Web Tangled

Chapter 9 - Winning a Bet

(Insert song: Estelle - American Boy)

I was still smitten hours after the kiss. Not only it was my first kiss, but it was also different than what I thought a first kiss would be. I imagined a first kiss would happen during or after a date when we'd sit together. I would also dress up the best way I could, plus using mouth fresheners and lip gloss. And we'd do it in the same upright position. But mine wasn't. It happened after I fought some bad guys, my clothes probably stank, and my face was really greasy and gross. The weirdest part was, we kissed upside down. Like his upper lip touched my lower lip and vice versa. I was scared, surprised, embarrassed, happy, and conflicted. Scared Spider-Man was probably disappointed after the kiss, that I sucked at it and turned him off. Surprised I got to actually kiss Spider-Man, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man idolized by teenagers. Embarrassed because I wasn't in my best shape. I mean I'm ugly in my best shape, so I was much uglier then. Happy I got to kiss someone I admired for a long time, someone who has saved me several times. I was conflicted as well. Because I have a feeling for Peter. I want to get closer to him. I want to try taking my chances with him. But he hasn't shown any sign of liking me back. Maybe he merely wants to be my friend and I'm reading too much into it. I realized neither was Spider-Man. Both of us haven't ask each other yet.

"This means I wasn't wrong. I technically still can pursue Peter, right?" I made excuses in my head.

I slapped my face with both of my hands and pushed down the overthinking. I texted Peter to remind him about the movie night. He texted me back right away and told me he had already put it on his backpack. I was amazed he was still up since it was two in the middle of the night when I texted him. I didn't bother asking him about it since I knew he was working on something with Tony. I told him to get to sleep. He told me the same thing too. We kept texting each other back and forth over the same thing until I gradually fell asleep. I woke up late the next day, at about nine am. When I went to the dining area only a small number of people were left. As I searched for a place to sit, I saw Wanda eating on by herself.

"Good morning, Wanda," I came from behind her.

"Oh, Aoi," she said quite stunned, "Did you just wake up?"

"Yeah...," I rubbed my temple, "I slept late last night. Like around four."

"Actually I did too," she said, "What made you sleep so late?"

"I was texting with Peter about telling each other to sleep first," I replied, "We couldn't stop. What about you?"

"Vision's machine is wheezing all night," she complained, "It's like the robot version of snoring."

We laughed at how ridiculous both of our reasons were.

"Well?" Wanda popped out a question, "Have you spoken to your teacher?"

"I did actually," I answered with pride, "It does feel relieving."

"Wow. You did everything I asked you and what we've practiced yesterday," she clapped, "I'm proud."

"The fighting part was unplanned though," I tried rejecting the praise, "But your advice about my wishes really helped me yesterday. It would be a mess if I didn't know about it."

"This means one thing," she stood up lifting her plate, "More practice."

"Yay...," I sarcastically celebrated.

"Oh, come on," she frowned, "Until lunch."

"Yes, ma'am!" I followed her and stood from my seat.

After washing my face, I changed into my training clothes and went to the usual training area. We practiced over what we did on Thursday. It was much faster and more intense compared to last time. I repelled most of the punching bags thrown but one or two still hit or missed me by a hair width. We were very focused we almost missed lunchtime. Wanda was very satisfied with what she saw and promised to buy me a meal anytime. We cooled ourselves first before going to the dining area, on a bench outside.