I'll Love You from Afar...

Michelle Knows All

Peter still hadn't come back and I was getting more worried by the second. I even cost a couple of points during the competition. Thankfully, we won. Michelle answered a simple math problem, and with that came the winning prize of five-thousand-dollars. Now that I think about it, the money is probably just going to be added to the football team's budget, but that's neither here nor there.

I begged Ned to continue calling Peter, but each time it went to voicemail. This probably means one of two things: One; he is ignoring Ned as well as ignoring me, or two; he's in a bad cell zone. Ned kept trying until we got to the Washington Monument, and our many failed attempts did not satisfy the feeling inside me, and if anything it made it worse. For all I knew he was dead on the side of a highway somewhere, and the last thing I said to him was:

'Fine. Since it's so important for you to prove yourself, I guess you don't need my help.'

"Y/N!" I looked up to see Michelle hurrying me off our bus. "Come on we gotta find the best bench to sit on." Grabbing me by the hand she led me towards the rest of the group, going through customs. Ned stood to the side, and he seemed to be on the phone with someone... Could it be? No, Ned would've told me. But just then Ned waved me over and passed the phone to me.

"Peter! Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine! Please pass the phone back to Ned, it's important, I don't need you worrying about me right now." I clamped my mouth shut and sucked in a breath.

"Peter you've been gone all night no calls, no texts, no messenger pigeons. I'm going to worry."

"Bunny... please..." He begged.

"Don't you "bunny" me, I have been up all night trying to find you but of course, you took out that stupid tracker and you asked FRIDAY to ignore me. So tell me what is going on?"

"Y/N, I'll explain everything later. Right now, I need you to pass the phone back to Ned."

I could've hung up. I could've stomped on Ned's phone until it didn't work. But I didn't. Instead, I gave the phone back to my friend and walked towards MJ.

"Ms. Stark," FRIDAY's voice chirped out of my bracelet.

"What is it FRIDAY?" I sighed, pulling up a holographic screen once I sat down. Michelle didn't notice me.

"I'm detecting radiation at the foot of the tower."

"Yeah, Ned has the Chitauri gem in his backpack," I said, lowering my voice so MJ couldn't hear me.

"The wave frequency is increasing minute by minute," She asserted.

"Ok, and? They're only going to be up there for a few minutes. We can examine it once he gets back down." I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to Peter.

May's mildly attractive nephew 🙄🤚❤️

Dude! Where are you??

🚫Not Delivered

Typical.

"Ms. Stark as I've mentioned before the gem's radiation is unfamiliar to this planet."

"What're you getting at FRIDAY?" I sighed, putting my phone away.

"I'm trying to say that the gem is now explosive."

"WHAT?! FRIDAY why didn't you just say that?" I jumped up to my feet and ran towards the entrance of the monument, trying to think of a way out of the situation. "Excuse me security, I need to join the rest of my class. They went in without me," I lied.