Peter's Pov:
Where was my shirt? I thought I left it on my bed but it's not there, I need to leave soon to pick up Ned so we can go to a party. And because we rarely get invited to parties this was a big deal! I crouched down and looked under my bed, it was a blue checked shirt that I was going to wear over my plain grey t-shirt. I couldn't turn up at a party wearing just a grey t-shirt. There it is, right next to my backpack which I dumped under my bed yesterday and a couple of dust bunnies. I grabbed it and shook it out to get rid of any fluff and dust that had gotten on it before slipping my arms through the sleeves. I went into my bathroom and looked in the mirror, not bad Peter, not bad at all! I grabbed my comb and gently brushed my hair up a bit with a little gel.
"Hey, look at you. You look handsome!" I heard Mom say, I turned away from the mirror to see her standing in the doorway. I blushed and put the comb down.
"Stop it! It's just a shirt and some hair gel, not much has changed." I said as I walked towards her.
"Well, you always look handsome but tonight-" Mom continued before I heard Dad chip in.
"But tonight you got upgraded." Dad said pulling his shades down the bridge of his nose. I smiled and rolled my eyes, typical dad.
"Happy is waiting for you, ready to go?" Dad asked me.
"Yeah, I think so." I replied, feeling a slight confidence boost within myself. Mom pulled me into a gentle hug and lightly kissed my cheek.
"Have a nice time, sweetie. Enjoy yourself." She told me before I left the room, Dad was walking me out to the car.
"Oh son, I know that teenagers will be teenagers and there will probably be a lot of alcohol being shared around. I know you are still underage but if you want to drink then you can, just don't go crazy as I'm not in the mood to clean up your puke tomorrow morning." He said, I laughed before turning to him.
"Thanks Dad, but I think I'll give the alcohol a miss. It's not my kind of thing." I told him, to be honest the thought of puking everywhere grossed me out anyway.
"Good kid." He said before wrapping his arm around my shoulder as we continued our way to the car. We met up with Happy who was already in the driver's seat.
"Have fun, Peter. Tonight you are just a teenager." Dad said as I sat down in the back.
"Thanks Dad, see you tomorrow!" I called out from the window as Happy drove off, next stop was Ned's house.
Happy pulled up, I saw Ned was peering through a gap in the curtains before disappearing. He had definietly seen us. He left house and ran towards the car, he opened the door and slid in next to me.
"Hey Happy, how are you?" Ned asked, he sounded a little over-excited tonight.
"I'm fine, but if you don't mind I'm going to bring the barrier up so I don't keep seeing your face in the rear view mirror." Happy responded as the black barrier came up. I giggled as Ned put his seatbelt on.
"So, no hat tonight?" I asked, he was normally the cool guy that wears a hat at parties.
"Nah, but I have finally found out the secret to becoming a party legend!" He said enthusiastically.
"Oh yeah, what's that?" I asked curiously as I crossed one lef over another.
"A little something I like to call giggle juice! Booze! Alcohol! Now I know why we haven't gotten the girls, how we never became a hot topic for something awesome. All we needed was a drink. What do you think, sound cool?" Ned explained, I starred at him.
"Do what you will, Bud. But I'm sticking to the soda tonight." I told him.
"Peter, no one wants that." Ned told me, a bit savage.
"Dude." I said, that hurt a little.
"I'm sorry, it's just that no one has taken any interest in us whilst sober. I wanna change that." Ned said.
"Go ahead, I'm just not ready to have my first drink yet. I wanna have my first beer in the sun with my Dad when I turn twenty-one, make it special." I told Ned.
"You're so traditional, Peter Benjamin Stark. As a friend, I admire that. But I can't wait for that." Ned said, I wasn't all that bothered. He can do what he wants, we had a designated driver and a sober best friend for him to lean on once he had too many.
"Well, I hope you have fun." I told him.
After a couple more minutes of cruising, we made it to the party. It was being hosted by some guy on the football team, he was a senior and we didn't know him personally but his sister sits next to me in English class and invited us here tonight so she knew some people. Me and Ned got out the car, I could here the sound of club music playing from inside.
"Thanks for the ride, Happy. I'll give you a call when we're ready to leave." I said leaning across towards the drivers side window.
"No problem, kid. It's not like I had anywhere else to be tonight, like my bed or whatever, just have fun and enjoy yourself. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Happy said.
"But that won't leave me any options." I joked, stepping back onto the curb.
"See you later." Happy said before driving off. I turned to Ned who was waiting near the mailbox, we walked over towards the open front door where we were hit by the bright LED lights.
"Woah, this looks awesome!" Ned said in awe, this was a cool house.
"Look, there's Layla!" Ned said as he pointed to a girl leant against the kitchen island, she was the one who invited us.
"Come on, let's go say hi!" Ned said as he grabbed my wrist, pulling me across the hallway to the kitchen.
"Hey Layla, you look nice." Ned said politely, I think he liked Layla.
"Hi Ned, Hi Peter. So glad, you could make it." She said with a smile, she was your typical girl next door which I guess Ned liked.
"Thanks for inviting us." I said, I was still being a nice house guest.
"No problem, can I get you guys a drink? We have some punch, some cider, some beer." She listed as we looked at the drink selection spread out across the kitchen.
"Do you have anything stronger?" Ned asked, I think that for his first drink he should take it easy.
"Well, some of my brothers football buddies have broken into my Dad's liquor cabinet. I think we have some vodka?" She said. I quickly prodded Ned in the ribs.
"Dude, that's a little extreme for your first drink. Maybe you want to start off a little slower?" I suggested, whispering as I didn't want to seem like I was being his babysitter or something.
"Vodka would be great, thanks Layla." Ned said with a whole lot of confidence, it was well and truly his funeral. As Layla left to pour him a drink, I grabbed a red plastic cup from the middle of the stack and poured out some Pepsi straight from the bottle into it, I noticed a couple empty bottles around so I know I wasn't the only one going sober tonight. Unless there was some drink mixing going on.
"here you go, Ned. Is that enough vodka, do you want me to mix it with anything?" Layla asked as she handed him a red plastic cup half filled with straight vodka. Holy Macaroni!
"Nah, this is fine. Thanks Layla. Cheers everyone!" Ned said, toasting his cup before chugging the transparent spirit. I grimaced as I watched him drink it, imagining how this would mess up him body. He took one deep swallow before bursting out into a coughing fit, spluttering as he leaned forward. I rubbed his back with only one thing on my mind. Please don't vomit on my shoes, Ned!
"Are you alright, Ned? Do you want some water?" I asked him.
"I...I-I'm good *cough cough* whoa that was strong." Ned said, sounding like he had just run a marathon!
"What did it taste like?" I asked curiously as I took a long refreshing sip of Pepsi, which I know couldn't hurt me.
"Like the chemicals the janitor uses to clean the toilets! But I kinda like it." Ned told me, I held back the urge to gag at his explanation.
"Dude, that's gross." I told him as I put my cup down on the island, he just shrugged it off.
"Wow, Ned. That was quite brave of you." Layla said as she innocently twisted some hair around her finger. Maybe this whole giggle juice trick would work out for Ned.
"It was quite brave, wasn't it." Ned said, a little bit cocky for him.
"Well, some of my friends are playing a round of beer pong. Do you mind joining me?" Layla asked as she grabbed Ned's wrist.
"Sure, you coming Peter?" He asked me.
"No thanks, I'll stay here. I think MJ is coming soon." I told him.
"Suit yourself, see you later." Ned said before playfully slapping my cheek, maybe the effects of alcohol were hitting him faster than expected. Layla dragged Ned to the next room, much to his delight. I sat on the counter and bopped along to the background music as I waited for MJ, I really hope she turns up. It would be nice to spend some more time with her than I normally do, maybe just some time alone would be nice.
It was hard to tell how long I waited, but it had been some time and I was starting to think that watching Ned play beer pong would have been a lot more fun. I hopped down from the counter and sighed. But that was when I saw her, she had her hair down and was wearing a cool casual dress, dark jacket and black lace up boots. I was digging it.
"Hey, MJ. I thought you might not show up." I said walking towards her.
"I thought about not coming, but then again I couldn't leave you losers here on your own. Where's Ned at?" She asked, looking around the kitchen.
"Oh, he's gone to play beer pong with Layla and some guys after chugging some vodka." I told her casually.
"Well that's a first, are you drinking?" MJ asked me, I shook my head.
"Nope, I kind of have to keep Ned in line. Plus, I don't think a hangover would look good on me." I said.
"Yeah, I guess no one would want their friendly neighbourhood Spiderman passing out in a puddle of his own puke." MJ said, I agreed with her.
"in other news, I actually brought some PB and J with the crusts cut off if you wanted to share." She said as she pulled out a zip-lock baggie of sandwiches.
"That would be great, can I get you a drink?" I offered her.
"Um...just a soda or something." MJ said, I nodded and grabbed another Pepsi bottle and poured it into another red cup for her. I remembered that I already had a drink on the kitchen island. The only trouble was, the entire island was covered with full red plastic cups, a few of which containing a Pepsi like beverage. I looked around, I'm pretty sure I left mine right here. I grabbed the cup and hesitantly took a sip, it did taste like Pepsi. Nothing more nothing less. Yep, this was my cup, I'm pretty sure.
I carried our drinks outside where we decided to eat the sandwiches, I helped MJ up onto the roof of Layla's garage where we sat together. Our feet were dangling off the edge as we gazed upon the view of Queens, New York. As the taste of grape jelly and salty peanuts filled my mouth, I felt mine and MJ's hands touch. My pinkie had turned into some kind of inch-worm as I slowly moved closer and closer. Soon our pinkies wrapped around each other. I turned my head to look into her eyes.
"I never told you how pretty you look tonight." I said, almost as if I was in some sort of cheesy romance film. It came so naturally.
"Thanks, you look like crap." MJ joked, we both laughed together before I took another long sip of Pepsi.
"You don't look too bad yourself, Peter Stark." MJ said, feeling our hands slowly clasp. This almost didn't feel real to me. I gazed into her gorgeous brown eyes, they twinkled in the moonlight. Slowly. We both leaned in closer to one another, closing our eyes as I felt her breath on my face. This was the moment.
"Peter!" I heard someone call from below. Both me and MJ pulled away from each other in shock. I peered down and saw Layla calling out for me.
"I'm right here, what's up?" I asked her.
"It's Ned, he's absolutely wasted. I think he should probably go home, he said that he was leaving with you." Layla told me. Goddammit Ned, why did you have to ruin this moment for me and MJ? I sighed.
"I'll be right there." I called down before frowning sadly at MJ.
"I'm so sorry, MJ. Maybe we could do this again sometime?" I suggested, grabbing her hand again.
"Sure Peter, I'd like that." She said with a smile. I jumped own from the garage, I looked up at MJ and waved goodbye. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Words couldn't sum up trying to get Ned into Happy's car, but it was very messy and I need a new pair of shoes. We dropped him home before heading back to Stark Industries.
"I'm so sorry about your car, Happy. I had no idea that he'd eaten so much." I said apologetically to him, it was a bad scene back there.
"It's okay, kid. It's just one of those lovely activities that I love to partake in on a Sunday afternoon. Don't worry about it." Happy said, I could tell he was a little frustrated.
"You know what, I bet Dad could hire some cleaners for the job." I told Happy, he shouldn't have to do it.
"Thanks Peter, anyway I'm going to bed and so should you. You look exhausted."
"Oh I am, see you in the morning." I said before throwing away my ruined shoes, I dragged my tired body to my room and took off my clothes. What a night! I put on some Iron Man pyjama bottoms and just kept my grey shirt on to sleep in tonight. I laid down in my bed, as I tried to fall asleep I though about me and MJ. Maybe tonight just wasn't to be between us. Hopefully our time would come soon.
After a couple minutes of dreaming about our future, I fell into a peaceful sleep.
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End of part one! Part two should be coming real soon x