Far From Normal (Peter Parker x Stark!OC)

VI

9/27/18

"You will never guess who I met last night."

Those were the first words the driver had heard out of Julia all day, and they weren't even to him. She only started speaking once Peter got in the car. At least he knew to do that. He'd leave a 17 year old stranded at 7 at night in Queens but he could pick up her boyfriend on the way to school. 

And Peter froze at the question, but composed himself as quickly as possible, knowing it wouldn't help his situation. "Who?" Did he have to sound so nervous?

"Spider-Man," Julia let the name roll off her tongue, putting away her phone and looking at Peter. His eyes were wide. Both because of what she'd just told him and also how she said it. She didn't look up a lot in the morning, she tended to wake herself up on her phone and really started focusing on him once they got out of the car. So why were those brown eyes looking right at his?

His soul left his body for a moment. Why couldn't he breathe? Why did she choose now of all times to do that to him? Was she just testing his reaction? He tried to let his expression settle, but he couldn't tell if it had. Did he look normal? "Huh," was all he could bring himself to say. "Uh," he broke the eye contact, which probably just made him look more guilty. "That's crazy, where'd you meet him?"

It was Julia's turn now to get nervous. She glanced at the driver. She didn't want to say anything about how she had to walk a few blocks because he hadn't been there, so she looked at Peter. "Tell you at school," she said.

And the crazy part was, she did. She didn't know why, and he certainly didn't, but she opened up about having to catch a ride because she stayed too late after the game. Peter acted as if it was all brand new information, though Julia thought maybe that was the reason she didn't mind repeating it. He already knew. In the back of her mind she knew he knew, because she told him last night.

For Peter, he was just glad she was sharing more. It was all he could do to get her to share, and it was all he wanted. If they were going to make this work, and if he was going to be a good fake boyfriend, he needed to know her better, but she did love to make it difficult.

Regardless of their conversation, though, they'd gotten really good at the PDA. Whenever they could, they'd meet in the hall, hold hands, exchange pleasantries, and at most a kiss on the cheek. And every time, it made his day. What she'd never let him know was it made hers, too.

But Ethan had always had a knack for ruining her day.

Julia's breath was heaving after the laps they ran, they did them every day. But the reason for her heavy breath changed the second her teammate elbowed her, and in between breaths told her "looks like someone's here for you," while tiredly pointing in the direction of the bleachers. Julia glanced at the stands, eyes narrowed. Their coach had been running late, so it had been on her to start practice. She hurriedly told the girls to set up for agility drills before she started over to the stands.

From this far away she could hardly tell who it was, but her heart pounded. She couldn't dare to think... She started jogging towards the bleachers, and her face fell. Her jog turned into a lazy stroll. She didn't need to hurry to have a conversation with Ethan Howard. She stood at the base of the stands, looking up at where he was a few steps up.

"What do you want?" she asked, not an ounce of friendliness in her tone.

"Just want to talk." Ethan slid his hands into his varsity jacket pockets. Julia started to turn back the way she came. "Hey, come on, J, I want to talk to you," he said. Her feet stopped despite her head screaming at her to keep going, telling her to get as far away from Ethan as she could. But no one called her that but him. Though he hadn't in a year. Back when they were dating they were E and J, and it had been cute. But now it made her skin crawl. She swallowed, took a breath, then turned around.