US AGAINST THE WORLD | PETER PARKER

five: bonding

mary-jane's perspective: september 8th, 2023
getting ready for school.

"Tevan! Get in here!" I shouted.
Tevan sprinted into my room half dressed, and with an eggo in his hand.

"What?!"

"Look at my ankle!!!" I moved the blanket that was covering my ankle.

"Jesus Christ! What happened?!" He shouted, in concern.

"Well, Peter dropped me off here yesterday. And he physically dropped me from like 2 feet in the air. I landed on my ankle wrong, but I thought it was nothing..."

"I'll get you some ice!" Tevan ran to the kitchen.

my ankle is twice the size it should be, and it hurts so much, too.
Tevan ran back in with a bag of ice.

"Here, ice it. Do you want me to call you in sick today for school? I can take you to the doctor." Tevan said.

"Te...do we even have the money to take me?" I asked.

"I'll get some from dad." Tevan said.

"He's not gonna-"
Before I could finish my sentence, Tevan ran out of the room to ask our dad for money.

in the other room:
"Hey, Dad. Janie messed up her ankle pretty bad, and uh...I was wondering if I could have some money for her to get it checked out?"

"What did that bitch do this time?" Dad shouted.

"Uh..it was my fault! I slept in her bed last night because I was...drunk? And uh, I forgot which room was mine?" 

Dad paused. "Sounds like some incest shit, boy-"

"No! It's not like that! I physically kicked her off the bed, and her ankle got messed up-"

"Okay, just shut the fuck up!" I heard dad rummaging through drawers. "Here's a stack of twenties."

"T-thanks." Tevan said, he then came back into my room. "Let's go."

"Tevan I can't walk." 

"Here, I'll carry you to the car." Tevan picked me up, took me to his car, and drove me to the doctor.

~
in the urgent care room:

"Hey, can I talk to you about something?" I asked.

"Of course." Tevan replied.

"Well, I got asked out the other day.."

"By WHOMST?!" 

"This guy named Lorsten. He's cute and all, but he's kind of..."
I paused. Should I reeaaallllyy tell Tevan this?

"A jerk?" Tevan asked.

I nodded, and laughed. "Yeah. And he's gives me major fuckboy vibes."

"Well, then don't go out with him." Tevan said.

"I don't know." I said. "Like, I want to go out with him, but Peter-"

"You like another guy named Peter?" 

"Uh, that's not what I was going to say-"

"Buuuttttt it's true?" 

"No! Nope. Not true." I said, nervously.
Tevan gave me a look. "K, maybe it's true."

Tevan laughed. "Then tell this Lorsten guy that you don't want to go out with him.

"But.." I hesitated. "I mean I kind of do want to go out with him? I don't know. I can feel it, there's a sweet guy deep down."