LOUD MOUTH → PETER PARKER ✓

Chapter Twenty-Five: Happy Birthday, You're Famous

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, YOU'RE FAMOUS

Callie sent a single text to Peter later that night: Magnetize the web-shooters. That way they'll absorb charge instead of shattering into pieces. Eighth grade science fair.

It was begrudgingly that she sent this text. She didn't want to help him, didn't want anything to do with him, actually. But if Max ever decided to show up again, she'd rather he'd be prepared than get French fried.

Her mother wasn't home when she got back, most likely because she was busy with the incident in Time Square. However, Callie's phone rang the minute she began walking home with a call from Lily. She took a moment to prepare mentally for the scolding of a lifetime before answering. "Hi, best friend. Did I tell you that I love you today?"

"What the fucking fuck!"

She cringed at the incredibly volume coming from the other end. Lily knew how to scream. "Okay. Profanity. Put money in the swear jar. I know you still have it. At least ten bucks for that one, too."

"Tell me why I just saw your face all over the news?" Lily said, her voice dangerously threatening.

"I...was helping out a friend? He was getting attacked by a man with lightning bolts coming out of his hands. What are friends for if not distracting human jumper cables so you can get citizens out of the way of mortal peril?"

She heard a long sigh from the other end of the phone. "You could have been killed."

"But I wasn't."

"But you could have!" Lily screeched. "Where are you? I'm going to pick you up right now. and I'm going to give you the biggest fucking hug you've ever received and then I'm going to ground your ass. You won't see daylight for years."

"First of all, you can't do that. Second of all, I'm walking home. My legs are my transportation, not my scary cousin. However I would like the hug right about now. I haven't hugged anyone in like, days." Callie said with a slight laugh, but it was true. And that shit hurt.

"What about Peter?" Lily asked, which prompted a whole new level of hurt to spring up in Callie's chest, so much so that it felt like someone was stepping on her heart. The next breathe in seemed harder to take.

"We broke up." she said simply. "Well, I broke up with him. The day of graduation. At dinner, actually. Well, it was outside the restaurant, he didn't come in. He did stare at me through the window for a bit, but that's—that's not important. We, yeah, we broke up." she said all of this so quickly that she forgot to breathe in between sentences. She took in a huge breath after the last, tears filling her eyes, threatening to spill over. "Look, I just wanna sleep and maybe never wake up—for legal reasons, that was a joke. I have to go. I have work tomorrow. I love you." she hung up before Lily could say another word. She even ignored the phone when she called back, which she literally never did. But the feeling that her heart was being stepped on didn't go away, so she cried while she walked home, only for her face to dry when she finally got in bed.

She woke up the next day feeling worse than she thought she would have. Wasn't sleep supposed to be this magical reset button for humans? Clearly that didn't apply to sad teenage girls. When her alarm woke her up at 7:30, she was just about ready to throw it out the window, but a realization dawned on her. She slid out of bed and checked her phone. "Huh," she muttered under her breath. "Happy eighteenth birthday to me."

She got ready for work, smiling when she went into the kitchen and saw that her mom had put up balloons and streamers. A big 18 balloon hung in the corner of the kitchen. She smiled to herself. She was gonna suck all the helium out of those babies later. There was a note on the kitchen table as well: We'll celebrate tonight. Happy eighteenth birthday, Calliope. Xoxo, Mom.