Fingers Crossed || Peter Parker

Chapter 9

By the time Emma's dad had made it down to the New York suburbs in a hurry, Emma had already walked nearly two miles. Never underestimate an angry girl on a mission. Since moving to the new city, Emma and her father's relationship had become more strained. At this point, the father and daughter barely even talked to each other besides a few words exchanged here and there. Emma hadn't even wanted to call her father to come pick her up but she also felt that she didn't really have a choice if you wanted to get home safely. Frankly she really just wanted to come home, lie in bed and listen to sad music that would only make her feel worse.

When Emma's dad saw her walking on the side of the road, he quickly pulled over, jumped out of the car and enveloped his daughter into a hug. The last time Emma had called him crying was after the accident with her mom. Emma instantly melted into her fathers embrace, allowing the tears to flow again. She really wanted the incident with Peter to not bother her this much but she was hurt.  She thought Peter was her friend and maybe actually liked her. Emma had never had a boyfriend before or any guys really show interest so it was a big deal for her that a boy, a cute boy nevertheless, actually liked her. But now all she felt was alone and rejected. Peter was really one of her only friends and now she was left feeling just as lonely as before.

"Honey it's okay" Emma's dad said holding his crying daughter. This was the closest the two had been since the move to New York. Emma's dad had been so focused on his new job that he sometimes forgot that his daughter was only fifteen and still needed someone there. Emma had always been so independent and self reliant, especially after the loss of her mother that he had just never really seen how much she was struggling.

As the Brisbanes got into the car and out of the night, Emma's phone buzzed again. Ned had been calling Emma nonstop ever since she abruptly left the party. Emma really did feel bad for leaving Ned at the party alone, knowing that he didn't really have any other friends but he was covering for Peter. Emma was sick of all the lies from both of the boys. They were obviously covering something and Emma was tired of it. Emma hit ignore again on her phone, letting it go to voicemail again. She would text Ned later tonight to let him know that she got home safely but right now she wasn't in the mood to talk.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Emma's dad finally asked as his daughter was starting to compose herself. Emma had been so excited about tonight. The pair had gone out to dinner for the first time in a while and she had talked on and on about her two new friends and how tonight was maybe, kind of, a date.

"No" Emma said simply, continuing to look at the dark road ahead, "Just boys ain't shit" Emma finally followed. Emma was already sick of crying. Her go to emotion was never sadness but rather anger. Emma could already feel herself shift from being sad about the situation to mad at Peter.

"It's good you are learning that early, honey" Emma's dad said sadly. He felt bad for whoever this Peter boy was because if Emma didn't kill him first for whatever he did, he was going to make sure that he killed him. As Emma turned up the music in the car indicating she didn't really want to talk anymore about the situation, her dad's phone went off.

"Hello? Really? Alright, I'll be there in about thirty minutes I just have to drop off my daughter first" Emma's father talked into the phone getting a serious voice. Emma huffed growing now annoyed at her father. Always running off to do this or that for whatever he worked on. When it rains, it pours.

****

Peter breathed heavily as he fell from the sky. After having an altercation with the people that were selling those advanced weapons, Peter followed them only to be swept up by a man with a flying suit. Peter was then dropped from the man's suit. He found himself falling at an alarming rate, plummeting back to the ground, leading to him to panic. Luckily Peter's suit had a built in parachute to deploy leading to his free fall to be slowed. However as Peter slightly calmed down he hit the lake below to find his parachute getting tangling and preventing himself from getting to the surface. As Peter found it harder and harder to fight, he felt himself getting dragged out of the lake.

After the near death incident and Tony Stark giving Peter a lecture virtually from a computer-operated suit, Peter was in a bad mood. Not to mention the fact that he had been gone for much longer then he expected and had probably ruined the night with Emma. As Peter sat trying to warm up from the freezing cold lake water, he checked his phone to see a bunch of missed calls and messages from Ned. Deciding not to go through the effort of listening to all of them, Peter called his friend to see how bad the damage was.

"Hey Peter, so I know I told you that you should hurry back, but I'm starting to think that maybe you should just not come. Emma got super mad about waiting and told me to tell you to 'fuck off'. I know you got powers and all but if I were you I would be scared because she was really freaking scary. Like Darth Vader scary"

"She really said that?" Peter asked in disbelief feeling his mood drop more "I really tried to get back but then there were these bad guys and one dropped me into a lake"

"Yeah Peter you really screwed up. I think she thought you purposely stood her up. She left crying. I know you've got superhero duties but I don't know how you are going to come back from this one" Ned said honestly, a little mad at Peter himself for hurting Emma and ditching them. Sure Ned got that he had a duty as Spider-man but tonight was a really big night for Peter and Emma and he had made Ned's other best friend cry.

"I know man. I'm sorry. I got to go see if I can find Emma" Peter said and then ending the call. Peter felt terrible knowing that he had made Emma cry. He wanted tonight to be perfect because she was perfect and instead he had screwed it up. He didn't know what he was going to do but he was willing to do anything to get Emma to understand. She had to understand.

Peter starting swinging from building to building feeling the urgency to get to Emma. After his record time trip across the city, Peter found himself on the balcony of Emma's apartment. Peter could see into Emma's room to see her cuddled in her bed, wearing her usual fuzzy socks. Peter knew he was out of his mind. Here he was still in his Spider-man suit ready to risk his identity for a girl he had known for less then a month. But she was worth it; she was worth every risk.

Peter knocked on Emma's window, heart racing as he saw her look up. Emma hesitantly walked to the window.

"What do you want Spidey? Because you better be hurt or dying or otherwise I'm not really in the mood" Emma said instantly feeling bad for snapping at the young hero who had saved her so many times. Emma really just wanted to be alone.

"Emma, I..." Peter started feeling more guilty when he saw how upset Emma was.

"Wait how do you know my name?" Emma asked, surprised to hear her own name from the hero's mouth. She had definitely never told him her name.

There was no backing out now for Peter. Peter took a deep breath before taking off his mask.  "Emma, it's me. I'm Spider-man"

Surprise! Another cliffhanger! Sorry all for the slightly shorter chapter but I really wanted to get an update up and this seemed like the perfect place to end haha. Thank you all who got me to 2k reads. I'm super flattered and to be honest I never thought my story would be anywhere close to this successful. Let me know what you all think of this chapter and how you think Emma is going to react to the big news. Thank you for reading!