Dancing Around // peter parker

31

We walked to our apartment building. I kept looking at Peter's hand as it swung back and forth beside mine on our way back. I kept telling myself to grab it but I never seemed to be bold enough to do so. To think, I didn't find cute boys without their shirts intimidating, yet the mere thought of my hand officially wrapped in Peter's made my heart feel unsteady and a bit gooey.

We reached our front doors. I unlocked my door, pushing it opened, before turning back around to see him. He slid his hands into the pocket of his jeans, leaning almost back a bit like he was capturing me in his mind. I didn't want the night to end.

"I guess this is goodbye, then," he said.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I guess so." I nodded my head once or twice more before opening my mouth again. "Or you can come in," I said.

"I-what?"

"Come in," I repeated, pushing the door open all the way. "You did promise me you would help me cook."

Peter's coffee eyes widen. I caught the moment his face slowly started to turn red. "Oh, right." He looked down embarrassed, making me smile.

I gaped. "Wait, you didn't think..." I began to tease.

"No!"

"Peter!"

"I didn't!" He met my eyes, the cherries of his checks became a shade close to my lipstick. I began to laugh, making him roll his eyes. "You're just messing with me." He shook his head in disbelief as he walked into my apartment.

"I would never," I said as I followed him inside. I shut the door behind me, placing my stuff on my desk. "I'm going to go pee real quick. Keep yourself busy." I hurried to the bathroom, not waiting for his response. Once I was out of the restroom, urine free, I hurried into the kitchen, only to see he wasn't there or in the living room. For a moment I thought he had left, but then I traveled into my bedroom to see him sitting on my bed, one of my photo albums on his lap. He flipped through them in the dark. I turned on my lights, making him jump pretty high up in the air and then land back down on my colorful sheets. He closed the album, looking up at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"What? Nothing. I, uh," He placed the album back on my nightstand where I had it originally. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snoop around, I was just-"

"Snooping around?"

He looked around before shrugging his shoulder.

I smiled, before taking a seat next to him. "Do you want to see the album? I don't mind."

"You don't have to." He stood up.

"It's okay." I pulled him back down before grabbing the photo album from the end table. I placed it on my lap, starting on the first page. I always wanted to show it to someone. No one but me really ever saw it, but I really wanted someone to ask about it. I really wanted someone to ask about me. Curiosity was flattering.

I showed Peter all my photos. The album was mainly about my freshman year.

"Wow, you had a lot of friends," he told me.

"Yeah," I started to say, but then I added, "actually, no. Not really." I looked down at the photos of all the different people. Did any of them ever think about me? Did I ever make any kind of impact on their lives? I let my head drop on Peter's shoulder. "I never really had a group of friends, actually. All these people, I probably didn't even talk to half of them after the photo was taken. I've kind of always been on my own," I admitted.

I could feel his voice vibrate through his chest and up to his throat. It wrapped around me as he spoke. "Not anymore," he said. He shifted his shoulders a bit, causing me to take my head off of them. "Oh, I'm sorry." His left hand gently pushed my head back down on his shoulders. "I, uh, just wanted to flip the page."