A Bad Idea (Spideychelle)

Ch. 22: How Soon Do We Forget How We Felt

Peter POV

The next couple weeks were awful. MJ
wouldn't look at me at school. In decathlon meetings, she'd acknowledge me, but she wouldn't meet my eyes.

Even worse, she slowly got paler and paler, her cheekbones looking more pronounced and eyes becoming more sunken. Bruises peeked out below long sleeves, or started to show through concealer at the end of a long day. She got jumpier, made herself smaller, tried to make herself invisible.

Eventually, I couldn't take it. Between class and a decathlon meeting, I went down to the office, finding Mrs. Packard's door, and knocking.

She came to the door and opened it.

"Mr. Parker, how can I help you today?"

"Can...can I come in and talk for a bit?"

She nodded, stepping aside to let me into her office. "Absolutely."

I took a seat, and she sat down on the other side of her desk.

"I just...I know things are confidential and you might not be able to tell me but...is MJ okay?"

"Miss Jones hasn't come to see me for the past couple weeks," she answered. "Should I be concerned?"

I hesitated. "I don't know. She isn't speaking to me, but she...doesn't look well."

Mrs. Packard nodded. "May I ask why you two aren't speaking? You seemed to be really close."

I shut my eyes for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. "I, um, I guess I can see why she's so mad at me. It's- I kept a secret from her, and it had nothing to do with her and I thought it'd be fine if I waited until...I don't know, the right time? And she completely opened up to me, and I was trying so hard to help her, and then she found out and she thought I was trying to take advantage of her and she got mad at me and..." My voice started to shake, so I stopped. I couldn't go to the meeting looking like I'd been crying.

"This...secret. Did you feel comfortable telling her, or were you scared of how she'd react?"

"I wanted to tell her," I said, "but I kind of couldn't. Or I wasn't supposed to. And then she found out anyways and...it hurt her."

"And now she doesn't wanna speak to you. Do you think she'll forgive you on her own?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I wanna talk to her and apologize and work things out, but I've already hurt her so much that it almost feels like it'd just be better to-"

"Peter Parker to the library," MJ's voice said over the intercom. "Peter Parker to the library, thank you."

Mrs. Packard gave me a sympathetic look. "It's okay. We can talk tomorrow. Email me if you want a specific time."

I forced a small smile. "Thank you."

I got up and left her office, only to see MJ by the office phone, checking her phone.

"I'm right here," I said, and she looked up.

"Good. I couldn't start the meeting without you." Her voice was stone cold, and she barely looked at me before turning and leaving.

I jogged out of the office, trying to catch up with her. "MJ, can we- can we please talk? I owe you an apology-"

"I don't care."

That felt like a throat punch. "One day you love me and the next you don't care?"

Her whole body tensed, and she turned around, glaring at me. "Don't. Putting my drawings up on your wall doesn't fix anything. Talking to Mrs. Packard about me doesn't fix anything. Staring at me while I'm trying to finish an assignment doesn't fucking fix anything. I don't care what you have to say. I'm done. We're...whatever we were, that's over."