Parker's Partner

Chapter 6

Peter's POV

I jumped awake when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I bolted upright and blinked rapidly to clear the fog from my eyes so I could see who was standing next to me. It was Ned, wearing a quite solemn look for him; so I sat up on the edge of my bed and looked at him concerned.
"What happened?" I asked, beginning to feel a little more awake.
"I'm sorry about earlier," he said, looking at the floor and shuffling his feet a little.
The whole situation from earlier came flooding back, and my concern turned into a frown for a few moments. I thought about it and I looked at him softly.
"It's fine, Ned."
He looked back up at me hopefully. "Really?"
"Duh, I'm your best friend, I'm not just gonna stop being your friend because you got a little too excited," I laughed a little.
"Thanks bro," he grinned back at me, then sat on the floor and opened his backpack he had left there. He pulled out another, smaller, LEGO set and put it on the floor; beginning to open it and dump the pieces out.
I grinned, stretching and yawning at the same time, still being stiff from the awkward position I had fallen asleep in. I slumped down to the floor beside Ned and began opening some of the packages of legos that came out of the box.
I paused for a moment, a confused frown returning to my face as I looked up to find my alarm clock. My eyes went wide when I saw what time it was.
"Ned! It's 11:00 pm! Why didn't you wake me up way earlier?!"
"I don't know! Maybe I wanted my best friend to sleep after he fought an ice powered mutant in Times Square!" He kind of jumped at my a little louder than normal voice.
"Oh." I looked at my lap. "Sorry."
"It's fine, dude," he grinned at me and then looked back to his legos.
"Wait, why haven't you gone home yet?" I asked, becoming confused again. "You've been here for like two days."
"I don't wanna go home," Ned mumbled, a frown forming on his normally happy face.
"What happened?" I asked, pausing what I was doing and looking at him.
"Nothing," he muttered even quieter.
"Ned, you know you can tell me right?" I tried reassuring him.
"My parents have been arguing a lot lately," he said after a few moment's silence. "I'm pretty sure it's just because they're really stressed... taking care of my uncle and all. But it's still nerve wracking."
We looked at each other knowingly, and neither of us had to say anything to understand the other. So after a moment we looked back down at the legos and restarted our building.
By the time we were done we were both passed out on the floor in a heap with a finished Star Wars battleship sitting next to us, at 3:00 in the morning.
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I woke up to a loud crash and a muffled curse, which sent me bolt upright from where I was asleep half on top of Ned. I jumped up and then almost fell over again because my eyesight was still foggy from sleep. I rubbed the fog away as I ran out of my room into the kitchen. What I was expecting was a robber or something like that, trying to steal from us. But what I saw was completely different, and quite funny.
Aunt May was hopping on one foot around the kitchen, mouthing "ow" over and over again, while a large cast iron pan was settling on the floor.
I tried not to laugh but the expression on her face was too funny and I just couldn't hold it in.
She looked at me practically rolling in the floor and she glared for a few moments; but tried to hold back a grin as she started giggling at my apparently contagious laugh.
It took us a few minutes to calm down, but eventually we did, smiles still remaining on our faces as I picked up the pan and set it back on the counter.
A moment later Ned walked through the door, rubbing his eyes and looking dead tired and a little confused.
"What happened?" He mumbled, yawning.
I looked at Aunt May and she looked back at me and we started laughing again, but at a way lower level.
"I dropped a pan in my foot," May said, calming down a bit.
"Oh," Ned drooped, slumping tiredly over to the kitchen table and sitting down.
I walked over and sat down next to him as Aunt May put the pan on the stove and started making breakfast.
"You okay, dude?" I asked Ned, seeing that he was still a little upset.
"Yeah, I'll be okay, probably..." he replied, forming a half smile.
"You planning on going home tonight?"
"Yeah... I have to," he trailed off at the end, slumping further down in his chair. "Actually, I probably need to go now."
"At least stay for breakfast," said Aunt May, stirring the scrambled eggs in the pan.
"Okay," Ned brightened up a bit and smiled.
I turned on the TV and we watched cartoons until Aunt May set a plate full of food in front of each of us. Ned looked happier after he started eating, and I
smiled to myself.
Food always makes him happy.

~~~ PLEASE READ ~~~
Ok, guys, I am so sorry for being soooooo late with this chapter, and I honestly don't have a good enough, and valid enough, excuse to explain why I haven't updated until now. I've just had tons of homework, and I got a little writers block for a while too. So I am sincerely apologizing for my lack of updates, and am presenting this one to you all. It is my fall break, so I might be able to get another update to you sometime before next week - although please don't hold me to it bc I've got a lot going on.
As usual, I love you guys and thank you for all the love and support, and plz forgive any grammar or spelling mistakes.
- Quinn