Three's a Crowd

7) The Beginning of Something New

Ned sat there in the booth of the diner with his mouth slightly open, still processing the thought racing in his mind. He was still facing the window, away from the two people that were now the focus of his thoughts. The air felt light and a bit frigid as he took a moment to process his thoughts. Then, he turned around slowly in his seat to face Peter and Michelle.

Michelle was still standing at the foot of the table, her thumbs resting inside the side pockets of her jacket as she kept her elbows close to her sides. Peter stayed seated in the spot Ned saw him last. He now had his hands clasped together; one of his thumbs nervously massaging them as he watched his friend look upon them with bewildered eyes. His mouth closed and he gulped quickly, which made Peter terrified. This was going to be the hardest thing he was going to have to explain to Ned, and it was now being revealed to him. If Ned didn't support his choice to be with Michelle, then it was going to be trickier to manage their relationship when school resumed in a couple weeks.

Ned gathered himself mentally and asked "Wait... you guys are dating?", rather shocked, but in a tone that didn't hint at any kind of disapproval. It mostly was kind of a way someone would speak when recovering from a shock. The two accused looked to each other, sharing a moment of unsteady hope as they prepared to tell their friend that they were in fact dating.  They looked back to Ned and said their own version yes together: Michelle saying "Yup," and Peter saying "Yeah."

"YEESS!!" Ned burst out with his fist chopping down triumphantly. "Yes! Yes! Oh my God!" he continued to cry out in glee. Peter and Michelle once again looked to each other. This time completely shocked themselves, and a bit confused. They certainly never thought Ned would react this way, which piqued their interest. "I knew you guys would be good together."

"Ahem" Michelle coughed, breaking Ned's excitement to a small degree. "I'm sorry, but how exactly did you know that, Leeds?" Her tone was dry, but quizzical.

"I don't know?" Ned replied, "I just figured that you guys would seem like a decent couple."

"Yeah, but... " Peter spluttered, "Why did you think that?"

"Oh, you never noticed, but she was always staring at you during school, dude" he explained, and Peter's eyebrows furrowed in realization. Michelle did the same but did so in a way that tried to hide her embarrassment. She had thought that no one had known that she had been keeping an eye on Peter, or at least cared enough to question why she ever would.

"You were watching me?" Peter blurted out to Michelle, a flabbergasted expression on his face as he shifted his attention between his two friends. "How come I never knew that?"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself, Parker" Michelle quickly snapped. "I watch a lot of people, as you already know." She had made it a point to Peter that she did like him a bit longer than before they started seeing each other at the beginning of the summer. She just didn't tell him how far back it was. "I just didn't know some of those people would be watching back" she said assertively toward Ned, raising an eyebrow sharply to intimidate him. Ned just smiled cheekily, like a kid that just let his parents know what he was getting for Christmas. And to Ned's credit, she never did consider that others my be watching and just decided to stay silent about it. It would be quite often that someone like Flash or someone that has something to prove would call out her actions, appearance, or words as something to poke fun at, or just pester her with. But Ned had seen the things that everyone else had seen and hadn't said a word. Which in her mind, said that he didn't wish to be negative to her or harass her. He was just the easy going fellow that everyone seemed to like because of it. She appreciated Ned for that and knew that it was going to be good having Ned know that she and Peter were together.

"But still, you were watching me?" Peter said again. "And you knew about it and didn't tell me about it" he said to Ned this time. Ned chuckled nervously while he searched for a valid excuse for why he never bothered to tell him of his suspicions. "Well, I didn't know whether you'd be interested in her or not."