Orphic | Spider-Man

EIGHTEEN

IT WAS TUESDAY night when Octavia's pager went off. 
      She had kept it in the pocket of whatever pants she was wearing since Friday, hoping that Spider-Man would ask for her help. Any other night would've been perfect for her to get up and go, but she was having a late dinner with Otto when the pager went off. 
      "Wh. . .what is that?" Otto asked as he looked around their penthouse. He was sitting across from Octavia, who was in her wheelchair for the day instead of using the arms. He then chuckled, "It almost sounds like a pager. Almost everyone had one of those, but now you'll find only nurses using those now." 
      "Yeah," Octavia said, looking down at her pager in her pocket, clicking the small button. "But it's my phone. Forgot to turn the sound off, sorry." 
      "Have you been talking to Peter lately?" Otto asked. 
      Octavia nodded with a smile. "Yep. Actually, I was wondering if Peter could come along with me to Oscorp this Thursday to see the new machines you've working for me?" 
      Otto nodded after taking a bite of the pasta they were having for dinner. "Of course he can." 
      Octavia smiled. "Thanks, Dad." 

      As she was taking her last bite of pasta rolled up onto her fork, the pager went off once more. 
      Otto eyed Octavia. "Is that something important?" 
      "It's Peter," Octavia lied. "He's asking for help with English. Is it alright if I go back to my room and help him?" 
      Otto nodded. "That's nice of you. It sounds urgent too." 
      "Well, you know him." Octavia smiled. "He excels where there's math involved. Thanks for dinner." 
      Octavia rolled her wheelchair back away from the table and turned towards her room, rushing to her bedroom door. Once inside her room, she closed the door and went to work. 
      She rolled over to her black waistband which sat on her bed, the tentacles retracted inside the band at the moment. But when the waistband clicked and attached to the bottom of the spine track attached to her skin, there was a symphony of soft whirrs, and the tentacles came alive. 
      "Let's get ready," she whispered to the tentacles as they lifted her off the ground. "We've got our first mission." 

- - - 

Peter sighed looking at MJ's Instagram. It was only yesterday that he remembered that Octavia said something about her posting a picture of the two of them. And when he looked, he realized why Octavia was so shock to hear that MJ was literally just a friend to him. 
      But to MJ, Peter came off as anything but that. 

      Me and my guy. MJ's caption on the photo she took of her and Peter. He remembered this. They were going to check out the new comic book store that had just opened up, and on their way over while stopped at a crosswalk, MJ took the picture. She had nudged Peter for him to look at the camera. It wasn't Peter's best photo. 
      He never remembered MJ asking him anything relationship-wise. But Peter also didn't understand girls, like most boys of course. He was nice to MJ, but he never truly had the energy he had with Octavia when he was around MJ. It was no wonder that people had been staring at him for weeks now, especially when MJ was with him. No one had ever looked at Peter Parker, tall, lean, awkward nerd with big glasses, but looking at the date the picture was posted, it made sense as to why Peter had the eyes of everyone at school on him. 
      As fast as that had happened when MJ posted that photo, the eyes disappeared later in the morning when Peter had to tell MJ to take the photo down or change the caption. 
      "I think you've might've mistaken my kindness for something else." Peter said it as nicely as he could with the sweetest tone he could. "I like being friends with you, MJ, but I think I have something else going on with someone else." 
      MJ couldn't believe what she was hearing. They had found a small corner of the hallway to talk, but it echoed, and MJ had many things to say. 
      "You think or you know you have something going on with someone else?" she asked, crossing her arms. 
      Peter was at a loss for words for a moment. Octavia did technically tell Peter that he was handsome to his face, but it had been to Spider-Man. So, something was there, but hadn't something always been there? 
      "I think something has always been there between us, but we're now just realizing how much of a good fit we are." Peter explained to her. "I'm so sorry, MJ, I didn't know I was leading you on." 
      MJ had stared at Peter with a pout. "It's that other girl, right?" she asked. "The one who lives in Manhattan? The one who was always in your articles before me? What's her name--Olivia?" 
      "Her name's Octavia, actually--" 
      "I don't care!" 
      "Well, her name's in all the rest of my articles--" 
      "I don't care, Peter!" MJ had snapped, gaining the attention of a few students walking by. "You're really choosing her over me?" 
      Peter had opened his mouth, shocked and confused, grappling for words. "I didn't even know that you had thought that you and I were a thing!" he quietly exclaimed. "I'm sorry, MJ, I just thought we were friends." 
      "And that's all you want to be?" she had asked, tears forming at her eyes. 
      Peter had felt so guilty for making her cry as he replied, "Yes." 
      MJ nodded, pushing up her glasses to wipe away tears. "Fine. Bye, Peter Parker." 
      And then she had walked away.