style | p.parker

i

𝗢𝗡𝗘!

𝗦𝗢𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗚 𝗕𝗬 𝗦𝗟𝗢𝗪𝗟𝗬. it's been a month since homecoming.

even though cecelia apologized, things have been tense. cecelia has isolated herself from maddie and aristyn. aristyn keeps talking to her in classes but, she can tell things aren't the same.

she knows cece would not be doing this for no reason but she can tell maddie does not.

"has cece been talking to you?" maddie asks sitting herself next to aristyn during third period. she looks very worried.

volleyball school season ended not too long ago and club tryouts were coming up. usually, the three play for the same club, axede, but lately cece had be going to open gyms for a club called liege. everyone knew liege and axede were rival teams so the sudden switch really caught aristyn and maddie off-guard. cece was still going to axede ones too, but would never set maddie if they were on the same court.

aristyn did not know how to respond. she did not want to tell maddie that cecelia was purposefully ignoring her, but she also did not want to lie.

"i- i mean i have some, just in classes. why are you asking?" this wasn't technically a lie but a little alteration of the truth.

to be completely honest here for a minute, aristyn was not worried about cece and maddie for two reasons:

1. they were cece and maddie, if not together, they lost a part of themselves. aristyn could see it. she saw the way maddie had always made a point to laugh with cece. she saw the way maddie, despite being aristyns other half, fit perfectly with cecelia. she saw the way cecelia fit perfectly with maddie. she saw the way cecelia was always softer towards maddie.

aristyn saw the way cecelia trusted maddie. she noticed that at nationals, cece gave the set to maddie, even though it was a bad pass which made it a hard set. they had full trust in each other and aristyn knew they still did.

and the other reason:

2. aristyn couldn't be worried about them because she was a little busy being worried about... other things. namely the fact that her parents dropped of the grid. it wasn't unusual for her and flash to be home alone for weeks- even months at a time. but then, their parents were sending them money.

now though, they have nothing. they have their funds their parents set up and they don't have to make house payments because it's already payed off so they're making sure to keep the lights off when possible and use little-to-no water. which is hard, especially when aristyn comes back from her "nightly activities" (read: stabbing bad guys) with cuts that need to be cleaned.

it's not like her friends know. how could she tell them? she couldn't just stop being "that one rich girl from volleyball". showing any weakness could lead to taunts from all the people she had taunted in the past.

i mean, she could look at this as a learning experience. which she is- treat others with kindness all the time. she has started to be nicer to people- including one (1) peter parker.

as much as it kills her, she (and flash) hasn't taunted him pretty much at all since homecoming.

back to the present, aristyns pulls herself from her thoughts to hear maddie.

"-it's just strange, she apologized for homecoming but hasn't talked to me since," she was saying.

aristyn nods, "well it's cece, it's different that she apologized first."

maddie scoffs, "yeah, because she actually has to apologize for once and can't just make somebody else do it," her tone was bitter and cold and aristyn winces slightlu.

"at least she's trying, mads," aristyn closed with a tone that says 'let's just drop this' and she turns back to her worksheet in front of her.

as aristyn stares down, she closes her eyes and thinks,

we are in for one hell of a school year.

𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗜𝗥𝗗. peter kept noting new progressions that happened at school and let's just say, he was confused.

in typical peter fashion, he decided to make a list!

𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙧'𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙛𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣!

      - 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙙𝙞𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣'𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙢𝙮𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 (or at least very distant?). peter is not their friend, in almost any aspect, but he still noticed. that's how obvious it is. anyone who didn't see the tension is either blind or crazy.

     - 𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧-𝙢𝙖𝙣-𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙮. no weird aliens or alien selling, secret market people. there hasn't even been much crime, it was a little weird but peter was thankful. he had taken a few too many knives on the side lately.

     - 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙧(? (he's still unsure about labels)), 𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙨𝙩, 𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙥. for days. weeks, now. peter couldn't help but worry. no matter how snarky, or annoying, or cool she was, she wasn't there and spider-man missed her (although he would never admit to this)

     - 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙨𝙥𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨...𝙙𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙮. after homecoming, neither of them had made a snarky comment to him. even when liz left, he expected a, "hey, penis! did liz have such a bad time at the dance with you she had to leave the state?" from flash or at least a "looks like you fumbled, again" from aristyn, he got nothing.

peter steals a glance at aristyn after mentally going over his list again. she was just sitting there. her biology worksheet sitting in front of her (untouched, peter noticed) and her elbow resting on it.

maddie was talking, expressions matching whatever she was saying but aristyn was just nodding along, eyes glazed over.

now if this were any other day, she would be avidly commenting and supporting maddie is whatever she was saying, but it's all different now.

peter snaps himself out of his stupor. why did he even care about her? more importantly, why should he even care about her? aristyn has done nothing but make his life harder.

there was no reason he should care about her.

...right?

𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦!
oop
sorry for taking so long to finally post chapters from act two
this is just a little sneak peak into act two, in hopefully about a month or so i'll be able to start publishing weekly again!!

enjoy!!