Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

eighteen

Peter

Being at school felt wrong. Going on with his life like Alexandra wasn't fighting for her own felt wrong, too. But here Peter was, sitting in Spanish class with Ned on his right and an empty desk on his left.

He had told Ned everything. Even the part about Colin now knowing his secret identity. Ned had freaked out, asking him all sorts of questions. How did they never know Alexandra's dad worked for Tony Stark? When had he started working for him? Who had he worked for before? ("Whoa, SHIELD? For real?!" "I mean that's what he told me.")

The bell rang for lunch.

"Do you think he was like James Bond?" Ned asked as they walked down the hall towards the cafeteria. "'Cuz that would be seriously badass."

Peter shrugged. "I don't know. That would be kinda cool though—"

"Peter!" He turned his head and saw little Miles Morales come running down the school hall and skid to a stop in front of him and Ned. "Hey, sorry! Have you seen Alexandra around? She's been out, and I texted her a few times but she hasn't been responding to me."

"Huh?" Peter asked before coming to his senses. "Oh! Yeah, she's fine. Just out sick." And that wasn't technically a lie. "She'll be back soon." Also not a lie. "Don't worry about her, she's fine."

That one may have been stretching the truth a little bit. Which honestly scared him. He was scared that he even had to lie about Alexandra. She was going to be okay, Mr. Stark said so. And he had the best doctor he knew with her trying to find the cure as they spoke. And her dad was trying to figure out who Immanuel Clements' mysterious partner was.

He apparently was the key to figuring out what Alexandra had been exposed to.

"Well... okay, if you say so." Miles seemed unconvinced but said nothing more on the subject. "Can I eat lunch with you guys?" 

"Sure." Ned nodded. "Come on, before the line gets too long."

When they finally got their food, they found a relatively empty table and sat down. Kai and MJ joined them a little while later. Things went on as usual. They laughed and ate and had normal conversations with each other. But Peter kept glancing to his right where Alexandra would normally be sitting and instead was met with an empty chair.

After that Peter didn't feel very hungry anymore.

"Do you guys wanna come over to my house this Saturday?" Kai asked. "For a movie night, I mean. Ned keeps telling me I have to watch all of the Star Wars movies before we go see the new one in December so I figured I would watch them with you guys."

"Um... yeah!" Ned exclaimed as the bell to go to their next class rang. He jumped to his feet and began excitedly talking with Kai and Miles about what order they would watch the Star Wars movies in while Peter and MJ dragged behind slightly.

Suddenly someone grabbed Peter's shoulder and spun him around. He came face to face with Flash and he groaned. Not today of all days... 

"Hey, Parker." Huh. No Penis joke today. "How's Alex doing? I heard she's out sick."

Peter stared at Flash for a moment. "Uh, yeah—she's feeling under the weather. But she's going to be fine."

"Was it really bad enough to take a trip to visit Tony Stark?" He asked with a small smirk.

"Look, you wanted to know if she's okay, and she's fine. Leave it alone." Peter snapped.

Flash held up His hands in surrender. "Okay, damn calm down. I'm just trying to be nice." He huffed. "I guess I've gotta do the project by myself then."