"Before you arrived I was asking Parker if he had a lady?" Harry says making us both turn to Peter who begins to lean over the railing.
"Uh... That's a question. That's a question. Unh."
"Whoa, buddy." Harry says as Peter lays his full body on the railing before then pulling himself over to the other side.
"No, I don't. Yeah. I don't know. It's, uh... I don't know. It's complicated." He shrugs standing upright again.
"Yeah, I don't do complicated." Harry mumbles before speaking again? "Uh, what's her name? Who is she?"
"Her name's Gwen. Gwen Stacy."
"Gwen Stacy." Harry repeats before looking my way. "I've heard that name before, Gwen, she's your best friend isn't it?"
"Uh yeah Gwen and I were friends." I shrug rubbing my arm awkwardly. "What did the two of you fall out over Peter or something?" I shake my head immediately but don't miss the way that Peter's head had snapped up to see my response.
"No, no we just um drifted after we got to high school." I explain feeling as though I'd somehow done something wrong due to the way Peter was looking at me. "Yeah, after you left man MJ thought she was above us all because she became a cheerleader, desperate for attention."
My cheeks flush in embarrassment at Peters words, "wait did Gwen say that about me?" I ask him although I'm afraid for his answer. "No, Gwen would never say anything bad about you."
"Shame you can't take tips." I feel as if his words sting more somehow knowing that they're from Peter. "And I never thought that. Not once, people drift Peter. I didn't mean to leave you guys behind but I never thought I was better than anyone, I was just more outgoing than you were. I wanted the social life that you couldn't get and if anything, I think it was you who began to look down on me. The moment I told you I'd joined the cheer squad."
I forgot Harry was even with us until he whistled lowly, his eyes flickering back and forth between us, "wow." He hums, "I guess I really was the glue holding this group together." I tear my eyes from Peter who'd been staring me down, he now unidentifiable look in his eyes as they watched me.
"Yeah well I did warn you it wouldn't be very fun with us together." I shrug making Harry scoff, "come on I don't why the two of you hate each other all of a sudden but it can't be hard to remember why you loved him." I feel my ears burn as blood rushed to pound in them. "I did not love him." I protest, "alright we'll you liked him more than you ever liked me."
"Only because you thought it was funny when you stuck gum in my hair and my mom gave me the stupid Dora haircut." Harry laughs at the memory and swings his arm around my shoulder, "it was funny!"
I push him away even though a smile tugs at my lips, "Peter didn't think so, he actually helped try to get it out." I say glancing in Peter's direction to see his face soften at the memory.
"Alright now back to Peter's lady," Harry says glad the animosity between Peter and I had died down.
"She works for you."
"Really? She works for me?"
"She does work-study at Oscorp. Is she a model employee?"
After Peter replies Harry turns to me, "what about you? You got a boyfriend." I hate the attention being turned onto me as I shake my head. "No." I answer simply wanting the subject to change. "No way you don't have a boyfriend."
I laugh in a slightly awkward way and shrug, "I don't know, I just never really had time for a boyfriend." I mean that's what I always told myself but I don't know if it's the complete truth. I glance at Peter who was already looking at me, like he could tell what I was thinking but i get rid of those thoughts and turn back to Harry.
"Ok and what about you mr Osborn? Last I saw you were seeing some supermodel?"
***
"You know, when my father sent me away I tried to forget everything about this place." Harry says as he throws a stone into the water. The three of us had just been walking around and hanging out as we caught up but it was all mostly superficial stuff. "I guess that kind of included you guys." I guess we were getting deep now.
"You ain't gotta explain anything to me, man. We both got dumped." Peter says as I continue collecting stones to try and skip. I hated conversations like this, I never knew what to say or how to comfort people and I didn't like sharing my own feelings either.
"You ever figure out why your parents bailed?" Harry asks him. "My dad left a briefcase. That's all I got, briefcase full of junk. Whatever. I don't know. I try not to think about it." I knew how Peter felt with the loss of his dad but I didn't even know how to comfort myself never mind him.
"How's that working out for you?"
"Perfectly." He says before turning and skipping the stone pretty well, it bounced off the water quite a few times.
"Dude. Nice arm."
"It's just the wrist. It's just all in the wrist, buddy. You could do it too if you just strengthened up that."
"Yeah, right."
I turn my stones over in my fingers unsure on how to reestablish that I was here. On how to get back into the conversation. "You ok?" I look up and see Peter was watching me a hint of concern in his eyes. "Yeah, yeah fine." He nods but doesn't seem convinced and instead glances at my hands, still fidgeting with the stones.
I hate the way his gaze was making me feel so I force myself to skip the stone in my hand. "You're good at it too?" I'm glad for Harry's distraction because it pulls me away from Peter and his concern. "There's just nothing I can't do." I joke making him laugh.
"You gotta admit, though. Things have gotten crazy around here, man. Giant lizards and spider guys." Harry says resuming on the old conversation. "Just one guy. Just one spider man. Or woman. We don't know for sure." I smirk to myself at Peter's words, we don't know for sure my ass. It really was entertaining to see how he reacted to Spider-Man since he had no idea that I knew it was him.
"Whatever, dude. He wears spandex to rescue kittens from trees. I'm so impressed." Harry replies sarcastically, making me snort. "He does more than that." I defend making peter smile slightly as Harry scoffs. "Yeah like what?"
"I kind of like to think he gives people hope."
"For what?"
"Maybe eventually everything's gonna be all right." I liked that, I guess Spider-Man did kinda give me that hope. Or whenever I interacted with him I felt as though I didn't need to be so scared all the time because I knew I had someone to protect me. Maybe Peter should make me feel that way too seeing how they were the same person and all but I don't know, I don't think he did.
"Yeah, I just wish I had time for 'eventually.'" I'm pulled from my thoughts as Peter and I share a confused glance before turning to Harry who was trying act like his words weren't weighing him down.
