Black Swan ▹ Marvel

EIGHT: REAL FRIEND PT. 2

Liz ran a damp cloth over the cuts on Elizabeth's face to clean the blood. The blonde girl's sobs had fallen silent except for an unsteady breath she would take every so often.

"You don't have to tell me if you're not ready. I just want to know that you're not in danger," Liz said solemnly as Elizabeth's eyes met hers. The girl's green eyes are brimming with sorrow. Elizabeth tears her eyes from Liz and looks at her lap.

"No, Liz, I'm tired of lying. You deserve to know."

The blonde looks back at her best friend and Liz gasps looking at her eyes that are completely white.

"What?"

This was the only word that Liz could speak looking at the other girl as Elizabeth's pupils and irises reappear.

"I know it's a lot and if you want me to leave I understand...," Elizabeth starts, but Liz gently cuts her off.

"No, Elizabeth. You'll always have me and you can tell me anything," Liz said. Elizabeth's chapped lips creep up into something resembling a smile as she throws her arms around Liz. She feels at peace embracing the only real friend she had left on the Earth.

▹

Peter Parker was in quite the bind. He didn't know what the hell was going on with his body, but he's pretty sure puberty didn't make his hand stick to a door or a shirt. Somehow he had made it through dinner with May the night before without getting stuck to anything. Now on the other hand was a different story.

Peter had a not-so-clean tee shirt stuck to his left hand and no matter how much he shook it stayed put. Peter groans as he grips the shirt in his other hand and pulls as hard as he can. The shirt stays in place. Peter decides to try another approach. He relaxes all his muscles and calms his mind. Peter focuses on his hand being unstuck to the shirt. To his delight this works and the tee shirt falls to the ground.

Now free from the strange thing adhering Peter to things he's able to yank clothes on and grab all his stuff for school.

After brushing his teeth and having toast while reassuring his aunt May that he would be on time for school Peter finally was able to leave his residence. And as usual he was running to school just like the first four days this week, but unlike every other time he didn't get tired in the middle. Unwilling to think about the strange things happening to him and chalks it up to suddenly building some endurance overnight. 

Peter arrives just as the warning bell rung and students start walking toward their respective classrooms. Peter is able to stroll leisurely to chemistry. As soon as he squeezes past two students talking in the doorway he realizes that he forgot to text Liz back. There Liz sat with Elizabeth by her side where Peter usually sat. They were whispering among themselves and being overall secretive. Peter weaves through standing students and sits where Elizabeth used to sit before her accident. 

"Hey, Pete," Liz said in a plain voice. She didn't sound mad, but she certainly didn't sound happy to see him. Liz looks perfect as usual, her hair was wavy rather than bone straight as usual while Elizabeth looked a bit rougher. Her skin had a bunch of half healed cuts all over her skin and her top lip was split, but other than that her hair was curled and her clothes were neat and cleaned. 

"Hey, Liz, Elizabeth," Peter says and he hangs his bag over his seat and sits down. He turns to look at the two girls, who seems disinterested in his greeting, "sorry I didn't text you last night. I crashed hard after going to the SHIELD thing." 

"It's okay, I was with Elizabeth anyway," Liz tells Peter. Her voice is nice and calm, but disinterested. 

"Hey, Elizabeth, what happened to you?" Peter asks. The girl's green eyes focus on Peter's face. She narrows her eyes. 

"I face planted at Liz's last night," Elizabeth replies without skipping a beat. Something in Peter's gut tells him she's lying. The question he has is why?

▹

"So your dad might be a bad guy?"Liz asks as Elizabeth and her sit at a lunch table in the Midtown courtyard. Elizabeth is focused on scanning the courtyard where Midtown High students where playing around and eating lunch. 

"Ryan and him seem to have an understanding, but I don't really know. I dipped when things got weird," Elizabeth explains as her eyes settle on one figure in particular. 

"Maybe we should hear them out first before we have to jump out a window again," Liz tells the blonde and uses her fork to start twirling her spaghetti. She eats a forkful and looks back at Elizabeth, who is distracted by someone in the courtyard. 

"I guess, but I can't go along and I have no idea how to even get in contact with Ryan or my dad and I still have no fucking idea where my mom is," Elizabeth told Liz. 

"Why are you staring at Flash Thompson?" Liz asked changing the subject. Elizabeth watched Flash Thompson throwing a frisbee with his friends and his little brother. 

"Is it me or has Flash gotten hot?" Elizabeth asked. Liz makes a noise of disgust at Elizabeth's statement.  

"No way Flash and his brother are goofs," Liz replied and Elizabeth laughs at the statement. 

"I don't know if you looked past the ego and if he got a haircut he wouldn't be that bad," Elizabeth tells Liz, who rolls her brown eyes. 

"No way," she disagrees, "Flash'll be hot when hell freezes over. Now let's get back to the task at hand. What the hell is Ryan and your dad up to?" 

Elizabeth looks at her friend.  

"I don't know, but we're gonna get to the bottom of it." 

"Elizabeth and Elizabeth back together once again," Liz said. They both chuckle. 

"Okay, crazy, let's get to work."