Peter's plan

Chapter 20

"Alright that's it."

"Oh my God, Ned."

"Mmh?"

Ned looks up from the desk he's currently sitting at with his laptop as Peter closes the door behind him with a strong sense of déjà-vu from the night before. He stumbles to the bed and crashes on it, eyes turned to the ceiling and heart pounding in his chest. "Oh my God, Ned," he repeats, his mouth extremely dry, the small spot of skin where MJ's lips pressed on his cheek earlier still very much burning up. "MJ just kissed me on the cheek."

"Hey!" Ned reaches across his bed to bump his elbow, and Peter can hear his smile in his voice. "Dude! Nice!"

Some part of him kind of wants to rejoice, because holy cow MJ just kissed him, like she did it, she kissed him, she took the first step – hopefully she's not mad at him for not reacting, although she did not leave him time to do so in any case, wait, oh no maybe she regrets it? Maybe she–

Ned bumps him in the elbow again, sliding from his chair to his bed with a sigh. "Pete, I know this face. Stop overthinking things."

"She kissed me," Peter repeats in a somehow sluggish voice that gives him the impression he isn't the one talking in the first place. "Oh God Ned, we're probably gonna kiss tomorrow aren't we?"

"That's kind of your plan, isn't it?" Ned retorts as Peter sits up and meets his gaze.

"Yeah, yeah I guess but…" He takes a deep breath, and his best friend gives him a knowing look, probably trying to encourage him to voice his thoughts. So Peter does, because that's what Ned and him do, and that's why they work so well at being each other's best friend he thinks. "What if, what if, what if she doesn't like it?"

"I'm sure she's gonna like it."

"How can you be so sure Ned, I've never kissed anyone before!" Peter exclaims, a little desperate. "What if I'm bad at it? What if she hates it and then doesn't want to be with me anymore?" The words come flooding out of his mouth now, and even before Ned answers Peter thinks it's already helped a little.

"I'm sure you're gonna be great," his best friend assures with a serious nod, and Peter bites his lower lip, still very nervous about the whole thing. Ned seems to sense it because he quietly adds: "You know, I'd offer to help you practice, but I don't want to make things weird for Betty."

This successfully brings a smile on Peter's face and he nudges his best friend on the knee. "That's sweet, thanks dude, don't worry I get it." Just then there's a knock on the door, and somehow it makes Peter jumps. "Oh no, what if it's her?" he stutters, his eyes widening in a slight panic, and Ned shakes his head with a chuckle.

"What are you, scared of her now?" his best friend jokes, and Peter feels his cheeks flush. Why is he being so ridiculous?

Before he can say anything though, Flash's voice comes from behind the door: "Can you guys keep it down? I'm live-streaming."

"Yeah sorry sure thing Flash!" Ned calls out while Peter stifles his laugh in his pillow. They hear him mumble a little and then the sound of a closing door from a neighbor room. When Peter meets Ned's eyes they both giggle like two idiots. It takes them a while to regain their focus, and when they do Peter lies back down on his pillow, hands behind his head.

"I'm probably gonna kiss MJ tomorrow," he says quietly, and a little uselessly too. He's not freaking out anymore he thinks, his apprehension being mostly gone now. Talking about it with Ned obviously helped – and laughing, too –, but he's still worried he's going to mess things up. He really doesn't want to disappoint her. He still honestly cannot believe she likes him. This is just crazy. He can't believe his luck. "Ned?"

"Yeah?"

Peter gulps a little awkwardly, before glancing at his best friend. "Did you and Betty already like, you know, kiss kiss?"

Ned lets out a small sigh, lying down on his own bed. "Once yeah."

"Oh cool." A beat. "How um, how was it?"

"Honestly?" Ned asks, and Peter nods, his heart beating loudly in his chest. "It was amazing."

"Ha, that's cool," Peter chuckles a little, laying his arms back at his sides. They stay quiet for a moment, and his brain is still surging with thoughts. "I'm sorry, I'm stressing out a little."

"Yeah I figured that much!" Ned bursts out laughing, and Peter smiles to the ceiling once again. He's definitely lucky to have such an amazing best friend.

x

When Betty's alarm clock rings, MJ opens her eyes with the distinctive impression she's never really closed them in the first place. The events of the night before come rushing back in her brain and she does the one and only thing she wants to do right now: hide under her covers and ignore everything. Alright, that's probably a little dramatic of her, she admits it, but honestly she's not feeling anything else right now. She wants to go back to sleep and to her normal life where she doesn't stress out about kissing anyone. Oh God but she did kiss him now, didn't she? Granted, it was just a stupid peck on the cheek. But still. She did it. Not him. She kind of wants this, doesn't she? Why is she feeling so edgy and crappy about it then?

"Move your butt Jones," Betty's voice comes from above her, and she feels something poking her knee. She mumbles something that even she doesn't get, and Betty laughs. "What's up with you? Did something happen last night?"

"No."

"Ooh, are you disappointed then?" her friend teases, poking her in the knee again, and MJ can hear her smirk in her voice.

"No."

"Come on MJ, you're usually so much more eloquent!"

"Well screw eloquence, I just want sleep."

Betty laughs at that but doesn't give up her quest to apparently deprive her of five more minutes of well-deserved slumber. MJ lets herself be after a while, because Betty can be pretty convincing when she wants too, especially when she starts listing all the things they're gonna eat and drink at breakfast. They both dress up and head downstairs, where some of their group are already there. Betty leaves her side to say hi to Zoha, Yasmin and Zach, while MJ just waves at them and heads straight to the buffet, which proves to be a fatal mistake a couple of seconds later.

"Hey MJ!" Brad's voice and smile are aggressively joyful for such an early morning. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Hmpf," she shrugs dismissively, intently avoiding his eyes by glancing behind her to pretend to look for Betty. Another massive mistake. She meets Peter's eyes as he enters the restaurant alongside Ned, and she feels her cheeks instantly flush despite herself. Oh crap. She looks back in front of her, and oh crap again, Brad is still there, staring at her with a smile as blinding as the sun. Don't look directly at it, it probably has the same properties as the Basilisk in Harry Potter, her hazy brain suggests unhelpfully.

"So I was thinking," Brad starts off confidently, "how about we–"

And honestly, that's it. Maybe she's a little tired, and a little hungry, and maybe she needs some caffeine right now. But really, that's it. She can hear Peter and Ned walking in their direction behind her, probably to grab their breakfast since MJ and Brad are standing right next to the buffet. And she thinks well screw this, that's it. She's way to busy trying to navigate around her stupid feelings for stupid Peter Parker to also have to deal with Brad I-can't-take-a-freaking-hint Davis too.

"Alright that's it," she cuts Brad sharply, meeting his gaze head-on with a severe expression. "Listen here, Brad, I'm gonna spell it out for you because apparently you don't get it. I am not interested, okay?"

"What wh–"

Ignoring him, MJ turns around and sure enough Peter is standing there. She meets his brown puppy eyes, and he's looking sheepish and almost like he doesn't know where to stand in all this. He's kind of hiding behind Ned at the moment, and she cannot believe she has freaking feelings for this idiot. Right now though, all she knows is that she's angry at Brad for being stupid and not seeing that she is not interested at all, and for forcing her to snap like that at 8 in the morning, because it sucks, and because she really shouldn't have to do any of this in the first place. And Peter's there, looking at her, and she doesn't think much.

"Come on Parker," she says, grabbing him by the wrist, "let's go get something to drink." And she walks away, ignoring Brad's shocked expression. Peter follows her without a word as she fumes a little, pretty much pissed at everything. She can feel everyone's eyes fixed on Peter and her, and she hates it. She stops next to the buffet with the coffee machine and juice dispenser, and after a second realizes she's still holding Peter's wrist so she lets go, cheeks a little flush, and looks up to meet his eyes.

He's staring at her, the tips of his ears a little red, and she takes a deep breath to try and calm down. "I'm sorry," she says after a couple of seconds, looking down at her feet. "I didn't mean to grab you like that without asking, that was rude."

"That's alright," he assures quietly, and damn that idiot for being so nice all the time.

"I just got pretty pissed and–" She's not even sure why she's explaining herself really. She doesn't even know what she was about to say, so she's grateful that Peter chimes in when he sees her hesitate.

"It's fine, don't worry. I get it." He offers her a sweet smile, and MJ's almost tempted to smile back. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" she frowns in surprise. "It's not your fault."

"I know but," he shrugs, looking down at his feet then back at her, "you know, we boys can be dumb sometimes. It doesn't justify anything at all but yeah."

"Yeah you can be pretty dense sometimes," MJ agrees, and suddenly she's not even sure if she's still talking about Brad or not. Peter seems to think the same thing because suddenly he looks a little embarrassed, rubbing at the back of his neck like he always does, and she can't help her smirk. She's known for a little while now that he likes her. She likes him too, and she's pretty sure he knows that now – hopefully, because if he doesn't then that means he really is an oblivious idiot.

And yet nothing's really happened between them. Or at least nothing major. She hadn't realized it before, but she might be getting a little annoyed by that lack of things. She kind of wants to go like, 'look, I like you, you like me, are we doing this or not' or something, but she doesn't think she's confident enough to do that just yet. She's honestly not sure what's holding him back. She doesn't want to rush him or anything, but yes, she might be getting slightly impatient, she has to admit it. She wonders if he can feel it or not.

They stare at each other for a moment, and once again she really wishes she could know what's going on inside his head. It would make things so much easier! She thinks they should work on their communication skill or something. Maybe she could just ask him. Oh but she really can't do that, just thinking about it is making her heart flutter and her stomach do uncomfortable back flips, it really sucks. The air is tensed between them again as they stare at each other, but then Peter nods to the buffet with a tiny smile and asks: "So, do you want something to drink? Tea right?"

And somehow that's all she needs to stop overthinking apparently. MJ smirks at that, raising an inquisitive eyebrow. "Stalker much?" she jokes, and is surprised to see Peter smirk as well.

"I'm very observant," he retorts with a wink, and MJ doesn't reply anything because what. Peter grabs two cups and fills them with water from the electric kettle while she tries to recover from the fact that Peter Parker just freaking winked at her, then he nods to the basket filled with teabags. "Can you grab one for me too, please? I trust your good judgment in tea."

"Oh you do now?" she laughs, and Peter gives her an amused and pleased look at that. "Well good for you Parker, because I'm definitely a tea expert." It's his turn to laugh now, and her turn to look pleased because of it – although she does try to hide it, which is kind of ridiculous. She's already established with herself that she has the most ginormous crush on that idiot, so why fight it? She's a lost cause anyway right? So what she likes to make him laugh, screw her. Peter watches her as she picks two teabags from the basket, she can feel his gaze on her face and when she looks up she sees fondness in his eyes before he quickly swaps it for amusement. And yeah, he's probably as much a lost cause as she is, she thinks.

She's really wondering what he's waiting for now.

Early update to make up for last time :D