All I Ask of You

Chapter Thirty-Five

 After what felt like hours, Peter and Annie finally got their drinks and left the coffee shop. Neither of them said anything for a few moments, and Annie was almost positive that she knew there was going to be some kind of question about what in the world had just happened. The worst part was, Annie wasn't even sure what she would say about it. Even though, if it had been nearly nine months before, she would have had far more to say.

"So... I'm just a friend?" Peter asked.

Annie's jaw dropped, "No, I just..."

"You didn't want to tell her. Fine, but why? And are we going to be like that when we go back home? Because I want to know now before something like that happens again," he said, looking down.

Annie frowned, "That was Jen, I didn't want to tell her because she would see some form of weakness coming from me. And she probably would've brought you into it. I didn't want that for you."

"Well I could've taken it. You shouldn't choose what I can and can't handle. We're not even going to see her again, so why does it even matter?" he questioned, looking over at her.

She sighed, holding onto the hot cup a little tighter with one hand and then using her free hand to pull Peter into an alleyway, "Look, I told you about everything that happened. Jen and Greg were a thing, I stole Jen's role and I stole her kinda boyfriend. It was stupid, I was stupid. And she blames me for Greg killing himself, which is fine... well, not really fine, but that's it's own thing. And when I left, I thought I wouldn't see her again, and then I see her and everything just kind of short circuited."

"That's supposed to make me feel better because... why?"

"Because, it's not gonna happen again. Peter, I like you, I want to be with you. Trust me, if I didn't think this was gonna work out, I would've said something by now."

"Do you promise?"

Annie nodded, "Yeah, of course. Now let's go find Ned and Harper."

Though, they didn't have to go far to find Ned and Harper practically sprinting down the street. Harper was dragging Ned, seeming completely confident in their direction. Ned, on the other hand, looked like a chicken running around with its head cut off.

"Hey... guys... Christ, that was a workout," Harper panted, "We needed to find you quick.... Wait, you said... you were..." they paused for another breath, "Gonna be at the coffee shop."

Annie grimaced, "About that... we got the caffeine, but Jen was there. Figured you wouldn't wanna see her again."

"Oh yeah, I totally hate that bitch. If you'd just listened to me the first time when I told you to not bother with her, you would've been fine," they said.

Ned cleared his throat, "What about the actual important thing?"

"Oh, right... um... you see, when I was snooping around my parents' place, as you do, there was a news broadcast. And, well, what had happened was, well-"

"Harper, just spit it out," Annie said, taking a sip of her coffee.

Harper shook their head, "Carnival's causing all kinds of destruction in the city. You guys need to get back there and, like, destroy him or something."

"Y-you're kidding, right?" Peter asked.

Ned frowned, "It's not your fault, Peter, you guys needed to come up with something. We don't know if Mr. Stark knows yet, but we figured that we should tell you guys as soon as we found out."

"I knew something like this was happening. This is why I didn't think leaving was a good idea. Just, we needed to stay closer. Now we're over here and we need to get there. How bad is it?" Peter asked.