Z O E E
Watching Peter and Gwen from her locker, Zoee stuffs her books into her locker forcefully. She sees Gwen write something down on a piece of paper before handing it off to Peter. Zoee rolls her eyes that fill with tears as she knows that she's inviting him over to her house. That and she's speaking so loud that the whole hallway full of students probably hears her as well.
The Atkins girl slams her locker door shut loudly, pressing her forehead against the cool metal and looking down at her phone. She clicks it on and unlocks it with a swipe of her finger, punching in her passcode. The phone immediately shows the texts between her and Peter from weeks ago, which is the last time they texted.
Pete
are u sure?? u can get home quickly w the subway
Zoee
i'm sure, you can go on without me, i'll see you later :)
That was the final thing Peter had texted her when they left the Oscorp tower. Ever since Uncle Ben died, Peter had been distant. In the beginning, it wasn't as bad. As the weeks passed by, it got progressively worse until he finally stopped talking to her, going over to her house, and inviting her over. So Zoee did what she does best, pretending like they were strangers which is what she did when they first met. She stopped trying to have him talk to her and stopped going by his house to see how he's doing. She still goes every once in a while to check up on Aunt May, but she does it on the days she knows Peter won't be home straight away after school.
At the thought of Peter pretending that he doesn't know her, Zoee's chest feels heavy with guilt. She blames herself for Ben's death and now she knows that Peter does too. That's the only reason Peter would stop talking to her. If Zoee didn't try to act the hero and stop the burglar, she wouldn't have been saved by Uncle Ben and he would still be alive.
Zoee locks her phone and pockets it, turning around to head to her next class. To her surprise, Peter is standing next to her, leaning against the locker next to hers. She jumps, her eyes widening and her hands flying to her chest. She resists the urge to hit him when he fails to hide his smile.
"Hey," Peter murmurs, smiling softly at her. Zoee forces a fake smile, her lips closed tight, before turning the other way to leave. A soft but calloused hand grabs hers and turns her back around. "Do you want to come to Gwen's house with me tonight?"
Zoee thinks silently while Peter looks at her with pleading eyes. She gives in, sagging her shoulders and giving him a real closed-lipped smile. She gives him a short nod and Peter immediately scoops her up into a quick, but tight hug.
"I'll text to you the address and the time. Meet me there." Peter lets her know before kissing her forehead and walking away. Zoee is left in shock, standing stiff at her locker. She is left wondering what made him change his mind so quickly.
♡
Zoee plays with some loose strands of her messy bun as she waits in front of the door marked 2016. She rang the doorbell a couple of minutes ago so she reaches to press the button again when the door suddenly opens. An older lady with blonde hair, who Zoee assumes is Gwen's mother, appears with her eyebrows furrowed.
"Yes? May I help you?" She asks, closing the door little by little to only peek her head out.
The Atkins girl opens her mouth but can't form the words to explain why she is at her door. She can't talk at all and she forgot to bring her notecards or a notebook so she isn't able to communicate with the mother.
The lady is about to close the door when Peter yanks the door open. "Wait! This is my friend, I invited her over...sorry for the short notice."
Zoee smiles gratefully at him as he grabs her hand and brings her in. When Zoee steps inside the big apartment, she immediately notices the dinner table full of the Stacy family. Gwen has three younger brothers. Her father is also sitting at the table mid-bite, staring at Zoee.
Zoee flushes under their intense gaze and immediately regrets showing up. She was a little bit late, getting caught up with reading. She should've let Peter know that she wanted to show up with him.
"This is my best friend Zoee. Sorry for not letting you know she's coming, I know there's probably isn't a plate for her." Peter introduces and explains, scratching the back of his neck nervously.
"Don't worry!" Gwen shoots up from her seat at the table with a smile, heading for the kitchen. "We have leftovers."
Zoee shoots the blonde a genuine smile, her shoulders sagging in relief as she passes by her. "Thank you." She mouths and Peter stares at her in shock before snapping out of his trance. He leads her to the table and pulls out a chair next to him.
Maybe Gwen isn't as bad as I made her be, Zoee thinks to herself as Gwen brings her a plate of red pasta with a side of salad.
As Gwen sits back down and her family immediately goes back to eating their fish, Zoee starts to eat as Peter has trouble cutting open his fish. The youngest of Gwen's brothers starts to help Peter cut his fish as her mother asks her father how his day was.
"Tell us about your day." Mrs. Stacy asks.
"Did you catch that spider guy yet?" The middle brother of Gwen pipes in.
"No, we didn't catch him yet." Mr. Stacy starts as Peter's head starts to lift his head up to listen more. Zoee also looks at him to listen intently. "But we will. He's an amateur who's assaulting civilians in the dead of night. He's clumsy, he leaves clues but, he's still dangerous."
Zoee nods along to every sentence, trying to make it seem like she agrees when she really doesn't. As Peter basically disappeared out of Zoee's life for almost a month, this masked vigilante who calls himself Spider-Man showed up, attacking men who have criminal records. In Zoee's opinion, the spider guy is helping the police by tracking down criminals they have been looking for, thus making New York safer.
Zoee is suspicious of Peter because as soon as he seemed busy with his life to avoid Zoee, Spider-Man showed up. He showed signs that Peter has like enhanced senses and sticky hands. So Zoee has a hunch that Peter might be Spider-Man, but she isn't going to investigate.
"He's assaulting people?" Peter asks. "I'm not sure. I mean, I saw that video with him and the car thief and I think most people would say that he was...providing a public service."
Zoee's eyes widen as Peter stands up for the Spider-Man and goes against what Gwen's father was saying, almost challenging him.
Gwen's father speaks up again. "Most people would be wrong. If I wanted the car thief off the street, he would already be off the street."
"So why wasn't he then?" The Atkins girl coughs, almost choking on her mouthful of pasta at Peter's reply. Gwen laughs nervously.
"Let me illuminate you." George Stacy looks at Peter with a mad look in his eyes. Based on his look, he feels disrespected. It reminds Zoee of the look she gets from Flash. "The car thief was leading us to the people who run the entire operation. It's a six-month-long sting. It's called strategy. I'm sure you're aware of the term? You've probably heard about that in school?"
"Yeah." Peter nods, defeated. Zoee thinks he's going to give up but she's been wrong in the past assuming what was going to happen with him and Flash.
"Good."
Zoee watches as Gwen shoots a look to her mother and she nods, mouthing, I know. Zoee nods in sympathy, knowing that Peter won't stop and thus Gwen's father won't either.
"Well, obviously he didn't know you had a plan." Peter takes another bite of the fish on his plate.
George Stacy has stopped eating completely as he faces off with the Parker boy. "You seem to know a lot about this case. Do you know something that we don't know? Whose side are you on here?"
"I'm not on anyone's side, I saw a video on the internet—"
"Oh," George interrupts him, looking at his family with a look to ridicule Peter and speaking with a fake agreeing tone. Zoee stops herself from rolling her eyes. "You saw a video on the internet. Well, then the case is closed."
"Well no," Peter tries to defend himself. "If you saw the video—maybe send you a link—it looks like he's really trying to help."
"Sure on the internet, he's being made out to look like a masked hero or something."
"No, no. I'm not saying that he's a hero, I don't think he's a hero at all."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that he's trying to help and he's trying to do something the police can't."
"Something that police can't?" Gwen's father now looks offended but furious.
Peter keeps eating his food calmly. "I don't know..."
"What do you think we do all day? We sit around eating doughnuts with our thumbs planted firmly up our asses?"
At this, the female Stacys trying to calm George down while one of Gwen's brothers tries to add fuel to the fire by asking to repeat what he said. Zoee places her hand on Peter's knee and squeezes, trying to make him stop arguing with Captain Stacy. Peter doesn't even glance at her at the action.
"I think he stands for what you stand for. Protecting innocent people from bad guys." Peter chews.
"I stand for law and order. That's what I stand for, okay? I wear a badge. This guy wears a mask like an outlaw. He's hunting down criminals that all look the same like he's got some sort of personal vendetta. But he's not protecting innocent people, Mr. Parker."
At this, Zoee sees Peter's look of defeat on his face. He looks conflicted and guilty at the same time. Zoee rubs his knee comfortingly, her other hand close to fishing out her phone from her pocket to text him when Gwen says, "Let's get some air, Peter."
As she stands up she also says towards her father, "Dad, we need to talk."
"Yes, we do." He replies back quickly. Zoee narrows her eyes at him before quickly looking down at her almost empty plate of food.
"Thank you for having me, us." He motions over to Zoee who looks up again to send the captain a comforting smile. "I'm sorry if I insulted you, it was not my intention."
"You're welcome." Mr. Stacy says back as if he did anything for this meal.
"Branzino was real good, Mrs. Stacy. Thank you." Peter scoots his chair back before standing up and going over to Gwen who's waiting for him. He doesn't even say anything to Zoee, leaving her sitting there, worried and confused.
"You're welcome." Mrs. Stacy replies softly, smiling.
As Gwen and Peter walk off, Zoee pushes her chair back as well and stands to follow them. She follows them out of the apartment and up the stairs to the emergency exit. Zoee falls back and fights with herself internally. Half of her wants to go up there and confront Peter and the other half wants to leave them alone and leave Gwen to handle him.
At the thought of Gwen handling him, she immediately imagines them kissing which breaks her heart more than how Peter crumbled it.
Zoee doesn't think twice before she races up the steps to the door to the top of the building. She peeks her eye out and catches the sight she was dreading: Peter and Gwen kissing. She silently gasps, tears springing to her eyes. She immediately looks down then away, feeling like she's intruding when the kissing couple doesn't even know she's there.
"Gwen!" Zoee looks over to where the voice is coming from and finds Gwen's mother going up the stairs. As her mother finds Zoee, she asks, "Where's Gwen?"
At the sounds of her daughter's name is when Zoee starts to actually cry. She points to where the couple is before she runs off, going past the blonde lady.
Zoee doesn't look back and what she doesn't know is that Mrs. Stacy gave her a sympathetic look, knowing what she's going to find based on her tears.
ANOTHER LONG CHAPTER WHOOP WHOOP ENJOY