Hi Everyone!
Sorry for such a big delay between updates.
Kind of made it a rule for myself that I would have more of the next story written before I would update - then of course ran in to some writers block!
Some holiday and a long weekend has really helped though and I now feel ready to post the next chapter of "told you I'll be here forever".
I really hope you enjoy it and if you have any feedback please let me know! :)
"I'm not sure how much more of this I can take Peter! Cheesecake at Juniors before 10 on a Saturday morning that's annoying as all hell but I can handle that! I didn't expect all this! She's dragged me to every single store she could find trying on dresses. It's been 4 hours of dealing with this shit. 4 hours Peter!"
Just as she finished ranting down the phone at him Chrissie came rushing out of the changing room in some kind of dress -MJ really couldn't be bothered with it enough to pay attention what it was, after the first couple they all just kind of looked the same.
Despite that she smiled and gave her friend a big cheesy thumbs up, telling her cheerfully that she looked great (she always did) which of course caused her to squeal excitedly and run back in to the room to try on something else which she was just dying for MJ to see.
The second her back was turned the smile fell off MJ's face and she grimaced, sticking her tongue out and making a slight noise of disgust as she did so.
"Dear God Peter you better be on the subway ready to save me from this torture! I'm in Macy's Peter! Macy's! On a freaking Saturday! Waiting for your girlfriend while she tries on endless dresses and it's just sooo painful!"
"Calm down,I'm almost there. I'll be 10 minutes max. Just keep her distracted until I get there. And she'd not my girlfriend!"
MJ rolled her eyes, and Peter knew it whether he could see her or not.
"Whatever Petey. You've got 5."
She hung up before he could say anything else - God he was lucky she was his friend and willing to put up with this crap!
Although in all honesty she was doing this more for Chrissie than for Peter.
Despite Chrissie's bubbly personality she'd always liked the girl from the moment Peter first introduced them in Freshman year.
The majority of the freshman class had come from a local science and maths led junior school so knew each other already whereas MJ had gone to school in Brooklyn so knew nobody. On her first day, actually in her very first class, she had met Peter and without her giving any hint that she wanted him to do so he'd struck up a conversation with her.
Even when she didn't respond he just kept on talking - something she came to learn was just what Peter did.
When it got to lunch time and she had no idea where to sit, she was about to turn around and go eat outside when he'd called her name across the canteen and asked her to come sit with them. He introduced her first to Ned, who seemed like an OK dude even if he did seem a little weird before introducing her to his "best friend in the entire world" - which were totally Peter's words not hers.
One look at this girl and MJ could tell that she was going to hate her. Tall, cute looking with dark blonde hair, bright blue eyes and perfect pale skin - obviously clever and well liked by the way that Peter kept on going on and on about how great she was, she was everything that MJ couldn't stand. And when she leapt up from her seat with a massive smile on her face in order to give her a hug MJ had to bite her tongue in order not to scream at her to back the hell up.
Instead she put up with it and without a word sat down a couple of seats away from them. Chrissie seemed to frown a little at that but with a shrug she just accepted it and went back to her conversation with the boys, although MJ would see her look up every once in a while and give her a smile as if to say she understood what she was doing and respected her decision to do so.
Maybe it was that smile that made her stay, which made her want to stick around them every lunch time, occassionally commenting on what crazy topic the boys were squabbling about, because Chrissie had included her with no question and yet still respected her decision to become part of their group at her own pace. She didn't push, she didn't ask questions, instead she just accepted MJ for who she was and was happy with it. And as a result MJ slowly began to find herself liking if not loving Chrissie for it - rather begrudgingly of course.
As she grew closer to the little group she began to realise why Chrissie was so special and why despite hanging around with the school "losers" everyone seemed to like her.
It was because she was genuinely happy.
Not like those fake preppy girls who were nice to your face and complete bitches behind your back, she was genuinely nice to everyone, even those (like Flash Thompson) who didn't really deserve it. It was the way she spoke to people in such a caring manner, how she treated others it was all real and that's what made the difference. It was what made MJ open up to her and see her as an important person in her life. Chrissie didn't have to pretend to be happy because she really was.
She was truly happy with her life, in a way that MJ had never seen before and neither had anyone else from the way in which everyone, including teachers, seemed to comment on it. By pulling MJ in to her orbit somehow some of that happiness had also rubbed off on MJ. For the first time in her life she found herself actually wanting to be friends with people.
She didn't always talk to them and 9 times out of 10 when she did it was completely sarcastic but from that first day in the canteen she made a point of seeking out her friends (God she couldn't belive she had friends, as in more than one, and she actually liked them!) and sat with them in class or at lunch.
She joined after school clubs, attended decathalon practice and went to parties, she even went over to their houses for sleepovers and movie marathons. Of course she played it off like it was no big deal but to her it was.
No one at her previous schools had ever understood her, they'd all wanted her to change to become something she wasn't. Here she could be who she wanted to be and still have friends without the pressure of having to it was all due to Chrissie, who took her under her wing and taught her how have fun and enjoy herself by not pushing her to be something she wasn't and letting her realise in her own time that letting the right people in to her life was a good thing.
Peter may have been her first friend but Chrissie was the closest that MJ would ever get to a best friend.
Which is why it had hurt so much to see her fall apart the way that she did.
Chrissie tried to hide it but being her best friend, MJ knew her better than she thought.
It first started when Peter began withdrawing from the group.
MJ would glance over during lunch or while in class and see Chrissie staring off in to the distance, as if she was trapped in her own thoughts, before coming back to reality. It was worse when Peter was there with them, MJ would catch her out of the corner of her eye, staring at him as if she was trying to figure out if he was really there. Sometimes she would have such a look of longing, even when he was sat next to her, that MJ actually felt herself feeling sorry for Chrissie.
And she hated that!
Not only the fact that she had to feel human emotions which were always a pain in the ass but she was feeling sorry for the person who was the happiest human being she had ever known.
Or at least she had been.
That was why she felt so sorry for her because with each far off gaze and longing look that happiness disappeared a little. By the time Peter had almost completely removed himself from their lives he took with him that happiness to the point that Chrissie was almost an entirely different person. She became what MJ used to be - quiet, withdrawn, self loathing, completely isolated from the world.
MJ and Ned, they had tried their best, tried to keep her connected and for a while it worked but it wasn't the same, she wasn't the same - not without Peter.
For MJ the fact that Chrissie relied so heavily on a man for her own happiness would usually go against everything that she believed in but the two of them genuinely were soulmates, one look at them, the way they complemented and supported each other in everything they did told her that they were stronger because of each other.
Chrissie's strength, her happiness and her warmth, it came from that deep connection that she shared with her best friend, with her family and the people that she loved, she was stronger because she believed whole heartedly in those connections.
Thanks to Peter's great disappearing act, she barely got to see Aunt May and MJ knew without Chrissie even telling her that her Mum was away working on this case all the time - no wonder with all that going on she started going in to a bit of a tailspin.
MJ and Ned had barely kept her hanging on but then something happened. MJ couldn't tell exactly what but whatever it was it set Chrissie completely adrift. She tried to hide it as best she could with fake smiles and laughter, by creating distance between them so that they wouldn't see how badly she was hurting but MJ knew something was badly wrong.
She'd tried asking her about it but it was difficult.
Sure, Chrissie was her best friend but she knew she was nowhere near being Chrissie's.
Even if they were, they had never been the type of friends to share their deepest darkest secrets. That's what Chrissie had Peter for and, well, MJ wasn't in to the whole "sharing your feelings" bullshit that everyone seemed to love. So to try and get Chrissie to open up to her about something that was obviously traumatic wasn't MJ's strong suit.
Which is why she had badgered Ned in to doing it instead.
Only he had not been that great either and everytime he'd tried to approach the subject he'd immediately started tripping over his words and making a complete idiot out of himself.
MJ had rolled her eyes and called him stupid of course, but she couldn't blame him for it.
After all she hadn't been able to approach the subject either - the only person they knew who could was Peter and as the situation between the lot of them was fairly complicated she knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
So she told herself that they could wait, until Chrissie finally opened up to them or until Peter got his head out of his ass and realised something was deeply wrong with his best friend - whichever came first.
MJ had her money on pigs flying before either situation happened so she was pleasantly surprised when Peter had called her at the ass crack of dawn that morning; frantically rambling about how Chrissie hated him, then forgave him, now possibly hated him again and would she help him because she was Chrissie's other best friend who was also a girl and she would understand better and convince her that she was doing the right thing and could she pretty, pretty please keep Chrissie busy for the morning while he worked on his plan to finally make it up to her.
In the end MJ told herself that she agreed just to get Peter to shut up, which was true to an extent, but it was also true that she was relieved that things seemed to be getting back to normal with them.
And not a moment too soon she had thought as she left her apartment that morning and headed towards the subway station, because while Chrissie may have been able to hide her feelings there had been one thing she hadn't been able to hide no matter how much she tried covering it up.
The moment MJ saw that scar on her friend's neck, she knew there could be no more running from the truth, no more hiding. Whatever had happened to Chrissie was far more serious than she could have ever imagined. If Peter hadn't called and told her what had happened she would have had no option but to finally confront her friend about it all. So despite her complaining, MJ was more than willing to put up with the tortue of endless dress shopping if it meant that Peter and Chrissie could put this whole sorry mess behind them and Chrissie could finally open up to him about what the hell had happened. MJ never thought she would ever, ever say this but she would sit through 1000s of dress changes if it meant getting her bubbly best friend back again.
And it better.
She thought darkly as she was forced to sit through another painfull dress show curtousy of Chrissie. Going through the same smile and nod routine before the girl rushed back to try on yet another dress, leaving MJ to stare murderously down at her phone waiting for Peter's text.
Because there's no way I'm going through this hell only for him to mess it all up again.
So what did you all think? Hopefully you liked it :)