All I heard was a sickening crack before I saw my body flying. My head was spinning—literally. My head was off my shoulders and flying. I remembered the cold before everything went dark.
So let me try to explain how this went down.
Skye sighed and rubbed his nonexistent hand through his nonexistent hair.
I was walking home from the convention store. The sun was already setting, and I was thinking, ugh, life sucks, man. I hate school. I hate my stupid dad for grounding me just because I was a little late getting home.
I let the memory play in my head. I was two hours late because my girlfriend thought it'd be a good idea to skip, and her friends talked me into it really easily. I folded, not gonna lie. I let out a soft sigh. I'm so dumb for doing that—and for yelling at Dad. I feel so bad.
Another memory flashes in my head.
I HATE YOU, DAD! I HATE YOU!
Dad: "If you hate me so much, I might as well take your allowance!"
I cut the memory short. I should apologize to him, I thought as my face fell.
A few moments later, I heard the screeching of tires. I looked up and saw a little girl walking across the street with an old lady. I ran forward, but it had begun to rain, and I slipped before I could fully push them out of the way. The truck hit—not just me, but them too.
I flew. My head hit a lamppost, and it came was right off. I saw the girl fly through the air and the old lady slam into a wall. Everything went dark, but not before I thought: I… I didn't save them. I didn't apologize to Dad. I didn't see my sister again, like I promised.
The last thing I remembered was hugging my little sister, Emmy, before leaving for the store. "Come back safe," she'd said.
That was the last thing I said to her—
And I lied.
Dad… I'm sorry.
Then everything went dark.
For what felt like hours, I woke up in my room—except… it was too nerdy to be my room.
I stood and looked in the mirror. The face of Andrew Garfield stared back at me.
I screamed. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
That, of course, caused Aunt May to come upstairs. But not my aunt—the Aunt May from Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies.
"What is going on, Peter? Why are you screaming?" she asked.
I let out a nervous laugh. "Sorry, Aunt May. I had a dream I was riding a motorcycle, and it turned into a car, then I crashed—so I screamed."
She gave me that look—the kind that says you might be crazy—then joked, "Peter, are you hiding drugs in here?"
I laughed awkwardly. "No, no, May, I'm not."
She stared for a moment, then sighed. "Okay. Breakfast is downstairs. I'm going to take a shower."
As soon as she left, I jumped into action. I ran to the bathroom mirror and checked myself out. Did I have abs? Nope. So I concluded I didn't have any spider powers yet.
"What is happening?" I whispered.
Then the memory of the girl and the old lady I failed to save hit me hard. "Dang… I'm sorry I couldn't save you."
Then thoughts of Dad and Emmy followed. "I'm sorry."
I looked down, feeling like crap. But I've never been one to stop pushing forward, even after getting hit. Still, now I was definitely traumatized—so hey, that's fun.
I looked in the mirror again. "I should go downstairs and have breakfast and try—hard try—not to be weird. I wonder if Ben's dead yet?"
I went downstairs. May was still in the shower. I grabbed a plate and started eating, trying to recall Peter's memories.
"Wow," I muttered. "He had it rough, huh?"
I finished breakfast just as May came downstairs wearing only a towel. I blushed—then immediately felt disgusted with myself. She's like my mom!
Turning away, I heard her say, "Hey Pete, could you pass me my phone on the table, please?"
I handed it to her, and she rushed back upstairs. I sighed. "Why does life have to be so cruel?"
I turned on the TV. The news was reporting the events of the first Avengers movie. I sighed again. "Of course the timeline's messed up. I don't even know if I'm supposed to be born right now."
The news anchor moved on to talk about Osborn and mutants.
"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned. "A potential Green Goblin too? Of course…" I rubbed a hand through my hair. "Of course."
I leaned back on the couch. "Well, at least there's no school today. But tomorrow? The Osborn Tech field trip."
I let out one last sigh. "Guess I'm jumping right into this, huh?"