golden | peter parker

twenty six

It was May 31st at 8:07 at night, and Peter was swinging through the streets trying to get back to his apartment.

He had been out patrolling and helped a lost old Dominican lady find her way around the streets of New York. He could still taste the cinnamon that lingered on his tongue from the churro she had gifted him in thanks.

He carefully opened his bedroom window, noticing that the door to his room was slightly ajar. Peter snuck in, walking on his ceiling. He crept slowly, not trying to alert May that he was messing around. He saw her through the crack, moving to and from the kitchen. He held his breath as she lingered a little bit too long in front of his door.

He took off his mask and threw it on the ground, still crawling towards the front of his bedroom. He shot a web at the door and started to pull it closed. He hung from one hand before silently dropping down on the floor. He quickly shut the door and let out a sigh of relief. He backed up slowly and then turned around, stopping dead in his tracks.

Ned sat on his bed watching in disbelief the entire time. The mostly built Lego death star dropped to the floor, creating a loud noise.

"What was that?" May asked from the kitchen. Peter's eyes widened in fear.

"Uh, nothing! It's nothing!" He shouted in alarm, trying to keep May out of his room.

"You're the Spiderman. From Youtube," Ned marveled, almost not believing it.

"I'm not. I'm not," Peter denied, while he pressed the spider logo on his suit causing it to fall to the floor.

"You were on the ceiling!" Ned countered, pointing up.

"No I wasn't, Ned what are you doing in my room?" Peter asked quickly, not knowing how to get himself out of this bad situation.

"May let me in. You said we were gonna finish the Death Star!" Ned panicked, unsure of how to process the information.

"You can't just bust into my room!" Peter frantically said before his spider senses alerted him that May was opening the door. He quickly stepped away from his suit and stood in front of Ned, in nothing but his boxers.

"That turkey meatloaf recipe is a disaster. Let's go to dinner. Thai? Ned, you want Thai?" May asked, glancing at the pair, not bothering to question them. Smoke wafted in from the doorway.

"Yes," Ned spoke, wanting to keep talking about Peter being Spiderman.

"No. He's got a thing," Peter said over him, not in the mood to talk about it.

"A thing to do after," Ned pressed, but failed.

"Okay. Maybe put on some clothes," May said as she walked out, Peter immediately grabbing a nearby shirt and slipping it on.

"She doesn't know?" Ned asked surprised.

"Nobody knows. Well I mean Mr. Stark knows because he made my suit, but that's it," Peter whispered, trying to get Ned to lower his voice.

"Tony Stark made you that? Are you an Avenger?" Ned asked, in awe.

"Yeah, basically," Peter said, lying slightly.

"Oh, jeez," Ned whispered, clutching his heart and leaning on Peter's bed.

Peter walked close to him, almost urging him when he said, "You can't tell anybody about this. You gotta keep it a secret."

"Secret? Why?" Ned demanded.

"You know what she's like. If she finds out people try and kill me every night, she won't let me do this. Come on, Ned, please," Peter rushed out, feeling flustered about his identity being exposed.

"Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I'll level with you. I don't think I can keep this a secret, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, Peter!" Ned exclaimed, dumbfounded that Peter wanted to keep this hidden.

Peter quickly cut him off, "Ned, May cannot know. I cannot do that to her right now. You know? I mean, everything that's happened with her, I-- Please." Peter's eyes started to water, just the thought of Ben making him emotional.

"Okay," Ned agreed.

"Just swear it, ok?" Peter pleaded.

"I swear," Ned said remorsefully, disappointed that he could have upset May.

"Thank you," Peter breathed out, rubbing his hands on his face. "I can't believe this is happening right now."

Ned suddenly lit up, "Can I try the suit on?"

Peter didn't hesitate to reply with a firm, "No."

"How's it work? Magnets? How do you shoot the strings?" Ned fired question after question, not giving Peter a chance to answer them.

"I'm gonna tell you at school tomorrow," Peter said trying to shove Ned out of his room.

"Great. Okay, well, wait. How do you do this and the Stark internship?" Ned asked puzzled.

"This is the Stark internship," Peter obviously pointed out.

"Ohhhhh."

"Just get out of here," Peter tried pushing him again but Ned resisted.

"Wait one more thing!" Ned exclaimed.

"What, Ned?" Peter asked exasperated.

Ned stepped back in Peter's room and closed the door so May wouldn't be able to hear. "Penny has a crush on you! Well Spiderman you, but still, have you made a move?"

Peter paled, that was not what he was expecting, or what he wanted to talk about. "Uh, technically?" Peter asked more than stated.

"What do you mean technically?" Ned asked skeptically.

"Well- I," Peter sighed, "I may have, sort of, slightly, had Spiderman put her in the friendzone?" He squeaked out.

Ned blinked a few times. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You know how much I like Liz! What if she likes me back?" Peter countered.

"Bro, there's no what if's about Penny! She likes you now!" Ned said hitting Peter on the arm a couple times.

"Me and Penny are just friends. There's nothing else there. Besides, I don't like her like that," Peter tried convincing not only Ned, but also himself.

"Yeah sure, you spend every second you can looking at her and apparently you spend enough time with her as Spiderman she has a crush on you. But you're just friends, you totally don't like her," Ned sarcastically said.

"You know why I look at her! To see if she's stopped ignoring me! We were such great friends, and then the next thing I know, she hates me. It's been like two months since she's started to ghost me, and I'm checking to see if it's finally over," Peter explained, pacing around. Ned was getting inside his head, making him think things he wouldn't normally.

Ned sighed clearly not believing him, "Whatever you say bro."

Peter then pushed Ned out of his room, done with the pestering questions about Spiderman and Penny. He put his head in his hands, overthinking the situation he was in.

Surely he had made the right decision friendzoning Penny, they were in the middle of a fight. Peter liked Liz, and she knew that. There may have been one or two instances when something could have happened, but nothing ever did. That stood for something, and that something was that they didn't like each other.

Or at least, that's what Peter was telling himself to make him feel better.