Remembering Peter Parker

This takes after the events of Spider-Man No Way Home. So if you have no seen it there will be spoilers. You have been warned. ❗

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Disconnected from life, reality, everything. Something was off and she knew it. Something was missing in her daily life. Things didn’t connect together like they should. Something big, some big part of her was missing, lacking. But she couldn’t put a finger on it. 

She looked up from her text book, that feeling dawning on her once again. Ned was laying down on the grass of the Campus, his hand laid atop of his head, covering his eyes. He was taking his daily nap, one that he took precisely at 1:00 p.m to 1:45, in between his MIT classes. 

Michelle looked up at the sky, her mind wandering once again, trying to piece everything together. But she always came short. Michelle Jones Watson was not dumb, she got into MIT easily. But the fact that she couldn’t figure out why she was feeling this way was throwing her. What was wrong? What was missing? She was with her best friend at MIT, she had been successful in getting into her dream school. Sure, she had no boyfriend, not that she wanted one at the moment. 

But something was missing. 

“Ned,” Michelle called, she turned her gaze towards him. He remained still, unmoving. She swore if she did not know any better he would be dead. “Ned,” she spoke again, nudging him with her black boot. She had to get new ones, that was clear. 

But she was currently working at a diner and was going to college. Money was not in her favor. She had been wearing them, her sneakers had already gone and she had to wear them. She nudged him again and he sighed. Ned sat up, his eyes narrowing in irritation. 

“Michelle, I am tired,” Ned whined, and it was clear. Dark bags under his eyes, his unclean and wrinkled shirt, she was sure that the red stain at the shoulder was from the time they had pitched in and got a pizza. Although he had eaten most of it, Michelle didn’t want mushrooms on it and he did. 

“Do you feel like something is missing?” She asked him, needing to know if he felt the same as she did. She wanted- needed him to. So that she wouldn’t feel alone in this. She couldn’t be alone in this. 

“What?” Ned asks, wiping his eyes, clearly confused at her question. 

“Like our dynamic, is it off to you? Like something is not here?” She tries to explain, not sure she was getting the point across. She didn’t know how to explain how she was feeling. And from the way that Ned was looking at her he didn’t understand either. 

“What are you talking about?” Ned asks. 

“I mean like, I don’t really remember how we became friends,” Michelle speaks, her words coming out louder as she begins to feel frustrated. What does this mean? 

“Ouch,” Ned speaks. 

“No I mean like do you remember? We just suddenly started being friends,” Michelle explains as Ned nods. 

“Wait no, didn’t- wait did someone introduce us?” Ned speaks, spacing out as he begins to ransack his brain for the exact moment. Some people start friendships easily, some start by talking and slowly becoming friends. But they didn’t. They suddenly became best friends and neither remembers how. 

“How do I not remember what happened? How did we-” Ned says, his voice coming out fast. 

“Why do I feel like there was supposed to be someone else?” Michelle interrupts. Just as she was going to speak again Ned's phone went off. His timer for the end of his nap going off. Michelle grabs her stuff and stands up. “We have to go to class,” Michelle says and begins to stand up.