"In your arms,
that's home to me,"
in which myra jean
meets peter parker
and their worlds
become intertwined.
[the amazing spider-man - ?]
cover by the
incredibly talented @soulofstaars
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SPIDER-SENSES
THE JOURNEY HOME WAS NOT FUN. Myra Jean felt sick, her stomach twisting wildly and her head felt as if it might explode. Her pulse raced under her skin, her eyes wide and straining. That spider had done something to her, maybe it was venomous? Should she go to the hospital?
She opens the front door of her home and trips on the rug, before she can even register it, her hand has gripped the banister to stop the fall. Myra Jean gulps, trying to tug her hand off the wooden banister, but its...glued on. Myra Jean pulls hard, a chunk of wood ripping up into her palm. She curses under her breath as she tries to use her other hand to remove the wood, only to result in that hand getting stuck too. Getting scared, she shakes her hands from side to side and the wood goes flying through the air and smashes the glass of the front door. Myra Jean's face falls. Her father would have been angry if he was ever around to see her mess. She walks into the kitchen to find something to patch up the door with, hoping her hands won't get mysteriously stuck to more things.
Myra Jean puts cardboard up over the hole in the door where the glass once was, taping it down. Then she cleans up the shards and throws them in the trash. This day surely couldn't get worse? Right?
The clock hits 10pm and Myra Jean can't hold back a loud yawn. She'd have to sleep soon, but she was busy writing up some basic lines of interest to do with Gwen Stacy, star of the month. Myra Jean turns down the music playing through her laptop, her eyes getting heavier. She still felt sick, as if her brain might implode. Thats when she hears it, a tapping noise that makes her turn her head to the window. She almost jumps out of her skin.
"What the fu-"
The boy sitting on her roof just outside the window is still tapping as she approaches. She undoes the latch, praying her hands don't get weirdly stuck to things again, and lifts the window up. Peter Parker slides through the window and stands tall in her bedroom. His eyes glide along the remnants of a life Myra Jean no longer had- one with her parents involved.
"I wanted...No...I needed to ask something," He says. He was sweating, his hair was damp and his skin glistened in the light curated by the moon and the fairy lights. Myra Jean's heart was racing.
She had a boy in her room. She was breaking rule number 1, set by her parents many moons ago. Peter Parker glances around the room again, looking at the photos, articles and sketches that Myra Jean had pinned to her board.
"Are you okay? You look like you're burning up," Myra Jean frowns, putting the back of her hand against his forehead. He was red hot, and soaking with sweat. Myra Jean gulps. "You were at my father's lab...Did you touch anything? At all?"
"You were in that room," Peter whispers, but his voice was louder than the music playing from her laptop to Myra Jean.
"What room, Peter?" She asks, her voice low too, as if there might be someone else listening in.
"That room...With the spiders..." He says, meeting her eye, "I saw you leave it,"
Myra Jean's lips part to deny it, but if he had seen her...Her mouth closes. She turns to her laptop where a headshot of Gwen Stacy was pasted for her article. She turns off the music and sits down.
"Sit down," She instructs. She watches him sit down on her bed. It felt strange. She never had her friends over at her house, not even Warren had been here. Yet, here he sat, Peter Parker. A complete stranger. Her mother would be rolling in her grave.
"Are you going to tell me whats happening to me? Are you running experiments on spiders in there? Are they poisonous?" Peter asks all at once. Myra Jean simply blinks at him, brows furrowing. Did he really think she was the one running experiments? She didn't even like science.
"No," Myra Jean says, "I'm not running experiments. But my father is. And Doctor Curtis Connors. I think they were the ones who did whatever they did with the spiders...As for them being poisonous, I have no idea. But I'm not dead yet, and neither are you,"
"Wait...Did you get bit too?" He asks, lifting his eyes to meet hers. Oh Peter Parker, what have you done?
"No..." Myra Jean says, but his brows raise and he smiles.
"You're an awful liar, Myra Jean," He chuckles, shaking his head. "Has this happened to you too?"
"The profuse sweating and ridiculously high temperature? Yeah...Earlier...Did you notice the broken glass, downstairs in the front door?" She asks. He nods. "Well...My hand got stuck to the banister...So I tugged my hand off and a chunk of wood came too. It was scary. Having so much strength..."
"I had a fight...On the train..." Peter says, he lifts up his broken skateboard, "I got home and found this,"
He holds out his hand. Myra Jean stands up and he opens his palm. Sitting inside is a spider, a like of silk trailing from it. Myra Jean gulps, looking down at him. "What are we going to do?"
"Keep quiet and act normal?" He suggests. Myra Jean nods her head in reply. "Sorry, by the way, for climbing up to the window...I didn't know if your father was home,"
"He's not...He never is," Myra Jean sighs, looking away.
"What a sad pair, we are," He mutters and Myra Jean smiles.
"We're a pair, are we?" Myra Jean asks. He shrugs, smiling again.
"Looks like we are now, Myra Jean," He replies, standing up, "I'll leave you alone now,"
"Okay," Myra Jean whispers, he was so close to her, she could smell his laundry detergent, his aftershave. "Call me MJ,"
"Huh?" He asks, he was halfway out the window when she spoke. He tilts his head back, nearly whacking it off the frame.
"You can call me MJ," She tells him, "My mom and dad always used to call me MJ...It feels right my new partner in spider-crime gets to call me it too,"
"Okay, MJ," He says. It felt weird, to both of them. It felt so personal, but also right. He ducks fully out of the window and pauses as he's about to climb down to the ground, "See you at school,"
"See you at school, Peter," She says back, smiling softly as he disappears below the roof. She see's him rushing off towards the subway station. Myra Jean climbs into her bed, the scent of Peter Parker still settling in the room, and she falls asleep without thinking of anything else but the boy who'd just been stood with her, who now called her MJ.
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I'd just like to leave a quick note to say look at the incredible cover that @soulofstaars has created for this book! It's so beautiful and I can't thank her enough for making it for me.
