Peter Parker Short Stories

The start of a friendship

  Weird people are usually the rock bottom of the school pyramid. Peter Parker, though, he wasn't even in it. He was weird, friendless, quiet. He was also top of the class, a skater boy, an orphan, and a rumored street fighter. He used to have a personal bully until Flash got bored of him. Some girls were attracted to Parker because of his cool demeanor, his mysterious facade, but they lost interest pretty quickly. He worked as an intern in Stark Industries but he never spoke about it, not even through offhand comments in class. He was a ghost: to most people, he didn't even exist, and to those who became obsessed with him, he stopped being interesting when they received no response.

    Ned Leeds thought about this as he started walking the dreaded path towards Peter's desk because he was assigned to do a chemistry project with him. As always, Parker was asleep on his desk. “Peter?” Ned asked. When he received no response, he coughed and repeated his name louder. Peter's eyes snapped open and glared a hole through Ned's skull. If looks could kill, Ned would be dust right now. Fucking hell, why couldn't he get a normal person as his partner? He'd take weird Mandy over Parker. Instead of voicing his thoughts, he wisely said “We were assigned to do the project together, so…”

“Really?” Peter raised an eyebrow while eyeing him up and down “Ok. I guess you are not going to let me do the whole thing, put both our names on it and call it a day, right?” Ned scrunched up his nose in disgust. This guy was so conceited. “Thought so. Look, after school I have about an hour and a half free, so let's meet up outside school when the bell rings and we'll go get coffee to discuss the project or whatever.” Ned nodded and left without a word.

    This Parker guy was intriguing, to say the least. He used to be a scrawny, asthmatic little kid with huge stupid glasses and science pun shirts, someone Ned would have liked had he not been the new target of Flash’s bullying. He was aware that it was a cowardly move, to use him as a buffer from Flash's taunts, but when he had finally gathered up the courage to befriend Peter, he was absent for a week and his uncle had been killed. Not the best moment to talk to the guy, what with all the pity he was already recieving. Once Peter had gone back to school, he was an entirely new person. For one, he took off his glasses. He stopped using geeky shirts and had seemingly acquired a whole new wardrobe consisting of t-shirts of a wide variety of dark colors and band merch. He had pierced his ears, which wasn't really common to see in Midtown, and started using a skateboard, for some reason. He became more lean and less scrawny, clearly having filled up and getting his growth spurt during his absence. He stopped radiating anxious, sunshine-y vibes and became more closed off. Sometimes, he got to school with nasty bruises that had clearly been made in a fight. All of them, teachers and classmates alike, had thought that it was just his way of going through the dueling stage of his grief, but it had been going on for an entire year and it still hadn't stopped, so the school had just accepted that his uncle's death had done a one-eighty on Peter’s personality.

   That's when the rumors had started. From tales saying that Peter's uncle was killed in front of him and his aunt hit him because he didn't save him, to those who said that his uncle never died and had faked everything so as to fully control his mafia business from the shadows, pulling his poor nephew in because he had been a witness. Wild stories had been spinning out of control because nobody was there to stop them from doing that, Peter had no friends to defend him.

   That was what Ned thought until that evening. He had been waiting for Peter, who had probably fallen asleep again, by the school entrance just like they'd arranged. When he finally spotted him, 10 minutes after almost everyone had left, he had to do a double check. Peter was walking towards him talking animatedly over the phone, laughing and smiling cheerfully. It was out of this world. Ned’s mind couldn't comprehend what was happening. When Peter finally got to where Ned was standing, he was still smiling fondly and towards that person over the phone. His aunt, maybe?

“Ok, ok Harry, I get it, no more breaking my curfew. See you in a bit.” and he hung up. When he looked up, Ned had schooled his expression to not reveal his absolute astonishment at the situation. Harry is a boy's name. Peter has a friend? In what universe would that happen? It's probably a cousin or something. Still…

“Sorry for making you wait” Said Peter, his face revealing no emotion besides boredom. Someone get this kid an Oscar, because what the fuck. “Let's get going.”

     Ned nodded and they walked in an awkward silence for a while, until they reached a small cafe a few blocks away from Midtown. When they had already ordered, Peter asking for a surprising amount of food, he said, “Oh, a friend of mine is stopping by in a while to chat for a bit. He knows his fair bit of Chem, so he will be able to keep up and maybe offer some remarks.” Ned nodded in acknowledgement as he took out his laptop and a notebook, trying to not let his surprise at Peter talking. Seriously, this was the first time he heard Peter say more than five words in a sentence that wasn't for a class. And he also had a friend, apparently, which was actually a shock to have confirmed.

     The minutes passed by quickly, with them discussing their chemistry project. Once the coffee (and everything else Peter had ordered, honestly, how much can a guy eat?) arrived, the bell to the cafe chimed and Harry Osborn, of all people, entered the store. He seemed to be searching for something, tjough it was hard to tell what, with the sunglasses covering his eyes. When he spotted what he was looking for, which was clearly close to their table, he smiled and headed their way.

   “Peter!” he smiled. Ok, Ned was actually freaking out right now. How did Peter Parker know Harry Osborn? In what universe would Harry fucking Osborn be happy to see Peter Parker?

  Peter turned around with a smile (an actual, legit smile, with teeth and happiness in it) on his face and greeted Harry with a hug. He introduced Harry to Ned, to which he only responded with a smile and a wave, going back to his computer, and started chatting away. Internally, Ned was listening to every bit of conversation, just to get the raw primary source and then uncover the mystery that is Peter Parker with MJ. She loved a good puzzle, and what's better than the apparently non existent social life of Peter Parker.

   An hour went by with Ned, Peter and Harry discussing different science outbreaks, having deviated from their homework long ago. Currently, Peter and Ned were discussing who the best scientist in the world was (Harry Osborn surprisingly defended Tony Stark's honor fiercely, and Ned and Peter listed all of Dr. Brunner's accomplishments). Ned was actually surprised at how well he hit it off with Harry, and, more frankly, Peter. It was as if he was seeing an entirely new person and he liked what he was discovering. He clearly wasn't an asshole as Ned had thought. And he was an actually nice, caring person, which shouldn't really be a shock, having seen  Peter pre his uncle's death, but it still was, nonetheless, very surprising.

   “All I'm saying is that Dr. Brunner didn't suddenly reappear from a kidnapping with an iron suit like ‘hello there’ expecting us to forgive him for all his crimes” Peter argued, petulantly.

   “You like Star Wars?!” Ned exclaimed. Peter’s eyes looked at him shining with surprise and Ned stared right back at him with a smile, and they just clicked. And Ned thought that he and Peter could be great friends.

Peter thought maybe he could open up  a little to the guy, though he wouldn't admit to Harry that he had been right when he told Peter to let go of the anger he held because Ned had used him as a buffer and never apologized.

Harry just smiled sadly, having ensured that his friend wouldn't be all alone again if his illness couldn't be treated.