Heartbeat (Danny Rand)

Twelve

             "Man, Ari, you suck at this," Pete laughs as his character Hulk-Smashes mine.

              "Well, you suck at everything else so I thought I'd let you have this," I shoot back, making Peter throw a hand over his heart

                "Now that's just hurtful," he pouts, putting down his controller. "Let's do this at your house next time. I bet you have tons of video games."

               "Eh, I think I'll pass. I'd have to actually clean up," I reply quickly, brushing off his comment. I don't even have a TV.

              "Alright fine. As you wish," Pete sighs, rolling his eyes. "Let's do something else. I'm tired of kicking your butt."

            "What did you have in mind? Yoga?" I joke, and Pete sticks his tongue out at me.

            "You've been spending way too much time with Danny," He teases, and I can feel a light and hopefully unnoticeable blush spread across my cheeks. I don't know what that boy is doing to me, but I have to get myself together. Peter literally only said his name.

            "I should actually probably start heading home. It's late and I still have a lot of homework," I decide, setting down my controller and reaching for my purse.

            "Do you just want to just spend the night? It's pretty dark out," Pete asks, glancing at the clock on the wall.

             "Nah, I'll be fine. I can take care of myself," I decide, taking my purse and walking toward the door as Peter turns off the TV we just spent the last four hours playing video games in front of.

             "See you on Monday, then," he says as I leave his house, beginning my walk. Usually, I take the bus most of the way to his house and back, but I'm not a huge fan of taking the bus at night. It's usually teeming with drunks and weirdos, the majority of whom live in the same neighborhood as me and get off at the same stop.

             After walking for around 40 minutes I'm almost home when I hear a rustling from the bushes nearby.

             I turn around to see what was making the noise but don't see anything. When I start walking again, though, I hear slow footsteps somewhere off to my right.

             Feeling incredibly freaked out I start to walk faster, breaking into a run when I hear something metal clatter to the ground.

           I round the corner only to smack straight into something hard and metallic. It takes a second to regain my bearings, and as soon as I do I try to turn and run in the other direction, but I'm too slow.

            "Aria Green," A raspy yet forceful voice says, an armored hand grabbing my shoulder. "I've been looking for you."

        I recognize him immediately as Taskmaster, the man who impersonated a gym teacher to find Spiderman. I also know that he's bad news, and no matter what he wants with me it can't be good.

          "I've heard whispers about you from people around town, and from what I've heard you're good at learning information. I need you to find out Spiderman and his team's identity for me," He demands, sending a shiver down my spine.

             "No way," I reply, shaking my head. For the record, I wouldn't do it even if I didn't know that they were my best friends. I might not be the best person, but I don't necessarily want to hurt people. Especially not when they help others.

            "I wasn't asking, kid. You have two weeks," He rasps, squeezing my shoulder hard before letting go. I spin around quickly, but he seemingly disappeared into thin air.

            It takes a couple seconds for the pain in my shoulder to set in, but once it does I have to stifle a scream. I know it's not dislocated but it hurts enough that it might as well be.

             I run the rest of the way home, not wanting to run into Taskmaster or any other insane villains again, ignoring the shooting pains in my shoulder. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about him, but I do know that I can't not do anything. Who knows what he'll do to me if I don't tell him what he wants.

              There's no way I'm going to sell out my friends though. I care about them too much to even consider it. Besides, they'd never forgive me if I did and I don't want to lose them.

             When I finally get to my house I go straight to the bathroom and take off my shirt, examining my shoulder. A purple bruise is already starting to form, but other than that it looks fine. I check the shirt I was wearing, too, and don't see any sort of tracker or anything like that.

           Deciding that he probably just wanted to scare me, which definitely worked, I slip off the rest of my clothes and into the shower. I can practically feel the steaming hot water melt away my problems.

            With a now clear head I change into my pajamas and climb into bed, homework suddenly the last thing for me worry about. Besides the slight feeling of dread pulling at my chest, I'm actually feeling pretty relaxed.

            I've made it through a lot of things, and I'll make it through this too. No matter what it takes.