, I'm just kidding. But anyway, is this your girlfriend?" Harry knew what he was doing, Eren told him about liking a girl at school, but he never said who. He looked at the two friends intensively, gauging their reactions.
Eren, uncharacteristically, became flustered for just a brief moment. Despite that moment being brief, Harry noticed it. He laughed internally, as he thought to himself. 'Interesting, so this is the girl.'
"No, we're just friends..." Eren looked toward Cindy and pointed back at Harry using his thumb. "This is my friend Harry. He's in that after-school program with me."
With a smile, Harry waved at Cindy and introduced himself. "Hey."
"Hi, I'm Cindy." She responded, waving back at him shyly.
"Well, I better get going. It was nice meeting you." Realizing he was cock-blocking, Harry made a swift exit. The smile that he had on his face didn't cease until he turned the corner, leaving the other two alone.
After Harry's exit, the two teens ate their muffins together, just before the bell signaled them to go to class. They both agree to meet each other after school and so, after their time at school was done, the two met at the entrance once again.
"Hey! What are you doing today?" Cindy asked Eren as the two walked off campus together.
"Well, I was gonna head home. I have to finish homework for calculus today, I've been slacking off so..." The yet again dense and oblivious Parker boy gave a direct answer.
Regardless, Cindy used this as an opportunity to get closer to him. "No way, I was gonna do my homework today too. Let's work on it together! How far is your house?" The idiotic genius's heart skipped a beat as soon as those words left her mouth.
'She wants to come over!?' His inner voice panicked in his mind.
Cindy continued. "I think we actually live pretty close, do you walk or take the bus?"
Eren, thrown off by her directness, uttered out an answer.
"Yeah, it's not that long of a walk but I take the bus when I'm lazy. You want to come over?" Eren used every ounce of his being to not sound nervous as he spoke, which worked for the most part.
"Mhm!" She nodded her head. "I'm kinda lost after the last lecture, you're super smart so, yeah." This was a blatant lie. She had the highest grade out of anyone in the class, including Eren since he started slacking off a bit. She just wanted an excuse to go see him.
"I see, that's surprising coming from you, but it was a tricky module. Let's go then."
Eren lead the way and the two of them walked together until they eventually reached his home. The two made their way inside and Eren led her up into his room. The two plopped their bags down and Eren immediately hopped on his bed, forgetting his mom's rule about outside clothes at the moment.
"That walk was brutal for me, I'm still sore from working out yesterday. It was pretty intense." He said as he stared at the ceiling. By working out, he obviously meant his fight with Electro and his new power causing an intense soreness in his body just from exerting himself slightly.
"I bet, considering how much progress you made in such a short amount of time." Cindy responded she stood by the door and scanned the entire room.
It's cleaner than she expected. Besides the clothes haphazardly hanging out of his dirty clothes hamper, the only messy part of his room was his work desk. Noticing her eying the desk, Eren shot up and began removing the mess from it.
"I'll get this out of the way." He muttered. He was extremely embarrassed at the mess and the fact that she may have seen his nerdy drawings on the table, especially his drawings of future hero costumes.
As he cleaned the desk, she noticed his GameBoy in the corner. "No way, you still have one of these too?" She reached for it and turned it on before sitting down in one of his chairs as if she were already comfortable at his place.
"Yeah. I got it on my eighth birthday. It was the last present from both my parents." He told her with a sad smile. "I still play it sometimes. I mostly only had that one game for it for the longest time."
"I see." She smiled sadly as well, understanding it must have truly meant a lot to him. "Maybe we could trade sometime."
"Yeah, we should." There was a brief pause as things began to get awkward, though Eren was quick to change the subject back to math. "Anyways, should we begin?" He gestured toward his now clean desk.
The two of them sat down at his desk and began working on their calculus homework together. As Eren retaught her the module, he'd take glances at her face every once in a while. Being so close to her, he'd find himself studying her beautiful face, something he'd never really gotten the chance to do until then. During their study session, he would often become so stunned by her beauty to the point where he'd suddenly forget what he was even saying.
Unknown to Eren, Cindy would also sneak looks at him while he was focused on the problems he was working on. She would often nervously bite the eraser on her pencil while he would explain to her how to work out the problems after she'd pretend to be confused by them.
'He's so cute when he's focused like that.' She thought to herself as she stared up at his focused expression. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes were beaming with concentration. It was the same face he'd make under his mask during his vigilante work.
In the corner of his eye, Eren could see her biting the eraser of her pencil, though he pretended not to notice her intense glare.
'God, she's so pretty.' He thought to himself as he continued solving the problem.
After about an hour of working on the assignment together, the two awkward teens had finally finished. If they'd worked on it on their own, they'd both be able to finish it within just a few minutes, but the silent romantic tension distracted the both of them.
"I think I get it now." Cindy told him while still biting the end of her pencil. Again, this was a lie. She already understood everything when the teacher first taught it in class.
"That's good! It wasn't that hard right? The teacher just explained it weirdly." Eren smiled shyly, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he shut his notebook and moved it to the side.
Cindy nodded. "Yeah, he makes it so confusing. Maybe you should become a teacher, Eren. I'd attend every class." She giggled as she spoke, though her glare was intense. "So… What now?" She asked as she looked up at him submissively.
"Uh... I don't know." He answered, completely thrown off by her eyes piercing through his heart. His heart was beating so hard, that he was afraid that the whole neighborhood would be able to hear it.
The two of them both sat next to each other without saying a word. They both wanted to say something, they both wanted to make their move right then, however, they were both afraid. The awkward silence seemed as if it had lasted hours when in reality, it had only been about three seconds at this point.
'Maybe… Maybe now's my chance.' Eren thought to himself with partial confidence. 'I literally fought a man made of electricity and lifted a forty-ton crane. This is nothing. Stop being a pussy.'
'Should I make the first move?' Cindy asked herself in her own head.
The two teens glanced at each other simultaneously as if they shared the same thought. Upon making eye contact, Eren's eyes averted away and Cindy's face became crimson red. Eren suddenly gained a burst of courage and once again looked directly at Cindy, causing her to look back up at him once more. As the two locked eyes, Eren placed his hand on hers, which rested on her thigh.
This was it, he was ready to make his move.
"Cindy. I-" Eren started, but before he could finish his sentence, Cindy's phone startled them both and caused them to jolt back into reality. Cindy reached over and grabbed her phone frantically and began fumbling with it.
"It's my mom." She told him before answering the call. "Hi, Mom. Yes. I'm at a friend's house. No. No! Okay, I'll be home soon." She hung up the phone and looked back at Eren sadly. "My mom wants me home, I kinda didn't tell her I was coming over here. I should go."
"No!" Eren interjected, pausing as he realized his voice was much louder than intended. "I mean, no. You shouldn't walk back by yourself. I'll walk you home."
Eren walked her home, which wasn't too far away from where he lived. Though it would take him merely five minutes to swing there, it was about a thirty-minute walk. The walk wasn't awkward in the slightest, as the two spoke as they normally would with each other. However, they both couldn't help but think of the what-ifs.
The two stood face to face in front of her home, both having the same thought of regretting not making their move when they had the chance.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." Cindy said as she rubbed her arm shyly.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Eren responded with his hands in his pockets.
Cindy began walking toward the entrance, prompting Eren to speak once more. "Oh, we should do that again. I liked working together. It was fun." Eren smiled as he said this, triggering Cindy to smile back in response.
"Yeah, we should. Bye, Eren." Cindy then opened the door to the complex and walked in. As she closed the door behind her, she took one last look at Eren before waving and closing the door.
As soon as the door shut, Eren's inner voice screamed so loudly, that it was almost audible to the outside world. 'I fumbled! I was so close, but I hesitated. That was my one chance!'
Eren felt as if he could fall to his knees and scream, but since he was in public, he opted to just stand there as the small version of himself in his consciousness did instead. After staring at her door for a while, walked away and crawled up a nearby building.
Reaching into his backpack, the hero began pulling out the pieces for his costume. Though she was sort of scary, especially the way in which she was coming onto him, he needed to speak to Black Cat about what she knew about the Maggia.
The time for normal boy things had come to an end. It was time for his other half to take over.
He still hadn't forgiven himself for his mother's death, nor had he forgiven the ones who killed her. However, he could feel that his revenge was close.
The void within him would finally be filled when his mother was avenged at least, that's what he told himself.
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