CHAPTER THREE.
POLAROIDS.
"Jo, come on." Peter whispered, his gaze still heavily focused on Josephine as he ignored the teacher's voice and leaned slightly closer to his best friend. "I just forgot to call, okay?"
"Okay, whatever, all is forgiven." Josephine shot him a 'shut up' glare as she tried to focus on the lesson, reverting her attention back to her test as she continued in a hushed tone. "I'm going to the party either way, so if you decide to go, I'll see you there. Just focus on the quiz."
Peter just released a reluctant breath, holding his gaze on Josephine for a brief moment before hesitantly sitting back in his seat and turning to face the front again, fighting his desire to keep trying to talk to her.
Gwen turned in her seat at the sound of the confrontation and sent Peter a sympathetic look, Peter returning the gesture with a small, tight-lipped smile in appreciation before sending one last glance towards Josephine and returning his attention to his test.
•
Peter's eyes were glued to Josephine as he watched her stand up, push the chair she was previously sitting on out, gather her books, and leave the classroom.
At her actions, Peter stood up quickly, gathering his books too, and beginning to follow after her, sending Gwen a fleeting glance as he did so. "Can we, maybe, talk later?"
Gwen raised her eyebrows, as she didn't expect him to say anything to her, and nodded, amusedly watching Peter follow after Josephine hurriedly.
As Josephine noticed Celeste at her locker, which was beside hers, a relieved smile painted across her features, however, the smile was soon wiped off her face when she felt an elbow lightly nudge her waist.
Turning to face the direction the nudge came from, Josephine was met with the sight of Peter Parker, a hopeful, tight-lipped smile spread across his face and his eyebrows raised. "We're okay, right?"
Josephine just sighed, rolling her lips inwards to prevent the involuntary smile that threatened to overtake her features at his optimism. "Yeah, we're okay. It was just a call, Pete, it's not a big deal."
Peter released a relieved breath, nodding. "Okay, cool. And, hey, I'm sorry for judging the whole 'you-going-to-Marcus'-party' thing, and ambushing you with the imaginary plans we apparently made."
Josephine released a chuckle at the words, shaking her head playfully as she began to walk towards Celeste, Peter smirking at her reaction as he slung his arm over her shoulder loosely and walked alongside her.
•
The rest of the day progressed as usual, with Josephine forgiving Peter for his lack of communication the previous day, and returning back to their usual, playful behaviour.
That's how Josephine ended up outside of Peter Parker's house.
Of course it wasn't unusual for her to be at his home, however, her reasoning was. She knew he wouldn't want to go to Marcus' party—Peter wasn't the 'party-goer' type, and lately, he seemed to heavily dislike Marcus—, however, she wanted to convince him to go.
Knocking three times and waiting for someone to open up, Josephine blew out a breath, tapping on her thigh as she looked around.
As if on cue, Peter came to the door a few seconds later, eyes lighting up at the sight of Josephine standing behind the glass. He approached the door, swinging it open and using his forearm to support his body as he leaned against the doorframe comfortably, further greeting her with a wide smile. "This is so unexpected, how do you know where I live, Josephine?"
Josephine smirked as she playfully shook her head and walked inside the house, patting his shoulder twice as the boy, consequently, stepped aside to let her in. "See, you are so confident when no one's watching, Parker, but suddenly Gwen Stacy appears, and you get all stutter-y."
"What?" Peter's eyebrows slightly furrowed as he huffed out a confused chuckle, closing the door behind Josephine and turning around to face her. "Did you just say 'stutter-y'?"
Josephine shot him a knowing look that wordlessly communicated that she knew that he knew exactly what she meant, the girl speaking up and beginning to make her way towards Peter's living room, the boy following after her as she did so. "That is why tonight is the perfect opportunity for you to come out of your shell."
Peter smugly crossed his arms over his chest and rested his shoulder against the wall that served as the open entryway to the living room, slightly narrowing his eyes as he intended to tease the answer out of her. "Why, what's tonight?"
"Peter." Josephine deadpanned, although knew he was joking, and slumped down on one of the comfortable seats, legs hanging over one arm of the chair, while her back rested against the other. "If you keep acting this clueless, your grades might start to drop. I mean, it's way too easy besting you now, but what competition would I have, then?"
"Ha ha, really clever." Peter jokingly rolled his eyes as he pushed off the wall and sat on the couch opposite to the one Josephine was sitting on, the girl's entertained eyes following his movements intently. "Look, I'm just not the-"
"The partying type, I know, I know." Josephine cut him off mid-sentence, rolling her eyes and pushing off the seat as she stood up, Peter mirroring her movements. "Come on, Pete, it's just one party. It won't kill you to try to have some fun for once in your life."
"You sound like Celeste." Peter unenthusiastically raised his eyebrows as he watched Josephine approach the stairs.
A grin slowly crept onto Josephine's face as she thought of an idea. "What, you don't have any nice clothes, or something?"
Then turning and beginning to make her way up the stairs, Josephine beelined straight for Peter's room, the boy widening his eyes at the girl's actions and quickly hurrying after her, catching up to her as soon as he did so.
As the two reached Peter's closed bedroom door, Josephine grabbed onto the door handle, Peter's hand flying to clasp over it and prevent her from twisting it open, quickly moving forward so his chest was now pressed against Josephine's back—although, neither of them noticed their close-proximity, as they were both focused on their current antics.
"Don't go in there!" Peter blurted out, Josephine's eyebrows creasing inwards into a frown as she slightly tilted her head to look at him confusedly.
"Why, do you need a minute to hide your porn or something?" Josephine joked, letting out an entertained chuckle as she observed Peter's face turn red—despite the fact not being true, Peter still couldn't help the embarrassment that he felt at those types of jokes.
"What? N-no! No, just-"
"Just what? What are you hiding, Peter?" Josephine furrowed her eyebrows deeper at the boy as she caught his attention, his eyes sliding down to meet hers.
Peter just shook his head, raising his eyebrows as his voice self-consciously quietened, suddenly very aware of the fact that he could feel the heat rise from his cheeks up to his ears. "Nothing. I'm not hiding anything."
Josephine unenthusiastically raised her eyebrows again, taking the opportunity—now that Peter seemed to have loosened his grip on her hand—, to turn the door handle quickly, grinning as she swung the door wide open and turned around, hurrying into his room and ignoring his disappointed sigh.
Josephine would be lying if she said wasn't slightly underwhelmed. His room looked the same since she'd last been in it—although, lately, he'd been insisting that they hung out more at her house, as if there was something incriminating in his. "Peter, your room is essentially the same as when I last saw it."
"Well- yeah. Yeah, I guess..."
As she allowed her eyes to float around Peter's—quite messy—room, the girl's eyes searching for whatever it was that Peter was trying to clearly hide, they finally landed on Peter's cork board.
Various new pictures of Josephine, Celeste, himself, and occasionally Gwen, were littering the space, each arranged in a particular order that Josephine knew Peter's system was made of.
This wasn't unusual, however, what did strike Josephine were the, more frequently appearing, solo pictures of her right beside the many polaroids and selfies of both herself and Peter. They were mixtures of candids and posed images, and even in the pictures of Josephine and someone else, she still seemed to be the focus of them.
In the ones she was aware of being photographed—the posed images—, Josephine's brain broadcasted each and every occasion, almost as if her mind had suddenly turned into a silent movie.
If the girl could equate or translate what she was seeing in her mind to a real-life experience, she would describe it as internally watching a double-feature.
The experiences in the candids, however, she had no memory of Peter capturing.
For her, they were simply fleeting moments that lasted only a few short seconds, but for Peter, they were events that were worth permanently preserving and solidifying in time; images that would allow him to remember the exact moment, Josephine's exact feelings in that frame, and his own emotions that arose anytime he looked at them.
Josephine hadn't realised, too lost in her own memories to notice, but she had slowly been approaching the cork board unconsciously, wholly enamoured by Peter's talent.
Her voice was unintentionally soft, the girl completely in awe of how intricate these newer photos were, and her eyes carefully examined each and every detail of the images as if they belonged in a museum. "Peter, these are so beautiful."
Peter's eyes were focused only on Josephine, unaware that he was subconsciously admiring her—the way her pupils dilated when she found another layer to the images that she hadn't seen before, the way her lips slightly parted when she surveyed the pictures of her and Peter, how her breathing ever-so-slightly quickened at certain images, and most of all, how impressed she was with him.
He enjoyed that feeling; her being proud of him. It made his chest feel warm and his head spin a little.
"Thanks..." Peter let his voice trail off as he searched his brain to find more words to express how he was feeling, though he didn't even know how to profoundly explain it. "I, um, was- those are trial shots, I just got a new camera..."
Josephine distractedly murmured a hum of acknowledgement as she slowly reached up to unpin one of the photos. Holding the edges of the picture carefully, Josephine lowered it down so she could look at it closer. The camera was placed eye-level on a table across from Josephine and Peter, and Peter had set up a timer to take it.
In the image, the two were sitting knee-to-knee on one of Josephine's couches, Peter's arm loosely slung around Josephine's shoulders, and Josephine leaned into his side, one of her hands clasping Peter's cheeks in a playful squeeze, and both of them grinning ear-to-ear—as best as Peter could with his cheeks squished.
Immediately, Josephine was presented with the memory of the occasion in her mind, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she admired the image.
Peter swallowed, gesturing to the picture before nervously wiping the space under his nose. "That's, um, one of my favourite photos..."
Finally, Josephine tore her eyes away from the board, meeting Peter's attentive gaze as her smile unconsciously grew. "Can I keep this?"
Peter's eyebrows raised, not expecting her to like the photo so much. "Y-yeah. Yeah, go for it."
He was happy to let her take it. Although he loved the image, as it brought back a thousand happy memories of their friendship, he knew that he had many similar photos, and he could afford to part with it; however, if anyone else had asked, he would've said no without a second thought. Because it was her, because it was Josephine, he was okay with it.
"Thanks, Pete." Josephine nodded appreciatively, gently placing the image in her jacket pocket and zipping it up, being careful not to crease the picture. "Now, where was I?"
Peter cleared his throat, huffing out a small chuckle as he pushed down the flurrying, exciting, lightheaded feeling he was beginning to experience, swallowing it with sarcasm. "Oh, I don't know, forcing me to go this party."
"Right, thank you." Josephine pointed at him, smirking teasingly as she sauntered over to his closet and opened it widely, Peter blowing out a relieved breath as he internally praised himself for moving his Spider-Man suit from his closet to his backpack, which was now under his bed, earlier. "Okay...okay, I can make this work."
As if on cue, an incoming call from Celeste lit up Peter's phone screen from its position resting on his desk, the boy picking it up. "Hey, Celeste, what's up?"
"Where's Josie?"
"She's right here, why?"
At the words, Josephine turned her head to face Peter from her position rifling through Peter's clothes. "Celeste?"
"Mhm." Peter affirmed, putting the phone on speaker so they could both talk to and hear their friend.
"Hey, Cel." Josephine called out.
"Hey, J. You're making Peter come tonight, right?"
"Trying to, yeah." Josephine mused, ignoring Celeste's incredibly obvious dirty joke; she could practically hear the girl's cheeky grin, smiling in satisfaction as she pulled out one of Peter's only 'party-like' shirts and placing it on his bed, then moving to his dresser to shuffle through his pants drawer. "He doesn't have much to wear, though. Might have to take him shopping soon."
Peter's eyebrows raised. "I'm right here?!"
Josephine briefly halted her movements as she turned her head to face the boy, blinking. "Yeah. I know."
•
AUTHOR'S NOTE
jo and peter are so taylor swift coded.