Soooo Not Normal

E M M A

We walk out of the building in silence, and I felt surprisingly okay with the Peter and Tessa thing. I could tell by the way they were walking (and the fact that they weren't talking) that they felt uncomfortable with me there. Good. I watched them awkwardly avoid each other while walking to the subway. Peter took a different train then we did, so it was just me and Tessa. I look over at her, trying to gauge her reaction to today's events. She doesn't look tired at all. I mean, she usually sleeps at weird hours, but it's almost 11. Even Tessa is usually tired by now. Instead, she looks like she's walking on water. She's smiling and playing with her necklace. She only does that when she is... well, I don't know, it's been so long since I'd seen her this happy. Without thinking about it I wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

"You're amazing, you know," I mutter. "You don't need Jack to mean something, you're already the best friend I could ever have." I didn't know why I was saying this, but I just wanted to. She deserved it.

She smiles and hugs me back. "Thanks." Suddenly, she pulls away. "Umm, can you take the tracker off my phone now please?"

"No. Tonight proved you can't be trusted on your own!" Even though I'm supposed to be mad, I'm smiling. "You could have been killed!"

"By who, Peter?" She shot back. I laugh. Little does she know...

"Okay, fine. You probably wouldn't have died, but anything could have happened!"

"Like what, fun?" Ooooh, burn. Tessa sighs. "If it makes you happy, I'll take self-defense classes or something. Or, hey! We can do it together! It'll be fun."

"You'd trust me to learn how to hurt people?"

"True... but I don't want to do it alone!" She complains.

"You're actually thinking of doing it?"

"Well, yeah, what if someone tries to mug me or something?" She says, shrugging. I remembered last night. I could have gotten seriously hurt if stupid Peter Parker hadn't shown up. Stupid Peter Parker.

I look over and see that Tessa is blushing and smiling at her phone. I quickly lean over and grab the phone out of her hands. She has a text thread with Peter Parker open. Speak of the devil.

Hey, thanks for coming. I decide to have a little fun with him.

Yeah, you're welcome. It was really fun. But before I can type anything else, Tessa grabs her phone out of my hands.

"Emma! Those are my text messages!"

"Is that what those were?" I ask, teasing her. She rolls her eyes and looks down at her phone again. "Hey, no phones during Emma time!"

"Emma time?" She laughs but shuts her phone off. "Yes, Mom." She salutes and stumbles when the train comes to a sudden stop. She looks around, making sure that no one saw, before straightening up and leaning up against the wall again.

"Hey, so, since our Jack in the Box time was so rudely interrupted, do you want to go again?"

I can see her face go white. She thinks I can't read her, but I still can. I mean, she isn't exactly the most secretive person in the world. Right?

"I mean, if you just want to hang out around your house, that's fine," I say. She smiles.

"How about we go up to the roof of my place? Then you don't have to see my parents." I sigh with relief. She knows how much I don't like her parents. I mean, the feeling's mutual, but it's made things pretty awkward. Her parents don't seem to like the people she hangs out with. Except for Jack. They liked him. I smirk. Ha. Loser.

We ride the subway all the way to Tessa's place, where we get off and take the fire escape to the top of the building. Tessa looks out over the city and smiles.

"I wonder if Spider-Man is patrolling tonight." She says, with a dreamy look on her face. I laugh quietly. Probably not.

"I don't know. Maybe." Tessa suddenly turns to me.

"Hey, did you like Morgan?" I can feel myself start to smile.

"Yeah, she's great."

"Better than me?" I can't tell if Tessa is teasing or not.

"Hey, you know me and little kids. I think they're all amazing."

"Probably because you're just like them. Immature and whiny."

"Hey!"

"Just kidding. You're an amazing person, and kids see that I guess."

"Hey, we should text Peter and see how he knows Morgan." Let's see how he gets out of this one!

"You can. I think I'm going to run downstairs and get some blankets. It's cold."

"Lame," I say, smiling. I pull out my phone and text Peter, but when I look up, I see a flash of red and blue soar through the air. I smile. Oh, well. Before I can stop myself I call out. "Hey, Spider-Boy!" He turns to look at me and rams into a wall. I can hear him mutter an ow. I try to suppress a laugh but can't.

"Ar-are you- are you okay?" I gasp out as I laugh. He's hanging by one small strand of the web onto the building.

"No," he croaks, trying to pull himself up, "You almost gave me a concussion!"

"Me!? You're the one who wasn't watching where they were going!"

"Because you distracted me!"

"Whatever."

"So why did you call me?"

"Oh yeah," I had almost forgotten, "Me and Tessa were wondering how you knew Morgan."

"Tessa and I." He corrects absentmindedly. Hey, Tessa says that, too. Then realization hits. Oh no. Nope, no way. Never.

"Sooo, how do you know Morgan?" He looks up.

"Umm, she's Mr. Stark's daughter."

"Oh, okay." Thanks for being so detailed.

I can hear footsteps coming up the stairs. Peter looks up, waves, and webs away. Right on time too. Tessa walks through the door with her arms full of blankets.

"Um, a little help." She stumbles over and drops the blankets on me. For blankets, they were surprisingly heavy, and I am instantly smothered.

"Oof! What the-" Tessa sits on top of the blankets, effectively trapping me.

"This is what you get for not coming to help me!"

"Okay, okay! Sorry!"

"Not good enough. I'm staying here."

"What if I go get the snacks for you?"

"I don't know..."

"Oh, come on!"

"Fine! Go get snacks. I'm staying here."

"Okay, what do you want?"

"Nothing, I'm good."

"You haven't eaten anything all day!"

"Yes, I have!"

"Oh, yeah like what!?"

"Ummm..." Tessa is at a loss for words.

"Fine, I'll get lots of stuff," I say turning to leave.

"NO!" She yells. I turn around and raise an eyebrow. "Um, I mean, no, you don't have to."

"Okay, if you really don't want me to, I won't," I say, turning back around.

"No, Emma, you can-" she tries to say, but I interrupt her.

"It's fine, Tessa. I promise." I open the door and leave.