Peter's plan

Chapter 21

"Oh my God I'm such a jerk."

Peter spends his entire breakfast listening to MJ rant about tea. He might take it as an excuse to stare at her more than necessary, but he figures that's okay because he also learns a lot too. At some point Betty points out that what she's saying is fascinating, and MJ glares at her. "What?" Betty pouts, and Ned chuckles. "I'm not the only one who thinks so, right Peter?" He flushes instantly at that, diving in his eggs on toast by instinct, and he's pretty sure some kicking happens under the table from Betty's small yelp.

When they're done with breakfast, they all go back to their rooms to get ready. Peter stashes very carefully the small box with the black Dahlia necklace in his backpack, making sure it's tucked safely in his spare hoodie. The last thing he wants is to break it. While waiting for Ned to finish getting ready, he checks at least four times that the necklace is safe, testing the box to make sure it cannot open on its own, shaking his bag to make sure it's not rolling around or anything. Ned teases him a little for it, and Peter has to admit he kind of is being a little ridiculous, but he can't help it. "Better safe than sorry," he tells him seriously, and Ned chuckles.

They head downstairs, and Betty and MJ are already there. Ned and Betty engage in a passionate conversation about slushies, and Peter just stands awkwardly next to MJ who's giving him the side-eye – probably to try and throw him off, he's kind of getting used to it, which is awesome really. He really wishes he could relax just a little to take part in that, but it's hard. It's like a countdown started in his head when he woke up, a countdown to that moment he's been anxiously waiting for, for weeks now.

8 hours and 30 minutes until that.

The numbers are big and red and flashing in his mind with each second passing, and that's definitely not helping him relax at all.

Once everyone is ready, they leave the hotel and head to the Citédes Sciences. They're all pretty excited, which makes sense since they're all from a school called Midtown Science and Technology, and they did all chose to be on this science trip too. Flash is live-streaming already, and Peter wonders why because most of his followers are from New York anyway, where it's something like 3 or 4 in the morning. Zach and Sebastian are walking behind him and making faces at the camera, and when Flash stops next to Mr Harrington while they wait for the green light to cross the street, the teacher waves with a happy 'hi Flash-mob', earning himself the laughs of pretty much everyone and the mortified complaints of Flash.

Peter tries to focus on his classmate's predicament, rather than the fact that MJ is walking right beside him and that their hands are brushing every now and then. She's not pulling her hand away like she usually does, and if Peter wasn't as stressed as he is right now, he would wonder if she's not doing it on purpose just a little. But he's still freaking out completely, so that doesn't cross his mind. He's pretty sure he's actually losing his mind because of it. She's killing him already, and they haven't even kissed yet! Not even held hands either. Oh man he's in trouble.

They get to the museum a few minutes before it opens, and there are already people waiting in line to get in. Ned tries to get him to talk about all the things he cannot wait to see in there, like they did the day before, and Peter is pretty thankful for the distraction. Mr Harrington gives them their tickets, giving instructions that no one really listens too, then the doors open and Ned shrieks excitedly next to Peter.

His best friend's enthusiasm gives him the distraction he needed, and for the next two hours Peter actually has a lot of fun. He still thinks he's gonna make a fool out of himself and be the most awkward anyone's ever been if he's around MJ, so he tries to casually walk around and pretend like he's too deep in thoughts to talk much. He doesn't have to pretend that much, because the different exhibitions are insane.

Earthwatch is amazing, and that exposition on mathematics is actually super great too – Ned and him spend a lot of time playing around with a game with tanks and water to materialize Pythagoras' theorem. Then they head to the exhibition on Sounds, which is awesome too. It's almost noon but Peter figures they still have time to check the 'Man and Genes' exhibition. Ned tells him he's gonna hang out with Betty for a little while – she wants to check the 'Science in the news' exhibition, so they agree on meeting in half an hour in the 'BR4IN' section. Mr Harrington told them lunch break would be around 1 so they still have time.

Peter can feel MJ's eyes on him but he avoids her gaze, thinking to himself he cannot break right now. He walks around the room for a while, staying around the 'Genetic Engineering' part of it for a long moment because that's just absolutely fascinating really. Then when it's time, he heads to the exhibition on brains – that ought to be amazing too – to find Ned and Betty. He realizes he hasn't seen MJ in a while, and he instantly wonders where she is, before forcing himself to think about something else because that's just distracting.

He's barely made three steps inside that Ned rushes to him, looking left and right before whispering hurriedly: "Dude, you've gotta stop acting so weird, MJ asked me what was up with you today."

Oh crap. Peter's heart leaps in his chest for no reason. "What do you mean?"

Ned stares blankly at him, very unimpressed. "Come one, you've been avoiding her since we got here!"

"I've not been avoiding her," Peter protests weakly, and Ned raises an inquisitive eyebrow at him that's definitely a lot MJ-like, just like his blank stare from seconds ago. "She's rubbing off on you man," he whines a little, running his hand through his hair with an embarrassed laugh.

"Maybe a little," Ned admits with a grin, "but anyway that's not the point! Quit overthinking things and go talk to her, Pete. You're not gonna screw things up, she already likes you." Peter can't help blushing at that, and of course Ned notices. He bumps him in the shoulder with a smile. "Come on, go talk to her!"

"Alright alright, I'm going," he makes a face and his best friend chuckles. "Thanks Ned."

"Guy in the chair!" he retorts with a deep, ridiculous bow, and it's Peter's turn to chuckle. Ned's right, he needs to calm down and stop being a baby. MJ is already suspicious apparently, and that's not good. Now that he thinks about it, behaving like he did the entire morning was actually pretty dumb. What if she thinks he doesn't actually like her? Oh no, how can he be so stupid! He's ignored her this entire time, never even mentioning how she kissed him the night before, or how she flipped Brad off and kind of 'chose' him during breakfast, he really is horrifyingly stupid isn't he?

"Oh my god I'm such a jerk," Peter mumbles to himself. He needs to fix this. She's probably pissed at him for avoiding her, or probably convinced he actually doesn't like her at all, this is a disaster. He needs to find her.

He doesn't have to look for long. He finds her reading a panel on neurons. He takes a second to look at her and calm the pounding of his stupid heart, then her walks up to her and stops at her side. He's not entirely sure what to say, but it doesn't matter in any case because she instantly glances at him and smirks. "Oh, so you're talking to me again then?"

Alright, his pounding heart is back. He's so screwed. "What? What do you mean I wasn't… I didn't…"

"Chill Parker," she shakes her head in amusement. "I'm just messing with you."

"Oh." He really should have known he thinks. But he's an idiot today, apparently, so there's that.

She stays quiet for a minute, eyes focused on the panel in front of them, and Peter watches as she traces the edge of the table with the side of her thumb. He wonders what she's thinking about right now. She's deeply focused on what she's reading, and it shows. He likes it. He likes it a lot. The lights are dim and a little blue, and he thinks she's never looked this beautiful before – but he's being ridiculous again, he thinks, because he always thinks that every time he sees her, hears her, talks to her. He's too deep into his contemplation that it takes him a couple of second to register that she's staring back now.

There's uncertainty in her eyes, and he doesn't know why. Then she takes a quick breath, her gaze leaving his for a split second. "Are you… okay?" she asks a little shyly, pinching her lips in a thin line after she spoke the words, and Peter just stares in surprise.

He's pretty sure his brain just disconnected or something. Is she actually worrying about him? That's just insane! He's been acting like a jerk – without realizing it, but still – the entire morning and she's worried? He wants to reassure her, he wants to tell her she doesn't have to ask him that, he wants to apologize again and again, but he cannot seem to know how to form words anymore. He isn't sure for how long he hesitates like an idiot, but suddenly her expression changes to the neutral, unimpressed one she offers to pretty much everyone else – one he hadn't seen in a long time, he thinks, and it kind of breaks his heart to realize that.

"Never mind," she tells him a little dismissively, but Peter can definitely hear the tension in her words. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to…" – she takes a sharp breath, looking anywhere but him – "I'll just, I'll leave you to it." She vaguely points to the panel in front of them then starts to walk away, and she sounded so cold and uncertain that Peter feels his heart drop in his chest.

There it is. He was so scared to screw things up, and now he did.

"Wait, please."

He hasn't make it this far to give up just because he's the biggest idiot there ever was. He's gonna fix this.

MJ seems to hesitate, not turning to look at him just yet. But she's stopped, she's listening. He can do this. He can fix this. He bites his lip and takes an awkward step towards her. "I'm sorry, please stay, it's… it's always great to hang out with you."

MJ spins around slowly, and when her eyes meet his, there's something in them that sends Peter's heart flying. "Really?" she says in a very quiet voice, and he cannot answer anything to that because he's too busy drowning in her deep brown eyes. Her face is hopeful and calm and oh so beautiful he almost forgets how to breathe. It only lasts a couple of seconds – although they do appear infinitely longer to him – then she looks down to her feet before nodding with a grin. "I mean, of course it is." Peter chuckles at that, and so does MJ, and they keep staring at each other for a few seconds more.

Then they both jump out of it when Sebastian walks past them and teases loudly: "Get a room already you two!"

Peter feels his cheeks flush instantly at that and his eyes widen as the other boy runs away laughing with Tyler. He really just wants to hide his face in his hands in embarrassment right now, but he's a little curious to see her reaction too, so he turns his gaze towards MJ, but she's not looking at him. He still sees it though. Her cheeks are a little red as she glares at their two classmates, mumbling a grumpy 'oh shut it' in the process. She then proceeds to walk away without a glance back.

But a couple of minutes later, when Peter catches her staring at him from across the room and she looks away instantly like nothing, well she's definitely smiling.

Almost there! :D Who's excited?