speak now•peter parker✓

006

Last night felt almost unreal. New York's most praised superhero had climbed through her window and actually wanted to talk to her.

Before, he had saved her life just like anyone else. But today, he returned to her just because he wanted to. Something about that felt so special to Grace.

She had avoided Peter successfully yesterday, and so far today had been successful as well. Him staring at her in almost all of their classes together didn't help.

If he was with Mj why was he looking at Grace so much?

That was a question Grace couldn't answer. But she had managed to escape all of her classes before he could go up to her. She knew she would have to face him soon enough.

The class they were in ended, and Grace felt a gentle tug on her arm. Of course staring back at her was the cute and nervous brunette boy she adored.

She wasn't quite ready to face Peter yet, even though she knew she had to. Maybe now was better. So she could at least get the humiliation over with.

"Have you been avoiding me?" Peter boldly asked.

Grace hands nervously fidgeted with just themselves, and she looked down at the ground and then up at Peter again quickly. She felt like her whole world was going to collapse.

"No..." Grace knew that was a lie.

"Gracie, you haven't been talking to me. We usually talk all the time."

His sweet voice made her want to melt. And the way his chocolate eyes looked so concerned and worried about their friendship...

Maybe she needed to be the bigger person and put their friendship above her feelings for the boy.

"I'm sorry, Peter. I've just been uh... really busy lately."

Grace knew how lame and unbelievable her excuse was.

"I get it. You did almost get hurt the other day. I shouldn't have made you feel like you have to talk to me all the time. I'm sorry."

Wow. Peter not only believed the lie, but he felt empathy towards it. Grace knew that's why she liked him. He was so caring towards other people's situations without even knowing much about them.

And he was apologizing too. Peter had nothing to be sorry for.

"Don't apologize! It's ok, Peter, it really is. I didn't mean to ignore you."

Grace knew that she did, but she never meant to hurt him. She just couldn't handle seeing his first love being anyone but her.

"Sit next to me," he said as they began walking to lunch.

"Don't you want to sit next to your new girlfriend?" Grace blurted, coming off a bit harsh towards her crush.

"Uh..."

This was awkward now.

"You guys can sit on either side of me. But you heard about Mj and I?"

Heard? HEARD?

Grace wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. She didn't just hear about it. She saw it. And she cried over it.

"Yeah. Congrats, Peter. You guys are cute together."

Peter innocently smiled back at Grace, not even knowing how much his love for Mj was hurting her inside.

Grace knew how obvious she made her crushes. So how did Peter not know by now? Was he just clueless?

Maybe she needed to start giving him hints. And maybe, just maybe, if he picked up on these hints, he would tell her he really liked her and not Mj.

Grace wanted to just speak her feelings so badly. But she knew how badly it would affect not just her and Peter's friendship, but also her and Mj's small and growing friendship.

Grace took her usual seat next to Peter, as Mj and Ned both eyed each other. Mj sat down on the other side of him and Ned looked at Peter, mouth wide open.

"Dude! We always sit next to each other."

"Just for today, Ned," Peter warned, looking back at Grace knowingly.

What was he hiding?

"Fine." Ned took a seat across from Peter instead so they could easily talk.

There was some silence when the friends began eating, but Ned suddenly broke it. "Do you guys ever wonder what Spider-Man looks like under his mask?

Interesting topic, Ned. Grace felt her whole face go red just at the mention of the hero's name. It felt so weird talking about him as a superhero after she had formed a somewhat bond with him.

"Yeah. But it's ok if I don't know. He's really sweet."

Almost everyone at the table raised an eyebrow at this. Grace hadn't even told her best friend Betty about her encounters with Spider-Man yet.

On the other hand, Peter looked like he was about to pass out.

"Oh yeah, didn't he save you last week?" Mj said, normalizing the topic.

Peter's face relaxed a little bit. Ned tried to continue the conversation. "Have you seen him since?"

Grace hesitated to tell her friends about Spider-Man. But she supposed it couldn't hurt telling a few trustworthy people.

"Yeah."

Betty gasped, tapping on her best friend's shoulder. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"What?" Mj added.

Grace tried to calm everyone down. "The night he saved me, he took me back home. And last night, he visited me again."

"What's he like?" Peter asked, tilting his head a little bit.

There were two boys who had sent butterflies into her stomach recently. That was Peter and Spider-Man. Something about the masked superhero just made her feel something, and Peter... well Peter always had.

What would it be like to date a superhero?

"Really sweet. He was always checking up on me."

What if she made Peter jealous? Well, she didn't quite know if Peter would be jealous at all, let alone of a masked superhero.

"Honestly, he's really hot. I can just tell," Grace said confidently.

Peter froze. "Wha-what."

"What's wrong, Peter?" Mj asked.

"I've got to use the bathroom. Be right back!"

Peter sped out of the cafeteria quickly. That was weird.