Breaking the Void

Chapter 4 - Game Night

(Your POV):
"Hey, (Y/N)!" Ned greeted me as he opened the door to his apartment wider so that I could enter. "Come on in, I've got the snacks and the games all set up for when MJ and Peter arrive."

I flashed him a smile as I walked into the apartment, noticing the bowls of food and cans of soda ready to be consumed. My parents would never let me eat so much junk food so I always looked forward to our movie and game nights, it at least whenever I could make them without my parents getting suspicious. My eyes lit up when I noticed the bowl of (favorite snack) and I immediately ran over to grab a handful.

"Ned, did I ever tell you that you are the best?" I asked, my mouth full.

He laughed at me, grabbing a handful of his own, "only the best snacks are allowed at my house. Let me guess, your parents are health freaks?"

"I go to the gym almost every day, Ned, of course my parents are health freaks," I replied, settling down on his sofa with the bowl resting on my lap.

There came a knock from the apartment door and Ned answered it to find that MJ had arrived. She didn't say much, but sat down next to me and nodded to the bowl in my hands. I groaned, passing it to her, "next time, I call dibs on my own private bowl of (f/s)."

"Not our fault you have great taste and your boyfriend isn't here to defend your claim," MJ replied, starting to the devour the food inside.

"Hey, I do not need Peter to defend me," I argued, grabbing the bowl back from her and causing some of it to spill. I frowned at MJ as I hugged the bowl to my chest, "look what you've done, a waste of some perfectly good food."

She shrugged, picking it up off of the ground, "five-second rule."

"Looks like it's just going to be the three of us," Ned interrupted, sighing as he locked his phone.

I frowned, glancing up at him, "what do you mean? Where's Peter?"

"Um, called in for his internship, apparently," Ned replied, but from his nerves I could tell that he was lying. Spider-Man business then and Ned clearly knew Peter's secret identity.

MJ, however, turned to me with a suspicious look on her face, "his internship, really? Doesn't that excuse get a little old? Does he really expect us to believe that his internship has all of these weird hours that he randomly gets called in last minute to?"

"I-I don't think there's anything weird about it, I mean, it must be that Mr. Stark- uh- he must be taking advantage of Peter being on summer vacation," Ned tried to defend Peter, but he was clearly grasping at strings.

"Why are you defending him? You know what he's up to, don't you?" MJ turned on him, before looking back at me. "Do you know as well?"

I shook my head, "I will admit that some of his behavior has been suspicious. He has often been late or even missed some of our dates, not to mention how nervous he gets when making up excuses for why his tardiness. But if there is something that he is keeping a secret, I'm not going to pry it from him. I just hope that someday he'll trust me enough to tell me what's going on, but until then I will respect his decision to keep whatever it is secret."

"You're not at all curious?" Ned asked in shock, making me smile at how obvious he was being. God, why did Peter ever trusted him with the knowledge of him being Spider-Man?

I shrugged, "well, you clearly know what he's up to and I trust that if he is putting himself in danger or something then you would stop him."

Ned shifted uncomfortably on his feet, "yeah, if it were something dangerous I'd tell you. If I knew what he was doing, that is. Not that he's doing anything. That I know of. He could be doing something, I guess, but-"

"Ned, relax, I'm not going to grill you and neither will MJ. Right, MJ?"

She rolled her eyes, "whatever. But someday I want to know what's going on with him. (Y/N), you better tell me once you know."

"Of course," I promised with a smile, figuring that Peter was probably never planning on telling me since I was never going to ask. "Now are we going to start these games before I have to leave or not?"

As Ned set up the first video game, I quickly checked my phone to see what Peter was up to. There were a few fan accounts that I relied on to give me updates about Peter. It appeared that he was taking down some sort of heist and, while it looked dangerous, I was relieved to see that there were no enhanced on sight. Nothing that Peter couldn't handle.

I quickly locked my phone before MJ or Ned suspected anything and caught the controller that Ned tossed to me. The rest of the evening I spent enjoying myself with Ned and MJ, but it wasn't quite the same without Peter. It wasn't like I needed him with me in order to be happy, but his absence was felt in the group. Not to mention I was a little worried about him.

The robbery should have been a quick job for him, I was half expecting him to show up late to game night with an apology and a weak excuse as to why he was late. But when he didn't show up at all throughout the night, I feared that something had happened to him. As soon as I stepped out of the apartment, I scrolled through various accounts to figure out what exactly had gone down.

My heart broke when I read reports of Spider-Man limping from the scene before webbing himself away. That explained why he didn't show up to game night, if he was injured than that would raise mine and MJ's suspicions. I just hoped that he wasn't hurt too badly. I momentarily wondered if I should stop by his apartment to check up on him, but I knew that it would be suspicious if I showed up after a fight when I wasn't supposed to know that he was Spider-Man. However, I would feel at least a little better knowing that he was at least alive.

We missed you at game night, I texted him, holding my breath for his response.

After an eternity, Peter finally replied, sorry about that, I got caught up with the internship. But I hope you guys had fun?

Yeah, we missed you though.

-

(A/N): I moved back into school today and I'm not ready to start the new semester but at least my roommate wasn't back yet so my sister and listened to the glorious Star Wars musical while I got settled back in! Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed some time with your other friends because I feel like I leave them out a lot!