Spying on Spider-Man

Chapter 12

"Will you please just pass me the chips?" I asked Peter for the millionth time.

"Nope. You've had enough," he said.

"I haven't had that many."

"You've eaten half the bag!"

"Bullshit!"

"Yes, you have. You know it's all gonna go to your hips, right?"

"Nah, everything goes to either my thighs or my ass."

We both laughed. I looked at the clock next to my side of the bed. It was almost ten at night. We were watching Les Misérables, and it was almost over. "I love Hugh Jackman. We're watching The Greatest Showman tomorrow night in D.C.," I said.

"Whatever you want. How do you wanna sneak in?"

"I don't need to sneak. Mr. Harrington told me I could stay with you and Ned in your room. I pulled the emotionally unstable card and he said he didn't care if I stayed with you guys."

"Wow. Good work Allie."

"Thank you. I'll be here all week."

Peter laughed. I heard Don't Stop Me Now by Queen start playing behind me. I turned and saw that my phone was ringing. According to caller ID, it was someone in the Middle East. "Hello?" I answered.

"Hey kid," the voice on the other end said. It was Tony. "I won't be home in time to see you off tomorrow so I just wanted to tell you good luck at championships."

"Thanks Tony."

"Of course. Have fun kid. Oh, and by the way, you need to get registered when you get back."

"Registered? Registered for what?"

"For the Accords. You're a superhero now, you need to be registered."

The Sokovia Accords. A new set of laws that state that all people with special abilities have to be registered so the government can control them. It was something I very strongly disagreed with. "No. I'm not registering for those stupid laws."

"I wasn't asking, I was telling. Plus, they're not stupid."

"Yeah, they are. They strip away all my rights and remove the protection of my identity. Plus, it means that I don't get to dictate when and where I get to help, which is exactly the reason I chose to get these powers."

"They protect people around the world."

"So do I."

I hung up the phone and threw it onto my bed. "What was that about?" Peter asked.

"Tony is gonna try and make me register for the Sokovia Accords."

"I'm sorry. I know how much you disagree with those. I do too. But I'm registered. I didn't have a choice."

"I know you didn't. But you should have. And I should too. Anyway, it's late. We need to go to bed."

"Yeah, you're right. Goodnight Alliebear."

"Goodnight Spidey."

I put my glasses on my nightstand, got into bed, turned the light off, and immediately crashed until the next morning.

DO DO DO DO DO DO DO. DO DO DO DO DO DO DO. PRESSURE!

Under Pressure by Queen, the alarm of the day, went off at a special time of 5:30. I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and into the kitchen, with Peter not far behind me. We had to be at the school at 7 to leave for DC, so we had to get up an hour earlier than I usually would, and trust me, I was not happy about it.

I poured Peter and I each a bowl of cereal and sat down at the island to eat. We ate and got ready faster than I expected and still had half an hour before we had to leave. "So, we have half an hour. What do you want to do?" I asked Peter as I set an alarm for 6:30 to tell us we need to leave.

"I want to talk, if that's ok."

"Yeah, of course. What do you want to talk about?"

"I want to talk about the reason you had wanted to leave the party early. You weren't telling me the whole truth and I want to know why."

"Spidey, please don't make me tell you. I don't want to ruin anything."

"Allie, you could never ruin anything. Please, just tell me. I want to know. And honestly, you not telling me is scaring me."

"Fine. You wanna know why? You want to know the reason I wanted to leave the party? The reason is that I love you Peter, and not like a brother. I love you, and I didn't want to see you chasing after Liz because even though I've always shown you support, it hurts to see."

Peter was silent for a second. Then he put his hand behind my head and pulled me into a kiss. It surprised me at first, but after I got over the shock I put my arms around his neck and pulled him closer. When his lips left mine, he finally spoke the words I had waited years for him to say: "I love you too."

I smiled and pulled him in for another kiss. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him, causing me to smile even wider. He moved his lips from mine and started to trail kisses from my jawline down the side of my neck to my collarbone. I let out a soft sigh and bit my lip. I felt Peter smile into my skin.

And just like that, my alarm went off and the moment was ruined. Peter breathed a frustrated sigh as I separated from him and fished my phone out of my pocket. I stopped the alarm and looked at Peter. "We have to get going to get to school on time," I said.

"Yeah," he said disappointedly.

We both went out to my car and got in. I checked to make sure all our bags were in there (we had put them in there last night and I wanted to make sure we didn't forget anything), and when I was sure we had everything I pulled out of the driveway and toward school.

We were halfway to school before either of us said something. "I have a question," Peter said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Why didn't you tell me how you felt?"

"Well, you looked happy trying to get with Liz, and I didn't want to ruin that. Plus, I didn't want to ruin our relationship if you rejected me."

"Honestly, the reason I went after Liz was because I thought you only thought of me as a brother. She was my second choice. You were always my first."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

I smiled. "I'm glad."

"How long have you known you love me?"

"Since fifth grade."

"Wow. You've held your feelings in that long?"

"Yeah. You are worth waiting for."

He smiled. "Did your mom know?"

My smile dropped. "Yes. She kept telling me to go after you. I know she's smiling down on us right now. She definitely approves."

Peter put his hand on my thigh. "I'm glad."

I pulled into school and parked close to the front since there was almost no one there. We grabbed our bags out of the backseat, and I closed the roof and locked it. We walked up to the front of the school, and everyone was waiting by the bus. "Great, everyone's here. On the bus, come on. We have to get going," Mr. Harrington said, ushering everyone onto the bus.

I smiled as Peter and I found Ned and sat with him near the back of the bus. Peter put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him as Liz and Mr. Harrington stood up and started to lead us in some practice.