𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐒 | peter parker&michelle jones

chapter 9

"we rise by lifting others." -unknown♡

Michelle hated dresses. She hated that society felt that it was only acceptable for a woman to wear a dress to any formal event. It went against everything that she believed and if it wasn't for Ned being his annoying self she would have shown up to the dance in a suit.

"So Mj what are you going to wear to the dance?" Ned was currently pouring a bowl of cereal for himself, Peter had gone home with some excuse about needing his aunt to help him with something. Michelle figured it was either something about Spider-Man or he needed his aunt to help him with what he was going to say to Liz Allen. Since Spider-Man still hadn't shown up since the attack on the ferry, she figured the latter was true. 

Whenever she thought about Peter talking to Liz it gave her a twist in her stomach, a twist of jealousy that she wholeheartedly decided to ignore, hoping that it would disappear along with this newfound feeling about Peter Parker.

"I don't know, probably a suit," she said with a shrug locking eyes with Ned who gave her a look of confusion.

"A suit?" His voice was higher now, "but don't you think a dress is more appropriate?" 

A flash of annoyance went through her, of course he would believe that, "Why because that's what society wants? Because that's the only thing that's acceptable for a woman to wear? Or is it because by being able to see more of my skin men get off to it?" Her voice was uneven and she couldn't help but be angry. What gives Ned the right to judge what she was going to wear? 

She knew she shouldn't be angry with him, he was trying to be friendly and had just let her stay at his house for the night, but she couldn't help it.

"Mj that's not what I meant and you know it," Ned's voice was almost defiant and that shocked her, "Look, I get it, you are a feminist, and believe it or not I would like to be too!" She scoffed at him but he shook his head, "It's true! But wearing a dress to a school dance isn't the end of the world, and if you want to wear a suit? Fine whatever, go for it! But I'm trying to be your friend here and I'm trying to help you not get your head shoved in a toilet." She was surprised to see tears in his eyes and she suddenly felt bad for getting angry at him, maybe he really was just trying to help.

"But why do you care?" Her voice was much quieter now and she was so glad that Peter wasn't here to see her going so soft.

"Because I care about you, Michelle," his voice had also gone quiet but the words came out with a force, he wanted her to believe him, "because you don't deserve to get shoved into a locker, and I know you put on this persona of uncaring, but the words that people would say, they get to you." Now she was sure there were tears in his eyes, and she didn't know what to do. She took his hand in hers, a gesture of comfort really, she had seen people do it in movies, but it seemed to work.

"Do you want to go dress shopping with me Ned?" It felt weird to be doing something completely for someone else. To go totally against everything she wanted to stand for, to do something because maybe she wanted to protect Ned Leeds. 

But him calling her Michelle had jarred her, it had made a switch go off inside of her that maybe, just maybe, she wanted to be loved.

***

In the end, she had picked out a yellow dress, not too short, not too flashy, and she hated to admit it but she liked it. She would like to say that her favorite color was black, or gray, or something that wasn't so bright, but her favorite color just had to be yellow.

Yellow reminded her of the bug her father used to drive, it reminded her of how they would laugh when people would wave at them, thinking that it was a taxi. It reminded her of simpler times, when her mother was happy and when her father would take both of them to the park and they would pick small yellow daises from the ground. Her mother would braid them into her hair, her hands didn't shake as much back then. Yellow was the color of the blanket her brother had been wrapped in when he was born.