fearless || peter parker

eight || The Adventures of Nitara's Phone, and Dropkicking 101

The next week was full of Nitara itching me to go back in public, somehow, anyhow, as the newly-cemented Nightmare. I didn't want to tell her, but it was the last thing on my mind. Madison has been uneasy, ever since that night. I keep thinking- what if she knew it was me? And then I remember that would be nearly impossible, unless she was that detective-person we saw. No one except Nitara has any lead that that would have been us. Well, the lady might have seen our faces, and the Vulture, but I didn't know them and they didn't know me.

The next Thursday night, Nitara had met me at the Queens Diner early- I was off at seven tonight, after starting right after school, which was odd. Usually Marty kept me later, because he and the cook were the only others on.

"Did you call Madison this time?" Nitara asked me on our way out, referring to the improv night I spent at her house.

"Yes. I told her two days ago, and I wrote it on the fridge. If that doesn't give her the hint, I don't know what will."

"If she's a detective, she would find out pretty easily," Nitara said.

I scowled. "She's not a detective. How many times do I have to say that?"

Nitara shrugged. "More than you already have. I still think it was her."

Nitara knew I wasn't fond of talking about that night. But Nitara being Nitara, she spoke about it anyway. I quickly turned away my white work gloves for my burgundy ones, that I had been getting good use of since I bought them. "I just can't stop thinking about it. Every time, I worry someone will find us, find out about me, and... I dunno. I don't want to wind up a lab rat."

"Don't sweat it," Nitara said, jaywalking to the wrong side of the street. I followed her, not because I agreed with jaywalking, but because I craved assurance. "We don't know who Vulture is, and he doesn't know us. And we've never even met that lady before. They're the only ones we've got to remotely worry about being on our trail."

I nodded. "I guess you're r..."

My mind was on rewind of the entire night. I was perplexed that I never realised this before. "God, we're so stupid!"

A lady passing by us on the sidewalk gave me a strange look, before adjusting her sunglasses and walking away. I grabbed Nitara's wrist. "Peter! We ran into him! Covered in blood! It's so obvious!"

Nitara was drained from words. "He... maybe he doesn't watch the news?"

I stared at her in disbelief in the middle of the sidewalk. "Only people who live under a rock in Queens haven't heard about it by now!"

Nitara pulled me along the street. "It's not like he mentioned it in class. If he was smart enough to connect us and that, we'd be the first people he'd ask. I'm sure."

I stared at Nitara. "Are you?"

"No."

"Give him credit," I said. "It doesn't take a genius to realise someone covered in blood and someone who beat up a villain are the same person."

What I was feeling before, about Madison, Vulture, or the woman finding out, was insignificant compared to the astronomical amount of stress pinning me down after realising we ran into Peter. "We should bring it up to him," I suggested, trying to find a way to break the chain. "He would never suspect us if we acted clueless like everybody else at school."

"We'll make up a story," Nitara said, adding on to my plan. "We'll say... you got your period, or something, and-"

"I said, give the boy some credit," I told Nitara. "I'm sure he knows how periods actually work."