The Tangled Web | Peter Parker

Chapter 4

The next day at school went by in a blur. It's like I blinked and suddenly the final bell for dismissal was going off, signaling we could leave. Peter spent most of the day avoiding me. Although we had walked to school together, he kept his headphones on the entire walk there. I saw him in the hallway a few times, mumbling to himself, but every time he saw me, he made a quick turn and shot off in the opposite direction. I couldn't help but feel like I'd done something wrong by taking pity on Flash yesterday.

Speaking of Flash, he made it a point to find me in between each period, insisting that the edits I made to his essay were not enough. I tried to convince him that fewer edits meant he was improving, but he wasn't buying it. He was convinced I was distracted when looking it over and was trying to persuade me to stay after school to make corrections. I did my best to assure him that he would be fine to turn in his paper tomorrow, but it obviously didn't work, considering I was on my way to meet him now.

My eyes squinted, adjusting to the bright light from the sun, as I opened the door and made my way to the picnic tables outside. Flash was already sitting at one of the tables, reading his paper, too focused to notice that I was approaching.

I took this as an opportunity to observe him. Moments, when he was alone and wasn't worried about other people's perceptions of him, were few and far between. I watched him, hunched over his paper, diligently reading and rereading every word while he chewed on the cap of his pen. Maybe there was a lot more to him than he let on.

"Hey," I sighed as I set my backpack on the table.

He blinked several times and looked up at me, making eye contact. "Hi," he whispered as he smiled sweetly.

"Getting a head start?" I asked, raising my eyebrows and nodding to the paper in his hand.

"What?" he asked, looking down. "Oh. Yeah, just looking at the edits you made the other day."

"And let me guess," I stated as I slid onto the bench next to him, "you realized, 'Wow, Em was right. My writing abilities are improving,' right?"

He let out a loud laugh, sounding like he was genuinely amused. I couldn't help but stare at the skin near his eyes that wrinkled as he shut them. He threw his head back, his mouth parting, revealing his straight teeth that formed a perfect smile.

"That's a good one," he laughed, shaking his head as he smiled. "No, actually I was thinking about how tired you must have been when looking at this because I spelled my last name wrong and you didn't catch it."

"What?" I gasped, tearing the paper from his hands. My eyes quickly scanned the top of the page, searching for his name. Clear as glass, there was his last name and it was missing quite a few letters. "Shit," I mumbled, shaking my head.

"Now obviously if you didn't catch that, you might have missed some other things," he teased, nudging me gently with his shoulder.

"Okay, you might have a point," I admitted quietly, avoiding his eye contact. How the hell did I miss something so simple? "Can I have your pen?" I asked, holding out my hand. My attention shifted from his poorly spelled last name to the pen he was about to place in my hand. "On second thought," I added, noticing the chewed cap, "never mind."

Flash pulled his eyebrows together as he studied my expression. My eyes lifted to meet his blue-green eyes, staring for longer than I should have. I couldn't help but smile, blushing as I turned my head, breaking focus.

"What's wrong with my pen?" he asked quietly, shifting his body so he was now straddling the bench seat.

"The cap," I stated, shaking my head as I reached into my backpack to grab my pen.