A Bad Idea (Spideychelle)

Ch. 19: You're My Moonlight

Peter POV

"How long is he in town?"

"Few more days. I think he leaves again on Monday," MJ shrugged.

"Are you okay?"

She gave me a soft smile. "I've had worse. Haven't had to visit my uncle, so I'm doing okay."

I frowned. I hated that that was her idea of being okay. "Do you need any-"

"Shhhh!"

MJ lowered her head. I resisted the urge to glare at the librarian. She was just doing her job.

I put a hand on MJ's back, and she winced, so I moved my hand to her arm.

"Do you need anything?" I whispered.

She shook her head. "It'll be okay."

When she shook her head, her hair fell away from her shoulder, exposing a...wound at the base of her neck.

"Em," I whispered, sliding my hand up her arm. "What happened?"

Her hand went to her neck, covering the wound. "Shit. Um, I got the belt. I'm okay, it's not a big deal."

"Why?"

"I haven't heard back from MIT or Yale or Harvard, and my dad got mad because he thought that meant I wasn't good enough to admit quickly."

I wanted to hug her and kiss her forehead and tell her it'd be okay. But I couldn't do that.

"Are you okay?"

I waited for her to say that she was, but she just said, "I don't think so."

Just as I was about to follow up, Ned and Betty came into the library with their books, sitting down at our table. MJ fixed her hair and plastered on a fake smile.

"Hey, guys," Betty said, putting a bag of gummy worms in the middle of the table. "I brought snacks."

"That's the only way to survive study hall," MJ teased, grabbing one.

It was kind of amazing how she could just...put the mask on.

"So what's it like when your dad's in town?" Betty asked. "Do you guys do anything special?"

MJ's hand bunched up the fabric of her dress under the table. "We, uh, might go for dinner or something tonight."

"What?" I asked, earning a weird look from Ned. "I, uh, you said you were cramming for calc."

She shrugged. "If we don't go for dinner."

I turned back to my homework. "Guess that makes sense."

"Hey, I got a Millennium Falcon LEGO set," Ned said, trying to diffuse the tension. "Do you have time to help build it?"

"Uh, I'm on internship duty until seven. You wanna come over for dinner with May and then we can build?"

"Yeah, works for me."

Betty and MJ were sharing a knowing look.

"What?"

"Nothing," Betty chuckled, kissing Ned's cheek. "I just think you're cute."

"Do you feel like you're being talked down to?" Ned asked. "I feel like they're being a little condescending."

"It's not condescension," MJ argued. "It's...amusement."

"Sounds like condescension." I nudged her arm gently.

She opened her mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it and looked back down at her workbook.