poisoned 🕷️ peter parker [1]

14

"What do you mean you were in the accident?" May exclaimed through the phone. Even though Jessica didn't want her to worry, she knew May would find out sooner or later since it was even being reported on the news. Besides, she was the one who had called, so if she had declined it, it would make her even more concerned. "Are you okay? Was Peter there too?"

"No, luckily he wasn't there. He..." Jessica looked at the boy who they were talking about. He was patiently waiting for the call to end against one of the walls from Jess's room. "He didn't feel like going up."

"Well, thank God no one got hurt." The teenager thought that lie would have ended their conversation. "I saw that Spider-Man on the news. I owe him big time, otherwise I don't know what would have happened to you."

"Yeah, we were lucky he was there to save us." Her look fell upon the boy in question once more.

"Call again if anything happens, okay?"

"Okay. We'll see you back at home." After saying that, Jessica hung up the phone. She had so many mixed feelings at the moment. 

On the one hand she was angry at Peter because he had left without saying anything. He hadn't attended the decathlon and that was going to get him in trouble. On the other hand she just wanted to thank him for saving her life. 

But the most overwhelming feeling was fear. She had almost died in that elevator earlier on the day, she and her classmates. She could have done something, she had powers to do so, but she was so afraid of what she could do that she ended up doing nothing. She froze and if it hadn't been for Spider-Man everyone in that elevator would be dead, including her. She was so devastated that she couldn't keep the tears from slipping down her face. 

"Are you okay?" Peter softly asked as he approached her.

"Am I- You're asking me if I'm okay?" She looked up at him incredulously. He just nodded. 

"Yeah."

"We almost died in there! Heck, of course I'm not okay!" 

"It's over now." 

"I don't care! It still happened!" 

"I know." Peter knew that the people staying in the rooms next to their's would be able to listen to the whole conversation.

"And where were you? You disappeared." Jessica's voice wasn't as high as before now, but she did sound angrier. Peter was too slow to find un excuse.

"I- uhm..."

She started to put the pieces together. "Don't tell me you went after him..." 

"I had to!"

"No, you didn't! You had to be with us, come to the decathlon and follow the rules."

Peter stepped closer to her to defend himself.

"If I hadn't gone after him now I wouldn't know that those glow-y thingies are alien bombs."

"If you hadn't gone after him we wouldn't have ended in this situation!" She found it harder to talk as a knot was forming in her throat. "And I wouldn't have felt so useless... I can't do this anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"I did nothing up there!" She broke. "I couldn't think, I couldn't move... I was about to let everybody die."

Jessica took a step backwards and decided to sit down on the edge of her bed. She looked down, knowing that if she made eye contact with him, the tears wouldn't stop.

On his part, Peter was left speechless. He tried to comfort her.

"I-it was the first time, I'm sure you'll know what to do the next time."

"There won't be a next time, Peter." She almost whispered, defeated. "I can't be an Avenger, I'll make Tony know what happened today." She stood up, dried her tears and faced the boy. "And I'll definitely decline his offer."

Now Peter backed up confused.

"What offer?"

"Well, when he found me he wanted me to stay at the compound upstate." She explained. "To be an Avenger."

Peter looked shocked. "What?! And you didn't accept it?!"

"No, and I won't! Ever!" Her voice rose again, she didn't like discussing this and he was making it even worst. "I didn't even want to be here! I didn't ask for any of this to happen!"

"It's what we do, Jess. You'll get used to it."

"I don't want to get used to it!" Tears formed in her eyes once more. She felt like a little girl having a tantrum. "I want everything to be like it was before!"

"But it's what we gotta do now, you have to accept it."

There was an uncomfortable pause before Jessica spoke with a hurt voice.

"Accept what? That I'm a monster?"

"You're not a monster, Jess."

"Yes, I am." She cried. "You save people, you help them, but I... I don't do anything. And when I do I just hurt people, I poison them, I kill them." She looked away from him. "I'd rather have nothing than have this powers."

"Listen to me, Jess, listen." He stepped closer to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You held my hand and you didn't poison me."

Jessica shook her head. "You were wearing your suit."

"Jess, my suit detects everything and when you touched me it didn't say anything." He tried to make her understand. "You weren't poisoning me. You can control it." He grabbed her wrists and slowly pulled her hands up. Then he let go and pulled up his sleeves before extending his own hands. "Here. Try it again."

The girl pulled her hands away and looked at him in horror. "What? No!"

"It'll be alright, just hold my hand."

"Peter, I don't-"

But he kept insisting. "You can do it, Jess. I wanna show you that you can do it so you'll see that you are not a monster. I want you to see that you can stay without hurting anybody."

Still a bit reluctant, she looked down at her hands and took off her gloves. Her hands were shaking. She took a deep breath and slowly proceeded to press her hand against his bare forearm.

Once she saw that Peter was fine, a mixture of relief and excitement took over her.

"Oh my God." She held both of his hands as she exclaimed.

"You see?" He asked with a smile.

"I can't believe it." Jessica was amazed, she kept on grabbing Peter by his hands and arms until they made it to his shoulders. They stood in silence in that position, she linked her fingers behind his neck, and he was grabbing her by the elbows. "Thank you." She suddenly said. "For saving us."

A few weeks ago, Jessica would have thought that being in this position with him, or with anyone, would be really awkward. Strangely enough, she didn't feel that way. 

They would have stood even longer if the door hadn't suddenly opened, revealing Ned's figure.

"Hey guys, we actually need to-" As soon as he entered, the couple stepped away from each other. Still, Ned got a glimpse of what was happening. "Did I interrupted something?"

"Nope." They said at the same time, quite embarrassed. "Nothing was happening."