Us Against The World ｡ Peter Parker [2]

21 - A Helping Hand

"Miss Parsons, may I see you in my office for a quick second?" Tony Stark's voice drummed through the quiet labs, every single intern turning in their seats to stare at me while piling away their belongings. Even Michelle Jones was letting her heavy gaze slide across to me, her hands pushing up her shirt sleeves to her elbows and I clearly spotted the smudged pen on her fingertips from drawing. 

Being called out in class was becoming a repeating habit lately, Mr. Harrington singling me out yesterday, but a simple answer to his question had slipped my mind and with no Flash Thompson to cover my sheer panic, the entire class had sucked in a breath when no answer rested on my lips. Mr. Harrington had given me a sad look, a strange worry behind his glasses, but I had fled the classroom before he could pull me aside and question where my mind had been in class. Now, Tony Stark was singling me out with the ending of another internship workshop in the labs of the Avengers Tower. "Um, sure."

The other interns shuffled from the room in a slow fashion, everyone shooting glances in my direction while I pushed away my journal and tried calming down. "Remember kiddies, we've only got a few weeks left of the internship program because of the move upstate." Darcy Lewis was reminding everyone on the way out, bringing up the fleeting news that soon there wouldn't be an Avenger left in the city. "If you're wanting letters of recommendation, I do indeed take bribes!" 

A few snickers rang through the fading crowd, Poppy Thayer rolling her pretty hazel eyes with her friend's comment. "For goodness sake, Darcy, you sound like Sam Hardings..." the young engineer was saying with a disapproving tone but I had stopped listening, my shoulders falling when Michelle stepped closer to me, offering a tight smile. 

"Private meetings with Stark, huh?" Michelle started with a huff, "Are you causing trouble?" There was an underlying tone in her voice that maybe suggested she was somewhat jealous about the meeting but that was crazy. I hadn't done anything out of the normal in our internship sessions, if anything, I had been more distant lately with the decision that weighed on my shoulders right now. 

I cleared my throat, shuffling on my feet. "No more than usual." 

Michelle Jones was shrugging her bag over her shoulder, hair falling into her dark eyes. Our shared internship days had been quite nice, Michelle actually chatty when you got to know her. I wouldn't say we were overly great friends but I would miss the days we shared a desk and debated about heroes and villains. "Trouble seems to follow you, you know that? Anyway, I'll see you at school."

Our goodbye was short and with my heart dropping towards my stomach, my tennis shoes echoed weirdly on the tiles as I followed Tony Stark down the short hallway. He was quiet, which only made my nerves race wild. He was sending me a little glance over his shoulder when he pushed open his office door, my eyes landing on a woman staring out the large windows that overlooked the city. The woman spun around, a kind smile on her red painted lips. "Florence, this is an old friend of mine, Dr. Bryce O'Shea." 

I didn't know the woman but there was an air about her that soothed my thumping heart. The very look in her eyes screamed that she was made from honey, everything sweet about her. I was already questioning how she knew Tony Stark. "It's nice to actually meet you, Florence. Tony has been saying wonderful things about you." Bryce O'Shea started brightly, combing some fair hair from her eyes and stepping closer towards us, the door closing with a thud. 

"Um, thanks?" I questioned, my eyes swinging back and forth between Tony and the woman who apparently knew a lot about me, when I knew nothing about her. Formally, her hand was pushing out and I noticed the slightly discoloured mark on her ring finger where a ring had sat upon once, before shaking her hand. "Please forgive me, but what's going on?"