✓ | BUBBLE GUM

008

The Next Day

"Hey, thanks for bailing on me." Ned said as he entered shop class. Angela didn't have shop, so it was just him right now.

"Yeah, well, something came up." Peter muttered. He was currently trying to take apart an item he found last night, and he was struggling to do so.

"What is that?" Ned asked, looking at the mysterious item.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "Some guy tried to vaporize me with it."

"Seriously?" Ned said shocked.

Peter nodded as he continued to take apart whatever he was holding. "Yeah."

"Awesome." He gushed. Peter turned to him, looking at him as if what he said was out of line. Ned quickly took back what he said, and tried to make up for it. "I mean, not awesome. Totally uncool of that guy. So scary."

Ned sat down next to Peter, who still had his eyes glued to the glowing object. "Whoever's making these weapons is obviously combining alien tech with ours."

"That is literally the coolest sentence anyone has ever said. I just want to thank you for letting me be part of your journey into this amazing-"

Peter hits the object really hard with a hammer, revealing a glowing core piece. Hitting it caused a really loud noise, but the teacher didn't seem to budge. He was reading a book, and couldn't care less as to what they were doing. "Keep your fingers clear of the blades."

The two got back to work, wondering what they were gonna do. "I gotta figure out what this thing is and who makes it."

"We'll go to the lab after class and run some tests." Ned proposed. Peter agreed, and the two did their usual handshake. "Hey, can I talk to you about something real quick?"

"Can it wait?" Peter asked, then Ned shook his head. "Definitely not."

"Then spill."

"Angela and I almost kissed." Ned quickly admitted. Peter's eyes widened and he looked at him in shock. "You two what?"

"Well during Liz's party while you were out and about fighting dudes, we were playing truth or dare. Then Liz called on Angela and she said truth and the question was who and where was her first kiss. But then-"

"She's never been kissed?"

"Exactly! Then yesterday when we were hanging out I brought it up and she said she wasn't lying about it. I told her I had never been kissed either then said I had an idea and she was like "go on". So then I said-"

"What if we each other first kisses?"

"Yes! It's like you know what happened." Ned exclaimed.

"I mean, it's pretty cliché." Peter shrugged, but wanted to hear more. "So what happened after that?"

Now Ned was starting to talk like a narrator in one of those documentaries voiced by Morgan Freeman. "It was about to happen, then she starting choking on her bubble gum."

"Bummer. At least she was down for it." That really wasn't helping Ned. He wanted it to happen so desperately. Ned was dying for some sort of sign that whatever was going on between him and his best friend was something more. All he wanted was to think his feelings weren't idiotic. All he wanted was Angela to see him as more than just best friends.