a spider trapped on a cherry tree

Epilogue - Peter

Insert song: Aimer - Blind to You

- A Year Later -

"Aren't you going to press that? It's been ringing for six minutes," MJ asked, sitting on the bed while sketching something.

"Hmm?" I was half-awake, looking at my alarm clock, "I forgot to turn it off. What are you doing?"

"Capturing your sleeping face. Haha. You look hideous," she showed me her unfinished sketch.

"As much hideous as it is, it's the face of the person you slept with," I teased her, looking for my underwear, which was thrown off somewhere.

"I'm kidding, dork. You look adorable," she fixed her statement, "We were overdoing it last night. I don't feel like going anywhere yet."

"You want me to grab you something outside?" I handed my shirt to cover her chest, "Like the usual?"

"Sure. I'll be right here, finishing this piece of art," she buttoned the upper half of the shirt only.

"Okay. Be right back," I kissed her after I put on decent clothes to go out.

MJ and I started dating two months after the yomi incident. We were a bit hesitant since I had just "officially" broke up with Aoi, but we gave it a try. Everything went great. She is amazing to be with and I love her deeply. She has strengths that overcome my weaknesses. Without her support, I don't know how I would juggle college and the hero duty at the same time. I love her humor too, it cheered me up when I needed it. She is someone I go home to after the hectic days. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be with her earlier if I didn't fall for Aoi first. MJ is the perfect girl in my mind. I don't want to sound like a hypocrite by saying she was better than Aoi, but he was the opposite of her and weirdly I'm crazy for her as much. She caught me off guard sometimes and left me speechless, something only a few could do. Honestly, moving on from Aoi was hard to do. In fact, he keeps appearing in my dreams from time to time. It doesn't mean that I wanted to go back with him. But it does tell me feelings won't go away as easily as I thought. Though I have my wonderful girl with me currently, which I would never trade off with anyone, old flames still left some small sparks. It makes sense since I fell for him for most of my high school years and beyond. MJ noticed it. She acted as cool as she always does when I slipped up during our early times as a couple. I tried my best to fix it, which she appreciated. I give all the efforts at making her sure she knows she is the only one for me by doing every romantic thing I could ever think of, which aren't a copy of what I've done to Aoi. On top of those, I want to protect her trust in me by not trying to initiate some exchanges with Aoi, even when I was back home. Aoi is respecting his boundaries as well, not texting me or making any form of interaction since his last reply on his graduation, thanking my gift for him. Our unwillingness to get in touch resulted in complete isolation from each other. MJ is the one who keeps contacting him. But I purposefully stayed away when they were in a call, and from what my sharp hearing could tell, Aoi was also indirectly refusing to talk to me. My phone rang as I was about to pay for my order.

"Hey, Ned, what's up?" I picked up the call.

"Hey, man. I want to offer you something," he said.

"Intrigued. Continue," I took out my wallet.

"I have a college friend, a junior but we became buds over a semester, who happens to have a cottage somewhere. He is asking me if I want to come with him and two of his high school friends. So far he only asked me and our other friend."

"So you want me to go with you?" I handed some cash to the cashier.

"Exactly, dude! He said I could bring my friends with me. I want to ask you and MJ if you guys have nothing to do this summer," he sounded desperate, "I've asked Betty and she agreed on joining."

"I don't know, Ned. I have this Spider thing," I was reluctant to say yes.

"C'mon, Pete! It's only over the weekend. Well this weekend to be exact. We're leaving on Thursday."

"Uh, I'll talk to MJ first. I'll tell you my final answer later," I took our wrapped meal.

"Don't take too long! If you don't take the spots he's gonna fill it with somebody else."

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me time to enjoy breakfast first," I tried to end the call quickly.

It did sound tempting. I never went to a summer camp my whole life. I was interested in trying it out for a long time but never had the chance to, due to Avengers and other stuff. I bought our usual go-to menu and went back to my studio apartment.

"Here you go, a croissant and an americano," I handed them to her.

"Thanks," she kissed my cheek.

"So Ned called me just then," I revealed to her.

"What did he say?" she looked uninterested but still asked anyway.

"Apparently his college junior offered him to spend the weekend at his private cabin. And he could bring his friends along," I answered her.

"And he wanted us to be his wingmen, huh?" she predicted.

"He didn't say the exact reason but I think you're right," I had the same thought as her, "Betty said yes though."

"If the most difficult to meet friend agreed on joining, why not? It could be a mini-reunion slash short vacation," I was surprised at her response.

"You actually want to go? Unheard of," I expressed my disbelief.

"I'm not antisocial, babe. Plus it sounds cool. What if we could get into one of those slasher film situations, you know? It would be cool," her interest was showing.

"What if nothing happens and it'll be just a sex-fest between hungry college students?" I dared her.

"I'm fine with the partner I have now. I think I'll have fun," she challenged me back.

"Fine, I'll call him right away and accept his offer."

"Go ahead, nerd," she teased.

"But first, why don't we continue what we did last night," I approached her aggressively.

"Dammit, Parker. We just have breakfast ten seconds ago!" she giggled.

"I'll take that as a yes," I nibbled her neck.

"You're unbelievable," she welcomed my attack and held my hair.

After our short after meal course, I called Ned back. It took quite a while for him to pick up.

"Is it a yes I'm about to hear?" Ned had predicted.

"Yeah, we're coming along," I sighed.

"Right on! This is gonna be great! Finally, I'm seeing something else this summer," he sounded overly excited.

"His shack is good though, right? And by that I mean livable enough to spend a night in," I questioned out of concern.

"The area is a massive resort. It happens his family owns the exclusive area further from other cottages."

"Area? He has several units of them?"

"Yeah, which is why you need to come! The normal cottages are located on the east side of the lake while his are located on the west part. We'll have a freaking VIP pass too. You're out of your mind if you aren't tempted yet."

"Okay, okay. We'll accompany you there."

"Woohoo! See you this weekend, bro!" he ended the call.

Whatever waiting for us there, I was convinced the upcoming weekend would go very interesting for us.