The Weight of The World ｡ Peter Parker [1]

1 : Midtown High

     Sirens echoed in my dreams; howls that something was wrong, something was horribly wrong. Glass shards had rained down like crystals and there was so much blood. A puddle of crimson coloured rivers and the way his body was slumped forward against the steering wheel.

     Somebody was shaking me awake, yanking me from my dreamscape. Drool lined my bottom lip and an imprint of my textbook was on my cheek. Mary Jane Watson peered down at me and I swear she could see the nightmares in my eyes. "How long have you been in here?" 

     Stiffly, I rested back in my chair and glanced around the library, taking in the quietness. I couldn't remember falling asleep and I definitely couldn't remember if I finished my paper. "All afternoon...apparently." I wiped the drool from my chin with a grimace. Slowly, I started packing up my physics work; my papers filled with crooked words, my dead laptop screen watching me, mocking me. "Did drama class run late or something?"

     Mary Jane shifted her weight between her feet. "You know I had rehearsal for the play today. I've only mentioned it a hundreds times, Florence." She swooped in quickly, stacking a few of my notebooks and cradled them in her arms. We both knew my backpack couldn't fit half the books scattered around me. "I thought you had plans with Gwen."

     "What's the time?"

     "Nearly six," Mary Jane gave me a pained look, something I had witnessed more often than not with my friends lately. "Please tell me you didn't forget." 

     Words tumbled from my lips; lies covered with excuses. "I didn't forget. I just lost track of time. I needed to finish this paper today. My parents need to read over it before I can finish off my second draft. You know how important this is to me—"

     "Yeah, yeah. To beat out Peter Parker." Mary Jane rolled her pretty eyes and scooped her red locks into a ponytail. "I hear about this every single day. We know."

     I hurried to my feet, kicking in my chair and widening my eyes across at her. "I do not talk about him every single day," My voice was lined with a familiar venom. 

     Mary Jane poked her tongue out gracefully, pushing through the open doors that took us through the empty corridors of Midtown School of Science and Technology, or commonly known as Midtown High to locals. "Right. Sure." 

     "Don't do that—"

     "I just don't know why you don't like him." 

     This was a common brittle conversation. We were ten years old when he had pushed me off my throne for top of the class. This shy, babbling mess of a boy, had showed up at our school science fair and snagged my ribbon. His volcano had been bigger than mine, more structural, more complex and every single person had flocked to him. I had fallen behind the boy genius, and that was where I had stayed, in his shadow.

     "You know, you don't have to get along with every single person that walks into your life," I grumbled hotly. Even just thinking about Peter Parker made my blood boil and my cheeks flame with a strange heat. "It's highly impossible, I could look up the statics, if you want, to like everybody in the entire world. He just happens to be that person for me." 

     We pushed through the glass doors at the end of the corridor and found the warm night air flooding around us. In the far distance the football team were still on the back field, a game coming up far too quickly. "Okay. I don't want to push it, not today," Mary Jane settled with softly. "Do you want to come to my place for dinner? I've already texted Gwen."

     I chewed on the inside of my cheek knowing I would be arriving at home to a dark house and a frozen meal in the freezer. "Do you think Gwen will be mad with me for missing our plans?"