Sept 6th

The final chapter

The sound of the legos clicking together disrupted the silence swallowing Peter whole. Only a few more pieces left.
"Peter." Peter had heard a quiet voice ask.
Peter didn't say anything, anything pulling his focus away from the lego set that Ned had gotten him for his birthday was not important. He needed to get this done if not then who knows what's gonna happen.
Peter felt a hand on his shoulder, it was nice soft and warm, it put little pressure, Peter could feel the callous on the hand from years of work. Peter just needed a little more time alone from everyone, just needed the silence to stay silent.
"MJ is here." Peter heard the same voice say.

——

"Peter!" Peter heard Ned yell.
The two embraced each other in a tight loving hug.
"You have no idea how much I missed you." Ned said.
"New York sucks without you." Peter said, squeezing a little tighter. He had missed his best friend.
"I'm back for good now." Ned said.
The two finally peeled away from each other.
"I have so many things planned for us to do." Peter said throwing his arm over Ned's shoulder.
"Oh wait!" Ned said stopping.
He pulled his book bag off his shoulders and unzipped it, pulling out a lego bag from the lego store.
"I got this for you! Since I missed your birthday." Ned said handing it to Peter.
Peter pulled the lego set out and saw that it was an unreleased one. It was of Spider-man fighting vulture.
"Dude this is so cool!" Peter basically yelled.
He hugged Ned again box tight in hand.
"Thank you so much." Peter said.
"You're welcome." Ned said squeezing Peter back just as tight.
The two finally pulled away for a second time, and continued walking.

——

Peter looked at the lego set. It was done, every little detail completed perfectly. The weight of the warehouse on Peter's chest the more he looks at it.
"Look's great bud." Peter heard a muffled voice say.
The hand still on his shoulder.
It looked wrong in the eyes of Peter, nothing was put together right, even though he followed all the instructions to a T. He just didn't have the Ned flare when it came to legos. It was meaningless.
Meaningless.
Peter stood up from his spot on the carpet and the Boulder fell off his shoulder, he walked to the bathroom shutting the door behind himself.
He looked at his face in the mirror.
The bags were big, his hair was sticking up in every direction, Peter couldn't remember the last time he had taken a shower. Brushed his teeth. Slept. All that information was out of his head, everything felt fuzzy and numb, empty.

——

"Peter not trying to pull you away from your friend but some business came up." Peter heard Tony say from the doorframe.
"Avenger work?" Ned asked excitedly.
"Yes avenger work, you are more than welcome to come back tomorrow thought Ned." Tony said.
"Yeah of course." Ned said standing up.

Peter and Ned hugged.
"I'll see you tomorrow." Peter said.
"See you tomorrow." Ned said.
When Peter pulled away Ned had this distant look in his eyes and his shoulders were slumped. Peter didn't think anything of it though, he just thought that his friend was sad to be going home so early and not able to be apart of the action.

——

Peter stared at the plate of food sitting in front of him. His ears ringing, a soft and delicate hand on his knee he knew belonged to Michelle.
She always wore fruity smelling lotion to keep her hands soft because she didn't like the feeling of dry skin, she made Peter and Ned wear lotion too.
"Looks delicious." MJ said.
Peter smelt it, it smelled horrible in his head, it didn't even smell like food. It smelled like puke. It looked like puke.
"I bet it tastes good too." MJ said.
She grabbed a fork and stuffed a piece in her mouth.
It reminded Peter of Aunt May, she was a horrible cook and Peter pretended to eat in front of her because he knew that she had tried her hardest to get it right. She made up her for her cooking in the way she took care of Peter. Like a mom.
"Yummy." MJ said with a strained smile on her face.
Peter looked at the team surrounding them watching him. Holding their breath.
Peter slowly stood up and walked to the elevator. Feeling like an elephant was was following his every footstep right behind him on his heels.
He rode the elevator down to the ground floor, he walked through the doors into the busy street of New York.
Car horns honking, people yelling/ talking loudly.