Peter holds me and just lets me cry. I didn’t realise that someone simply asking if I was OK would make me cry like this, but I guess it has. My body slides to the floor, and he goes with me. I cry into his chest and he lets me, knowing that I need it.

“I’m scared,” I say softly, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Like really, really scared. I don’t…I don’t know if I can do this. I’m not cut out for this. You guys are: Dad, Papa, Aunt Nat, even you are. I’m not. I can’t do what you do.”

“It’s OK, it’s OK. But now you have the suit. You’re fast with it. You know how to use it and even I can see that you’re good with it. You need to trust that you’ll be OK. And I know that you will be.”

“But we don’t know anything about him. We don’t his motives, his power levels, anything like that. We don’t even know if we can beat him, Peter. All we know is that he’s after me and shows no signs of stopping.”

“You’re right, that’s all we know. But do you know what else we know?” I look at him, confused. “We know that we aren’t gonna stop. We’re gonna keep fighting until this is over. Even if it gets too much. Because that’s all we can do. If we don’t do it, he’ll never stop.”

He wipes my tears away and then kisses my forehead gently. I move my head and our lips lock for a few seconds. A call interrupts it, and he picks it up. I try not to listen to what he’s saying, but I hear that it’s May. He hands up the call.

“I’ve got to go, Aunt May needs me at home,” He stands up and holds his hand out to me. I take it and he pulls me up. “Are you gonna be OK, Blythe?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll be OK for a little bit. You go to May.” We share a kiss for a few moments and then he leaves. I wait until he goes and then continue to punch against the punching bag.

“He looks after you, doesn’t he? Better than me, do you reckon?” I know that voice. I turn, already knowing who I’m going to see.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Charlie?”

“I think you know, Blythe.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Long enough.”

Charlie moves off his position on the door frame, walking towards me. I can tell he wants me to melt into his arms, but I just glare at him with my hands on my hips. He stands in front of me and I stare up at him. He’s a few centimetres taller than me, maybe even a little taller than Peter.

“Come back to me, Blythe. I miss you. I need you. I was better with you.”

“And I’m better without you. So how about you fuck off before I fuck you up.”

He pulls me closer, and I look at him with an annoyed look on my face. I figure out what he wants to do. It’s not hard, especially since his hand is making its way onto my cheek. I’m not going to stop him, mainly because I have an idea of what to do to get him to fuck off.

He does what I was expecting him to: kiss me. I don’t return it, I don’t even push back. I kind of just stand there, his lips on my own. I allow my hands to snake around his neck, and his hands rest on my waist. I know he’s not paying attention, because if he was he would feel me attaching a shocker to his neck.

He pulls away, smirk on his face. I give him a slight smirk of my own. “I thought you had a boyfriend.”

“I do, Charlie. Were you even paying attention to what I was doing?”

“You were kissing me, duh.”

“Was I though? I wasn’t kissing you, you were kissing me. That was not a mutual kiss. I just let you do it so that I could attach this shocker to your neck.” I hold up the remote for the shocker and waggle it in my fingers, taunting him.

“What are you gonna do with that?”

“Have a guess.” Before he can react, I press the button. He flinches as it shocks him, trying to reach up and take it off. I respond by upping the intensity and pressing the button again. He doubles over, kneeling on the ground. If he wasn’t such a dick, I might feel sorry for him.

“Why are you doing this?” He asks. I bend down to his eye level, my brown eyes staring into his green.

“You hurt me, Charlie. You broke me. I realise now that I’m better both by myself and with Peter than I ever was. Don’t expect to just try and waltz back into my life and for it to OK, because it’s not happening.”

I stand up. “Now get out of here or I’ll throw you out myself.” He stays where he is. “And if you don’t do it then I’ll enlist one of my family.” That makes him stand up. He slowly starts to walk out of the gym, glancing at me every so often. He goes back to the hole he came from.

I suddenly don’t feel like working out. I stand against a wall and slump to the ground, my music playing softly. I just need to clear my head.