From the Shadows | PETER PARKER [2]

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The silence hangs in the air as Eloise stares down at her hands wringing together. Her brows furrow as she thinks deeply. She's so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't feel the heat of the sun scorching the back of her neck or the beeping of cars in the distance.

She looks up after several minutes and asks quietly, "What's it like?"

There is no answer, of course. As she stares at the grave with Cliff's name engraved in the stone, she wishes she could just hear his voice again. It's weird texting him without the little "read" icon appearing under her message. Her chest feels hollow every time her thumb ghosts over his contact in her phone.

Eloise knows Cliff won't answer, but she still asks, and she doesn't know why.

After a few moments pass, Eloise looks back down at her hands in her lap. She wonders if Cliff knows that she's there talking to his grave. The memory of punching Lucy in the face at the funeral flashes through her mind and she smirks, wondering if Cliff knows about that too.

The silence is interrupted by a snap of a twig. Eloise jumps at the sound and turns, just catching a glimpse of someone ducking behind a thick tree trunk. Frowning, Eloise pushes herself off the ground. She brushes her legs off and creeps towards the tree the figure is hiding behind.

Eloise prepares her mind to take control of whoever is behind the trunk, but when she approaches it, she blinks in confusion when there's no one there. She circles the tree, swearing that she saw someone.

Glancing around the empty graveyard, Eloise raises a hand to her forehead. Maybe she's just being paranoid again. She definitely heard something snap, but she figures it was just a squirrel or another animal of the like. Still, the anxiety that someone was watching her lingers and demands to be felt no matter how many times she tells herself it was a measly squirrel. Sending Cliff's grave one last glance, Eloise quickly turns and exits the graveyard.

🕸

"If I hear one more person talking about the state fair, I'm going to explode," MJ rants as she collapses face-first onto Eloise's bed, making the former girl bounce lightly. MJ just got back from helping her mother run errands and, apparently, the talk of the town is the fast-approaching New York state fair. For reasons beyond Eloise, MJ absolutely despises it.

Eloise's jittery fingers tap rapidly against her coffee cup in her hand. "Why don't you like the fair? I used to go every year and it was always so much fun."

"Because my dad used to show pigs and he makes it a big deal," MJ explains with a grimace. "I used to show 'em in the county fair, but I just never liked it. Fairs aren't my thing."

Eloise nods, not knowing that about her friend. She raises her coffee cup to her lips to take another gulp, but MJ grabs it from her before she gets a single drop on her tongue.

"Hey," Eloise complains.

"Not so fast." MJ sets the coffee down on the desk before turning back to Eloise. "How many coffees have you had? You're practically vibrating from caffeine."

Eloise glances over at her trashcan almost filled to the brim with disposable coffee cups. Half are from that day.

When she doesn't reply right away, MJ takes her silence as an answer.