Chapter Sixty-Six

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A/N: GUYS WHO GOT THE SPIDER-MAN GAME FOR THE PS4!!! THAT'S RIGHT IT'S ME. HOLY FUCKING SHIT ITS SO FUCKING GOOD ALJFAFGA IM EVEN MORE IN LOVE WITH PETER FREAKING PARKER *sigh* why do I always fall in love with boys that don't exist?

Anyway, at least I have this Peter to myself. But he's not even in this chapter. Or the next one. Or the next one. I know I said Homecoming started, but we've got a few weeks before it really starts.

On another note, who else has finals week soon? *cries* chemistry is gonna kill me

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"Yesterday, we both tried a garlic face

mask she suggested. It was...delightful."
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Adelaide woke up with tears dried around her eyes.

And, of course, her neighbors causing their usual ruckus. She didn't even bother trying to shut them up this time as she rolled off of her bed. She rubbed her eyes, trying to clear them up.

"Manjeet! Ek chai pilado!" (Manjeet! Get me a cup of tea!)

"Khud banake pilo! Mujse kya chai banvane kilye shaadi ki hai!" (Make it yourself! You didn't marry me just to make you tea, did you!)

"..sirf ek chai hi toh mangi thi. Ye khuri bhi na...choti choti bato pe gusa ho jatee hai." (...I just asked for a cup of tea. This woman...gets angry over the stupidest things.)

"Ha, toh me hongi nah! Kamwali banake rakha hai muje! Khudka phone kahan pada hai vo bhi nahi bata rahetain!" (Why wouldn't I! You keep me here like a housemaid! You don't even know where your own phone is half the time!)

"For the love of God, can you both shut the hell up!" Adelaide shouted, fed up with hearing their bickering even though she couldn't understand a word of it.

"Lo. Oothgayi tumhari Amrican alarm ki ghanti. Pilao chai oosko." (Look. Your American alarm is awake. Go, give her tea, why don't you?)

A very loud and long sigh. And then...silence. Thank fucking god. Adelaide had thought they were never going to stop.

Yawning and stretching, she made her way over to the fridge to find the lesser of the expired foods she could salvage for breakfast. She found a quarter cup of milk and eggs that were stinking up the entire fridge. She immediately tossed the carton into the trash bag, took it out, and tossed it outside her door so she could throw it down the chute later.

She realized that if she didn't go to the grocery store now, she was going to starve. Sighing with a growling stomach, she dragged herself into the even more pathetic excuse for a bathroom and hopped into the shower. She knew the water wouldn't stay hot for long so she didn't bother staying under the shower for longer than she had to.

Pulling on a black tank top with shorts and leaving her wet hair down to dry, she grabbed her wallet and phone and was out the door in less than a half hour. On her way down, she almost tripped over Mr. Zimmerman's stupid cat. Why did he have to get a cat that was the same color as the carpet?

The elevator ride luckily went without any human interaction.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, she walked out quickly, in hopes of avoiding the receptionist who always tried to talk to her about his strange theories to get rid of the giant mole on his forehead. It honestly looked like someone had glued brown play-doh to his forehead.

"Ella!" he said and she closed her eyes. She gritted her teeth, cursing at her bad luck. Why did he always have to be here when she was in the lobby?

"Ella!" he said again, waving her over to the desk.

Ella was the name she had told her landlord. She got it from Dellie. Ella Davis. The most basic name she could summon. So Lukov couldn't find her.

Adelaide really didn't have the patience to stop and talk to Don at the moment so she just ignored him and walked out of the lobby without looking back.

The moment she stepped outside, the cold morning (almost afternoon) air made her regret deciding to wear a tank top and shorts. But there was no way she was going to walk past Don again to get to her apartment. She'd rather climb the fire escape.

She decided that this quicker little grocery visit was going to have to be even quicker if she didn't want to freeze over.

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Thank God for elevators.

And lunch breaks. So Don had to leave his position at the desk and she could sneak past him while hauling her groceries with her.

Groceries weren't a trip to the carnival to carry up the stairs. In elevators, you could very easily drop them into the floor and sit down with them as you waited. Which is exactly the position she was in when the doors opened to her floor. Sighing, she grabbed her bags and got to her feet.

Hobbling out of the elevator with the bags, she began making her way to her apartment, which, luckily, wasn't too far from the elevator.

Suddenly, Adelaide's eyes went wide and she almost dropped all her bags.

No, no, no, no.

This couldn't be happening. Not to her. Not right now. She was so, so screwed. And there wasn't even anywhere to hide, damn it!

It was like she was frozen and she couldn't look away from her landlord standing in front of her door.

Now that didn't sound horrible, but the thing was, her landlord believed that she was a 38 year old, blind widow.

She was 38 because, technically, without the cryosleeping, that's how old she really was. Apparently that was as far as her sense of humor stretched nowadays.

And blind because she couldn't let him see her glowing eyes. The 'blind widow' part really helped when she had initially applied to move in. You'd be surprised the things that people did out of sympathy. Not that she was complaining even the slightest bit.

This blind widow thing had worked pretty well for three months and her landlord wasn't around much everyday, so she didn't have to worry about him finding out that she really was a very lonely teenager.

Silently, she abandoned her groceries behind a potted plant before her landlord spotted her and transformed into Ella Davis, the 38-year-old blind woman. She usually wore black light blocking glasses over her eyes, but, at the moment being, they were inside her apartment and she was outside.

An illusion of black glasses covering her eyes didn't do much to hide her glowing so she lowered her face, hoping he wouldn't ask questions.

"Ah, Ms. Davis, there you are!" he exclaimed cheerily at the sight of her.

"Mr. Johnson?" she said, staring at the carpet, "Is that you?"

"Yes, I'm just here to collect the rent," he said cheerily.

Ugh. Rent. Every tenant's least favorite word. For an apartment as shitty as this (she had a bucket sitting in her kitchen to collect the water dripping from the ceiling), she shouldn't even pay him a 100 dollars but here she was paying 800.

When every penny counted, 800 dollars were as precious as your soul. But Mr. Johnson did put a roof over her head and the 'I'm a widowed blind woman' excuse didn't bargain rent, unfortunately.

"Of course!" she said cheerily in a voice she had never used before, "Come on in!"

"Er, are you alright there, Ms. Davis?" he asked when he saw her staring at the ground as if she was trying to burn a whole into the ugly carpet with her eyes. Maybe then they'd finally replace the carpet.

"Oh I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, waving her hand as she reached for her keys inside her front pocket, "I apologize in advance for the mess."

"Oh, I understand," he laughed, waving his hand carelessly as she slid the key into the lock. With a click, the door was open.

No, you don't.

She didn't think Mr. Johnson quite comprehended what she meant about 'mess' because when the door opened, he let out an audible gasp. The apartment looked like a teenage boy's room. Or maybe a trash site that seagulls had picked through.

The floor around her makeshift bed in the corner was littered with candy wrappers (because dark chocolate made everything better), the area around the sofa was covered with chip bags and plastics, and not to mention the endless amounts of clothes lying around the room.

She was not the cleanest person in the world. Clearly.

"Have a seat," she told him, tossing her keys onto the tv table. Adelaide wasn't sure but she thought she heard him mutter under his breath 'Where?'

As Mr. Johnson tried to find a place to sit, she tried to discreetly search the apartment for the black glasses she had bought. He only came around once a month for rent so it was easy to misplace them and if she didn't find them...Adelaide shivered, not wanting to think of the consequences.

Maybe he gave discounts to superheros?

If he did, she wasn't too keen on founding out. The blind widow would have to work for now.

"So, Mr. Johnson," she said, trying to make conversation as she ransacked the drawers for the glasses, "How's the Mrs?"

"She's doing alright. Yesterday, we both tried a garlic face mask she suggested. It was...delightful," he said, seemingly trying to convince himself.

Adelaide grimaced. Garlic face mask? Where the hell did his dumb wife get that stupid idea?

"Er, I was actually in kind of a hurry, Miss Davis. I just need the payment and I'll be on my way," he said, interrupting her search for the glasses. She angrily shoved a drawer closed, still empty handed.

"Sure," she said, still shielding her eyes from him.

Turning her back on her landlord, she opened a cabinet where she kept her cash in an old shoe box. She pulled out the cash and took out 800 exact before carefully placing the money back inside. Her hard-earned money. And she had to give it away.

Just as she was about to close the cabinet door, she spotted something sitting on the second shelf inside the cabinet.

Grinning, she put them on and then shut the cabinet. Grabbing her money, she turned around.

Mr. Johnson's eyes widened.

"What are you wearing, Ms. Davis?" he asked. Adelaide — Ella — grinned.

"They're the new fashion," she smiled, "Don't you like them?"

They weren't her blind glasses, but they were bright green with plastic slinky eyes. One of them popped out, revealing the tinted lens behind it.

Adelaide smiled.

"They're...quite something," Mr. Johnson said, fumbling for the right words.

"I have another pair, would you like one?" she asked him.

"No! I-I mean, just the payment please," he said, standing up. Adelaide stepped forward, reluctantly handing him the 800 dollars.

"See you soon, Miss Davis!" he exclaimed as he quickly made his way through the minefield of garbage on the floor to leave. Adelaide shut the door behind him.

"Do me a favor and don't come back," she mumbled under her breath. She waited until he was gone before tossing her glasses to the side and stepping out into the hallway to get her groceries. Thankfully, no one had snatched them.

She put groceries away and then with a heavy sigh, she decided it was time to get dressed for work.

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A/N: So I'm currently in the middle of trying to pick a senior quote and I thought it would be easy enough but nOOoOOooO. I can't wait to graduate, God. 

Question: Do you ever just look at some girls and wonder how they have a boyfriend but you don't? I do that. Is that mean? Probably. Maybe that's why I'm still single. *sigh* If anyone happens to have Tom Holland's number, hit me up please and thank you. :,)

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