HEY THERE, THALIA!

𝘏𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘮𝘦

𝘐 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘺𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩.

 "when 𝒊 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝒊'𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆"

CHAPTER ONE

- ONE DAY GONE -

THALIA MEREDITH GRAY

21 April 2001 - 18 June 2019

" Somethings are not meant to stay. I am one of them."

THALIA GRAY WAS A STRONG GIRL. Sure, she didn't have much idea about sadness or the pain of forever losing a loved one (well, not unless it meant being forced to leave the place she grew up in and moving to Southern California) but she was strong.

She was strong, but not strong like how Captain America and Black Widow were with their weapons and mental strength. She was strong, but not like how Tony Stark or even how Peter Parker was, the loss of their loved ones hanging on their heads like a pointed sword. She was strong, but she was strong in her own way.

She was strong enough to let go even if she was afraid of what happened next.

Heartbreak.

Heartbreak was something that every teenager thought they understood and thought they have gone through. For them it was the pain of seeing the boy they were crushing on fall in love with a magazine-worthy girl or it was the process of moving on from their first break up. All these teenagers saw was what they should be.

For some teenagers, their 'heartbreak' couldn't even be qualified to be real because even though they thought they were in love with someone, they didn't even know much about who the other person was inside.

And for Thalia?

Heartbreak was a piece of shit.

She didn't think she knew what heartbreak was but then seeing him look at other girls the way he should have looked at her, did hurt like a bitch.

Thalia Gray always knew herself to have a good life- parents that loved her, a brother that wouldn't stop trying to annoy her, a perfect apartment in Queens, amazing friends that she would die for, and obviously the tiny crush she had on her best friend.

Now, Peter Parker wasn't much- he was the same age as her, incredibly smart but awkward and would rather spend his day building Legos with Ned than playing basketball. Thalia wasn't even sure why she was in love with- she just was. It was probably the hair.

She really liked his hair.

But just her luck- Peter harbored no romantic feelings towards her, his eyes always set on the beautiful Liz Allen, a senior, and sometimes even her friend, MJ. Thalia loved Peter but she never got a chance to tell him. 

That's probably why it didn't hurt her as much as everyone expected when she moved to another city- a place she had never been. Leaving Peter felt like the best choice Thalia ever made.

Thalia was usually wrong when she made decisions that she thought would make her happy.

Leaving Peter without even a goodbye had left the fifteen-year old miserable, her pain only increasing as the next years of high school passed by in a blur. California was good but it wasn't Queens with Peter being a nerd and Ned with his stupid hats. Thalia missed all of it- she missed MJ and when she would draw people in 'crisis' and even obnoxious Flash with his rich-boy problems.

She missed home.

And yet, she completely refused to go back.

So to cope up with what she assumed would be something close to a heartbreak, Thalia wrote her feelings away- her anger, her love and everything else she felt on paper with ink instead of her tears, hoping no one else will ever have to read them. Her letters, which she stored in her wardrobe, Thalia wrote to the one person who ever managed to break her stupid heart.

PETER BENJAMIN PARKER

10 August 2001 -                            

THERE WERE A LOT OF WORDS THAT WOULD DESCRIBE HIM, BUT TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF, THE BOY WOULD ONLY USE ONE. Peter Parker, to put it lightly, would call himself a mess. He always had been one. A really smart mess but a mess, no matter how much time had passed.

He was seventeen, a senior at Midtown High, an orphan who lived with his aunt, a best friend to Ned and MJ, and occasionally an Avenger. Alright, these days, he was more Spider Man than he was Peter Parker but still.

The boy had grown up in a house of tragedy, feeling cursed and weighed down as the years passed by- the memory of his parents, his uncle and everyone else he couldn't save became a haunted house that he was trapped in. Peter didn't have the keys.

He tried to make the best of it though- he didn't wish to be trapped in a house where he wasn't welcome. He stuck by his friends and supported them, he did well in school and helped May out, and he did his best as Spider-Man and listened to whatever Tony told him to do. He did his best.

And yet a part of him was always stuck in that house, looking at world though the broken windows, yearning for a day when he could breathe freely. The day never came.

That's probably why he didn't expect anything to change- no one wanted to visit that old big house in the corner which was rumored to be filled with the ghosts of his past.

He also did not wish for another ghost to be the one that visited.

Peter Parker expected himself to grow up, go to MIT, get married and leave the super hero business behind him and just... grow old. His life was planned as much as it could be and he was okay with that. He had to be.

And maybe that's why it was a shock to him when his entire world tumbled down once again- a bunch of papers shaking the entire house, awakening the sleeping ghosts in his head and asking Peter why he didn't do better.

Peter just wished that the ghost knew that he tried his best.

It had been a cold day when the letters arrived at his doorstep. His name was beautifully written on the package. They were light and Peter hadn't had a clue of how heavy they really could be. If only the boy knew, Peter would have described those few pieces of inked paper as the heaviest thing he had ever had to hold. Well, along with his now broken heart.

He hadn't been sure of what to expect because he knew that the Californian address on the package could only mean it came from Thalia Gray, his ex- best friend, if you could even call her that. After the girl left New York, she had broken all contact with the Parker boy and foolishly Peter never did anything about it. He hadn't even thought of the brown-eyed beauty till the package came.

'Dear Mr. Parker,'

The letter that was attached to the front said in neat handwriting after Peter had ripped the package apart.

'I am sorry to inform you of the recent passing of my daughter, Thalia Gray, who I recall had been a great friend of yours when we still lived in Queens. Unfortunately, she was caught in the middle of a robbery at a nearby store and unlike how it is for your home, there was no Spider-Man or Iron-Man to save my little girl. But then I am proud to say that Thalia died a hero.

She shielded a five year old from the bullet, causing her own death.

Last night, while I was in her room, I found a stack of letters and each of them had been addressed to you. I feel that a part of her would have wanted you to read what she wrote so I took the liberty to send them all to you. They belong to you and it's up to you to decide what you want to do with them.

I apologize, since my letter is short but in the end, all I can say is thank you for being a friend to my daughter.

With love,

Dr. Sophie Gray'

Peter hadn't realized the tears that had started to appear, furiously flowing down as his breath became harsher.

Thalia couldn't just be... gone?

His mind flashed with the memory of her- it had been two years now since he saw her last but suddenly Peter could hear her laugh, so pure and innocent. So full of life.

How could Thalia be gone?

Peter kept wishing with all of his heart that this was just some sick joke but he knew for some reason that she was never going to come back. Peter's life had opened it's doors to another ghost to roam the halls of his empty heart and prey his mind for not being good enough.

'She died a hero.'

Was that supposed to make him feel better?

Peter fell on the sofa of his empty home since May was on a shift and with shaking hands he took out her first letter which was dated only a few weeks after she left, and Peter's heart was the heaviest it had ever been.

Thalia's handwriting was just as messy had he remembered- words crossed out and the 'y's too long. He used to make fun of her for it and she would usually hit his head in return.

'Dearest Peter Parker,

Fuck you-'