𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐒 | peter parker&michelle jones

chapter 17

"sometimes that's all it takes. just one person to turn everything on its head. remind you of the person you were." -samantha towle

"C'mon Mj we're going to miss it!" Peter said whilst running up several flights of stairs towards the top floor of the Stark Industries building. Peter, being Spider-Man, wasn't effected by running up stairs, Mj on the other hand had run out of breath by the time they were done with the first flight. Apparently the elevator was taking too long so Peter made them run up the freaking stairs.

"What exactly are we going to miss?" Mj heaved out, it had been a long day, six hours of school and three hours of her new internship with Pepper Potts was enough to make her exhausted. She wanted to go home and see Drew but Peter had another idea.

"I already told you, it's a surprise," Peter glanced back at her with a grin on his face, he had made it to the top of that stairwell.

She slowed down her pace and exaggerated her last few steps, she was still very much out of breath. Whatever this surprise was better be worth all that unnecessary exercise.

Peter seemed to notice her heavy breathing and frowned slightly as if just realizing oh yeah Mj doesn't have superpowers.

He turned away from the stairwell and beckoned for her to follow, which she did. They were on the roof of the Stark Industries building, Mj doubted they were allowed to be up here but Peter, an adamant rule follower, didn't seem to care.

"Look," Peter pointed behind her, and she did look. It was a sunset, a pretty one, filled with pinks and reds and oranges.

"Peter Parker, I swear to god if you brought me up here just to show me some damn sunset that we could have seen from the ground I'm going to murder you," she turned back towards him crossing her arms, he laughed nervously.

"N-no, it's not just that..." she hadn't heard him stutter in so long it caused her to blink in surprise, "I had this idea, for our project, that what if we come out here and study sunsets and the stars and space?" Mj hated how romantic that sounded to her. Seriously? A night watching the stars?

"You do know that sunsets are caused by pollution, right?" she said trying to dampen the sudden fluttering of her heart as she thought about laying under the stars with Peter Parker.

"Uh, now I do," he said, his shoulders sagging as he glanced back at the sunset behind her.

Mj noticed his shift in demeanor, "We can still do something with the stars though, if you want," she mentally slapped herself. What the hell was she doing?

"I'd love that," he said smiling at her and her heart fluttered so hard she wanted to throw up.

"Uh so does the great and mighty Tony Stark have any telescopes or anything we can look at the stars with?" she said glancing around the roof, there wasn't much up there, only a few chairs and a table.

"Probably, hang on I'll go check," before she could even say another word he was sprinting down the stairs. She walked over towards the side of the building leaning on the guard rail. The last time she had been star gazing was with her father.

He had been away on a work trip and had gotten back late at night. He woke her up and carried her up the flights of stairs to the top of their apartment building. There was a community telescope at the top that required a quarter for you to be able to use it. They must have spent a hundred dollars just looking at every star they could see. Because of all of the pollution, they weren't able to see very many but it was one of her favorite memories of her dad.

"Michelle, are you okay?" Peter's voice jarred her out of her thoughts, he was holding a small telescope in one hand and a blanket in the other.

She looked at him, wiping her eyes. She hadn't even realized that she had been crying. And great now she was crying in front of Peter Parker.

"I'm fine, sorry." Mj her voice sounded much more uneven than she hoped it would.

"Don't apologize," he said and began laying down the blanket on the ground placing the telescope carefully on top of it. She noticed that he didn't press her to tell him what had happened. Then she remembered just how much Peter parker could understand how she was feeling.

"I just miss my dad, he died in a car accident a few years ago and we went star gazing once and that's one of my favorite memories of him. He was what held our family together, you know? After he died my mom wasn't the same, she got mad reall easy and-" she stopped herself from mentioning how her mom used to take out her anger on Michelle. She glanced down at the floor, not daring to meet Peter's eyes. God, had she really just said all of that out loud?

She expected Peter to say something, but he didn't. And she was scared that maybe she had scared him off and that maybe he never wanted to see her again. But she was surprised when she felt his arms wrap around her.

And then she was crying, silent tears that she wouldn't dare let Peter see. Because how could he want to stay with someone so broken? She's noticed that bad things happen to the people that get close to her.

So she pulled away.

"No Michelle, just let me hold you," he said. "You need to let your guard down sometimes and just let yourself cry. You lost your dad and now your mom, it's going to take some time to heal."

And so she let him. And she felt some of her cracks begin to heal.

my heart, my poor petermj heart. i love them so much and this chapter was FULL of them. you're welcome;) but YEAH i didn't forget about their project don't worry, and michelle is FINALLY OPENING UP!!!! what did you guys think? let me know in the comments!! i am so thankful for all the love im getting on this book!! don't forget to comment and vote;) love you all ♡