Dancing Around // peter parker

20

We made it up to our floor without much of a problem, though I kept looking over at Peter, waiting for him to show me some kind of sign that he was growing tired. He never did. I opened my front door, letting him in first. "You can just put the bags on the counter," I told him. He hurried off to the kitchen as I shut the door behind me. I placed both our bags on the desk before joining him in the kitchen.

The kitchen lights added a nasty yellow glow over us. I tried my best not to look annoyed as I started to take things out of the bags, Peter helping me. He was doing too much, but for some reason, I couldn't find myself stopping him. I was scared if I told him he could leave, he would.

After we put the last item in the fridge, I collected all the tote bags, stuffing them into the pantry. "You know, after eating those burgers, I could really use some kind of desert," Peter said as he opened the freezer door. He turned to me with the tub of cookies and cream in his hand. He smirked at me.

"Okay," I gave in.

He threw his fist in the air for a moment and jumped on my counter. I grabbed two spoons before joining him. He looked at me excitingly like a small child as he opened the lid. "Doesn't it look beautiful?" he said.

I looked at the ice cream with indifference and handed him a spoon. "Dig in."

"Woah, no, you dig in first."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the one that's skeptical about it. I want to see your face the moment you realized I was right."

"Is that really necessary?"

He moved the tub of ice cream closer to me. I looked at him with a bored expression while inserting my spoon into the soft ice cream. It was a bit melted since it had been out for so long. I only got a bit placed into my mouth. My eyes were unable to leave Peter's as he watched. I waited until my mouth was ice cream free before speaking.

I shrugged my shoulder. "Yeah, okay, it's good."

Peter laughed. "I knew it!" He grabbed a spoonful. "I knew you would like it." I watched as he happily placed the spoonful into his mouth and made an overdramatic hum of enjoyment. It made me chuckle. I never thought I would get so well along with Peter. For a while there I honestly believed that the best part about Peter was his aunt but there was a whole lot more to Peter to like. "What are you doing? Eat more," he said.

"Okay, okay." I grabbed another spoonful and looked ahead of me. I had to admit that it did taste a lot better than I remembered it.

The last time I had cookies and cream was...my dad's face flashed into my mind again. That was right. It was with him. It was in our old living room back when we still had a house and he and mom were still married.

Mom was working and he had taken a sick day because he sneeze a couple of times. We all knew it was just allergies but he acted like it was more and I played along. I sat next to him on our green sofa as we watched a game show. He held the tub of ice cream and we both used plastic spoons before we realized what a waste it was.

He looked over at me while rubbing the stubble on his face. "One day we should participate in one of those daughter-fathers games. You need to study now, Marina. Study so you can be really smart. If you have a smart brain, there's no way that we'll lose," he said. He then threw his head back laughing and took another spoon of ice cream.

He turned his head to look at the tv but I kept looking at him. I remember thinking to myself: this is my goal. It was after I was told I couldn't be a firefly. When I was 11 and I finally understood what everybody meant when they asked me what I wanted to be.