golden | peter parker

eight

Penny waited patiently for Peter to show up at Mr. Delmar's. She had already bought her sour gummy worms and was just chilling inside.

She was nervous to bring Peter to her house, because of her gremlin of a little brother Noah. He would do everything in his power to embarrass Penny.

About 20 minutes later Peter came rushing into Delmar's, his usually managed hair flopping all over the place. Penny thought it looked nice.

"Penny I am so sorry I'm late. It's just, okay you're gonna laugh, but I'm late because Liz and I talked after school got out! And it wasn't related to decathlon practice at all!" Peter said jumping up and down. Penny laughed at his childishness and pushed his shoulder.

"Order your damn sandwich and lets get back to my house to work on our research," She said popping a worm in her mouth.

"Speaking of decathlon practice, they're meeting tomorrow after school. You should come so that way we can work on the project together, because I'm typically only used for the science questions," Peter said as he flagged Mr. Delmar down for his sandwich.

"Yeah, sure. I love sitting in on them and watching Flash get absolutely destroyed by everyone," Penny laughed.

Peter got his sandwich and they walked back to her apartment, Penny on the lookout for any signs of Spiderman.

As they got to the elevator that had just been repaired, Penny turned to Peter, "Look. My brother is going to be 20 times worse than your Aunt May and that is a fact because he's a 10 year old boy. So please just ignore him at all costs. We can lock ourselves in my room and than he won't be able to bother us."

"That's totally fine. I'd like to think I'm good with kids," Peter said as they walked into the elevator. Penny pressed the button for her floor.

"You say that, but you've never met Noah," Penny laughed. 

Just as the elevator light switched to level 6, the car suddenly came to a stop. Peter and Penny waited for the doors to open to let someone on, but after a minute they realized that they were stuck.

"Wait, what do we do?" Penny asked, her voice wobbling a little. 

"Um, don't, uh, don't panic. We'll just press the emergency button," Peter said pressing the red flashing button.

The elevator dropped a few inches and made a creaky noise causing Penny to let out a whimper.

Peter immediately noticed this and his spider senses were coming out. Protect Penny at all costs.

"They said they fixed the elevator. Peter... they said they fixed it, what do we do?" Her eyes were wide with panic.

The elevator started to swing precariously, and Penny's hands gripped the rail so tight her knuckles were turning white.

"It'll be okay. Just focus on your breathing, all right?" Peter said calmly. Penny nodded her head and took long deep breaths.

Peter then put his fingers at the slits of the doors and started to pull. Due to his super strength, the doors easily opened. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw that the elevator had stopped with enough space to crawl down onto the floor of level 6.

"Okay, I'm going to climb out first. Don't worry all right? Once I'm out, you can just take my hand and I'll help you down," Peter reassured her as he started to climb out. He dropped onto the ground smoothly and turned back around.

"Alright Penny I need you to come off the back wall now," Peter said, trying to coax the fear out of her. She shook her head, beads of sweat visible on her brow. "It's okay, I got you. Just give me your hand," he said reaching his hand up back into the elevator car.

Penny slowly took a step forward. The elevator made a careening sound that made her stop dead in her tracks. The elevator than lurched and dropped a few feet. Penny screeched clinging to the rails for dear life.

Peters face paled as he saw her drop, he didn't have his web shooters on him, he wouldn't be able to save her as Spiderman.

Now the elevators top was just barely visible enough to fit her body through the crack and onto the floor.

"Penny, listen to me. I know you're scared but you need to grab onto my hand. I will pull you up, I promise," Peter urged, eyeing the cables holding the elevator up. They were swinging way too much and he didn't know how much longer they would hold.

Penny looked at his pleading face and slowly stepped forward to the front of the elevator. Her hands were sweating profusely. She reached her hand up but she was too short, she couldn't grab Peter's hand.

Tears had welled up in Penny's eyes and knowing that she couldn't reach Peter was enough for them to start spilling over.

"Penny, I need you to jump and grab my hand okay? I will grab you, you just have to believe me okay? Please Penny," Peter begged.

Fear flashed across her face, but she listened to Peter. She jumped but missed his hand. When she landed, the elevator made a suspicious sound. She didn't have much longer.

Penny moved backwards and pressed her head against the wall of the elevator, absolutely petrified. 

Peter saw the cables starting to snap. She had 30 seconds, at best.

"Penny for the love of god! Jump one more time I'll catch you I swear!" Peter implored, the situation going from intense, to extreme danger.

"That's what you said last time!" Penny shouted, the tears still falling. 

"You have to believe me! As in right now! Penny now! Jump now!" He pressured her while shouting, his eyes going wide with fear as the cables were snapping faster.

Penny pushed off the back wall and jumped with all her might. Her hand clasped onto Peter's, and he yanked Penny with all his strength, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He pulled her up out of the elevator and right as she was out, he lost his footing causing them to fall hard on the ground, Penny on top of Peter.

Just as Penny was secured there was a loud snap and the elevator screeched as it plummeted 6 floors. There was a loud crash as it hit the lobby floor.

Peter and Penny lay on the floor, Peter's arms wrapped tightly around her body as she continued to shake and cry.

"It's okay, we're okay. We're safe and alive, it'll be alright Penny. I've got you," Peter whispered in her ear as people started to come out of their apartments wondering what the noise was for.

She felt truly paralyzed, but with Peter there to ease her screaming mind, Penny stopped crying.

After a few minutes she pushed herself up off of Peter, and offered her hand to help him up. Once he was up she hugged him tightly. Peter wrapped his arms around her again.

They didn't say anything, both just grateful that they were okay.

Penny took a deep breath and said, "Thank you," her voice still hoarse and raw.

Peter nodded his head and they both walked silently up to Penny's apartment, neither one able to process what just happened.