𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐞- 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫

6.

    I was practically going insane flipping through the newspapers labeled with Spiderman. It was the hottest news lately. This masked vigilante was literally everywhere now.

Peter laid across from me finishing up one of his homework assignments. He kept eyeing me throughout the process of highlighting everything in this news article. It was bugging me that this vigilante was leaving so many clues behind.

"Maybe this vigilante doesn't want to be found." Peter suggested.

"Well, duh." I throw the papers aside. "There's just so many things that don't add up. I mean, why now?"

Peter shrugged. "There's probably a certain person he's going after."

I thought about that so many times in my head. Every thief that has been caught by this Spiderman looked very familiar to someone or something I saw recently. I couldn't put my finger on it.

I paced back and forth in the grassy area. Finally I gave up and plopped back down on the blanket and pulled out the fruit bowl. I decided it was a perfect day for a small picnic before the weather got too cold.

I switched the topic, plucking a piece of watermelon out of the bowl. "Have you decided where you want to go to college?"

Peter dropped his price of paper. "I'm still trying to decide how to drop this fucking class without having to redo this school year."

It was strange seeing Peter struggle with a class. It wasn't because he wasn't good at the class, more like he didn't like the class therefore deciding to space out more than pay attention.

"Maybe it would help if you took out your notes." I chuckled, motioning for him to let me get his backpack which he's been using as a pillow.

A piece of paper fell out of his notebook. I picked it up to put it back but something caught my eye. A small circle with a line through it was drawn on the paper along with a long equation even I struggled with.

"I've seen this before." I pointed to it. "At Oscorp."

"Oh, yeah. I don't know. I guess I was bored." He took the paper and shoved it back into his bag.

I frowned. Instead of asking, I laid down and began helping him with his work. With many complaints and annoyed sighs later, we finally finished. He put his work into his bag and once again used his bag as a pillow.

"Oh, here." I handed him his camera that I forgot to put back while searching for his notes.

He took it, playing around with its settings. He took a picture of a tree then the sky. It reminded me of our first conversation about the beauty around us. I still loved his response to that stupid question that I challenged him to.

I smirked, laying around beside him. "Is that how you looked when you took my picture the first day of school junior year?"

Peter practically choked on his own saliva when he heard that question. His face was full of shock, then it morphed into wonder. Fake wonder, may I add. "Whaaat?"

"Don't lie. I wasn't going to mention it, but I did catch you." I admitted, flipping onto my back.

"I was hoping you didn't and I was just going crazy." He confessed to taking my picture. "I love the beauty around me, what can I say?"

"I was wearing sweats and a sweatshirt. It was gloomy and rainy, my hair was a greasy disaster. Probably looked like a birds nest." I giggled.

"Best person I've seen in this school that could pull off the sweats and greasy hair." He smiled. "What book were you so interested in that you ignored your friends for it?"

"The Great Gatsby." I answered. "It was actually a book for my English class. Ap English. I was supposed to read it over the summer so I was rushing to finish it. It's a great book, except I wish I could've enjoyed it more instead of being forced to do it over the summer."

"Classic book. I recommend you read it over again so you can actually enjoy it this time."

"You've read it?"

"I've heard a lot of great things about it." He pursed.

"Oh, so you haven't read it?" I playfully hit his shoulder. "Liar."

"Never said I read it though. I simply suggested you read it again." He held his hands up in defense.

"Uh-huh."

We laid in silence for some time enjoying each other's presence. Eventually he stood up and reached his hand out for me to take. "I have to show you somewhere."

It wasn't late, so I took his hand. We cleaned up after ourselves and carried everything with us. It wasn't a far walk, 3 blocks down from where we sat. It was a small library that I somehow haven't seen before.

I read the sign outside that hung above the door. The Story Keeper. I mentally noted the name as we entered the store.

"Hello there." An elderly women greeted us from behind the desk.

Peter and I exchanged our hellos with her. He reached back for me, seemingly wanting to take my hand but decided against it. I mentally slapped myself for not taking the chance to take it.

"Here." He reached an isle that read fantasy-fiction. "Not to be weird, but I do recall you reading tons of books throughout class. Even remember the teacher yelling at you once or twice."

I rolled my eyes, smiling at his strange memory. "I did enjoy reading, I guess."

"My aunt read this." He pulled out a book from the shelf. "Reminded me of you. Strong female lead who's ambitious, cunning, open-minded, remarkable, I could go on."

I snatched the book from his hand and sat down on the floor with it. With all those powerful words he used I needed to read it. I pulled Peter down beside me and put the book between us. I leaned my head against his shoulder causing him to tense up.

Eventually he got used to my head being on his shoulder and managed to calm himself down. He pointed to one of the sentences and told me what it reminded him of. I laughed at one of the characters quotes just because I thought it was funny.

Once or twice I caught him looking at me instead of the page we were on. After all, even after almost 2 years, he was never good at hiding it.