"Well Ma'am, it appears to be a complete amateur robbery, nothing too valuable has been stolen, am I correct?" says an officer with a bad beer belly, and Mrs Parker gives him a curt nod.
"Then insurance will fix the window, and we'll try to find you bag Ms Stacey." He says, giving me a courteous nod. Of course, the NYPD wouldn't usually be looking for some teenage girl's handbag, but being the daughter of the late Chief of the NYPD does have it's advantages, even though they probably won't find my bag, ever.
He steps out of the house and shuts the door behind him, and Aunt May let's out a deep sigh. She turns her head and throws a withered look at the dining table, which sets a new wave of guilt off.
"I'll clean up Mrs Parker! You deserve a rest after preparing this wonderful meal!" I pipe up in my sweetest tone, hoping that she detects the appreciation in my voice. She flashes a quick smile at me and tells me that there's no need, but I assure her that I WANT to do the cleanup.
I walk into the dinning room table, and I hear Peter tell his aunt something faintly, hopefully making himself an excuse to come and help me. I turn around and head to the kitchen with my hands full of the plates we ate with before we were do rudely interrupted by that annoying burglar, but I flinch and drop the plates from my hand when I find Peter standing right behind me, scaring the wits out of me. I should get used to the fact that Peter can move without making a sound like normal people. Thankfully though, Peter's inhumanness gives him sharper reflexes, which made him catch all three plates and the utensils that I was carrying atop of them before they could make a sound.
"Are you sure you're okay without your bag?" He says to me in a soft whisper, which radiated his concern. It's so like Peter to be worried about me being angry about having my stupid bag stolen while it was HIS house that was broken into!
"I'm fine Peter, but what concerns me more is the fact that you almost got robbed."
"I did get robbed, though."
"Technically I got robbed."
"And that still bothers me."
"Why?"
"Well..." Peter begins to say hesitantly as we enter the kitchen together, but doesn't continue his sentence when he sees his Aunt May with her head in her hand, sitting at the small kitchen table. Peter walks over to the sink and sets the plates inside it gently, and walks over to plant a kiss on his Aunt's cheek.
"It's going to be fine, Aunt May." He whispers to her reassuringly as I walk back into the dining room to retrieve more of our discarded dinner to be put away.
"Well, because why would someone break into my house and not steal anything BUT your handbag. Doesn't that sound kind of, I don't know, well SUSPICIOUS to you?" Peter says from behind me after silently entering the room. He leans over me slowly stretching himself, and reaching for some more dishes still filled with food. This kid is freaking unbelievable!
"Peter, now is hardly the time for this." I say to him, my voice tight, as he leans away from me.
"Hardly time for what?" He says, with a cheeky smile spreading across his face.
"Shut up. Back to the point, what exactly are you hinting at?"
"Well, who do you know would want to steal something of yours, and could easily know your whereabouts as erm, he has demonstrated before."
"What?" I say in complete shock, putting the plates back down on the table forcefully. Peter just looks at me, his big brown eyes full of something unidentifiable.
"A-are you accusing PHILIP?" I say, my voice oozing outrage. "That is completely ridiculous! He's a wimpy 14 year old kid!" I continue, my voice turning into a stress-filled squeak at the end of my sentence.
"He is pretty messed up."
"But I don't think he's physically able to climb up to your second story room and break the window, though." I say pointedly.
"Men go to great lengths for love, my dear Gwen."
"Woah woah woah, there are two horrible overstatements in that sentence."
"Do enlighten me."
"First of all, I'd hardly call Philip a man, actually he's the farthest thing from a man."
"I'll give you that one." Peter says with a small chuckle.
"And also, Philip doesn't love me, it's just a small little freshman crush."
"Yeah right, I had a massive crush on you for years! But I never planted a tracker bug in your phone."
We walk back into the now empty kitchen with the last of the dinner plates in our hands, and we start to put away the food together.
"Well then, shouldn't you be a bit more jealous that another kid is hitting on me and possibly stealing me things?" I say, I've been wondering about Peter's lack of jealousy about this little situation for a while now.
"Well, I kind of know how it feels to have a crush on someone as amazing as you."
I give him a look.
"It's true." He says as he pulls me closer to him, "You don't seem to know the effect you have on people."
"The non-existent one?"
"If it makes you feel better, I would go over to that kid's house right now and beat him into a senseless pulp, but the fact that I don't have enough evidence that it IS him that just broke into my house is kind of stopping me."
"I'm not asking you to go beat him up, and YOU'RE the one who came up with that stupid theory." I retort.
A look of indifference shines in his eyes while he holds me tight to him; so close that I feel his breath on my lips.
"See! You know that it's a ridiculous theory!" I say. Oh jesus, how I love it when I'm right.
"Whatever," He says, and I give him a smug smile.
"You are so adorable when you're smug." he mumbles to me as he leans closer to me and makes his soft lips meet mine.
"Don't let me interrupt you two lovebirds, but I need a glass of water." Aunt may says as she enters the kitchen, smiling at us. I quickly hop out of Peter's embrace as an uncontrollable wave of heat washes across my face. Peter looks at his aunt sheepishly and watches as his aunt silently gets herself a glass of water then shuffles out of the kitchen.
"Well, that was embarrassing." I say while I hear Aunt May go up the stairs slowly. Peter just nods, his cheeks still a bit red. He's so adorable when he gets all flustered and embarrassed.
"Well, I'm headed home. Tell your aunt that I loved the diner, and that I'm sorry that my bag got you guys almost robbed!" I say jokingly to break the silence, but also really heading for the door. I feel Peter's arms incircle me and he says, "Where do you think you're going?" In a low growl.
"Home." I whisper innocently.
"You don't think that I'm going to let you walk home all alone at night without being armed with a cellphone!"
"You can't just leave Aunt May on her own! You were just almost robbed!" I say, with an undertone of seriousness coloring my words. I think he should be guarding his own home rather than walk me home on the same streets that I have walked on like, a thousand times.
"That aunt of mine is a tough old bird, she can fend for herself. Besides, it was YOU that was robbed, not us." He tells me in a matter-of-fact tone. I let out an exasperated sigh and walk out of his front door and on to his porch. I hope lightly down the stairs and walk away quickly, but of course a few seconds later I feel his hand wrap around mine as he walks beside me silently down the road.
"Okay this is ridiculous." Peter says, breaking our comfortable silence. He pulls me into a dark alleyway and says, "C'mon hop onto my back." I silently oblige and then we're soaring.