LIAR, LIAR. Peter Parker

nine. peter the parasite

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Everything is peachy." A lie, obviously. His brain is short circuiting in panic, eyes shooting over towards the blonde girl. Nina is acting like it isn't bothering her - smiling softly while Betty shows her a video on her phone, which to him is somehow worse than seeing her angry.

Matty is not an idiot. Far from it. He follows Peter's gaze, feeling something in his stomach when he sees what he's looking at. "Sure, dude. Whatever. You excited?"

He was excited - approximately thirteen minutes ago, but now he was talking to the ex boyfriend of the girl of his dreams, who, by the way, is pissed at him, so excuse Peter for feeling a little like shit at the moment. "Yeah, yeah. I am."

Matthew nods awkwardly. "Cool."

"Yeah," his eyes dart over to hers, "Yeah. Cool."

Peter nods. Matthew nods. The air is awkward around them - thats exactly what you get when you throw two awkward boys into a forced conversation. It's Peter who decides to stop whatever this was, pointing to Ned. "I'm... gonna..."

"Right. Right." Matty nods awkwardly, pointing to his spot, next to Mr. Harrington, "I'm stuck with him, so..."

"Good luck with the divorce stories, then." Peter jokes, ignoring the way he feels Betty and Nina's eyes on the two of them. "I'll see you."

"Yeah, see you, Peter."

Once he sits down next to his best friend, Peter is still panicking, trying to figure out if Nina was actually mad or just mad - but despite that, he needed to explain things, and that's exactly what he was going to do.

"—anyway, on to more important things. It's a nine-hour flight. We can play Beast Slayers the whole time. Are you excited?" Ned talks and talks, unaware of his friend's current predicament.

"I need your help to sit next to Nina." he interrupted him, eyes darting towards the girl back a few seats. She was chatting with Betty - and oh fuck Matty was sitting in front of her.

"Seriously?" Ned groans, exparated.

"Yes, seriously." Peter whisper shouts. He wasn't supposed to be worried about Nina. It was always like this: he said stuff, she said stuff, they ignored each other for an hour, and then they were back at it again; but that was when they hated each other's guts - and it was different now.

"What about our plan?" Ned whines, "American bachelors in Europe!"

"That's your plan. That's a solo plan." He can't help it, glancing back at the girl. "Come on, this is my plan."

Ned looks at him with disappointment, but that's not what's on Peter's head at the moment. The boy doesn't know if it's his Spider-senses catching the tiniest things and it's really Matty and Nina glancing at each other for a split second or if it's just him overanalyzing and overreacting, but it sends him into a ball of panic. "Please."

Two minutes later, Ned Leeds is standing in front of Betty and Nina, a sweet smile on his face. He tries to not show that he's panicking internally, since everyone was intimidated by Nina and Betty, and all that shit-talking he could only do was behind her back, but he tries his best. "Hey, guys."

Betty and Nina both pause, eyes shooting up to him at the same time. They both don't look very happy that their conversation has been interrupted, but Ned tells himself that he can do this. For Peter. "There's an old lady in front of us wearing a crazy amount of perfume, and it's kind of setting off Peter's allergies."