╔════════════════════╗
CHAPTER FOUR
╚════════════════════╝

THE GUILTY

THE SUN WAS SHINING BRIGHT BY THE TIME BARBIE WOKE UP.

She had fallen asleep in the back of the store, waiting for her perpetually late tutor to arrive and help her understand math. She hadn't expected him to show up again when he did, unsure whether she wanted him back or not. He had shown up to the two meetings they had scheduled, though late every single time.

That particular day, she had gotten up earlier than usual to help her father carry in shipments, as Frankie wasn't able to come in until after opening. So, when she was waiting for Peter, she decided to close her eyes and wait until he showed up.

That left Peter, ten minutes late to their third session that week, sitting awkwardly on his chair, as far away from the table as possible, fiddling with his fingers as he waited for her to wake up.

When she finally stirred after a particularly loud shout from her father to a boy who had tried to shoplift, she turned her head and opened her eyes to find him staring directly at her.

"What the hell, creep?" she shouted, lifting her head and blinking the sleep out of her eyes, "What time is it?"

"It's, uh, about forty minutes after our session was supposed to start..." he replied, staring at his hands, "Sorry."

She frowned, yawning as she looked at a clock. "Why didn't you wake me up?" His expression spoke for itself and she gave him a smile, though it wasn't as kind as he would like. "True. Good choice. Why didn't you just ditch?"

He shrugged. "I promised I'd help you."

She rolled her eyes, standing up and grabbing the laptop from the shelf. "You're weird one, Parker."

He scoffed. "Thanks." He stood up and picked up the chair with one hand, carrying it over to the table. "You didn't wake up even when your dad was calling you. I don't get the whole sleep thing with some people."

She opened the laptop, smirking. "Some of us enjoy the sweet release of free trial death, Parker."

He spluttered, eyes as wide as the plates sitting next to her on the shelf. "What?"

"Barbara Maria Delmar, do you have a boy back there?"

Barbie groaned, not unhappily, and rolled her eyes as she smiled at the doorway which soon revealed two girls, staring at her with matching grins.

"Hola," she jokingly greeted, leaning back in her seat and crossing her arms.

Regina and Lucia Marino, the daughter and niece of Sub Haven, her father's rival business, were Barbie's closest friends, the only ones she ever looked forward to seeing. Inseparable, the three were the most loved, and hated, girls in all of Queens.

"Girls, shouldn't you be helping your father?" Barbie's own father asked, stepping into view.

Lucia gave him a joking smile, gesturing towards Barbie with all the flair of a Las Vegas performer. "Mr. Delmar, we were trying to protect your daughter from that—"

Her words died out as she stared at Peter, clearly surprised. "The Parker boy? Seriously?"

Peter slid down in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. "I'm not here."

"How do you know him?" Barbie asked, sharing a look with her father before turning to Peter. "Have you been jumping between deli's?"

He bolted up. "No way—"

"He totally has!" Lucia cried, nudging her cousin for help, "He's been at my uncle's five times this past week!"

"It's only Thursday," Peter pointed out.

"Time is not kind to infidelity, Parker!"

Peter groaned and rubbed his face, looking at Mr. Delmar helplessly. The man just laughed and walked away, leaving the boy to fend for himself against his daughter and her friends. Peter looked around for an escape, a tight grip on his bag.

"You look like we're gonna kill you," Barbie scoffed, tapping the table, "Get over here, Parker, we're not paying you to just lounge around."

Peter picked up his chair and walked over to her, opening up his bag and pulling out his textbooks and notebooks, same as before. As he did so, eyes trained on his hands, Barbie glanced over at her friends who were making faces at her, motioning towards Peter with sly grins on their faces.

"You can leave now," she whispered, making a shooing motion with her hands. She instantly regretted her words when Lucia's grin grew wider.

"Wanna be alone with your boyto—hey!" She ducked for cover as Barbie threw the closest item in her grasp—one of the cans from the shelf next to her—at the girl, narrowly missing. The girl glared at her, miffed at receiving such a violent response from a harmless joke.

Regina, the more merciful of the two relatives, stepped forward, peering over Peter's shoulder. "Why are you doing Algebra? We have Algebra when we head back to school."

Barbie stiffened, trying to maintain a look of nonchalance. She hadn't wanted to tell her friends that she had failed Algebra I Part II, not wanting to seem inferior in any way. She was her mother's daughter and they never admitted any defeat.

Peter's eyes darted up from his hands to scan her face before turning to look at Regina. "Uh, Mr. Delmar wants me to help her get a head start, since she works here after school and can't do homework until later."

It was such a seamless lie, but with just enough inconsistency that it was believable for him to say, that Barbie nearly gave herself away to gawk at him, severely impressed. She didn't think that he was capable of lying, he was almost too transparent, every thought he had displayed across his face.

"Your dad is so great," Lucia commented, her smile genuine, but strained, almost bitter.

Barbie returned a similar smile, sharing a knowing look. Lucia lived exclusively with her cousin and her family, her parents not in the picture for reasons that have yet to be disclosed, but are understood to be less than ideal.

"Have fun being a nerd," the girl said, grabbing her younger cousin and dragging her out of the room and, presumably, the deli.

"Were they gonna invite you somewhere?" Peter asked, looking up from where he was writing practice problems for her in his notebook.

She sighed, leaning back. "Most likely.

"Sorry."

She glanced over at him, finding him looking at her with a guilty expression. She sighed, shrugging, punching his shoulder lightly. "Don't worry about it, Parker, at least my dad can't get mad at me for ditching this now."

After a moment of silence, she added, glancing at the clock. "You can leave before I'm done if you want, you've already stayed a while." It wasn't a complete apology, but it was enough to let him know that she understood she had made him wait.

"It's fine," he said, glancing at the clock, his fingers tapping, "I, uh, don't really do much anyways."

She smirked. "Do you have any friends, Parker?"

He scoffed, pushing the notebook towards her, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. "Sure, I do. My friend Ned is the best, we've got this awesome handshake—"

"Handshake?" she interrupted, laughing, "What is this, the fourth grade?"

His face fell and he turned away, looking at nothing as he moved towards the table, dropping his head and arms onto it, so much different than the excitable persona he had displayed when beginning to talk about his best, and possibly only, friend.

It was enough to make Barbie feel guilty enough to say, with enough flippancy to be convincing, "I mean, is it cool? 'Cause if it's just two high fives and like a foot kick, that's really lame."

"No, it's so much better than that," he said, raising his head, pouncing on the opportunity to redeem himself, "We have it timed to a beat and rhythm, there's motions, it's great. We can do it without looking, even."

She hummed. "That's cool, I guess, but I'd have to see it. I don't want to," she added quickly, catching sight of him opening his mouth, presumably to offer to show her sometime.

Silence descended upon the two, similar to how it would throughout the course of their relationship, in whatever form it may find itself to take. Barbie avoided all contact with him, focusing her attention on the reason why he was there to begin with, scribbling in the notebook, glad that his handwriting wasn't as atrocious as her Geometry teacher's.

She fell asleep once again, her head dropping onto the notebook halfway through finishing the problems. She couldn't keep awake, her brain powering down the moment it didn't understand, like clockwork machine failure.

Peter nudged her awake a few moments later, a soda in his hands. "Here, want me to explain it?"

She shook her head, popping the top off of the soda bottle with a flick of her thumb, a technique she'd perfected back when her mother was still alive to teach her. She took a swig and returned back to the notebook, unwilling to admit defeat to anyone, much less Peter.

She worked as Peter stood, moving to pick up the forgotten aluminum cap, bringing it back to his seat where he fiddled with it, glancing up every few moments to check on her work from the side, making sure she was on the right path. It irritated her, him thinking that he had to make sure she knew what she was doing; she wasn't stupid.

"You want one?" she offered, catching him staring at her.

He blinked wildly, looking all of a deer in the headlights, jumping. "Oh, uh, no, I'm alright, thanks."

She rolled her eyes and stood up, stretching as she headed towards the front; she'd rather take a break than continue working, either way. "Uncle Frankie, I need a soda for Parker."

"Boss said he didn't want one," the man said, despite heading towards the cooler and grabbing a soda for the boy nonetheless.

"He never takes anything for free, you know that," Barbie's father said, turning from where he was at the counter, "You just have to insist, that's what I learned. He's a lot like you," he said, motioning to his daughter.

She scoffed. "I say 'no' because I'm strong, he says 'no' because he's weak."

Before either man could make any comment, she turned on her heel and walked away, seeming for all intents like a girl who had her whole life mapped out. Her father didn't have the heart to tell her to think it over, realize that she had many places to improve; no one spoke ill of the dead.

Walking back into the room, she shoved the soda into his chest, the boy scrambling for it before it fell as she immediately let go. She fell back into her seat, staring at the paper idly, too lethargic to care about working.

Peter scooted closer, pen in hand. "Here, I'll just explain it."

Reluctantly, Barbie let him explain, working on the problems he told her to, forgetting the steps as soon as he told them, letting him guide her through the problems. She just couldn't do it that day, she couldn't focus.

Not once did Peter get upset. Not once did she hear him sigh or grumble or say anything that she could get mad at, and she had been searching. He just walked her through it, not patronizing, not anything. It was infuriating.

When she finished the homework almost an hour later, and it was finally time for Peter to go, she nearly fell back in her seat, leaning back too far. Peter caught her easily, letting the chair fall as he pulled her to her feet, keeping her steady.

She ripped herself out of his surprisingly tight grip, pouncing on the action as an excuse to get angry. She couldn't find any words to spit, instead just glaring, letting him know to never touch her again.

He just stared at her for a moment, hurt in his eyes, but behind it was understanding. It was a painful image and Barbie wanted nothing more than to apologize, mumble a soft 'sorry', if anything, but she couldn't. She promised she never would.

"I'll see you whenever," she mumbled, not looking at him.

"Bye," he whispered, walking out of the room. He paused by the counter, setting up another session with her father, asking him if they could meet the next day, as he would need to go over their lesson again.

"Was she not paying attention again?" her father asked, frowning in the direction of the room, "This girl sometimes."

"No," Peter said, shaking his head, "It's just a difficult concept that needs to be explained twice. She did really well today, actually, she was really focused."

The man smiled, pleased. "Well, I'm glad. Thank you again, Mr. Parker, I really appreciate it. And hey," he said, winking, "Tell your aunt I said hi, yeah?"

Peter smiled wryly, if not a tad uncomfortable. "Yeah, sure. Later, Mr. Delmar."

Running out of the deli, Peter glanced at his watch. He had less time to be Spider-Man than he had wanted. He cast a glance back towards the small building, imaging Barbie sitting in the back room, possibly asleep.

He had all the time to be Spider-Man, what was a few lost hours?

While Peter ran to his favorite alley to get changed, Barbie was sitting in the break room, but she wasn't sleeping. Instead, she pretended to, trying to fall asleep rather than focus on the guilt that was beginning to seep into her mind and into her heart.

She's not supposed to feel guilty, she had promised not to. But promises weren't easiest to keep.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

"I'll try to update more consistently" why am I such a liar? I'm sorry you guys, I really do love this story with all my heart, I'm trying

Meet Barbie's friends, Lucia and Regina, daughters of the owner of Sub Haven. They will show up a lot later on when actual shenanigans ensue

Either way, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!