The Perks of Being a Wallcrawler || Peter Parker

Chapter Eight: A Very Stilted Conversation

The plan was to walk up to her after tomorrow's class, but not in typical Peter Parker fashion. He was gonna look cool. Maybe put on some sunglasses inside like a real tool and spike his hair up at the front. He was even going to wear his most 'hip' and 'happening' clothes (which was primarily a pair of jeans with one hole in the front and a shirt with the word 'rad' on it, but he had to work with what he got at the thrift store). These plans were immediately tossed into oncoming traffic, however, when he spotted Annabelle outside of the campus.

She was standing near the opposing college, the one that Flash Thompson attended, and staring up at a mural. It was a giant work of art, using primarily spray paint, that showed a man sitting on a park bench and rain beginning to pour above him. It hadn't reached this unsuspecting man yet, but it would soon. That's how it would be forever. The coming storm almost reaching him, forever looming above his head, but never completely drenching him. Annabelle had taken out a permanent marker from her Thomas the Tank Engine bag (no, he's not joking), and started adding to the artwork.

This must have peaked Peter's curiosity more than his anxiety because he soon found himself wandering over to her.

As he grew closer, he found that she was drawing a jellyfish above the man's head. At least...he thought it was an jellyfish. Honestly, it could have been anything. The marker didn't really show up too well between the wall and the bright coloured paint. She also wasn't about to win any art competitions.

"What's that? Some kind of Hydrozoa?" Peter quipped with the most awkward laugh to ever grace the universe. It didn't really occur to him that most people would have no idea what he was saying until she turned around with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not a jellyfish. It's an umbrella." She replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Oh my god. She knew what a Hydrozoa was. At that very moment Careless Whisper by George Michael started playing in Peter's head. You know, the one with the saxophone... "O-Oh, yeah. I suppose it is. I can totally see it now."

He totally could not see it. The damned thing still looked like a jellyfish. Silence crept around them just like every other conversation Peter had ever engaged in. It always got uncomfortably quiet after a while because, well, he was too awkward to hold a natural interaction.

Then, as if to save Peter from embarrassing himself with a random fact about Pluto's diameter being smaller than the continent of Australia, Annabelle spoke "You know that Octopi can lock themselves in a coconut shell. I've seen it. It's pretty gross... I love it though."

Peter blinked at her in utter confusion.

"Oh, sorry, I blurt things out when it gets quiet. I don't like silence." She murmured, fiddling the permanent marker between her fingers. "I mean, silence is fine sometimes...but not always, you know what I mean?"

Wow. It was like she was speaking directly to his soul. "Yeah. I know exactly what you mean."

Annabelle smiled, it was lopsided and forced her nose to crinkle. "Do you like octopi?"

"I mean...they're animals, I suppose." Peter answered, altogether uncertain about how he was meant to respond. He never had any particularly strong opinions on cephalopods... "You like them though?"

Annabelle nodded in confirmation but Peter was no longer surprised by her strange interests. He decided to store this potentially important information into his memory banks, and extracted the courage to ask her to the upcoming football game. Then he realised that he never had the courage to begin with.

"H-Hey, uh, you know I'm kinda struggling with the new assignment for our literature class." Peter mumbled, averting his gaze to his shoes. Both of which were practically falling apart. "I was...you know...wondering if you could help me with it."

Annabelle adjusted the bag onto her shoulder. It was bright blue and clashed horribly with her orange sweater. "Sure. I can help."

A grin suddenly assaulted Peter's face. Emphasis on the word assaulted, because whenever he smiled there was this strange cringe that went along with it. As if he were waiting for someone to smack it right back off. He rarely got to feel actual unbridled happiness for longer than a few minutes before something ruined it. "Really? Well, how about Friday night? There's a football game and-"

"Wait, I thought we were studying..." Annabelle questioned with a furrowed brow. "I'm not much into football...or any sport that involves sweaty guys in jockstraps."

"Oh, that's not...I mean, I'm not much of a sports person either." Peter hurriedly admitted, finding slight relief in the fact that she wasn't interested in ogling a group of muscular athletes. "But there's free food, so I thought that we could grab something to eat and smuggle it to the library or something?"

"Free food?" Annabelle's eyes widened, then sparkled joyfully at the thought. "I'm so in."

Peter held his breath; waiting for the storm to appear and trample this perfect moment - maybe it would be Flash Thompson showing up with a precise  whack to the jaw, or a dumpster flying through the air to drop fresh garbage on top of him, even worse, it could be Annabelle yelling 'sike!' at the top of her lungs and dashing away with bellowing laughter.

He waited...and waited...and waited. Still, nothing came to ruin his moment.

Peter cleared his throat with newfound triumph over the world. "Cool. I'll...meet you here then. Let's say 6 o'clock."

Annabelle nodded and Peter gleamed with pride. He had done it. He had asked her out on...totally not a date. Even as he strode across the road with an unusual skip in his step, he still couldn't believe it. There was nothing in the universe that could drag him down from this high. Not even tripping over his own two feet as he pranced towards Dr. Conners' lab. Not even being almost run over by several vehicles running a red light. Not even the loud, maniacal laughter of a familiar foe.

"Run!" Someone yelled, breathlessly. "It's that man with the stilts!"

"Not just any man, you gibbering idiot!" A booming, rather nasally voice echoed through the air. From the distance appeared something so tall that it dwarfed any mildly large adult male... That may not sound very tall, and maybe it wasn't, but this guy had metal contraptions fastened around his legs. That's pretty threatening. Especially if he kicked someone. I mean, that would really hurt...probably. "Make way for the new and improved STILT-MAN!"

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