Hanging by a Thread 🕷 Peter Parker

ten

Peter

Two weeks had passed since Doc Ock's attack on the Community Bank, and he had yet to appear again. Honestly, Peter was getting a little antsy just waiting for him to show up. A few times throughout the two weeks, he considered calling Mr. Stark and asking for help, but then he remembered: he had to be able to handle problems on his own.

His leg bounced up and down anxiously as he stared down at his lunch, but didn't touch any of his food. He was lost in his own head, wondering where in the world a man with robotic arms could have disappeared to in New York City? It didn't seem like it would be easy for him to simply vanish. In fact, it seemed not only unlikely, but impossible.

Peter hardly noticed when Ned started saying his name, or when Alexandra joined him in trying to snap Peter out of his thoughts. "Peter!" He was suddenly back in the real world, looking at Ned.

"Hm?"

Kai and MJ were looking at Peter with raised eyebrows while Ned and Alexandra's eyes were filled with concern. "We've been saying your name for like, five minutes, dude," MJ said. "You good?"

"I... yeah, sorry." Peter nodded. "I'm just..." He took a deep breath. "Thinking about this project I have to get done soon." It wasn't exactly a lie; the project he was referring to just wasn't the conventional one. 

Kai looked at him a moment more before speaking. "Well... I was trying to ask you if you heard about that party that's going to be at Savannah Smith's house this Saturday?" She asked.

"Uh... no." Peter shook his head. Savannah was one of the more popular kids at Midtown High, and was Flash Thompson's current girlfriend. Peter honestly didn't think she liked him all that much, but whenever they interacted (which wasn't often), she was nice to him.

"Well," Kai continued, clapping her hands together excitedly. "She asked me to perform at her party, even though Flash wanted to DJ, and she also said I could invite people. So... you're all people, I'm assuming you're all people, anyway. What do you guys say?" She looked around the table.

MJ shrugged, her eyes never leaving her book. "I guess that sounds cool," she said. "I don't have anything going on Saturday."

"Me either. I'll definitely be there. I wanna see you perform." Alexandra smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Sounds cool!" Ned exclaimed excitedly. "What songs are you going to play? Your own?"

Kai shrugged. "I'm not sure yet, probably a mix of some of my songs and some popular stuff," She replied. "Peter, you wanna come?" She turned to him.

Peter paused a moment and then shrugged hesitantly. "I dunno... my project..."

Alexandra sighed. "Oh, come on, Peter!" She whined. "You've got forever until that project is due, don't you?"

"Yeah, but—"

"No buts!" Kai suddenly declared. "You're coming to the party, Peter. You can't spend your entire life with your nose in a book!" MJ cleared her throat, looking up at Kai pointedly. "Okay, except for you, but you don't listen to anything I say so—" She shrugged and then turned back to Peter. "You're coming to the party Saturday. 'Kay?"

Peter opened his mouth to protest, but Alexandra answered for him before he could say anything. "Yep! He'll be there!"

"Yeah, it'll be fun. Right, Pete?" Ned added.