Hanging by a Thread 🕷 Peter Parker

eighteen

Peter

Ned had been—to say the least—surprised when he learned that Peter had nearly kissed Alexandra the previous night. When Peter had finally gotten to tell Ned, his friend had insisted on knowing every single detail leading up to the almost kiss and why the kiss hadn't happened. ("Wait, it was my fault that you didn't kiss her?! Dang it!") 

Peter sighed, putting away his textbooks and slamming his locker shut. The end of the school day was finally here and he was very ready to get home and get on with his patrol, hopefully he would run into Doc Ock and finally get the chance to stop him. Worrying about his friends' safety with Dr. Otto Octavius on the loose hadn't exactly been good for his stress levels.

School and homework had been the last thing on his mind, and he had put all of his time into trying to keep Alexandra and Ned out of harms way. But, now that this near-kiss had occurred, that was the only other thing on his mind. So it was that and his friends' safety. Sometimes school. Rarely school. Mr. Stark and May would not be impressed. 

"Look, Ned, it almost happened—that's all there is to it," Peter said, tired of explaining. "I need to focus on other stuff right now. Like finding Doc Ock and talking to Mr. Stark about May."

Ned raised an eyebrow and then leaned really close to Peter's face, narrowing his eyes. Peter leaned back a little bit and looked around awkwardly. "You're telling me that you don't want to think about how you almost kissed Alex? Not even a little bit?" He asked. Peter shrugged in response. "I don't believe you even for a second."

"I don't know what to tell you, man," Peter said. "I just—"

"Ohhhh." Ned looked at him, his eyebrows raised in full. "I get it now."

"Get—it? Get what? There's nothing to get." 

Ned shook his head, nudging Peter's shoulder with his own and then he began to lead the way out of the school. Peter found himself looking around for Alexandra, as he had been doing every day after school for the past week and a half. Ever since their meet up with Mr. Stark, Peter hadn't been taking any chances.

Of course, Ned took this the completely wrong way.

"Dude, you can't tell me you're not thinking about it," He said as they waited by the front door of the school. "You're looking everywhere for her. I actually definitely called this way back in eighth grade, by the way."

Peter rolled his eyes, shaking his head. "Ned, I'm not—" He sighed. "I'm looking for her because I don't want her to walk home alone with Doc Ock still out there."

"Uh huh, uh huh, sure." 

"Plus we've been walking home with each other after school every day for the past eight and a half years," Peter continued. "I can't just quit the tradition now, can I?"

"No, definitely not." Ned agreed. "Especially since you're head over heels for her."

"I'm not!"

But not even Peter could deny that, when he finally did see Alexandra walking towards the front door with Kai at her side, he was staring. Ned saw this, and grinned a bit. Peter ignored him, his gaze fixed on his best friend.

He hadn't ever noticed before, but her hair was really bouncy—and her smile lit up the entire hallway. He heard her laugh at something Kai said, and Peter swore it was the prettiest sound he'd ever heard—how had he never noticed that before?

"Dude." Ned nudged Peter in the ribs. "You're staring."

Peter snapped out of his daze, blinking. He looked down at his feet and cleared his throat. "No I'm not," He muttered. Ned didn't argue with him, because they both knew Peter had, in fact, been staring.