Euphoric | Peter Parker

07- Back To Old Habits

I whipped around. Peter was standing right in front of me. My head was hurting so bad that I couldn't even sense him out in the hall in the first place.

"Peter! You scared me!" I went closer to him as the crowds started to go around us. "Why aren't you in class?"

He glanced around before returning his attention back to me. "The bell rang? That's why everyone is out here?" He studied me for a second. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I grunted through my teeth.

On the plane back to New York, I told Peter about some of the things my brother made me see inside my head. He made me promise that if, for some reason, that were to happen again, that I would let him know.

I wasn't ready to let him know about this one.

I turned away from him and watched the crowd. Everyone was ignoring the classrooms and walking in the same direction.

"Where is everyone going?" I asked him.

"To the cafeteria."

"Cafeteria?"

"For lunch, yeah." He raised an eyebrow. "Have you not been told that this is lunch hour?"

"No."

"Well, it is." He cleared his throat. "You wanna sit with me and my friend? The guy I told you about earlier?"

I could barely hear him over the sound of students talking and my head pounding.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay." I said as I quickly nodded my head. My hands were starting to shake.

"You sure you're alright?" He asked again, "You seem all over the place."

"I threw up in the restroom."

"Oh, my gosh! You okay?"

"Yes." I said as I started to follow the crowd.

He walked along side me.

"You sure?" He asked again.

"Yes!" I groaned.

"Alright!" He held his hands up in surrender. "Just making sure."

_______________________________

Rows of tables with knobs for seats screwed onto them filled the cafeteria as myself and Peter entered along with a sea of other students.
Peter was right with me, showing all the steps on how to get my lunch; Pick up tray, push it down rack as the lunch ladies (which he knew each by name) plop food down and hand you a carton of milk.
After all that, you get to choose your seating.

We sat down with the guy Peter considered to be his best friend. He introduced himself but I couldn't pay attention to anything he was saying. I could barely focus. I placed my feet up against the bars underneath the table so I wouldn't have to sense anything.
Peter and his friend looked nothing alike, but they acted as if they were the same person. Peter sat between us as they two talked about nonsense while I picked at the food with my plastic fork.

"So, Alli," His friend started out, "How well do you know Peter? What have you two done together?"

I jabbed the food on the tray with the plastic fork. "We've kissed." I went back to my food without ever looking toward him.

I heard him gasp. "You two kissed?! Peter, you've been out here kissing girls and you didn't tell me? Your best friend?"

I glanced at Peter and noticed how red his face was becoming. He kept trying to speak but all he could do was sputter out random syllables.