Us Against The World - Peter Parker x Michelle Jones

PETER

7 years before SM:H

Uncle Ben went out to get his car fixed. Aunt May stayed with me and cooked lunch for us. While I was playing with an Iron Man action figure, I heard a car pull up. I looked outside the window to check if it was Uncle Ben and to my surprise, it was not. The sound came from the house next to us.

"Aunt May, I thought the Osborns moved out." I said whilst looking out the window. A girl with curly brown hair stepped out the car. She kinda looked like my age. That's when I realized, they weren't the Osborns at all.

"Peter, they moved a week ago. Why?"

"Are they our new neighbors?" I asked as she walked out of the kitchen and looked out the window too.

"Looks like it."

"Can we welcome them into the neighborhood?"

"Sure, Pete. Let me cook something for them!" She replied and grabbed various ingredients from the cupboards.

Meanwhile, I looked at our new neighbors, especially the girl with curly brown hair. She looks so pretty. Wait, what? I wonder what her name is, I wonder what she'll think of me.

***45 minutes later***

Uncle Ben still hasn't showed up. Me and Aunt May walked over to our new neighbors' house, her carrying homemade lasagna. I rang the doorbell and we were greeted by the girl's dad.

"Good afternoon. You must be our neighbors?" asked the man.

"Yes, we live next door. We wanted to welcome you guys to the neighborhood." said Aunt May.

"Who is it, Daddy?" I heard the girl's voice inside the house, though I didn't see her.

"It's our neighbors, pumpkin. Come here, come meet them!" The girl ran to her father then hid behind him.

"It's okay, honey." He said.

"Hi." I said. I could feel myself redden up to the tips of my ears. She waved at me then smiled.

"Come in, have a seat!" said the dad. As we entered the house, I suddenly remembered the times me and Harry Osborn used to play in here. Unfortunately he had to move to London since his parents wanted him to study there. Plus, his dad's company has a branch there and he had to work for a while there. Aunt May gave the man her homemade lasagna and he put it in the kitchen. The girl sat across from me and Aunt May. She wrapped her arms around her dad.

"It's okay, sweetie. Go introduce yourself." said her dad. After a bit of convincing, she finally stood up and looked at me then smiled again.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Michelle."

"I'm Peter." We shook hands.

"You guys could play outside." said her dad. We did as we were told and ran outside.

"Wanna come in my house?" I asked. She nodded. I opened the door and she held her mouth in her hands.

"Wow, you're house looks bigger than ours!" She pointed out.

"Not really, it's almost the exact same size, actually. Maybe it's all the boxes that made the space inside your house smaller."

"Yeah, maybe." I suddenly felt myself shake a little bit while she looked at me. Her smile makes me melt.

"Wanna look at my room?" I asked, though I didn't really mean to. She nodded then I led her upstairs.

She glanced at the family pictures I had with mom and dad. She smiled.

"I miss my mom.." she blurted out.

"I do too." I replied, walking over to her.

"But, wait, who was the woman with you earlier?" She asked, analyzing the picture once more, realizing Mom looked nothing like Aunt May.

"She, along with my dad, died in a plane crash. At least that's what my aunt and uncle told me."

"So, they're the ones who raised you?"

"Yep."

"I.. I'm so sorry, Peter."

"It's okay. What about you? What happened to your mom?"

"I have no idea. Whenever I ask my dad about her, he would always change the topic and wave the question off."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"No, no. Don't be." Then there was this brief moment where we just looked at each other longingly, wanting to hug the other but too afraid to make it awkward. I wanted to comfort her since her eyes started filling up with tears. She realized we stared at each other for far too long. She looked away then wiped her eyes.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah." She sniffed. "I just, really, truly miss her."

"Come here, I wanna show you something." I took her hand then dragged her to Aunt May and Uncle Ben's room. I looked through Aunt May's bedside table then grabbed the bracelet.

"I want you to keep this. My mom gave it to me before the incident. I kept losing it so I asked my aunt if she could keep it. She told me where she hid it so I could always look at it whenever I wanted." It was a type of bracelet where you buy in a gift shop. There's a black plate on there that's supposed to be blank. My mom used white paint and wrote my name there.

Peter ❤ , it said.

"Peter, I couldn't. This is the only remembrance you have of your mom and dad." She said. But I took her wrist and put the bracelet on it.

"You deserve it more than I do. I got to know my mom, unfortunately you didn't. I want you to look at this bracelet and every time you wear it, you'll think of her."

"Every time I'll wear this, I'll think of you. I'll think of our moms. Thanks, Pete." She hugged me. I stood there, my whole face turned into a tomato. Then I hugged her back.

"You're welcome, Michelle."

And this was it, I thought. The start of something new.