Senioritis

The Party

The world seemed to stop turning at that moment. Nothing else mattered. No one else mattered to Peter - just MJ.

She was still sat on his lap with her hand gripped tightly to his. Her facial expression had anxiety written all over it, and tears fell silently down her face.

Peter looked up at her again. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't. For a moment, he was silent. He didn't know what to say then that would help her say what she wanted to say.

Her body felt light, and Peter was reminded of all the times he would sit on Uncle Ben's lap, and he would tell him all sorts of stories.

As a child, he would just sit there and listen, even though he didn't always understand what was going on.

Peter felt a huge responsibility for MJ in that moment. He felt like he needed to take care of her. He felt like he needed to just listen and accept everything she was about to say.

He knew that whatever happened, it was going to be really hard for her to tell him.

MJ sighed heavily as more tears escaped her eyes. Her grip on Peter's hand seemed to tighten.

"It's okay." Peter whispered again, rubbing her shoulder.

"I don't want you to...hate me." MJ replied, forcing her words out as she sobbed.

"No." Peter said, softly. "MJ, I'll never hate you. I won't judge you for whatever happened. You just have to talk to me...that's it."

MJ sighed again, wiping tears from her face.

"This is so hard." she whispered.

"I know." Peter replied, his voice slightly shaky now.

There was a silence again and Peter was just looking at her...waiting for her to say something. After a while, MJ had stopped crying and just stared at the floor.

"That night." MJ said, her voice low and croaky. "At Liz's party..."

Peter could feel his heart beating out of his chest. It was like his mind was calculating millions of thoughts all at once, but he could only concentrate on MJ's face and hold her hand, and stroke her arm. This was what he'd been anticipating for the past several weeks.

"After Andrew went in with Liz." Peter said quietly.

He was trying to help her process her thoughts but didn't want to say anything too leading.

"You were...banging on the shed door." MJ said. "And then I saw you."

"Go away, MJ." Peter said.

"Okay, fine." MJ replied, mockingly. "Just quit acting like a psycho. Everyone's staring at you."

Peter glanced up at the glass doors and he could see some people laughing at him. Some he recognized as jocks, some he knew from debate club. Had they all seen what went down with Andrew?

He flushed red.

"Are you sad because you didn't get laid?" MJ said, her brown eyes glistening.

"Shut up." Peter muttered pushing past her.

As soon as MJ had made another one of her insulting and soul-provoking comments, she wished she hadn't said anything at all. Her heart genuinely sank as she watched Peter disappear through those glass doors.

Why did I say that? MJ thought, staring after him.

The only person she had come to this party to see was Andrew, and now he was probably in there, getting it on with Liz.