Reticent Monsters (Ultimate Spider-Man - Cartoon)

Chapter 36: Seeking Help

"Should we use streamers, or are those too tacky?" Harry held up the old bundle of orange, yellow, and black streamers for MJ to judge. He was sitting cross-legged across from her, harboring an old box between is legs filled to the brim with colored paper. MJ sat opposite to him on the couch, legs also crossed, rummaging through her own box, but looked up to assess his question. She pinched her lips, tilting her head to the side as if to examine them from a new angle, and shrugged.

"I don't see why we can't use them," she said, going back to her box, "but what I don't understand is why you still have all these un-used plates," she withdrew a stack of plastic Halloween plates.

Harry snorted, "That was all Peter. You know how he gets. If something wasn't used you have to save it or else you're wasting."

"But you buy new ones every year."

"I know. That's what I said, but he doesn't listen. He's the one that packs them in the box, I can't stop him."

MJ tossed them back in the box with a snort, "Yeah, that sounds like him."

Harry scrounged through his box, pulling up roll after roll of streamers, before throwing his hands up and dumping the whole thing out on his feet. "I think I need to buy new ones. These ones are all torn," he held up a long strip of the thin crepe paper mottled with tears and holes.

Admittedly, he hadn't been too gentle when he took them all down last year. Kind of just yanked and pulled and stuffed them all in the box. But imagining the disgruntled look on Peter's face if he saw them now made him grin. He'd probably say they were still useable and absolutely forbid Harry to waste money buying new ones. That was the thing about Pete, sometimes he seemed to forget Harry was rich. And that he had a reputation to uphold. If he was hosting a party for the whole school, it had to be the best of the best. Which meant no torn streamers or old plates.

"We can head out to go buy new ones later," Harry said, sweeping over the mounds of old party decorations they were going through. He already figured that they would have to, but he wanted to go through the old boxes anyway, for Peter's sake. It was something they did every year, and while Peter insisted they re-use their old decorations, Harry always managed to convince him to buy new ones.

Besides, it was fun watching Peter get cross-eyed as their bill went up.

Harry picked up the streamers up dumped them back in their box, trying to ignore the pestering ache in his heart. Even talking about Peter hurt. He couldn't go an afternoon of party-planning without feeling the hollow interior of his chest bleed.

Things would be so much better if Peter was here party-planning with him and MJ. They always had a blast doing it, sometimes even more fun than the party itself. Somehow, even cleaning up later, Peter made it bearable. Which is weird, because he was also the reason Harry cleaned it up at all, and not the hired help.

But that's just how all the Parkers were. They saved money and cleaned up after themselves. Harry figured that was just how they've always done it. Sometimes he forgot his friends weren't rich, which might sound bad, but it was still the undeniable truth. After growing up knowing that he had money for anything he wanted, it was hard to lift that gold film up over his eyes and realize that it wasn't the same for everyone.

So he tried extremely hard not to rub is wealth in anyone's face. Yeah, sometimes he made passing jokes to Peter - like that he'll buy him a bus company so he wouldn't be late (which Harry could) - but it was all in good fun. Besides, it's not like Peter would ever accept it. None of the Parkers would. They liked earning things with their own hands and hard work, which could be extremely endearing as much as it could be irritating.