Veins and Wires // Peter Parker

Moments and Missed Calls

"Gone but not forgotten."

"Thanks to Kenneth Lim and Vihaan Ramamurthy for their help with that touching video tribute."

"This year has been nothing short of-"

"****. It is crazy. It's insane."

"Jason!"

"What?"

"No swearing."

"It's the last day of school. We're good."

"Historic. Over five years ago, half of all life in the universe, including our own Midtown High, was wiped from existence. Then eight months ago, a band of brave heroes brought us back. They called it "the Blip." Those of us who Blipped away came back the same age. But our classmates that didn't Blip had grown five years older."

"Yeah like my little brother is now older than me."

"Yeah, it's math. Even though we had Blipped away halfway through the school year and had already taken midterms, the school made us start the whole year over from the beginning."

"It's totally unfair. It's not right."

"Tigers, it's been a long, dramatic, somewhat confusing road. As we draw this year to a close, it's time to move on to a new phase of our lives."

"Pray nothing crazy happens again because are the Avengers even a thing anymore? Does anyone even have a plan?"

I rolled my eyes at the newscast as I continued on my art project while surrounded by Iron Man fan art on the walls of the classroom. I put my specialized earbuds in again that block out everyone's annoying voices except for the ones I permit to hear. Thank you 12 year old me for creating them.

I was too busy zoning out to my music to notice what Ned and Peter were creepily whispering about. I popped one earbud out to hear a few sentences.

"Oh, and don't forget about step seven," Ned reminded making Peter furrow his eyebrows in confusion. Step seven?

"Step seven?" Peter asked in puzzlement, voicing my thoughts.

"Don't do any of that," Ned protested flatly making Peter give him an offended look.

"Why?"

"We're gonna be bachelors in Europe!" That caught my attention. Wait, what?

"But I'm not a bachelor though," Peter said slowly at Ned who I assumed forgot I existed for a brief moment. I was wrong.

"Not yet-"

"Ned!" Peter hissed as I picked up my phone casually and opened the Guy In The Chair contact.

Hailey 🦾🤖
I heard that.

I saw Ned pick up his vibrating phone in my peripheral vision and his eyes widen, shooting his head up and towards me in fear.

"What-?" Peter asked, following Ned's eyes and turning his head to me as I glared at Ned and flipped him off, rolling my eyes before going back to my art project irritably.

...

"You know Ned was joking-" Peter started gently but I stopped him.

"Oh bullshit, he's lucky I hadn't cracked his skull after school," I shot back quietly as we waited patiently backstage for May to cue us in and onto the stage. We were at a charity event for the homeless and displaced from the 'blip' (a still horrible and vaguely hilarious name for a traumatic experience for everyone) that was organized by May. I was, of course, slightly late and I had just got here only a moment before since I got stuck at a conference.