Gwen was sat cross-legged on Peter's bed, her long straight blonde hair pinned back with two green hairclips. She had her iPad on her lap, and her Apple Pencil in the other. It was a cloudy Friday evening, and Peter had invited Gwen over to get a head start on their Linear Algebra homework. She was wearing a bright green Pangaia hoodie. It looked expensive, Peter had thought, and it hid the denim shorts she was wearing underneath.
Peter was sat at his own desk by his bed, his notebook in front of him, as he held the back of his pencil in between his teeth. He combed his hands through his hair as he stared at the set of matrices in front of him. He was also in his Midtown hoodie, which he always wore the second it was even remotely cold.
"Ugh, I'm already over this shit." Peter sighed, slamming his pencil down on his desk, before putting his hands to his head.
"Me too." Gwen said, pushing up her glasses. "But I think I've got the answer for problem 3."
She looked up and smiled a little, before passing Peter her iPad.
"You're a life saver." He muttered, scanning her work.
"We definitely help each other out." Gwen said, grabbing her phone from her desk. She scrolled through her phone for a while, smiling to herself.
"Wanna see something cool, Peter?"
"Sure." Peter said, as his mind processed the last of the math in front of him.
Gwen stood up and walked towards him, then knelt down next to him, her phone in her hands. She paused a bit, tapping on the screen before turning the phone towards him.
"My Dad sent me this photo last night after I FaceTimed him." She said, watching Peter carefully.
"Mm hm." Peter mumbled, staring at the photo.
There were two tiny babies in cots right next to each other. The one on the left was asleep and dressed in what looked like a white ribbed jumpsuit, a matching hat on their head. The one on the right's eyes were slightly open. Peter noticed they were a dark brown. It looked like the baby was wearing the same ribbed jumpsuit in blue - no hat this time - just wisps of curly brown hair on its head.
"Holy shit." Peter said, almost grabbing Gwen's phone. "Is that me on the right?"
Gwen nodded.
"And that's me on the left." She said, shuffling on her knees so she could look at the photo with Peter. "I told my parents I'd met a Peter, and they were like- 'wait, Peter Parker?' Then my Dad dug up some archives and sent me this. Apparently, this was taken in the hospital. Our moms met because they were sharing a ward-"
"Wait, when's your birthday, Gwen?" Peter asked, looking up at her now.
"August 11th." She said. "I'm guessing you were born on the 10th?"
Peter nodded, his mouth slightly open in disbelief.
"We were just hours apart." Gwen smiled, her hazel eyes beaming. "My Dad said he had a few phone calls with your parents whilst they were alive. When I was born, he had to move us down to Pennsylvania because of his work, but he tried to keep in touch. Your mom Mary would send pictures of you to my Mom, the first few years we were growing up."
Peter just kept looking at the photo. It looked like it had been printed from a film camera. The date 08-12-2001 was pasted in the top corner. Peter had mentioned in conversation to Gwen about his parents death a few days ago. She'd seemed quite troubled about it - kept on asking Peter if he was okay, the usual. Peter kind of hated that piece of information about himself that he had to always eventually share with someone new.
"Then after your parents passed..." Gwen swallowed. "My Dad said he kept trying to reach out to them...obviously they never answered. I think your uncle called and told them what had happened. Dad said Mom was really torn up about it, she even asked if we could take you in at some point. But you were very happy with your aunt and uncle. And that's it. We kind of never crossed paths again-"
"Till now." Peter laughed a little.
"Yeah - till now." Gwen repeated, as Peter handed her back her phone.
He didn't mean to stare at her, but he was. He just couldn't help himself. He was drawn to everything that concerned his parents, and her sharing all of that with him sort of made her a whole lot more important to him, and a whole lot less sad about everything going on around him.
"Sorry." Peter said blushing.
Gwen took off her glasses now, wiping them on her sleeves, before setting them back on Peter's desk, slowly, like she felt Peter's eyes on her.
"It's okay." she said, tracing the Midtown logo on Peter's hoodie with her thumb.
Peter noticed she had the faintest of brown freckles on the bridge of her nose and right on top of her cheeks.
"What's your full name, Gwen? Just curious." Peter asked, as if to break the silence.
"Gwendoline Maxine Stacy." Gwen blushed, looking up at Peter. "I kind of hate it-"
"It's actually kinda cool-"
"What's yours?"
"Peter Benjamin Parker. My uncle's name was also Benjamin."
"You're named after your uncle?"
"That's the conspiracy theory." Peter replied.
Gwen smiled, her hands moving up to his hair, their faces now just inches away from each other.
Peter leant in and kissed her slowly, moving his hand up to her cheek. Her lips tasted of cherry chapstick. He broke away and she smiled against his lips, before kissing him again. Peter kissed her back, his hands moving to the back of her neck, her hands falling to his shoulders.
When Gwen broke away, she laughed a little.
"So much for linear alegbra, huh?" she said, her eyes still on his lips.
"Fuck linear algebra." Peter sighed, glancing over at the work on his desk.
"Well as much as I wanna fuck around with you, Peter, your roommate could walk in at any second." Gwen said. "And we do have to finish this p-set."
She pulled his hood over his head playfully then kissed him one more time quickly, before standing up, grabbing her iPad, and resuming her place on his bed.
"Your lips taste amazing, Maxine." Peter said, picking up his pencil again.
"Okay, if you keep saying stuff like that, we're gonna do something that we'll regret." she replied, grabbing her glasses and putting them back on.
Peter smiled, looking at her. He knew what Gwen meant, and he kind of didn't mind exploring what those 'regrets' would consist of. But he also wasn't sure if he was just a horny kind of stressed.
"When you've written out problem three, let me know what you think of problem four." She said, rubbing her eyebrow with her finger. "It looks like a bitch."
They got to work properly on their homework now. When Peter didn't understand something, Gwen would bring over her iPad and explain it to him. When it was the other way around, Peter would sit next to her on his bed, and write stuff out with his pencil quickly.
It was weird for Peter to have someone who completely matched his mathematical ability. Maya hated math, but Gwen was pretty darn good at it, and after what felt like forever, they finally worked through the last problem.
Peter shut his notebook, sighing heavily.
"How exactly am I gonna do this for the next fifteen weeks?" He groaned, grabbing his water bottle and drinking profusely.
"I don't know." Gwen shrugged, lying back on Peter's bed and picking up her phone again. "Berkeley's kicking my ass."
"Yeah - it's all fun and games till you actually get here." Peter said, standing up and stretching. "Want some candy? My aunt's boyfriend gave me these sweets from Germany."
"I'll never turn that down." Gwen replied, as Peter grabbed some Hermann raspberry flavored sweets.
He grabbed his phone and sat on the foot of his bed next to her feet with his back to the wall, before handing her some.
"Thanks." Gwen said, shoving a few in her mouth. "Mmm!"
"Good?" Peter asked, as he ate some too.
Gwen nodded. The taste reminded him of being at home with Happy.
"How was the rally?" Gwen asked Peter. "You said you were going to support MJ."
Hearing MJ's name again sort of made him suddenly feel this hot ball of warmth inside his stomach. Peter made a mental note to dismiss it.
"Yeah, it was good." Peter shrugged. "Her speech was really...moving."
Peter had only caught the end of MJ's speech in the big auditorium. Partly because he missed the bus he planned to take. Partly because part of him didn't want to hear her say all that again. Nonetheless, he caught the end of it.
And everyone was on their feet, clapping for her, cheering like crazy. Peter noticed Miles in the third row. And when it was over, he'd tried to go up to congratulate her but she was already talking to Miles earnestly, and a few other people Peter didn't recognize. So he'd taken the bus back, decided to plough through his linear homework, got stuck, and called Gwen.
"It already has like 10,000 views on the Me Too page. Wow." Gwen said, scrolling on her phone. "You think it'll go viral?"
Why was Peter not surprised?
"Maybe." Peter simply said, finishing the last of his candy.
"Weren't we supposed to hit up the cafe tonight?" Gwen asked, putting her phone down now.
"I mean...it's only 7pm." Peter replied.
Gwen sat up.
"Ugh, I've got hall meeting in half an hour." She said, rolling her eyes. "But it's only fifteen minutes - we should definitely still go."
Peter nodded, watching her as she swung her legs round, stood up, and grabbed her things.
"Meet you there at nine?" Gwen asked.
"Sure."
Gwen leant down and kissed Peter quickly again.
"I'm starting to kind of love doing that." she whispered, smiling. "See you later, Peter."
And with that, she left. Peter smiled to himself a little, climbing into his bed because all the math was kind of exhausting. He scrolled through Instagram again. MJ's speech really did have a whole lot of views.
He opened up FaceTime, ready to call May and tell her all about Gwen and the photo she showed him, when he got a text from MJ.
He sighed.
'Didn't catch you at the rally.'
I was there MJ, Peter thought. I even tried to talk to you afterwards but you were too busy with Miles to notice.
'Had to leave after your speech. But you did great, MJ.'
'Thanks. Means a lot.'
A whole minute went by.
'You have any plans tonight, Parker?'
Might as well be honest.
'Going to the Free Speech Movement Cafe with Gwen.'
A few more minutes passed. They were agonizing for Peter because he was trying to think about what she was thinking about. Did she feel threatened by Gwen? Did she even care? Peter wasn't trying to make her jealous or anything.
That's what he kept telling himself anyways.
'Sounds cool. Have fun.'
Peter's Tech Bear shift on Monday was right in the middle of his linear algebra and chemistry class. He'd had a relatively uneventful weekend. He'd spent hours at the café with Gwen on Friday night. She told Peter more about her life back in New York. How she dated her childhood crush from freshman year right up until fall semester in senior year, but they broke up because he was an athlete staying local, and wasn't supportive of her going all the way across the country for college.
And Peter told her he'd recently broken up with his girlfriend, Maya. Because he was never really that into her in the first place and they were better off as friends. He left MJ out, obviously. They ate some sandwiches and drank too many milkshakes. Gwen said a lot of stuff that made Peter laugh till his sides kind of hurt, and sometimes Peter would say something that made her laugh too.
At around midnight that night, Peter walked Gwen back to her dorm. He'd kissed her a bit more outside. But that was it. The next morning, he had this empty feeling inside of him that he couldn't escape and he spent nearly the whole weekend finishing up homework. He didn't want to go out with Ned, James and Katie on Saturday night. Ned and James had also managed to get themselves pledged into Miles' frat which was great for them and not so great for Peter. He'd made up an excuse that he felt sick the night of Sigma Nu's party and worked on all his homework.
MJ's date with Miles was on Sunday night. She'd texted him but Peter hadn't replied. Partly because he was super stressed out about his physics p-set, but mostly because he just couldn't bear to hear more about Miles, and this date. He'd spoken to May a little bit, and lied to her that everything was fine. He had also told her about Gwen and May made a really big deal about it all, saying it was fate that they'd 'found' each other. And Gwen was out exploring Berkeley with her sorority sisters, so he hadn't seen her.
Now Peter was five minutes late for his shift because his linear professor had overran and he had also needed to change into his uniform in the bathroom and catch a bus. He swore under his breath, pushing the glass doors to the workshop open, before checking himself in with his card.
"You're late." Li Mei smiled, clicking away at her computer. Her eyes were tired, but Peter didn't bother to express any concern.
"Sorry, I had a pretty hectic morning." Peter sighed, taking a seat at the desk behind Li Mei.
Li Mei swiveled round in her chair.
"You know a Gwen Stacy?" She asked, adjusting her name tag on her shirt.
"Yes and why?" Peter asked, grabbing his unfinished physics homework out of his bag.
"She pledged at my sorority on Saturday. Said she knew you."
"Yeah, she's in my linear algebra class." Peter simply said, avoiding Li Mei's eyes.
"Okay, Peter." Li Mei laughed, getting up to pour herself some coffee.
"Why, what did she say about me?"
Li Mei shrugged.
"Whatever, Li Mei." Peter muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Chill, Peter." Li Mei said, pouring some creamer in a bright red mug. "I'd tell you if it was anything bad. And she's technically my sister now so, I'm not about to gossip about what she said."
Peter didn't reply. He shook his head slightly, opening up his physics homework and deciding to text Jason about a problem he was stuck on. Evidently, Peter wasn't used to being stuck on physics problems. He decided to ignore Li Mei for the time being, but it didn't matter because a student came in with a laptop and went straight to her desk. He looked down at his phone - Jason had texted him back.
'Dude I have no idea. That last problem is literally from hell.'
Why did Peter get the feeling that Jason did have an idea?
Peter's leg was shaking a little bit. He wasn't going to accept any grade lower than an A for any assignment - no exceptions. He sighed, erasing his solution for the hundredth time and scrambling his brain for another approach. Hopefully not too many people would come in today, so he could work on this for the majority of his shift, he thought.
The doors swung open and in came Miles. A few people said hello to him. He was wearing a pair of light washed Tommy Hilfiger jeans underneath his shirt, a big smile plastered on his face, his cologne immediately filling the room. Nobody seemed to comment on the fact that he was fifteen minutes late. He sat on the desk right next to Peter, cracking his knuckles.
"Hey, Peter." Miles said to Peter, holding out his fist.
"Hey, man." Peter said, trying hard to hide his reluctancy to bump Miles' fist.
Another one of their fellow workers called Aryan who was sat in front of Miles turned around and fist bumped Miles too.
"How was your weekend, Miles?" Aryan asked.
"Good, good." Miles smirked, combing his hair with his hands. "You?"
"Great. Man, Sigma Nu's party went off on Saturday." Aryan said.
"Yeah, yeah. As always, bro." Miles laughed.
Peter exhaled. A boy walked up to Peter's desk, asking Peter if he could take a look at his iPad.
"Uh, I'm having some trouble with the two-factor authentication." The boy said.
"No problem, let me take a look..." Peter said, his voice trailing off.
He was focused on the screen in front of him, whilst listening in on Aryan and Miles' conversation.
"And how was your date?" Aryan asked Miles.
Miles chuckled to himself, before licking his lips. Peter felt a weird queasiness coming on.
"Amazing, man." He said, lowering his voice though Peter could still hear him clearly. "Dude, she looked fucking insane - let me show you a picture."
Peter bit his lip, tapping on the screen profusely. He'd already seen MJ in that dress. He already knew she looked perfect. Now he wished he wasn't sitting so close to them.
"Shit." Aryan said. "She's got legs for days, bro."
"Yeah, I know dude." Miles smiled. "And she's like amazing with words. Did you see her speech, I mean it's all over Instagram-"
"Bro, did I see it? That video has like fifty thousand views."
"It's so fucked up what happened to her." Aryan sighed, clicking his pen which got on Peter's nerves. "But she's super brave for saying all that."
"Yeah." Miles said, seriously now. "Yeah, totally."
Peter scanned the iPad screen one more time, his head scrambled.
"Oh - I see the problem." Peter said to the boy. "Let me see if I can get you a new verification code. You can sit down if you want."
"Cool, thanks man." The boy said, taking a seat at Peter's desk, before grabbing his phone out his pocket.
Li Mei had finished attending to the girl, and came up to Miles' desk. She hugged Miles quickly.
"Mei Mei!" Miles exclaimed. "How's it going?'
"I'm good. I was literally coding my first piece of homework till 3am though." She said, flicking her shiny hair behind her shoulder. "How was your date? Where did you guys go?"
"It's called Chez Panisse." Miles said.
"Oooo...fancy." Li Mei said, hoisting herself up to sit on Miles' desk.
"Okay, I sent a code to your email." Peter said, turning to the boy sat next to him.
"Thanks. I'll try that." The boy said.
"So...anything else go on?" Li Mei giggled, lowering her voice, her eyes on Miles.
Miles shrugged.
"Come on, dude." Aryan laughed.
"You kissed right? Obviously." Li Mei said.
"Yeah, yeah. We've kissed before." Miles nodded. "Took her back to my dorm afterwards...showed her around-"
"Interesting." Aryan said, lifting his leg to tie the laces on his brand new Jordans.
"Okay, don't play with me." Li Mei whispered, hitting Miles with the back of her hand. "Second base?"
Miles shrugged but then nodded.
"Third base?" Li Mei asked Miles, her eyes widening. "Or fourth, even?"
"Something like that." Miles laughed. "Li Mei - get back to your desk."
"Looks like you're all good." Peter said to the boy, before clearing his throat.
"Holy, shit. You actually..." Aryan whispered, his voice trailing off.
Peter didn't want to look up to see Aryan's face or the action he was making with his hands. He stood up, his head starting to hurt, before making his way to the coffee station.
Miles had some fucking audacity Peter thought. To have sex with MJ - he was pretty sure that's what Aryan was implying - and then come in to work and brag about it. It actually made Peter pretty angry and slightly sick. But the worst thing about it was that he couldn't justify his feelings to anyone. It was technically none of his business what MJ and Miles did but he couldn't stop himself from caring.
And the way Miles was talking about MJ kind of reminded him about the way those stupid boys at Midtown would talk about her. Flash was one of them at one point. Andrew. Brian.
"Hey, you good?" Li Mei asked Peter.
Peter realized he was stood at the coffee station just staring at the mug he was holding. He just shrugged, grabbing the coffee pot and finally pouring some inside of it.
"You overheard us, didn't you?" Li Mei whispered. "Well, I'm sorry. It's just, Miles is my friend-"
"Just drop it, Li Mei. I don't care." Peter said, grabbing some creamer from the mini fridge.
"You sure seem like you do." Li Mei said. "It's my fault - I shouldn't have brought it up."
"Yeah, you shouldn't have." Peter muttered, not even looking at her.
"I'm sorry, okay?" Li Mei said softly, touching Peter's shoulder.
He tried his best not to shrug her off. He was in a bad mood for no real reason and now he was trying his best to have a smile on his face when he was attending to people. He tried his best not to mind Miles too much but he did mind. Suddenly everything Miles said was annoying. Every time he bumped fists with other students or laughed obnoxiously.
Peter watched the clock. He couldn't wait to get out of there and get to chem class, though he hated chemistry. As soon as his shift was up, he stood up, grabbed his bag, and left. He had to speed walk to catch the bus, looking down at his phone as he got another text from MJ.
'Did you lose your phone or something, Parker?'
He ignored it, like he'd been ignoring MJ's texts all weekend. Chemistry was incredibly dull. He sat next to Cody who entertained Peter with some information about gay bars, though Peter had never mentioned anything about being gay to Cody.
'Hellooo. You good?''
Statics was also very difficult. And James and Katie kept exchanging notes and funny glances. Peter was trying so hard not to fall behind, his hand hurting as he copied down notes from the professor's impossible slides.
'Peter. Talk to me. What's going on?'
Peter grabbed a late lunch in a takeaway pack from the dining hall then made it back to his dorm for his free periods. Ned was sat at his desk with his chemistry homework in front of him, but he was laughing at some funny video on his phone.
"Peter, look at this." Ned chuckled, as Peter threw his keys and bag down on his desk.
Peter walked up to Ned, peering down to look at Ned's phone. The funny video of the dog doing yoga cheered him up a little bit, but then he sighed and collapsed on his bed.
"Rough day, Peter?" Ned asked.
"It's always a rough day out here." Peter muttered, closing his eyes for a few seconds.
Ned hummed to himself a little bit, before playing Drake's new song yet again to lighten the mood.
"So." Ned began. "James, Katie, Sutton and I are going to Willard's park for a picnic on Wednesday evening. I insist that you come-"
"Ned-"
"No, Peter. Seriously." Ned said, lowering the volume of the music on his phone. "You definitely need to get out more."
Peter looked back at Ned, as if pleading Ned not to force him to go. Ned looked back at Peter, his serious expression unwavering. Peter eyed Ned's completed Lego DeathStar on his desk, trying to look anywhere but Ned. He groaned a little, grabbing his pillow and putting it on his face.
"And invite MJ." Ned said. "James and Katie really liked her company, apparently."
Well, there's no way I'm doing that, Ned.
Peter finally sat at his desk and began to eat his food. He definitely didn't have much of an appetite, but he decided that he needed all the fuel he could get to get all his work done.
"Did you hear me, Pete?" Ned asked. "You're gonna invite MJ?"
Peter's phone buzzed. And he didn't want to open it, but he almost did instinctively.
'Fine just fucking ignore me then.'
"I don't know." Peter shrugged, taking another bite of his sandwich. "She probably has other shit to do."
"My parents are coming to visit next weekend." Gwen said to Peter, as she scrolled through her notes from last lecture.
They were sat in their Wednesday morning linear algebra class. Near the front row - which was now Peter's preference. Gwen in the third seat from the right. Peter in the second.
"That's cool, I'm sure you really miss them." Peter said, turning to her and smiling.
"Yeah." Gwen replied, looking back at the projector so it wouldn't be too obvious that they weren't paying attention.
It's not like either of them had any idea what was going on. Peter fiddled with his eraser.
"So how do we find the determinate of this two by two matrix?" Professor Vazquez droned on. "No guesses? This is a simple calculation you should all be able to perform in your midterm next week."
"Ugh." Peter muttered.
"Will you tap me if I fall asleep? Seriously." Gwen yawned.
"Not if I fall asleep first."
"Wanna come out to dinner with my parents and I?" Gwen asked, like she'd been meaning to slip it into the conversation all morning. "I mean, it's totally not a 'meet the parents' thing. They just really wanna see you."
"No problem. Let me know." Peter said.
Gwen put her head in her hand.
"No, that is incorrect." Professor Vazquez said, after asking a boy to solve the equation on the board. "Some of you seriously need to study before your midterm next week. Clearly."
"Why's he being such a bitch today?" Gwen whispered.
Peter shrugged. He fiddled with his eraser. He shook his leg a little bit. He opened his phone. His iPhone loved to show him random pictures from years ago.
'Memories from Madison Square Garden.'
It displayed that selfie MJ took with Peter at that Drake concert, where they were both smiling obnoxiously. He still remembered that brown jacket she was wearing, how that was the first time he noticed her hair properly, and how pretty it was. How he couldn't stop watching her as she danced and how awful and angry he felt when she walked out. If only he knew what he knew now, he wouldn't have given her such a hard time for leaving.
Here he was thinking about her yet again.
He put his phone down on the desk. Gwen's head was now in her arms on the desk. She was wearing her old high school cheerleading outfit for tryouts earlier. Apparently, they were brutal and she didn't make the team.
"Me, Ned and a few friends are going for a picnic later. Wanna come?" Peter asked her.
"Sure." Gwen said, sitting up and resting her head on Peter's shoulder, before glancing down at Peter's phone. "That's a cute photo - was that a concert?"
"Yeah, it was." Peter muttered. "Drake and Travis Scott."
In the row in front of them, Peter and Gwen could see a boy, watching MJ's speech on Instagram with no sound.
"Man, I wonder how MJ feels being such a badass." Gwen muttered.
Of course James had managed to smuggle alcohol in little mini flasks to the park, Peter thought. The sun was shining, maybe a little too bright, and Peter was sat with his new friends on picnic blankets. Every single one of them was in a T-shirt and shorts.
James was pouring the alcohol into a jug of Kool Aid that Katie had brought with her. Ned was fiddling with the UE boom, trying to get together a playlist of songs that he really should have made beforehand. Sutton was reading a book, lying down with his shades on. His hair was just as red as Katie's.
Gwen was sat by Katie, laying out all the food they had packed on the blankets. They'd definitely gone a bit overboard. There was donuts, chocolate cake, multiple packets of candy, sushi, iced buns-
"Shit, that's a lot of food." James said, closing his flask.
"How about - thank you so much Katie and Gwen for going all the way to Trader Joe's this morning when you could have been studying?" Katie said, glancing at James.
"I said it was a lot of food. I never said I didn't want to eat it." James said, grabbing a donut. "Thanks guys."
Ned had finally settled on some Lil Uzi. Now Peter was pretty sure the whole park could hear their music.
"So, how's life everyone?" Sutton asked, putting his book down and gesturing for Katie to pass him some food.
"Life is hard." Gwen said. "I don't know if that's just me-"
"It's definitely not just you, babe." Katie said, pouring herself some Kool Aid. "I'm a psyc major but I still have to take calc one? I went into my professor's office hours and cried this morning."
Gwen giggled.
"At least you don't have to take linear with Vazquez." Gwen sighed, glancing over at Peter.
"Oh...I heard he's the worst." Ned said, finishing off his donut.
"Yeah, he is." Peter replied.
"Peter, you want a drink?" Katie asked, already pouring some into a cup for him.
"Thanks." Peter said, as he took the cup from her, before taking a sip. "A little strong for a Wednesday, don't you guys think?"
"You can take that up with James. He's the alcoholic." Sutton said.
"Bro, how am I the alcoholic?" James exclaimed, kissing his teeth. "Y'all are literally the ones falling over at parties after one drink."
"I'll definitely put my hand up and admit that I'm a lightweight." Gwen said.
"This calls for a game of never have I ever." Katie smiled, grabbing more cups and pouring more Kool Aid into them. She distributed the rest of the cups out.
"So you drink if you've done it...pretty self explanatory. Who wants to go first?" She asked, looking around.
"I'll go." Ned said, re-adjusting his position on the picnic blanket. "Never have I ever had a one night stand."
Everybody drank except Gwen and Sutton.
"You horny motherfuckers." Sutton said, sitting up slightly as his eyes widened behind his sunglasses. "Jesus."
"It's the way you just put 'horny motherfuckers' and 'Jesus' in the same sentence." Katie sighed.
"Well, I had a boyfriend for four years." Gwen laughed, turning to Sutton. "What's your excuse?"
"Um, how about the fact that I like the idea of a stable sex life-"
"Shut up, Sutton." Katie groaned. "I'll go next. Um...never have I ever hooked up at school."
Peter and James drank. Gwen's mouth opened.
"Pray, do tell." Gwen said in disbelief, looking between Peter and James.
"Squash courts." James said.
"Uh - janitor's closet?" Peter blushed.
Only Ned knew that was with MJ.
"I've got a good one." Sutton announced, clearing his throat. "Never have I ever cheated."
Just lie, Peter. Do you count Noah as cheating? Because that was kind of cheating.
No one drank...even though Peter knew he should have. He was just too much of a pussy to ever admit that.
"Hmm. Interesting." Sutton said.
"Never have I ever had sex in the shower." Katie said.
Peter and James drank again. Peter blushed profusely.
"Okay, Peter." Gwen remarked.
He wasn't sure if any of this was changing her opinion of him.
"I wanna hear all about this shower sex." Katie said, grabbing another sandwich.
"Yeah, me too." Gwen said nodding, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't be jealous, Katie. Your time will come." James said.
Katie flipped James off.
"Hey...is that MJ and her friend walking over?" Gwen asked, a hand over her eyes because of the sun.
Shit.
Peter turned around. Indeed it was. MJ with her oversized school T-shirt. Peter didn't recognize the name because it was from her Chicago high school. Beside her was a dark skinned girl that Peter didn't recognize either. They were both carrying a jug of lemonade each. Peter's heart was racing.
"Did you invite her?" Peter whispered to Ned.
"Dude, what? No. I thought you invited her." Ned whispered back to Peter.
Well, this is gonna be fun.
MJ and her friend finally approached the picnic. As everyone said hi, Peter tried his best to avoid MJ's eyes.
"Hi, MJ." Katie exclaimed. "By the way, I'm sure you've gotten this a lot but great speech last Friday. I full on cried."
"Aw, thanks." MJ smiled, looking a little out of breath.
Her and her friend sat next to Gwen and Katie opposite Ned.
How is she here?
"This is my friend Kaya from 'Me Too.' " MJ said.
Everyone said hi to Kaya, including Peter.
"Thanks for the invite, James. Wouldn't have known anything was going on." MJ said, which was definitely a dig at Peter.
"No worries. I'm so glad I have you for calc 2 because, bruh...that class is brutal." James sighed.
"I definitely feel you." MJ said, setting down the lemonade before grabbing a slice of cake.
"You're like famous now, MJ." Gwen laughed, turning to MJ. "I'm Gwen by the way."
"Nice to meet you." MJ said, giving Gwen a quick hug.
She caught Peter's eyes quickly but then looked away immediately.
"We were just playing never have I ever." Katie said, as Peter wanted the ground to swallow him up. "James and Peter admitted they'd had shower sex."
"Really?" MJ said dryly, laughing a little.
Could this be any fucking worse?
"Also, Peter and James hooked up at school." Sutton sighed.
Fuck.
"Wow, you guys are crazy." MJ said, sarcastically.
Ned looked at Peter. Peter looked back at Ned then at the floor, before sighing.
"Wanna carry on playing?" Sutton asked.
"Kaya and I would love to." MJ smiled, as Katie poured them drinks.
MJ's hair was plaited into two today. That's all Peter really noticed about her. Because he could barely look at her after ignoring her for so long with no real, reasonable explanation.
"Never have I ever been walked in on having sex." Gwen said.
MJ drank.
Shit.
Ned drank. Peter remembered that shit show with Betty vividly.
Sutton drank.
"I'm curious, MJ." Katie said.
"Well, we weren't having sex." MJ said confidently, looking at everyone but Peter. "But we were very much about to-"
"Oh, shit." Sutton laughed "Who walked in?"
"My Dad." MJ smiled. "It was so embarrassing."
Peter swallowed, his lips pursed tightly together, glancing up at her quickly. MJ wasn't looking at him.
"Never have I ever left someone on read." MJ said.
Everybody drank.
"Sutton, you do that all the time." James said, hitting Sutton playfully.
"So does Peter." MJ said, looking at Peter quickly.
Peter felt his leg shaking again. He was so embarrassed right now, he could barely think. And he was torn between the fact that he kind of hated MJ for this and also that he kind of deserved it.
"Okay, last one. Then I think we can play something else." James said, stuffing some gummy bears in his mouth. "Never have I ever said 'I love you.' to someone you were dating."
Peter flinched a bit, as only MJ drank.
MJ looked around, clearly enjoying herself.
"No one else has said that?" She asked, as everyone shook their heads. She looked directly at Peter. "Really?"
Gwen looked at MJ, then at Peter, as if she was confused. Ned sighed loudly.
"Okaaay." Ned said. "New game. James, did you bring the uno cards?"
"Yes, my brother." James sang, getting the cards out his pocket.
Peter sat with his knees hugged into him, staring down on the floor. He wanted to get up and leave right at that moment. Make up some sort of excuse. But it would have been too suspicious. So he was stuck there at the stupid picnic.
He had to pretend he wasn't absolutely mortified, and play uno, and make conversation. And not make Gwen feel weird. Ned kind of knew what was going on and tried to make things less awkward for Peter by making conversation too, but the damage had already been done.
They stayed for another hour or so and just relaxed in the sun. At one point, Gwen came up to Peter and asked if he was okay. He brushed her off, saying he was fine, mad at himself for not hiding his discomfort properly.
When it started to get dark, they packed up the picnic and made the long walk back to their dorms. Gwen, Sutton and Kaya left the group early because they lived in different dorms. MJ stuck around though. Much to Peter's dismay, Ned, Katie and James formed a trio at the front, in deep conversation about God knows what.
Peter walked behind them. MJ walked behind Peter.
When they got to their own dorm, MJ started to say goodbye to everyone outside because she was the only one that still had a bit of a walk left.
"You guys go inside...I just need to ask Peter some coding questions." MJ said, as Peter's heart sank.
"Yeah, sure. See ya later, MJ." Katie said, as she walked back in with Ned and James.
Ned looked back at Peter once more. But then they were all inside. And Peter and MJ were stood outside. There was no one around.
"I'm sure you're very happy about that stunt you just pulled there." Peter muttered, folding his arms. "Congrats."
"What? The stupid fucking never have I ever game?" MJ asked, taking a step towards him. "Grow up, Peter."
"Why were you acting like that?" Peter retorted, looking her in the eyes. "You know it was awkward for us-"
"Who gives a shit?" MJ said, trying not to raise her voice. "The real fucking problem here is that you just straight up ignored me for the past five days-"
"Well, I'm sorry, MJ, if I don't reply to every single one of your texts-"
"You're full of shit, Peter." MJ snapped. "And you know it."
Peter sighed.
"You didn't even bother coming up to me after the rally." She continued.
"I fucking did." Peter exclaimed. "You were too busy talking to Miles...and I had stuff to do."
"So you didn't reply to one text I sent you the whole weekend because you had stuff to do?" MJ asked, shaking her head. "Just say you ignored me."
Peter shook his head now.
"Just say you fucking ignored me, Peter." MJ said again.
"Fine!" Peter shouted, before lowering his voice. " I ignored you."
"Why?" MJ asked, tears burning in her eyes now. "Was it my speech? Was it just all too much for you Peter, that I'm sharing this...story. My story, not ours. So actually, you don't get to be fucking upset with what I do with it-"
"Well, I think that's a little unfair-"
"How is that fucking unfair, Peter?"
"I just hate how you always act like none of that stuff affected me too." Peter said. "Maybe. Just maybe you're not the only one that was fucking affected...but...whatever. It's your fucking story."
MJ quickly wiped her eye with the back of her hand like she had dared herself not to cry.
"I just thought we could be friends, Peter." She said softly now. "And just leave all that shit from literally two years ago behind us."
"MJ, it doesn't work like that. I'm your ex." Peter said, hating how the word sounded on his tongue. "And what about Miles-"
"I literally don't know what he has got to do with this-"
"We're all just too fucking close together in this friendship circle of ours." Peter said, running his hands through his hair.
MJ shook her head.
"No, it's your problem Peter, if you can't just be mature about the situation." MJ said.
"Okay, maybe I don't wanna be mature about it." Peter said, a little out of breath. "Maybe I don't wanna hear all that shit at work. Where he took you, what you guys did...fucking bragging that you guys had sex or whatever-"
"What?" MJ exclaimed, looking confused. "We didn't...Peter, do you hear yourself?"
"Yes, I hear myself fine-"
"You literally sound like a fucking lunatic." MJ said. "I just wanted to hang out with you because I like hanging out with you. I don't know what the fuck Miles has got to do with that. Or why it has to change."
"MJ, we're not dating anymore." Peter sighed. "And there's too much history, and I'm just trying to live my life, and it's fucking with my head."
"Oh - poor you." MJ said.
Peter took a step back. He couldn't help fidgeting.
"We need to stay away from each other." He muttered. "If we can help it. I mean look at us. Look at what we're doing now."
"Whatever." MJ sniffed, grabbing her things.
She backed away from Peter and started walking down the hill, away from him, looking like she was going to burst into tears at any second.
"MJ." Peter said softly, closing his eyes in frustration. "MJ!"
But she completely ignored him and carried on walking. Peter swore under his breath, kicking the grass underneath him.
Don't you get it, MJ? We can't be around each other. Or maybe it's that I can't be around you.
Ned appeared from inside, quickly walking up to Peter.
"Hey, what happened? Everything alright?" Ned asked as Peter shook his head. "Shit, Peter...let's just go inside."
I don't want to be your friend MJ. I tried and it's only hurting me. It hurts to keep thinking about you.
I can't tell you but I can't be around you because deep, deep down....
I still love you.