Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

five

Peter

You've gotta be kidding me!

It seemed like his heart was racing a million miles a second. When Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts started walking down the stairs and towards their tour group, Peter began to evaluate all of his options.

He could duck his head and hope Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts didn't spot him, or maybe he could pretend he had to use the bathroom and then just—not come back? Yeah, wait, that was a good idea! He quickly turned to Mr. Dorris. "Mr. Dorris, sir, would it be all right if I ran to the restroom?" He asked.

His teacher didn't seem all that concerned and simply waved his hand. Peter mentally thanked the universe before turning tail and practically sprinting towards the bathrooms. He thought he heard Ned say his name, but he wasn't really paying all that much attention.

Peter slammed the bathroom stall door and sat down, placing his head in his hands. He began to take several deep, calming breaths before he heard the bathroom door open. His head shot up and he picked his feet up off the floor in an attempt to hide himself from whoever had come in.

Whoever was there stopped outside his stall and then tapped on the door lightly. Peter held his breath. "Peter?" He exhaled in relief, it was only Ned. Of course it was Ned. "Dude, are you okay? You just ran off."

"Y—yeah, I'm fine," Peter replied, his voice shaky. Ned sighed, seeing right through his lie.

"Open the door, Pete."

Peter hesitated for a moment before he reached out and unlocked the door, allowing it to swing open. Ned stood on the other side with a small frown on his face. "Dude, you do realize you're sitting on a toilet, right?"

A small laugh came from Peter and Ned smirked, counting it as a victory. Then it fell silent again and Ned sighed. "Come on, dude, you've got to go back out there."

Peter shook his head. "No, I can't, Ned. I can't." He insisted. "That's the guy who wiped my aunt's memories and tricked me into thinking everything was fine!"

Ned looked away, thinking for a moment before turning back to his friend. "Man, I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but have you ever considered that maybe Mr. Stark wasn't—well, he wasn't in the wrong?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Peter asked, dumbfounded.

Ned winced. "I mean—okay, so that was a bad way to phrase that—he was wrong! Totally wrong, but like—I just think that maybe what he did wasn't done—maliciously?" He tried to explain. "He was trying to look out for you and for May and even though he totally got it wrong and he definitely shouldn't have lied to you about it—he was just doing what he thought was right?"

Peter sat there. Sure, he had thought about that before. After all, what Mr. Stark did—he was doing it with Peter's best interests in mind. But that didn't take away from the fact that what he did was wrong, and unethical. He erased May's mind! He was definitely allowed to be mad at him for now—especially if May was still mad.

"I've thought about that," Peter said carefully. "Haven't we had this conversation before?"

"Probably, but you never listen to me so—" Ned shrugged. Peter let out a shaky laugh and Ned clapped his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Come on, let's go back out there before Dorris starts to get suspicious, okay?"

Peter looked at him with wide eyes. Ned offered a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, you won't have to talk to him if you don't want to," He said. "I'll make sure of it, okay?"

"Okay." Peter nodded. He got to his feet and followed Ned out of the restroom. He tried to snap himself out of it—he was Spider-Man! He shouldn't be so anxious about this.

When they rejoined the tour group, Peter and Ned easily found Kai and MJ. Peter began to look for Alexandra, but he found that she wasn't with the group anymore. He furrowed his eyebrows and tapped Kai on the shoulder.

"Where did Alex go?" He whispered.

Just as Kai was about to respond, Flash beat her to it. "Hey, Parker! Since when is your girlfriend friends with Tony Stark?"

Peter stared at him for a moment. "What?"

"When Stark and Ms. Potts came down to say hi to our group, he saw Alex and asked if he could talk to her for a minute," MJ explained. "She's been gone about ten minutes."

Ned and Peter glanced at each other, both curious to know why Mr. Stark wanted to speak to Alexandra. Peter also wondered why she agreed to it. He glanced towards the staircase that must have led to Mr. Stark's—Ms. Potts' office

"Okay, guys, let's keep a-movin'!" Mark, their tour guide, called to the group. "Next we're going to go take a look at the major engineering lab! This way!" He began to lead the group towards a set of double doors.

The engineering lab that they were led into seemed pretty incredible to everyone in the group. Peter soaked it all in, and almost forgot about why he had been upset earlier. Being in the lab made him miss his weekly lab sessions with Mr. Stark—but Peter shook that thought from his head and remembered why he had stopped doing that in the first place.

Mind erasing. Lying. Not cool.

Ned was fanboying, there wasn't really any other way to put it. He was so excited to see what they were working on, he asked Mark a lot of questions and even tried to ask a few of the engineers about what projects they were working on. Even though they couldn't say, they all seemed to enjoy his enthusiasm.

"Well, if you can't tell me what's being worked on, do you think you can show me?" Ned asked.

Mark laughed a bit. "Ah, sorry I don't think Ms. Potts would appreciate if we spilled all of our secrets on this tour."

"Dang it." Ned sighed. "But maybe—"

Unfortunately, Ned was sharply cut off mid-sentence when what felt like an earthquake rocked the building. People panicked and ducked beneath the tables. Peter looked around and then realized something—it hadn't been an earthquake—

It was an explosion.

🕷

NED HEAVY CHAPTER BECAUSE JACOB BATALON DESERVES SO MUCH BETTER.

also haha I finally updated look at me 😎😎

I hope this chapter wasn't awful!

~Mads