This Way Down // peter parker

1

April 2018

THE LIES JUST kept coming and they wouldn't stop coming. They were the smallest of white lies that flew from my mouth for the smallest of things. In first period when Peter went to the bathroom during math class and never came back, I had to lie to our math teacher and say that he had gotten sick, using my phone to text myself to make it seem like Peter and I exchange a conversation with my fake caller ID. She bought it and gave me his homework. I took his bag and stuffed it into my locker. It wasn't until after school when I was already home that Peter texted me for my locker combination, then after a while, it had become a regular expected thing. Peter left things behind and I gathered them like some freaking scavenger hunt, collecting them all in my locker or in my room for Peter to get them whenever he could.

"I think I can become an actor," I told him once.

Peter looked at me with wide eyes as he sat on the opposite side of the table.

The library was pretty much empty in the morning before school, but he still lean in and whispered, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm getting so good at lying for you, maybe I can make it into my career or something."

He smiled, looking down at his overdue math homework. I opened my folder, grabbed my already graded homework, and placed it in front of him. He gave it back.

"It's no big deal," I said.

"I'm not gonna copy."

"You're not going to pass either. Besides, it's not like you don't know what you're doing. Just think of it as...time management?"

"Time management?"

I nodded. "Instead of doing your homework, you can copy and have more time to talk to me." I leaned in, cheeky.

He hesitated for a moment before a grin broke out and he grabbed my homework back, starting to copy from my homework.

"Oh wow, Peter, I can't believe you're copying my homework. Do you have no morals?"

His eyes widen for the second time. "You just-"

I shake my head softly. "What would all those robbers say if they saw a hypocrite put them behind bars?"

He placed my homework back in front of me. I placed it back in front of him.

"I was only joking," I said.

He placed it back in front of me. "No, it's okay. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrite."

I giggled, placing it in front of him. I watched him carefully like he was a cat to see if he was going to accept my love even while looking at me with annoyed eyes. He did, placing the math homework next to his own. He pushed his eyebrows together as he looked through it. "Marina, you only got five questions right."

"I know. I'm very proud."

He gave me a funny look.

"Hey, you shouldn't be talking right now, alright? You know, you're very lucky the teacher gave you an extension," I said.

"Yeah, it must be because of the massive diarrhea you told her I had."

My smile widened. "Nothing but the best excuses for you, babe."

He smiled.

"So anyways," I leaned back against my seat, "Me? On your tv? Acting? Fans? Fame? Glory? Can you see it?"

"Can you?"

I pushed my eyebrows together. "Not really, no, but what's my other alternative? A math degree?"

"What about your camera? Like a photographer."

"I mean, sure, okay, pictures are fun, but could I make a career off of that?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Why are you suddenly interested in careers?"

"Because we're seniors next year, and then, before you know it, we graduated and have to decide what the rest of our lives are going to be."

"You've never brought this up before."

I leaned back, looking at Peter's eyes moving from one paper to the other, his hand moving as he copied my answers, his brown hair hanging a little low, a few strains close to touching his eyes.

"My dad brought it up last week."

Peter stop moving his hand. He looked up at me. I had now become the cat.

"How is that? Phone calls with your dad?"

I shrugged my shoulder. "Okay, I guess. Just a tiny bit strange when he lectures me about my grades and says things like, "colleges like this" and "colleges like that." Sometimes I feel like he only appears to tell me to get my act together. Even seeing him in person is weird. And he keeps telling me to move in with him. That he'll enroll me in a private school that will guarantee me to a great college, not just good, but great!"

Peter eyed me.

"Of course, I'll never go, but it's still annoying how I keep saying no and he keeps asking me."

He looked at me with pitiful eyes, but the strains of hair close to his eye distracted me, making me smile as I leaned over and gently pushed them to the side.

"You need a haircut," I said, running my fingers multiple times through his hair on both sides of his head to try to keep them in place, before looking slightly down at him and his grin as his eyes met mine.

"You smell nice," he said softly.

My face burned, but cooled quickly with the abrupt introduction of both Ned and MJ - Ned jumped and yelled, "What are you doing?" to the left of us while MJ snuck behind Peter and leaned her head to see what was in front of him.

"Ooo, Peter, not you copying," she said as she took a seat on the right side of the table, and Ned of the left, both of them between Peter and I.

I leaned back against my seat. "Not really," I told her. "I only got five questions right."

MJ placed her bag on her lap, looking through her stuff before pulling out a folder. "I have mine if you want to see. Got them all right." She pulled out her homework, handing it to a grateful Peter. He placed it on top of my homework, his eyes starting to move back and forth between the two pages, and his hand moving like crazy with his pencil in it. I giggled at his reaction.

"Marina," Ned said, "I walked by the gym the other day and saw the poster of you with the soccer ball."

"Pretty cool, right?" I said posing as I had for my poster. "Coach said there's a good chance of me becoming the star player next year, can you believe it? All the good people are graduating this year, so they're stuck with me as their best player. Ha! We're so screwed next year."

"You're an amazing player," Peter said defensively.

"Yeah, you move too fast through the field. Makes it hard for me to watch the games sometimes," MJ chipped in.

"Really? Thanks." I turned my head to Ned. "What are you going to do during summer? Have any plans yet?" I looked at MJ too, curious to hear her answer.

MJ smiled largely, looking at Ned. "Well, since you asked, there is this game tournament that's coming up."

"Winner gets a scholarship to the college of their choice." Ned looked towards me. "What about you?"

"Um..." I looked over to Peter, "I was thinking of getting a job or an internship or something."

Peter lifted his head. "Really?"

"Yeah, you know, my dad suggested it."

"Oh." Peter grabbed MJ's homework and handed it back to her. "Thanks," he told her, looking back at his homework. He placed it in one of his folders, before stuffing it into his bag. I looked at MJ and Ned, smiling.

I was a little nervous to tell Peter about my idea of getting a job or an internship, considering we only get to see each other when he wasn't saving the day or catching up on his homework. If I got a job or an internship, that meant set hours, which meant less Peter. It looked like he took it well though.