I exhaled sharply, almost forgetting that I'm in school. I slammed my locker shut, seeing Peter was already on his way over to my locker. I didn't know if he was going to stop or keep on walking, so I quickly joined him on his way to class.
He didn't even look down at me today which was off even for the last week. I bent my neck down in order to examine his face when I noticed the large bruise around his left eye.
"What happened to your eye?" I gasped, almost stopping him in the middle of the hallway. I wasn't sure where he went after we split ways yesterday.
"It's a rash." He covered.
"Well then, you should get that checked out." I suggested, reading straight through his lie. He wasn't very good at them.
"It's fine." He said, sounding perfectly fine as if he was okay.
"Do you like chicken Parmesan?" I held my books close to my chest.
"Yeah, yeah. I do."
"Okay, well, if you'd like, you can come to my apartment tonight." I took out a slip of paper to write the address down in case he really didn't actually look at his phone at all.
He took the paper, smiling lightly.
"My mom is making chicken Parmesan because Steve is coming over again tonight. So be prepared, but it's the only nights she makes something, so." I was about to prepare him with sentences full of warnings, but he seemed to catch on.
"No, that's okay." He chuckled. "I'll be there."
"Okay." I smiled widely, my body going relaxed. "I'll see you tonight.
Today couldn't of gone any more slowly than it has been all day. Sitting through classes and secretly passing notes back and forth to Peter all class was painful when all I thought about was how tonight was gonna go.
It could either go smoothly or terribly because of Steve. It all depended on his mood which was usually bad-tempered. I never really had company over, and having Peter might not have been the best idea.
I was sitting in my room doing homework when there was a small tap on my window. I sat up wearily, seeing Peter crouching by my window. I smiled, hopping down from my bed to open the window.
"The fire escape, really?" I stepped aside, letting him crawl through the window. "Subtle."
"Impressive, right?" He grinned. His smile didn't drop. Looking me up and down, his smile only grew. "Wow. You look great."
I spun around, showing myself off in order to hide my blush. "Why thank you."
"Oh, here." He took off his backpack, unzipped it, and handed me a smooshed bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolate. "One for your mom, and one for you. Also, I hope you like chocolate."
I looked between the smooshed flowers and his eyes. "They're gorgeous, Peter. And I love chocolate."
"The flowers were nice." He promised.
"I love them. Thank you." I giggled.
"I'm gonna keep them." He bit his lip, stuffing them back into his bag. He still gave me the chocolate that I put on my bedside table for later.
There was a knock on the door and a moment after it opened. Steve stood on the other side with narrow eyes and an odd stance. "You must be Peter."
"Yes. Hi, sir. Peter Parker." Peter shook his hand.
"Right." Steve said. "Dinners ready."
My mom already set the table and placed the chicken on each of our plates. Peter and I sat beside each other, Steve and my mom across from us.
Dinner was shockingly going smoothly. Peter explained his favorite classes in school and politely listened to my mom talk about her days in high school.
"I was talking to Mr. Stacy today." Steve spoke up, wiping his face with the napkin and setting his silverware on the table. "About the Spiderman."
Peter and I both perked up, interested in this topic. "What was he saying?" I asked.
"He's assaulting civilians, he's clumsy, not very secretive. He's an amateur." He repeated.
"Do you agree?"
"I think it's the cops job." Another reason to dislike Steve.
"H-he's assaulting people?" Peter sat up, engaged in the negotiation. "I mean, I saw the video with him and the car thief. I think most people would say that he was providing a public service."
The whole table was quiet for a moment. I set my silverware down as well, waiting to hear more of Peter's side. I had no embarrassment to his obvious disagreement, but it looked like my mom did as she was practically glaring at me from across the table.
"If we wanted to have this thief off the streets, he would have." Steve glowered to Peter for his "rude" input.
"Why wasn't he then?"
I almost choked on my chicken I was in the middle of chewing. My mom was getting frustrated with this behavior and was about to stop the whole thing before Steve pushed on.
"He had strategy, kid. Ever heard of the word? They've been tracking him and the organization for six months."
"He obviously didn't know about the so called strategy then." Peter carried on.
"Is there something you know that we don't? Are you really disagreeing with the police?" Steve impatiently sat back, angry at Peter for questioning him in the first place.
"The Internet. I saw a video on the internet. It looks like he's trying to help."
"I saw it, too. Looks like Spiderman is on a mission of his own. And if the cops won't do it themselves then someone has to." I inputted, both Peter and Steve looking at me now.
"This is a real nice kid you brought here." Steve motioned to Peter who kept his head down.
"I didn't mean to insult anyone." Peter mumbled.
"Now he's brainwashing you into thinking this spider guy is some sort of hero." Steve ignored him.
"I didn't say he was a hero." Peter argued.
"Then what are you trying to say?"
"That maybe he's just trying to help." Peter shrugged.
I could tell that Steve was about to explode any moment, so I abruptly stood from my seat and helped Peter up. "We're gonna get some air."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Miller and Ms. Jennings. The chicken was great. Thank you for having me." Peter politely thanked them, neither of them saying anything in return.
"We're gonna talk later." I angrily glared at my mom and her boyfriend.
"Oh, yeah we are." Steve laughed.
"You're not my father. I don't want to hear it from you." I snapped, shoving Peter down the hallway to my room.
"I'm sorry." Peter apologized. "I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine. I told you he was like this." I sighed. "Here, I need to talk to them. Take this home to your aunt." I handed him a plate with some chicken with tinfoil over it. "Too many leftovers for us. My mom will throw it out anyway."
"I didn't hurt you, did I?" He shuffled around so he could look at me.
"No, you didn't. I agree with you, trust me. I just need to calm them down." I motioned to the door.
"Can we go outside?" Peter asked. "Please?"
We went down the fire escape from my window and sat in the grass below the steps. It was already dark out and the stars were shining brightly outside.
"Can you tell me what happened to your face?" I mumbled, turning my head so I could look at him.
But he turned too, purposely to ignore the question. "I want to tell you something."
"Okay." I turned onto my side so we were facing each other.
He searched my eyes for a moment. "You're beautiful."
"Oh." I chuckled. "Thanks."
"Umm..." he trailed off, turning onto his back again.
I knew this wasn't really what he wanted to tell me, but I could also tell he meant it. "What do you really want to say? You can tell me anything."
He closed his eyes and exhaled. "Just, can we have a moment?"
"Yeah, we're right here. We have all night." I waited patiently.
He lifted his finger to the sky. "The stars look like your freckles. Did I tell you that?"
"You have." I remembered the day we went to the coffee shop.
"We live on a rock. A literal rock in outer space. Where anything is possible. And I was lucky enough to meet my M.J." Peter smiled at me. "My little rockstar."
His words made me melt straight away. The way he used "my". I leaned myself onto my elbow to keep myself up. He sat up also. I thought that maybe he would kiss me, until he backed up again.
"There's another thing." He stopped me. He sighed again. "It's going to sound crazy."
"Okay, well I've heard plenty of crazy."
He nodded. "I've been bitten." He closed his eyes, hearing how crazy he sounded.
"By a mosquito? Or...?"
"Okay, um." Peter shook his head. "Okay, okay. Listen, I have to tell you something about the vigilante and the car thief."
"Peter, no, no. Not about that. I still need to talk to my parents about that we already went through this." I huffed, landing on the ground again.
"No. Okay, no. Not that. Come here."
I sat up again, waiting for him to carry on.
"I'm gonna talk about me, okay?" He took a deep breath. "I wish I could just say it."
"You don't have to hide anything from me."
Whatever he had to say was something difficult and hard to understand. He probably barely understood it himself, yet he was so set in stone to tell me this.
He shook his head again, his head dropping down to look at the grass. I stood up, brushing away the grass on my skirt.
"Tell me when you're ready then, okay? I have to go deal with whatever is going on upstairs." I waited for Peter to say something. "I'll see you tomorrow."
I began to walk away, but there was a whooshing sound and something tugging at my skirt pulling me down. I didn't even get to blink as I was dragged down and suddenly on top of Peter.
"You- you're-" I felt the web on my skirt that came from whatever he had on him.
"Shh." He shushed me, putting one of his hands on my cheeks to bring me closer to his face.
I was so lost in the fact that Peter is Spiderman that I almost forgot I landed on top of him where I was straddling his waist. "Peter-"
He cut me off with his lips pressed against mine. I didn't hesitate to kiss him back, my hands trailing through his hair. He pulled my face closer to deepen the kiss.
"You're Spiderman." I breathed into the kiss.
"Shut up." He ordered, kissing me again.
Our lips moved in perfect sync. It was almost as if butterflies irrupted in my stomach even more than they did when I saw him any other time. His lips were soft, warm, and welcoming against mine. His hands were gently pressed to the side of my head to pull me in and our breathing got messier the more we were desperate.
The only reason why we stopped was because of the distant sirens going off in the distance. I got off of him so he could stand up and sense whatever was going on.
"Go do your thing." I encouraged. "And be careful."
"I'll be back for that chicken!" He sweared, sprinting the other direction.
I breathed, touching my lips that now felt empty. "I'm in trouble."