𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 | PETER PARKER (TASM)

[ s i x t e e n ]

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chapter sixteen
IT'S BEEN A WEEK
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THERE WAS A KNOCK ON THE DOOR, WHICH MADE HARPER IMMEDIATELY COVER HER FACE. Without even letting him come in, her father stepped inside the room, holding a cup of ice cream on his hand and a DVD disc on the other.

"Hunger Games... Catching Fire," he said. "Your favorite."

"Dad, please leave."

Yet, he didn't leave. He left the ice cream on her nightstand before sitting on the edge of the bed, with Harper lying there, with her head still covered by the pillow.

"Honey, it's been an entire week."

"Dad, leave," she instead, yet she only took the pillow off her face. "Dad, I don't want to talk about it."

"Peter has called seven times in the three days. I think you should call him back. See if you can fix this."

"Peter made his choice," she said as she sat down on the bed. "I don't want to talk to him. I'm in the right to not want to talk to him."

"Honey, is there something I can do?"

"Dad. It's just a breakup. It's normal in my teenage years. It's normal." She sniffed. She knew her eyes were red due to all the crying, and she was suddenly embarrassed by it. "It's just a broken heart."

Her dad nodded. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Why do you men think you know what's best for me?" She snapped, exhausted. "I know my abilities and my limits. And I know you love me, but you cannot shield me from the world. I'm gonna get hurt at some point."

"I just don't want that time to come any sooner," he whispered back before nodding. "I have something for you," he said, changing the subject. "That internship at Oscorp? Here."

She grabbed the envelope her dad took out of his pocket and handed it to her. She opened it, confused by it, before looking down to the letter inside of it.

"I got accepted in Oscorp. I start on Monday," she said softly, her father smiling. "Are you okay with me going back to Oscorp, dad?"

"Well, Connors is gone," he said, "and I trust you. I know that... this will be good for you."

She nodded, a little smile on her face. This would be distracting. This would help her.

She needed it.

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Her first day at Oscorp wasn't easy.

She grabbed the coffee from everyone else in her department, which was partly her only job, and walked inside the remodeled building. Yeah, they were working hard to forget the whole "one of our head scientists tried to turn everyone in the city into lizards" situation by reinventing themselves in the best way possible.

Yay.

Harper walked inside the elevator, taking her phone out of her pocket and checking it.

No new messages.

Did Peter give up? Did she want him to give up?

Did she?

She approached the conference room number 43 with the coffees in hand, noticing how everyone was still standing, meaning that the meeting was about to begin.

She walked in the conference room and began placing the coffees on their respective spots, her hand trembling a bit. It was her first day at the job, and she was in the fanciest conference room just delivering coffee.

What on Earth was she doing? She felt powerful.

She left the coffee and began walking away when she matched eyes with someone that couldn't be older than her. Actually, she could swear it was her age. He looked at her up and down as she was walking out while he was walking in, before he turned his attention towards the rest of the people inside.

She walked through the hallway, shaking because of that curious meeting. Why was his presence so strange to her?

As she approached her cubicle, she was surprised to see about of other interns around it, that all stop talking once she walked in.

"So, the rumors are true," one of the interns dared to say as she sat down on her chair, confused. "Richie's cubicle has been occupied."

"She's definitely prettier than Richie," another guy say.

"Who's Richie?"

The interns chuckled to her question before one of them, the only one that didn't laugh, the one that seemed the nicest one, talked. "He's this guy that used to work here but got turned into a lizard so after he came back he tried to sue the company."

She raised her eyebrows. "What? And did he win?"

The rest of the interns chuckled while he remained silent. "No, he didn't win. It's Oscorp." He extended his hand. "Jack."

"Harper," she introduced herself, shaking her hand.

Jack turned to look at the other three. "These are Malcolm, Serena and Nick. The three of them think they are smarter than everyone else." The one he pointed as Malcom hit him on the arm. "It's true!" Jack turned to look at her. "They are enchanted to meet you, Harper."

"Sucks that your boss died on the first day, huh?" Nick said as he held on to his coffee mug.

Harper frowned before she turned to look at one of the TV's inside the room, mentioning the tragic death of Norman Osborn.

"I heard his kid is taking over," Serena said. "So weird."

His kid. "How old is his son?" Harper asked.

"I don't know," Jack said. "Harry Osborn might be... eighteen?"

She was eighteen.

Harry Osborn was the guy she saw walking into the conference room. She couldn't imagine how must it feel like.

Losing your dad and having to run a company so young. It's...

"Hey, some of us are going to this new restaurant downtown," Jack mentioned, waking her up from the mini trance she had. "Wanna join us? You can tell us your story and how you got here?"

"I'd... yeah, I would love that."

A few hours later, she was walking out of the building of Oscorp with four new friends, something that she didn't feel like possible.

And, for the first time in a week, she found herself smiling.