Autumn Leaves | p.p.

| 7 {Peter} |

Of course Aunt May was gone when I got home so I followed through with my daily routine. Homework, dinner, scanner. I wanted to text Sophie, but even as I typed out the generic "hey, what's up" I felt like I was somehow stepping over the line. I tossed my phone onto my bed in defeat and opened my notebook. By the time I got done with homework, Aunt May was just getting home and she was cranky from work so I offered to make something quick for dinner and then even said I would do the dishes so she would go to bed early. After her door closed I had approximately 17 minutes before she was out cold for the next seven hours.

I slipped into the suit Mr. Stark gave me last year and turned on the police scanner I made a few years ago. As soon as the call came through of a robbery down on 108th street I was out my window and swinging through the city.

By this point I barely had to think about the moves I was making, even sitting in class made me start to cramp up from not being out enough. I landed on the roof of my favorite Dunkin' Donuts store next to the bank and looked down over the edge. Stereotypical broken glass on the ground and the soft buzz of the alarms.

I dropped to the street and looked into the building, of course it was empty. The squealing of tires broke my train of thought as what I assumed was the getaway-mobile zipped past me. No problem. I flicked my wrist and shot a string of web out and pulled myself up into the air. I timed my swings so I would land on top of the car. I swung my body into the driver's side and kicked the driver out of the seat, one of my hands fell onto the steering wheel and the other secured all three in their seats with a web. I pulled the vehicle over to the curb and hopped out.

"Wow, sucks to be you guys," I laughed as they squirmed in their seats spitting every profanity they could at me. There were even a few of those horrible squashing bug puns, creative. I love when the bad guys turn out to be ridiculously cliche.

This Thursday I actually felt excited to go to school, I mean don't get me wrong I love school but high school means you have to take the same classes every damn day, which meant I would have chemistry again. My heel tapped the floor as my knee bounced. I watched the clock that would dismiss us to our next class.

I needed to chill, this was just a girl, just a girl that I didn't know anything about anymore. Oh wait, and also a girl that is most likely furiously unavailable. As the bell shook me out of my thoughts I headed out the door and straight towards my next class. Luckily I had this class with one of my most unlikely friends. His hand slapped my shoulder as he slumped into the chair next to me.

"You look like you didn't sleep at all last night," he smirked.

"Hey, I was up late working on homework, as if that would surprise you."

"Why don't you come out with me this weekend?"

"Out?"

"Yeah, there's a big end of summer party at Amber Carson's tomorrow night," he raised his eyebrows.

"Harry, you know that's not my thing," I felt panic set in, I don't know why parties made me so nervous. Oh yeah, because I was a dedicated introvert.

"Dude, Parker, come on," he smacked my shoulder again, his bright eyes begged.

"I'll think about it okay?" He grinned, that was good enough for him.

"My man," he turned to the front, the smirk still on his face. I shook my head knowing I was now bound to go. At least I had something new to stress about now that I had three more classes until chemistry. What would I wear though? I was stuck on that particular topic through the rest of the day until 7th period. I walked into the room, Sophie was already sitting in her seat doodling something in her notebook.

I slumped into my chair and pulled out last night's homework. I knew Cooper's voice before I even looked up, loud as if he didn't realize he was in the same room as everyone.

"Sophie," he whined, I glanced up as she turned around to look at him. She rested her elbows on his table and raised her eyebrows.

"What's up?"

"So there's a party tomorrow night, you're going right?" He asked, my stomach dropped. Shit, now what? Do I go still?

"I dunno Coop, we have conditioning all week," she trailed off. Oh no, did she just give him a nickname?

"Oh come on, I have it too and you know it'll be fun," I could see a small smile playing on her lips but she bit her lip and considered. She turned her head away from Cooper and her eyes flashed towards me. I quickly looked away hoping she didn't think I was eavesdropping.

"Why not," she giggled. My chest burned hearing her make that noise. It was adorable and not the overly flirtatious giggles, but one that sucks you in and makes you want nothing more than to make her laugh again.

"Really?" he asked excitedly, I looked back towards them when Cooper turned to his friend.

"Yeah, I could use a little fun," she shrugged, "you're coming with okay?"

"You don't even have to confirm that, I was going anyways," Harper grinned.