The kiss looked forced, almost messy and rather distracting. It was not a pretty sight, not even in the slightest way. My whole body had frozen up, my hands gripping my blonde wig as the scene laid out in front of my eyes. It was a hungry kiss between Peter and Cindy, something with a strange animal reaction to it. Not only did it sink my heart, it made my skin break out in goosebumps. That's how weird and unnatural this kiss appeared. With nothing to do, shock pouring out of me in waves, I watched wordlessly.
"Florence! Hey, have you seen my cowboy hat? I must have lost it with the scurry with Cindy and--" Ned Leeds was suddenly beside me, eyes wide too. His sentence dropped off naturally, confusion and shock working through his own mind.
Thankfully, or maybe dreadfully, his voice had carried into the quite kitchen and Cindy Moon and Peter Parker were springing apart. Their bodies were on opposite sides of the kitchen within a blink, almost too quickly. But strangely enough, I was still frozen. I watched as reality hit Peter, his eyes clouding with guilt and a mixture of confusion added in. He was staring across at me, mouth smudged with red lipstick and gaping open but no words forming. Cindy was blinking back tears, her eyes pinned to Peter.
Slowly, I fumbled with my blonde wig, my legs finally working and I was turning away. I heard Peter rush after me, already calling out my name but I was determined to get out of Flash Thompson's house and into the cool air to try and calm down my racing mind. Too many thoughts danced in my mind, everything overwhelming. For as long as I could remember, my first natural instinct was to fight. I had a temper, I knew that very well. I was always the girl to scream and yell before actually thinking something through. I had the emotional range of a teaspoon, something my friends liked to point out too often. But tonight, the will to fight back had been snuffed out and the only thing I wanted right now, was to be alone.
"Florence, please." I had made it down the driveway, the air much cooler outside and it stung my lungs just a little bit but it was strangely comforting. I was staring down the street, already trying to pin the right direction for the closest subway. Flash didn't live too far away from Tribeca, which meant it wasn't a long journey home. "Hey, please just--" Peter's hand was reaching for my wrist and hastily, I was yanking free from his soft touch as my heart plummeted.
I sucked in a breath, "Don't touch me."
Peter was staring across at me, the darkness of the street clouding around us. Everything was still and weirdly and I found myself wishing Flash Thompson was still blaring music from his house, at least the silence between us would not be so heavy. I stepped backwards, putting some distance between us as I pushed some baby hairs away from my forehead. My braids ran down my back and odd bobby pins rose up from where the wig had been stuck in place, but right now, I didn't care about my appearance. I didn't care about much of anything, not in that very moment and that was a haunting thought.
I swung my eyes away from Peter and spotted a lonely boy in the shadows, hurling his body over his bicycle. Clayton Cole. He was watching us with curious eyes. Thankfully, he was riding off before Peter opened his mouth again. "Florence, I don't know what to say. That shouldn't have happened. I don't even know what really happened. Something just sparked and my powers just...they irked up and the kiss just happened. My senses were out of whack and I just don't know, but I swear it didn't mean anything."
I crossed my arms over my chest, still not looking at him. It hurt so much to stare into his eyes and see how terrible he felt right now and how sorry he was, how broken he was with himself. Strangely, I didn't even fight with him. Didn't want to ask for an explanation. Didn't want to even see his face. "Say something. Please. Shout at me, get angry. Hurt me back but please do something, anything other than this silence. It's killing me."
"I can't do this right now." I finally choked out, feeling a wave of emotion flood through my chest. Finally, my eyes sliced back to land on his face. I could see the pain in his eyes, could literally feel him begging for forgiveness, for a chance to explain why the kiss had randomly happened. A part of me wanted to hurt him like he had hurt me, to lash out and yell like my lungs would cry out. But nothing happened. The urge to fight was just not there right now. I didn't know what that meant either but it felt odd. "I just need to be alone."
Peter was taking another step in my direction but stopped when he saw the glare in my eyes. With a jolt of his head, he took a step backwards and shoved his hands into his pockets. I stared at his lips and noticed the red smudge of Cindy Moon's lipstick still and it turned my stomach. "Okay." he mumbled out. "Uh, can I call you tomorrow or something? Please. I need to try and explain...I just, I need you and--"
Tears begged to fall with the crack in his voice but I was shaking my head, wondering if the feeling of betrayal ever went away. "Don't call me." My words sounded broken but I pressed on, holding my head high and not falling where I currently stood. Hesitantly, I was walking away from him, from this terrible night. I didn't get more than a few steps before I was turning around, seeing his saddened eyes. "Don't follow me home. Don't swing through the streets to make sure I get home safely. I want nothing from you right now, Peter." he let me go and this time and I didn't turn around to see the pain in his eyes.
***
That night I didn't sleep very well but it wasn't the visions keeping my mind awake. My thoughts were clouded, tainted with hate, with betrayal and with questions. I had shocked myself by not turning to Peter on the driveway and letting my soul shine, letting him know how much rage echoed through my body. But I had walked away and had not looked back, even when I wanted to show him that I was hurt with his actions. But strangely, I had done nothing. That scared me more, the fact that there was no fire sparking in my heart to fight back, to fight for him. Did that mean something? I was not so sure, because for a long time, the only person I could count on was him, the only person I wanted to see somedays, but now, it hurt to even think about him.
It was early on Saturday morning and my mother was standing in my doorway, a cup of warm tea huddled between her hands. She had greeted me home last night, waiting up to see how my night had gone. I hadn't told her it had been almost good, that my visions had somewhat been correct. I didn't tell her my boyfriend had kissed another girl. With dry eyes, I had lied to her but deep down, I knew she gathered something was eating me alive.
"Are you alright, sweetie?" her warm voice sounded and my eyes snapped up from my laptop, busy doing an assignment.
My mind was still clouded with cobwebs, nothing quite seeming real, even with the bright sunlight streaming through my balcony doors. "Um, I don't really know."
Somehow, my mother knew the weight on my shoulders. She knew about my sleepless nights, about the visions and the fear crawling in my chest, banging to be let out. She didn't know about the kiss but she had a mother's instinct. "It's okay to not be okay sometimes." she quietly admitted, something flicking through her kind eyes. I couldn't help but wonder how she pulled through the dark days with Colton's death herself. "We're attending a conference upstate today, Dr. Langkowski is speaking. Would you like to join us?" When I was younger, my parents used to take us to different conferences with famous scientists speaking about their experimental work, it was something Colton always enjoyed. We hadn't done that since his death.
"Actually, that sounds wonderful." I gave her a tiny smile, very thankful my mother had given me something that could take my mind off the visions and of Peter Parker today.
The day ended up being really great. My parents had played old music from their childhood on the trip upstate, telling me old stories of how they had met. Sitting in the backseat of the car, listening to them and laughing along with their outrageous stories, my life back home seemed less bleak. The day reminded me of the past, where we used to see science demonstrations and visit museums as a family. It felt a little sad to be spending time geeking out as a family without Colton but somehow, it was a bitter sweet moment in time. Thankfully, it did in fact distract me from my problems and when I finally got home, I was in a much better mood.
The sun was setting over the buildings and while I returned a phone call to Gwen, my phone balanced between my ear and shoulder, waiting for her to pick up, I went to my balcony doors. That's when I saw a figure sitting upon the house's rooftop across the street. Anybody would assume it was someone cleaning leaves out of the gutters, or maybe would not notice him at all. But there was a jolt in my heart when I spotted Peter in the late afternoon light. He was decked out in his Spider-Man suit and I assumed he was just waiting for me to show him I was ready to talk. I was already wondering how long he had been waiting there, hoping I would open my balcony doors and let him inside. As Gwen's voice sounded in my ear, I yanked my curtains shut, giving Peter Parker my answer.
***
My weekend was almost over and I spent the remaining Sunday watching old episodes of Grey's Anatomy and eating my heart out with candy. After finishing another episode, I slipped out of my comfortable blankets and went to my balcony. I had been putting off talking with Peter all weekend and I was somewhat glad he had respected my wishes and not called. But I had a funny feeling he had been hanging around my house for most of the weekend, making sure I was somewhat alright and waiting for the sign to come inside. With a shaky breath, I opened my curtains and pushed open my balcony doors. I didn't spot him anywhere, but knew he would come.
After a shower, soaking my skin in hot water and changing into something clean, I padded back into my bedroom, wondering if it was acceptable to spend all night watching Netflix when I found Peter standing lonely on my balcony, his shoulders hunched forward. He had not donned his hero outfit, which meant his hair was sticking up from the wind. There was a stab of pain in my chest just seeing him. Without speaking, I lowered myself to the side of my bed and watched as he stepped into my bedroom, looking rather out of place, almost like the very first time he had entered my bedroom last year.
"I screwed up, I know that. I hurt you in a way that I never intended, nor wished I ever would. You're the most important person in my life, besides Aunt May." Peter started quietly, standing in front of me. I saw the darkness under his eyes and wondered how much he had slept over the weekend. "I can't begin to explain what even happened. I've been trying to figure it out since that night and I think it has something to do with my powers. I don't know."
He paused and my eyes snapped up, trying to stop my heart from beating so fast. I thought I would want to lash out when I finally saw him, wanting to give him a taste of his own medicine but nothing but numbness washed over me again. "You hurt me." I breathed out, "I feel like I should want to hurt you back somehow. I feel like I should want to scream and cry, do anything, to make you feel like I do right now. But there's nothing left. I don't really know how to explain that to you, not really. You kissed another girl and that's not fair. That's not right. That's--"
"Unaccepted, I know that." Peter finished off my sentence, nodding his head furiously. He lowered his head after a moment and I knew he must have been beating himself up over this all weekend. "I don't want to say there's an excuse, because nothing in this world can change what happened and...I just want to try and explain it and make it up to you. You have to know, it wasn't me kissing Cindy. It was Spider-Man."
My eyes narrowed, my head tilting to the side with his statement. Confusion was taking hold and by my priceless reaction, he was rushing to explain further. "That sounds insane, I know. But when I was just alone with Cindy, my powers irked up. Everything just became so overwhelming and my spidey senses just flared and went into total overdrive. There was this weird connection with Cindy and something just snapped and before I could stop myself, we were just kissing." he sucked in a deep breath, his words coming out of his mouth a million miles a minute.
A silence filled my room and slowly, Peter perched down beside me. We stared blankly at my painted cream coloured wall and saying nothing. I did not pretend to understand Peter's powers, they were complicated and we had never really discussed them before, which meant maybe he wasn't wrong.
"I've never asked about your powers. I should have, but it never came up." I let my eyes drift towards him, only to find him watching me. "But if this weird connection happened, why now? We've known Cindy Moon for years. We've all shared classes together. Also, why Cindy? Why do you have a weird connection with her? Do you think she feels it too?"
"I don't know," Peter blew out a sigh. "I've never really been alone with her before, not like that. Not when it was just us two." he paused, frowning with confusion. If this whole thing was confusing to him, it was insane to me. "My powers started last year, only little things at first. I could see clearer and didn't need my glasses. I could hear things nobody else could. I could do things humans just can't, you know? It started with a spider bite, hence the name."
I gave him a nudge with my shoulder, "Yeah, I gathered that much with the name, Spider-Man."
Peter nodded, a slight smile on his lips. "It happened on that field trip to New York Hall of Science. We were all gathered around remember? Watching that demonstration of safe handling of nuclear laboratory waste materials. When the particle accelerator went off somehow, a spider must have been caught in rays. It bit me and well, it was radioactive and that's how I can do the things I can now. Pretty crazy, huh?"
I remembered the day well. "Yeah, pretty crazy." I agreed with him, something like that was nearly impossible but somehow, little Peter Parker had gotten caught up with fate. He had never told me about that day, the day that changed a lot of things. I was about to ask how he created his web fluid when something snagged in my mind. "Wait. You were bitten that day?"
Peter nodded, "Uh, yeah. It's hard not to remember, the pain was dreadful."
Memories flooded back from that day and without realising it, I was connecting the dots. I had been standing with Cindy Moon that day, we had watched the demonstration together. She had been consumed with texting her boyfriend but found it pretty interesting anyway. That's until she was dropping to the ground, complaining about her throbbing ankle. She claimed she had been bitten by a spider. It explained a few things that I had witnessed. How she had ruined the bathroom that afternoon months ago, how she was so scared about something and how she had been able to push Hector back at Flash's party, smashing the glass doors and being thrown into the pool. Also, it explained the strange connection with Peter and the kiss if they were connected through the same spider. "You weren't the only person bitten that day." I told him quietly, turning to him with wide eyes. "Cindy Moon was bitten too."
- author's ramblings -
I am a little sorry about the wait but then I'm not because this chapter took a long while to get right. I've actually had half of it written since last week but I needed time to articulate the way Florence handled the shock. There comes a time when something happens in your life and you just become numb in a way and that was this moment for Florence, which is a little out of character because she's always been one to fight back with anything, but she didn't and that's a key new dynamic in her relationship now, something she's realised too. A few might not like or understand that but I know Florence Parsons like I know my soul. She's my baby and every action written about her is the way I want her.
If you're not familiar with the comic books, the whole strange spider attraction thing can be hard to wrap your head around. Basically, Cindy Moon and Peter have this weird animal hormonal attraction to each other (to mate with each other, kind of) which comes from their spiderling senses. It's hard for me to explain but I hope that helps, so yeah.
On a lighter note, we got a tiny bit of backstory for Cindy, which comes out more next chapter. Also, I added in the key scene with Peter telling Flo how he got his powers, something they never openly discussed, which was kind of sweet. It was a bit of a rocky chapter for Fleter, but get ready because a storm is coming and relationships tend to break apart and come back together because of timing and well, plot. I hope you enjoyed the chapter cherries, it took a lot out of me to be honest and I hope it was written okay, I'm still iffy even with the rewrites done on it throughout the week. Please leave your thoughts.
- tinkertaydust