golden | peter parker

thirty two

Peter was silent as they drove back to their apartment. His mind was swarming with every little thing about Penny. The way she laughed, smiled, how her eyes lit up when talking about photography, how kind she was, her sense of humor, how she was just as big a nerd as he was.

He didn't know how he had never noticed that Penny was beautiful inside and out. She had made sure that he was okay after the Washington Monument incident. Of course he was Spiderman, but she didn't know that. She only knew that he was experiencing another near death situation.

Peter smiled to himself, Penny still cared enough about him to check up on him, even if they were technically in the middle of a fight. She was there-

"Peter!" May called, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"What?" He said, turning his body to face his aunt.

"I said, what's on your mind? You have a goofy looking smile," May said, knowing exactly what the smile was for, but not letting Peter know.

"Uh, you know, just that I'm safe," Peter spluttered, not wanting to admit anything.

"Uh huh. Sure, I believe you," She replied, glancing at him through her peripheral vision.

Peter could feel her gaze on him, which caused him to squirm in his seat. He didn't like that May could see through him.

"Fine! I give up. My smile, well it's about... Penny," Peter whispered out, slightly embarrassed.

May tried to cover her smile, she thought it was cute. She always knew that Peter had liked Penny, but he just hadn't admitted it to himself yet.

"Penny is a very pretty girl you know," She commented, watching for his reaction.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah she is," Peter's cheeks were growing red.

"Listen to me, Pete. I know things have been rough between you two, but you promise me that you hold onto that girl tight. The bond that I saw between you matched that of yours and Ned's. You don't find many people that click together as well as you and her," May lectured, wanting him to understand how important this was.

"She asked me to be the one to escort her down the aisle for the wedding," Peter said casually, this time watching his aunt's reaction.

May looked at him in disbelief. "She what?"

"Yeah, she asked me to escort her."

"Pete that's amazing! I'm so happy for you. That'll be so much fun," May gushed, as she pulled into the apartment's parking garage. Peter smiled to himself, happy that things were finally looking up for him and Penny.

Peter went to bed that night thinking of two things, Penny and how he would capture the guy with the wings.

Penny went to bed that night thinking of two things, Peter and how she needed to prepare for the wedding.

The next day, Penny and Michelle were distracted with last minute checks of how they would do their hair and makeup, dress fittings to make sure that they were hemmed properly, and rehearsing their speeches to near perfection.

Finals started in three days and instead of using their in class time to study, they had been stressing over the wedding. Even during lunch, Peter and Ned couldn't break them from their preparation grind.

See, Ned and Peter had easy jobs. They were just escorting the girls down the aisles, and then they sat down because they weren't in the groomsmen party. Michelle and Penny were actively in the bridesmaid party and needed everything to be perfect.

"So I was thinking that maybe I get Sara a bracelet? I don't know, it's kind of last minute but, I think that maybe she would-" Penny was brainstorming with Michelle when an argument between Ned and Peter interrupted them.

"-Dude! You wanna be a high school dropout?" Ned asked incredulously.

Peter gave him a goofy grin, "I am so beyond high school right now."

"You're dropping out?" Michelle quirked an eyebrow, as Peter's eyes widened in alarm.

"That's definitely what he's implying," Ned replied, leaning so he had his back next to Michelle.

"Well, actually I wasn't-" Peter tried to explain himself before he yet again got cut off.

"Parker, my office," Principal Morita said sternly, standing at the head of their table. Peter reluctantly got up, Penny sending him a worried but skeptical look.

Michelle went back to prepping for the wedding, but Penny's mind was elsewhere. She couldn't get the thought of Peter potentially dropping out of school from her head. What was he doing that was so fantastic that it would warrant not even finishing out high school?

However, she was quickly roped back into her tedious work as the maid of honor. They were working tirelessly in all of their classes, only to meet up after school to actually practice how their hair and makeup would be, and reading out their speeches.

Penny shoveled another handful of M&M's into her mouth, as she watched Michelle catwalk around her room.

"I just don't know, Pen. These shoes are gonna kill me," Michelle stumbled, further proving her point.

"MJ, you look fantastic. Just suck it up for five hours and then you'll never have to wear heels again," Penny stated, offering the bowl of candy to her friend.

"Except for the fact that 3 days after, is homecoming. So no my dear Penelope, it unfortunately will be ever again," Michelle took the shoes off, rubbing her feet dramatically.

Penny rolled her eyes and threw an M&M at her. "Bro, I'm so sick of rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing. Can we take a break?"

"Yeah, sure. Turn on your TV and we can watch a movie or something."

Penny flopped over to the other side of her bed to grab the remote. When she turned the TV on, the channel that popped up first was the news. And it was displaying something about the Long Island Ferry.

"Holy shit, it was lasered in half!" Michelle gasped, covering her mouth in shock.

"Iron Man had to come and save the day, though. Not even Spiderman was able to stop it, apparently," Penny replied, feeling slightly sad for her masked friend.

They listened to the news for a little while longer, before Michelle made a snarky comment that caused them both to laugh. They switched the channel to HBO and were delighted when they saw that Up was on.

While the two girls were crying their eyes out to the opening scene of the movie, Peter was also crying his eyes out but for an entirely different reason.

He had gotten home to May in his Hello Kitty pants and I survived My Trip To NYC shirt, and was devastated that Mr. Stark had taken away his suit. How could he go back to fighting crime if he didn't even have his suit? How could he defeat the guy with the wings?

These questions plagued Peter's mind as he took May's advice and showered the garbage off of him. He felt ashamed and disappointed in himself, but even more so in the fact that he let Mr. Stark down.