The Void

Chapter 25 - The Party

(Your POV):
I stood outside of Harry's house, nerves creeping in as I thought about entering. It was just a stupid high school party, I had no reason to be nervous. But I knew I shouldn't be here, I knew I should have said no to Peter. Yet here I was, probably about to make one of the biggest mistakes in my life.

I took a deep breath, trying to clear my mind of the nagging fear that I was doing something wrong, and rang Harry's doorbell. The door opened immediately and Harry flashed one of his signature smiles at me, inviting me inside. I was the last of Peter's friend group to arrive, all of them huddled around a very expensive looking island in the middle of Harry's kitchen. The entire house was quite impressive, but I expected nothing less of Norman Osborn's residence.

Peter seemed to freeze when I walked in, his mouth falling agape. Ned however, spoke up, "(Y/N), you look stunning. Doesn't she, Peter?"

When Peter didn't respond, Ned nudged him lightly with his elbow and Peter quickly replied, "y-yeah, you look really, um, pretty."

I gave him a smile, "thanks, I figured I should dress up slightly considering this was a party at the Osborn residence."

Never having been a huge fan of dresses due to their impracticality, I had bought a sleeveless red jumpsuit for the occasion. Even though I had my suit with me that I could easily change into, I still felt better being in something I could move in just in case there was an emergency. I had also thrown on some red lipstick, which I hardly ever wore and was stored in my drawer with most of my other makeup for the few occasions that my parents had me go undercover.

"To be honest, I wasn't sure you were actually going to come tonight," Harry confessed, pouring some eggnog into a cup and offering it to me.

I accepted it while retorting, "I certainly considered staying home so I wouldn't have to see you. But I did make a promise. Anyway, does your father not care that you throw wild parties?"

Harry's face turned grim, "he's never really around to notice it, he spends most of his time at work. He's gotten worse recently as well, but what're you gonna do? I might as well have some fun in his absence."

I know what it's like to have absent parents, I thought to myself, but chose to keep my mouth shut. The group already thought that I had a good relationship with my parents and I couldn't risk them finding out the truth. But that led to another thought: if Harry considered his father's absence as an avenue to have some fun, perhaps I could as well.

For the next hour, our quaint little group just allowed ourselves to talk to one another and make sure that Harry's house was prepared for the party that was about to start. By the time the other guests started trickling in, I had began to feel a little relieved that so far this party was not turning out to be a disaster.

I stuck close to Peter, Ned, and MJ throughout the party and was careful to watch my alcohol intake. I wasn't opposed to joining in on the beer pong, but I knew how dangerous alcohol could be, particularly to someone with as secret a life as mine, if it wasn't regulated. I could tell that the rest of my group were totally out of their element in such a space, but I think my willingness to participate in the party games helped them gain the courage to do so as well.

We jumped from space to space, checking out what was happening in each room until finding ourselves in a game of spin the bottle. It was all fun and games until Peter was given the bottle to spin. I felt a knot arise in my stomach and suddenly the festive feeling of the evening melted away. I watched the bottle spin in front of me, praying that this wouldn't turn out to be like a cliché in film where the bottle pointed to the person that had a crush on the spinner.

But it didn't land on me. It landed on Betty Brant, a girl I only vaguely knew from the school news and my honors English class. Peter was bright red as he crossed the distance to the usually chatty blonde while the drunken crowd around us cheered them on.

I thought it was going to be fine, it was just going to be a quick peck and it wasn't like I should have been attracted to Peter either, he was my enemy. But watching him place his lips on hers made something within me stir. An anger that I had managed to keep buried within up until this moment. Without realizing what I was doing, I caused one of the glass cases in the room to fall over and crash onto the floor, causing hundreds of little shards of glass be sent flying. The artifact within remained unscathed, but the sound of the crash broke Betty and Peter apart immediately and screams erupted throughout the room.

Harry came rushing in at the sound of the crash, obviously concerned that something expensive had broken. Allowing for the commotion to mask my escape, I quickly slipped out of the room and ran out to one of the balconies of the house in order to find some privacy.

I had never lost my temper before that moment, and it scared me that I had not been in control of my powers even for just that one second. It could have been so much worse, I could have hurt someone or could have been found out. If Peter realized that I had telekinesis there was no way that he wouldn't have realized that I was Void.

And that brought up the other reason why was so shaken. Seeing Peter kiss Betty, even though it was only brief and within the context of a stupid party game, it both enraged me but also shattered my heart into pieces. I suddenly understood why I shouldn't have let myself fall for him. It was one thing to help him escape and thus endure a beating as punishment, it was a different, less bearable pain to watch the man that I loved kiss another woman.

I felt the tears slip down my cheeks and, for once in my life, I didn't try to repress them. They burned hot against my cold cheeks, my entire body freezing up in the brisk wind of the winter night. But I didn't care how cold it was, I couldn't bear to go back inside. Not after I had almost revealed my identity because of the erroneous love that I felt for my enemy.

"(Y/N), are you alright?" A kind voice spoke, causing a sense of panic to shoot through my body. I hadn't expected to be found out here, especially not by him.

I hastily dried my tears and turned to face him, giving him a false smile, "I'm perfectly fine, Peter."

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(A/N): In the spirit of the holidays, here is a nice holiday party! How will this conversation go and will Peter get up the courage to give you the necklace he bought for you? I hope that you enjoyed this chapter!