Tom Holland Blurbs

let me (p.p.) [part two]

Now that we had managed to evade all of the teachers and security guards, I realized Peter's previous statement was true. I never ditched, and now that we were walking down the sidewalk trying to avoid looking like we were supposed to be in school, I had no idea what we should be doing. I had wanted to cheer Peter up and as I glanced over at him, I could tell he was feeling the awkwardness too. I drew my bottom lip in between my teeth as I contemplated our next move.

I glanced at Peter again, his head moving like he had been looking at me when I looked at him but he didn't want to be caught staring. My gaze drifted back in front of us, eyes searching for somewhere familiar that would allow us to lay low. It would be majorly embarrassing to be caught ditching school the first time I had ever taken a risk and done it. I spotted a small bookstore that also had a coffee shop and record store that I frequented called Music, Books and Caffeine.

My hand was reaching for Peter's before I even realized, interlacing our fingers as I proceeded to drag him towards one of my favorite haunts in New York. I was so focused on getting off the street where no adults could spot us, that I didn't even register how nice Peter's hand felt in my own. His hand was warm and had delicate callouses that made me think he used his hands a lot and it contrasted so nicely with my own smaller one.

Okay maybe I did have enough time to appreciate Peter Parker's hand in mine.

I flushed at the direction my thoughts had taken me, grateful that Peter was still trailing behind me and couldn't see the red staining my face and neck. I felt my face heat up even more when Peter latched on more tightly to my hand, stepping up right next to me just inside the door of the cafe. I was immediately distracted by the inside of the store, which had been decorated for fall since the last time I'd been in and it looked wonderful.

The record section was on the left side of the counter where they served coffee and desserts. They had a very interesting selection of music, with a lot of lesser known and local artists. More recently they had begun stocking up on CDs, trying to to keep up with the times. While I loved to look through the music side of the store and I couldn't resist ordering a peppermint mocha from the counter, the books were my guilty pleasure.

I hadn't been in to the store in awhile and I was so excited to get to perusing the shelves of used books that I completely forgot that my fingers were still intertwined with Peter Parker's. He had been looking up at the menu of drinks when I started walking away and I was not expecting to stumble back into his chest when I moved but he didn't. The breath was stolen from my lungs as Peter dropped my hand and wrapped an arm around my waist to anchor me against him so I wouldn't fall, my back pressed to his front.

"Oh my God I'm so sorry!" I blurted out, spinning around to face him momentarily losing my train of thought as my eyes met his.

I didn't know brown eyes could sparkle like that.

"If you'll let me," Peter was saying, giving me a hopeful look as I realized I had missed what he just said and had only tuned back in to hear the words that had kind of become a little bit of a teasing game between us.

"Sorry, let you what?" I asked, blinking up at him. We both realized the closeness of our proximity in the same instant, stepping out of each other's embrace but not far enough away from the other to be considered just friends. I glanced down at my feet in hopes that I could get control of my blush, only to have it increase tenfold when I noticed how close Peter's hand was to mine. I could reach out and hook my pinky around his if I wanted to.

"Let me buy you a drink? If you want one? If not, that's fine forget I even asked I just thought you might since you seem to know this place so well and it smells so good and I have allowance money from May so I can buy you a drink if you'll let me..." he sort of trailed off, tilting his head to look at me. I couldn't help but giggle up at him when I saw that the tips of his ears were tinged red.