𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐒 | peter parker&michelle jones

chapter 23

"we are most alive when we're in love" -john updike

So long story short Michelle didn't find Peter. She had looked for him for probably close to an hour after she'd talked to Harry but Spider-Man seemed to be a no show. She wished she could have gone to the Stark Industries compound since that's where Ned said he would be but she had to be home. She needed to be with Drew and spare him the torture of being alone with their grandparents.

She had gone to the funeral, it had been a blur. It was a small service and Michelle didn't talk to anyone. She didn't want to bother Peter, when she had tried to make eye contact with him he just looked away. She tried not to overthink that.

And then it was school. Her previous motivation to tell Peter how she felt had almost disappeared, she rarely saw him anymore without their project, which she had turned in the previous week. They had gotten a 97 and she knew it was all because of Peter. Life almost went back to how it had been before their project, and she realized that the main reason she had been hanging out with him was because of that project. Now she couldn't imagine life without him.

She still went to her internship with Pepper Potts on Mondays through Thursdays but she never saw Peter there. She knew it was because his "internship" was just a coverup for the whole Spider-Man thing but she found herself wishing that he had a real internship there too.

Tony Stark took care of Peter's living arrangements, he had enough money so that Peter could stay in a new apartment alone, close to Midtown. She knew Peter probably didn't want to take Tony up on his offer but what else could he really do? Go into foster care? There was no way Tony would ever let that happen.

Mary Jane hadn't gotten any less annoying. She kept asking Michelle had Peter asked her out yet? And then she would laugh and say oh wait, of course he hasn't, I almost forgot, you're Michelle Jones. Michelle would just flip her off and ignore her.

And the worst part of it all was that Peter seemed to be avoiding her. At first she thought it was because of the grief, that he was just distancing himself from everyone, but she quickly realized that no, he was just avoiding her. She couldn't even begin to understand why that would happen. She had been so sure that he liked her back, but maybe she was wrong?

She hadn't seen Harry since that day on the bench, he wasn't at school and she tried not to worry about him. Now that she knew about his father... She hoped he was okay.

She walked through the halls aimlessly, it was lunchtime but she really wasn't in the mood to sit across from someone who just pretended like she wasn't there.

"Michelle!" she recognized Ned's voice from behind her and she turned around glancing back at him before slowing so he could catch up to her.

"Hey Ned," she said staring at him blankly, she wondered why he wasn't at lunch with Peter.

"Hey..." he glanced at her hesitantly, "how are you?"

"I'm fine," she said with a shrug, she tried to remember how she had acted before she had become friends with Peter and Ned.

He frowned, "you didn't tell Peter how you feel," it wasn't a question, she felt her heart begin to race.

"Yeah well it's hard to talk to someone who's ignoring you," she didn't mean to sound so angry but she was. She was angry at Peter for not talking to her, not asking her how she was, not being Peter.

"Look, I tried to ask him what was going on, but he wouldn't talk to me, he's not being like himself at all, and I get that he's going through a lot right now, but I miss him," Ned looked upset and she felt guilty for being so selfish, for only thinking about how Peter was affecting her.