Walking the Wire | PETER PARKER [1]

| 17 |

He moves to his dresser and takes a stack of papers off, shuffling through them.

"But there's something I still don't understand about this. On the footage from the security camera that's set up in the lobby of the bank, the suspect is seen opening the door with his left hand, but-" Peter suddenly stops mid-sentence when he looks up from his papers at Eloise. He frowns and, setting the papers down, jumps onto his bed next to her. The mattress bounces and dips under his weight.

Eloise turns her head to look at Peter. He studies her thoughtfully, the same concentrated expression on his face from when he was trying to crack the case of the robberies.

"What's wrong?" He asks, brow pulled forward.

Eloise looks away. "I'm fine. Keep talking to me about ..." She picks up a manilla folder off the floor and read the label. "Your theories about the suspects."

Peter takes the folder from her hands. "Just suspect, not suspects." He sets it down on the floor again and pushes it away with his socked foot before turning his attention back to his neighbor. "But seriously, something's obviously bothering you."

She shakes her head. "It's nothing, Peter."

"It's not nothing," he says, nudging Eloise's shoulder with his. "Come on. You can tell me."

Eloise sighs. "I made a mistake," She says, her eyes trailing to meet Peter's. "Now Lucy's mad at me and I feel awful."

He cocks his head to the side. "What'd you do?"

"I blew off helping her study and watched a movie instead. To make it worse, she didn't do so good on her final and it's all because of me." Eloise scratches the back of her neck. "I just feel so guilty and I can't stop thinking about how bad of a friend I've been."

Peter frowns. "What? You haven't been a bad friend."

"Uh, yes I have," She says like it's obvious, because it is. "I made Lucy fail her final and watched a movie instead of helping her study."

He looks at Eloise oddly. "She didn't fail because of you. She's responsible for her grades, not you."

"But we're friends," Eloise breathes out. "Friends help each other, and when she needed help, I did nothing."

He shakes his head. "That doesn't make you a bad friend, Eloise. In fact, you're a really good friend. You always drop whatever you're doing for anybody."

She wants to argue because it's not true, she literally ignored Lucy yesterday when she clearly needed help. Peter makes her sound like some kind of saint and she doesn't like it.

When Eloise doesn't respond, Peter sighs. He stands and scratches the back of his head. "Look," He says. "Good people make mistakes sometimes, but it doesn't mean you're any less of a good person."

She doesn't move, not completely believing his words. Part of her knows that Peter's smart and wouldn't lie to her, but another part thinks that he's just trying to make her feel better about herself so she stops complaining.

Peter takes Eloise's hand and lifts her to her feet. She stares at him.

"Don't be so hard on yourself." Peter lets go of her hand and it falls to her side. His lips are turned down in a slight pout as he stares at her.