It Starts with a Spark

I like Peter Parker. There is absolutely no way to deny it. I am attracted to Peter Parker. I think he’s God’s gift for my eyes. Of course I’m not claiming to love him or anything, but maybe just maybe I like him. Who am I kidding obviously I like him. Not that it matters. It doesn’t, it doesn’t matter because it could never ever, not in a million years’ work.
Well for one thing, we’re both super-heroes. (Which trust me I am still reeling from that one) Super on super relationships probably wouldn’t work out. I mean there isn’t one. There are no two super-heroes that are together that weren’t together either before they became supers or knew each other before they were supers. I’ve been a super for like ten years, and Peter. Peter is a low-chain super-hero. Everyone knows his name, yes that’s true. But he isn’t out there saving the planet or anything, just one small little city. Which is I’m sure good enough for him, but I could never be a small super. It’s demeaning, and a huge demotion. I mean, I’m an Avenger why would I give that up?
Besides, Clint and I aren’t going to stay in New York forever, so not only would I be like constantly risking my life, it would also be long distance. It would just, it wouldn’t work. I know it wouldn’t.
Of course, there is one major reason why Peter and I can never, ever not it a million years ever happen. He has a girlfriend.
Mary-Jane Watson, is the “it girl” of our school. She’s gorgeous, she knows it; she also makes sure everyone else knows it too. Peter, is constantly talking about her, but I suppose it does seem a bit robotic. Like he doesn’t believe or care about the things that he’s saying. But Mary-Jane is convinced that I am out to get her, so if I stole her boyfriend. I don’t think I could ever, ever show my face in New York again without being attacked by angry teenage girls.
As if somehow able to sense that I was thinking about her, the she-devil herself shows up.
“So Anna, are you going to the Halloween bash next week?” she asks, all polite smiles, fake nice voices and vicious eyes. Her entourage giggles, as if the thought that I should ever go to a dance is ridiculous. Which to be fair it kind of is.
But I want to pause for a second and let you absorb what just happened. Yes, the very religious school that I attend is throwing a Halloween dance. Because they’re all about witches, and Satan and stuff right? I really don’t understand this world.
“You know Mary-Jane I’m actually going to be running for Scream Queen.” I say, I instantly regret it. I wasn’t even planning on going to the dance, but now I just had to go and nominate myself for the dance Queen.
MJ’s face however, is priceless; totally worth the future discomfort.
“Well, I’m going to be running too, so don’t be surprised when you lose.” She says, giggling as if something funny was going on. Which I suppose it was, Mary-Jane was looking a bit pathetic.
“Don’t worry Mary, I’m sure I’ll give you a run for your money.” I grab my books from my locker, and walk away. I think I might have just declared war.
I needed to come up with a costume, which is hard because in all my sixteen years I’ve never been trick-or-treating or dressed up on Halloween. Peter had said he was going as Dracula, which to be honest is going to be adorable. But I couldn’t match Peter, or MJ might just kill me. And I needed a date. I really had dug myself a deep and dark hole.
“Pixie!” Peter is yelling to me across the hallway, I forgot I’d planned to eat lunch with him today. I stop, knowing that if I keep walking he’ll just continue to yell and attract more attention to me.
“Pixie, why are you declaring war on my gal?” he asks jokingly. Oh. She told him.
“Look, I know that for whatever reason you like Mary-Jane, but- “
I start but Peter interrupts me, “I know she’s a bitch. Trust me, I know. But I just want you to be careful. You know, we should go to the dance together.” He says, all of what he just said surprised me. He knows Mary-Jane is a bitch? He wants me to be careful? He wants to go to the dance with me? What does that mean? Are we going as friends? Or maybe something more?
Of course I don’t ask him any of that. I just say “Cool.” and allow him to prattle on about his ideas for costumes for me. He’s even offered to help me run for Scream Queen.
I really don’t understand boys, or girls honestly.
After school, I’ve come up with an evil plan. I’ve decided to determine once and for all if Peter really does like me. I’m going to ask Steve to pretend to be my boyfriend, obviously if Peter gets jealous that means he likes me right? I realize now, that I must seem crazy, but what other choice do I have? A lot, I have a lot of different choices, but this one seems to be my best option.
So that’s why, when I’m standing on Steve’s porch on Saturday morning, I’m not really too shocked to be here. Of course Steve isn’t exactly awake right now, or has even consented to this plan.I rang his doorbell, knowing that he probably wasn’t going to answer. I sighed, Captain America or not, Steve was just like any guy. He slept too much.
I decided to just go inside, knowing that Steve would throw a fuss but not do much else. His house was small, and a bit run down. He hadn’t really changed it since he woke up from the ice. He’d of course had added an entire room for his exercise equipment, because he’d decided that he needed it. Since I had helped Steve move back in here, I knew my way around. I reached his bedroom door, I paused for a second then just threw open the door.
“Steve! Wake up! I need to talk to you.” He stirred, but wasn’t responding. Given that I had a big brother, I had a bit of experience of waking up people. I launched myself onto to Steve.
It had worked better than I had planned. Steve sprang out of bed, when I had reached him, which since he sort of freaked out, threw me off the bed and into the wall.
“What the hell Anna! What are you doing here? God!” he said, helping me off the floor. I smiled through the tears in my eyes; I’d hit my head on the wall pretty hard;
“I needed to talk to you about something.”He sighed, helping me into the living room.
“Whatever it is, it better be good.” He said, sitting me on the couch.
Steve was even more unhappy when I told him what I wanted to do. “It’s dishonest.” He said. “So what, I thought you were all about me “finding someone” last week.” “But that’s different, I didn’t have to take part in it.” He argued. “Steve, how often do I ask you for stuff?”, he paused thinking about it. “A lot actually.” I hit him playfully on the arm “Not the point, please just help me with this.” I plead. In the end, he caved in.He’d also decided to call over some “friend of his” to help me with this.
After a little while, I saw why Steve had seemed so nervous about asking her over. First off it was a her, which alone surprised me, but I kept my mouth shut. But I recognized her from school she was a freshman there, and she was really shy. But it was also obvious that she, also liked him. Those two were like to love-sick puppies, it made me sick.
She was tall, and well she was beautiful. Not that it was really that surprising, Steve had a thing for pretty girls, when he first started he’d had a huge crush on Nat for a while.
"Brenda, this is Anna. She is why I called you here. Well not the only reason, but that can wait. I will let her explain why she is here." Steve said, stumbling horridly over his words. He turned around and walked away, his face a bright beet red. She stood there for a minute, just staring at me, I stared back.
“Well since he obviously didn’t tell you, I guess I’ll just have too.” I say, she sits next to me, obviously uncomfortable.Since she obviously doesn’t want me here, probably because she wants to be with Steve by herself, I just dive in having now idea why I’m confiding in some strange girl. “have a boy problem. This particular boy lives right next to me and I think I may like him. What should I do?” I say, deciding not to mention my plan, knowing that it probably would just make me sound crazy. I’m also careful to avoid names, who knows what Mary-Jane would do if she found out I was plotting to find out if her boyfriend liked me.
She looks confused, as if unsure what she’s supposed to do with that information. "I think you should try to tell him how you feel. Don't just keep running away that turns them off. If he asks you out don't freak and just do what your heart tells you to do." She says, then looks surprised as if she wasn’t expecting herself to say that. I smirk, what a little hypocrite.
“Thanks for the advice, you should really take it yourself." I say, as I grab my bag of the couch, she looks confused again, as if what I’m saying isn’t obvious. I decide to just spell it out for her.
“Please, I see the way you look at Steve. It’s obvious you like him. When he said you were coming over, he was all weird and nervous. He blushed earlier. Like big time.” Of course it’s not that hard to make Steve blush. I think as I leave Brenda sitting there speechless on his couch.
It was the night of the Halloween Bash, and I was beginning to lose my nerve. I didn’t have to go through with this. I could just stay home. No one would know.I didn’t need to do this. I paced my room, biting my lip, I walked downstairs; taking extra care not to look at my window or at Peter’s house period.
Peter and I had agreed to meet up at the dance, since he had to give MJ a ride. Apparently she was fine with him going to the dance with me, which honestly worried me a little bit. I wasn’t expecting to win Scream Queen, but something told me something was going to happen tonight.
Ignoring the queasy stomach, and stupid nerves, I arrived at the dance and went inside. Steve had agreed to meet me, here a little early, so Peter would see me with Steve. Unfortunately, Steve had brought Brenda along.
“Steve! Why did you bring her?” I turned to Brenda “No offense I like you and all, but Steve and I had a plan.” I hissed, glaring at him. She smiled shyly like she was saying okay-lady-whom-I-barely-know.Steve sighed, “Don’t worry Anna I remember the plan.” He said, and as he looked past me, he turned to Brenda, “Sorry, that’s my cue.” He said apologetically. “What que?” she asked, but it was too late, Steve had already dipped me over and I laughed, caught by surprise by his action. He pulled me up, smiling.
“What are you doing?” I whispered as we walked over to Peter, whose face looked a little pale. Well that could be his make-up. Peter’s Dracula costume was amazing. He looked equal parts cheesy and adorable. I felt like I should swoon into his arms. Which is the opposite of what my costume inspiration would do. I was Van Helsing, only with a feminine twist. Peter smiled, a mouth full of fake blood and fangs. “Great costume! Looks great!” he said, looking me up and down, when noticed that I noticed him looking he blushed. I could kiss him. He looked at Steve and his eyes narrowed “Who’s your friend?” he asked, I smiled looking at Steve like…. how Brenda looked at Steve. I guess, I tried. “This is my boyfriend Steve.” I say, hoping it sounds real. “Oh. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.” He said coolly, “It’s new,” I find myself saying “I didn’t want to jinx it. Besides I thought you would be happy for me, given that you have Mary-Jane.” At the mention of her name Peter looks back at her, all dressed up like a princess, and he sighs. “Yeah,” he says “I’m happy for you.” He looks back at me, as if he were disappointed, ‘You know, I should probably go hang out with my girlfriend, you know so you can hang out with your boyfriend.” He says and walks away, his cheap cape swishing around his ankles.
“Steve,” I whisper “What?” he whispers “I think my plan might have worked a little too well.” but Steve doesn’t reply, because he’s left to go talk to Brenda who is looking very confused. Of course if the guy I liked took me too a dance then left me to go flirt with another girl I would be confused, and upset. Funnily enough that’s exactly what just happened. This was going to be a very long night.
And it was, nothing fun happened until around ten thirty, which was when people were starting to get a bit drunk given that someone had snuck in some very horrid tasting vodka. Peter and I had barely spoken the entire night, and given that Steve thought his job was done, he was always with Brenda. A couple guys asked me too dance, but after I shot the first I’ve down they all gave up asking. I think though, that Peter must have been a light weight because we stumbled over too me, swaying with each step. He smiled, all big and cheesy when he reached me.
“You’re looking very sad.” He says, as if he’s discovered the cure to cancer or something. “Why are you sad? Where’s your boyfriend?” he looks around the crowd. I’d lost track of Steve some time ago, not wanting to see him happy. I was throwing a huge pity party and I didn’t want him to smile all over my rainy parade. So I was surprised when Peter saw Steve and made a really weird sound. It almost sounded like a roar, or a strange battle cry. I turned following his gaze, Steve was kissing Brenda. Right in the middle of the room. I jumped up, knowing Steve and I were screwed. Peter on the other hand thought I was upset.
“I’m going to kill him.” He promised his hands on my shoulders, what surprised me though, was not his ferocity or his touch. But his breath. He didn’t smell like he’d been drinking in fact he was stone-cold-sober. He was faking being drunk? What the hell? Of course, Peter had taken my surprise and was making his way over to Steve. I followed hoping to avoid a huge scene. “Peter! Peter stop it! Peter!” I called, he purposefully ignored me. What was he going to do? There was no way he could take Steve in a fight. So when I reached him, thankfully before he reached Steve; I took his hand and pulled him in the opposite direction. He resisted obviously, tugging on my hand “Anna, look I don’t know what’s going on with you but- “He started, “Peter please, just let’s go outside and I’ll explain.” I interrupted, he frowned looking at with those big brown eyes, a little skeptical. He relented, following me through the sea of bodies.
When we finally made it outside, the cool, crisp air was a welcome. It was so hot in the gym, with all those bodies pressed together. Peter turned to me,
“What’s going on Anna?” he asked “Most girls would freak out when their boyfriend cheats on them, in public no less. But you wanted to talk?” he says, trying to make sense of the situation. I sigh, knowing that I have no choice but to come completely clean.
I sit on the curb, motioning for Peter to sit next to me. His gaze is intense, as if he knows what’s going to happen next. “Peter,” I start, “Peter, I like you.” I say, he laughs “Yeah well I like you too Anna. That’s what friends do, they like each other.” He says, I hit him. “No you idiot! I like you, like the way you like Mary-Jane. I like you, like I want to kiss you every time I see you. I like you like more than a friend. I like you Peter.” I say putting an emphasis on the word. He doesn’t say anything. We just sit there in silence. Great job Anna! You ruined your only friendship in the God-forsaken place! Peter turns to me,
“I don’t like Mary-Jane.” He says, as if this explains something, I look at him blankly. “I haven’t liked Mary-Jane for a while.” He pauses, “You see I met someone else, someone new. Someone who drives me crazy. I think that might because she’s kind of crazy herself sometimes.You see Anna, I like you. I like you, like how I should like Mary-Jane. I like you, like I want to kiss you, or touch you every time I see you. I’m always thinking about you, wondering what you’re doing. What you’re thinking about. If you’re thinking about me.” He finishes his cheeks turning red, my face starts to heat up too.
“Steve isn’t really my boyfriend.” I say, he laughs “I kind of figured.” “I asked to help me make you jealous, so I knew. If you liked me.” then hearing myself say it aloud it sounds crazy. Crazy and far-fetched and ridiculous, and I laugh. I’m laughing at the entire situation we’re in.
He’s laughing with me, and we’re laughing. Sitting in the cold laughing, at our blindness to each other’s true feelings and actions towards each other. Then our eyes meet, and suddenly it’s like in the movies. Our eyes met, and then he was leaning towards me, or was I leaning towards him?Then our lips met.
Confession: I’ve never kissed or been kissed before. So when Peter and I, well let’s just say I didn’t expect it to be like that.
It seemed surreal. Those weren’t his hands, gently cupping my face. Those weren’t my fingers in his hair. This wasn’t me and Peter. This was some movie some other girl was being kissed by a boy. Not me. This couldn’t be me.
Yet here I was, kissing Peter Parker on the curb of a street in the middle of the night. That was me. So when we pulled away, it was strange. Like we were strangers. Like we were old friends who had forgotten things about each other.
“What happens now?” I asked, he smiled, his cheeks pink. “Anything we want.” He said.

Notes