Fractured Mind

Chapter 10

Peter was taking an afternoon nap when he was abruptly woken up by more yelling. He looked up and saw that the sun outside was starting to set, indicating that he had been sleeping for several hours.

He shuffled slowly down the stairs, stretching and letting out a yawn when his front door opened and slammed shut. Mary Jane stared at him, looking quite shaken. She pressed her head against the door and closed her eyes. Peter cleared his throat.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi. Uh, what's up?" he asked as he looked down at himself and realized he was still in his pajama pants.

"I'm sorry I barged in like this. Aunt May called me earlier and said I could stop by if I needed to. My aunt isn't very happy with me right now," she said sheepishly.

"Because of what I did," he said, walking down the stairs.

"I told her she couldn't stop me from seeing you," she said with a smile on her face, although tears started streaming down her face. "Oh my God, I'm sorry Peter. I really didn't want you to see me like this," she quickly tried wiping away the tears. Mascara ran down her face.

"MJ, what's wrong?" he asked, walking up to her.

"I went over to Harry's this morning and we broke up. I told him what happened last night, that I kissed you. He didn't even care! And then he embarrassed me in front of his assistant," she said as she wiped away more of the tears, smearing her make-up in the process. Peter brought the sleeve of his hoodie up to her face and began to wipe away some of the smudges.

"You told Harry?" Peter couldn't control his voice. Harry couldn't know he had feelings for her. This was not good.

"I had to, Peter. I kissed you while he and I were still dating. It was so wrong of me. But I'm not sorry that I did it."

"I'm not either, MJ, but you shouldn't have told him," he shook his head. What was he going to do now? She was surely going to be on his hit list now.

"Can we go up to your room, Peter? I really need to talk to you," she muttered, and Peter saw her blush. Why was she blushing?

"Uh, yeah, yeah sure," he led the way and opened his door for her. She went straight for his bed and sat down.

"When I first talked to Harry after moving here, we got to talking about our past. We were laughing and joking but he seemed really focused on you, and told me about—" she stopped herself because she remembered last time he had yelled at her when she mentioned Gwen, "—well some things in the past. I told him how, when we were younger, how I had the biggest crush on you, Peter," she said and she blushed again. "That's when he told me he had a crush on me when we were younger, and I was surprised about that. I laughed it off and everything because, well, I still have feelings for you. But he told me how broken up you were about— that there was no way you were ready for a relationship. I told him I wanted to be your friend and he said that that was great, that you really needed a friend right now, and that's when he asked me to dinner."

Peter was seeing her in a new light. Mary Jane used to have a crush on him and apparently she still really liked him! How could he have never noticed this? When they were all younger, Harry told him how he liked MJ and Peter never made a move towards her because of this. He only saw her as a really good friend. Then both of them moved, and Gwen happened...

He wasn't sure what he was going to do. So much was going through his head. Harry had specifically said anybody that mattered to Peter was going to be in danger. Peter now knew that he had feelings for Mary Jane and while he wasn't sure what those feelings meant, he knew he liked her more than a friend. Maybe he wasn't Spider-Man anymore, but he was going to protect the ones he loved. Instead of that just being Aunt May, he was going to let himself add Mary Jane to his small circle. He wouldn't let Harry near her again.