STING [peter parker & betty cooper]

Chapter Eleven: Successes and Stalkers

Peter's POV | Flashback~

The moon had set in Riverdale.

May had advised me to get a long night of sleep, we would have a lot to do in the few next days but I wandered around my new room feeling restless and disconsolate. I couldn't keep my eyes closed for long and I could hear Veronica's television on all night, quiet yet just blustery enough to make sleeping almost impossible for my sensitive ears.

I put on my suit under my clothes and I decided to go for a walk, a long walk, as there didn't seem to be much going on in this neighborhood. Things had gone quiet and I was starting to feel a little bored, to put it lightly. A walk would clear my head and hopefully bring about the next thing to do, I thought to myself as I set off.

As I was walking my mind began to wander and I began to consider the reality that was about to be thrust upon me - my senior year... my final year of high school in a small town in the middle of what seemed to be an eternal forest. Riverdale. I had a lot of plans for the first semester back in New York, plans that were demolished by the move.

Ned and I had already bought tickets to a programming event in January and I promised I would take a bus and spend that whole weekend with him but that didn't comfort him as I would have liked. I took my phone out of my jacket, eyeing the time. 1:32 AM. We had been friends for over six years, if anyone would pick up the phone at this time it would be him. It was late, but I was feeling over-energized from doing basically nothing so I decided to call him anyway.

I held the phone to my ear as it rang. After ringing five times I heard someone picking up but no one spoke.

"Ned?" I still heard nothing. "Ned, are you there?"

I heard a deep sigh on the other side of the line. "I was sleeping." Ned announced with a yawn. "What do you need?"

"I'm so sorry! I'm hanging up right now!" I shut my eyes, instantly feeling bad about my selfish action. What was I thinking?! Of course he would be sleeping at this hour.

"No, it's okay, we don't have school tomorrow. What's up?" Ned finally asked, his voice raspy.

"Nothing, just wanted to talk to you." I shrugged my shoulders.

"How's the move going?"

"Umm it's going fine but some of my stuff isn't here yet. There was a problem with one of the moving vans..." I sighed, I didn't want to get into this right now, it would only deepen my anger. "Hey, can you locate me with the tracker real quick?" I asked.

"Uh, sure, one sec." He whispered and a few seconds later I heard harsh movements and the soft bing of his laptop connecting to the device. "You're walking, one mile away from a river, Sweetwater river, what are you doing there?" He asked.

"Nothing much as you can probably guess." We both sighed.

"What am I supposed to do in school Monday? And the other 8 months and 16 days we have left? I can monitor you from here but it's not the same." He complained.

"Yeah, I don't think there's anything to monitor anyway." I felt my jaw clenching involuntarily.

"Have you been talking to Tony?" Ned yawned.

"No, he's still out of the country." I said as I quickly found myself inside the forest. "He thinks this year off will do me good, says I should take this opportunity to enjoy myself before I go full Spider-Man in college, whatever that means." I huffed.

"And you agree with him."

"No, I don't, Ned, I don't wanna be here!" I complained.

"Why didn't you tell May you're Spider-Man then?! You could be here right now! If you told her I'm sure she would eventually understand and you could move back!" Ned had good intentions but he didn't get it.