Kevin Hayes stood silently in the dark room at school. It was 6 o clock and he had scouted the area and there were just two janitors cleaning up and they were on the second floor. Enough time to develop his pictures. He glanced down at the pictures swishing in the water below him. The soft red light illuminated his shadow on the wall, making him think about the previous night and the shadows he had seen.
The shadows of Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker.
Kissing.
He sneered. Making out was more like it.
His Mary Jane with Peter Parker. God, it infuriated him. He looked back down at the pictures that were slowly turning into recognizable things. There was the one of them in the car, one of her on the way home from school, one with her at the dinner table.
The Parker's dinner table. He wasn't sure why she was staying there but it made him even madder. In fact just thinking about it was killing him.
He hung up the pictures carefully to dry and sat in the small chair in the corner. He double checked to make sure the door was locked before finally relaxing and watching the pictures, lost in thought.
He had lied, he hadn't gone easy on Peter that time he had tried to fight him. In fact he was giving it all he had. And Peter hadn't even broken a sweat. No something weird had happened to Peter Parker... he knew he couldn't touch him. But really, he told himself, is he even important? It was MJ he wanted in the first place. Mary Jane, he knew would fall in love with him as soon as she saw how much he loved her. And they could get married soon after they graduated.
Okay, obviously I have to get Mary Jane, but how? He grimaced. Senior year was quickly coming to a close and he would be devastated if he never saw MJ again. He had to win her over. But what could he do?
Kevin wrung his hands nervously, went to check on his pictures and then moved back to his chair. He became more distraught as he thought things over. Never seeing MJ? That would be horrible. More like Hell actually. He had to do something. He had to get her.
In his brain his rushed thoughts stopped suddenly.
Two words had stopped him.
Get her.
For the first time he smiled.
............
Mary Jane laid on Peter's neatly made bed, holding one of his hands while he spoke on the phone to his Aunt May. She and Uncle Ben had gone out to see a play and they were alone.
With any other boy, MJ would have been a bit apprehensive of being alone with him on a bed, lest he try something she wasn't ready for but she wasn't surprised when she didn't feel any twinge of nervousness or doubt.
"Yes Aunt May, I know there's dinner in the oven."
Mary Jane began playing with the fingers on his left hand, bending them and twisting them.
"What are you doing?" he mouthed to her. "Yes Aunt May, I know how to load the dishwasher." He said out loud.
MJ stifled a giggle and made his fingers into bunny ears.
She saw Peter look at her oddly then start laughing.
"Sorry Aunt May, I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing at something Mary Jane did."
Peter rolled his eyes at her and mouthed again.
"Just a second."
MJ nodded and pushed down his middle and ring finger in a variation of bunny ears, when a thwip sounded and she screamed as something suddenly flew past her and landed on the wall.
Peter was just hanging up the phone when MJ screamed and he looked up at her, his blue eyes wide with apprehension.
His eyes widened even more when he took in the scene.
MJ was still holding his hand frozen in that weird bunny ears position and there was something... coming out of his wrist?!?
He quickly shook his hand and the strange substance released, leaving a string of it still attached to the wall.
"What the...?" He broke off and looked at MJ who looked equally confused.
Cautiously he reached down and picked it up gently. MJ craned her neck to look closer at it. It was... a white, sticky string. Well actually more like thousands of white sticky strings twisted around each other, eventually forming an almost unbreakable line.
MJ glanced up at Peter, wondering how he was reacting to the strange stuff coming out of his arm.
He looked shell shocked and MJ herself was in a bit of a daze.
"Alright... Pete. You have... um... gray ooze? Coming out of your arm."
Peter managed to stare at her and then break into a smile.
"Doesn't sound very attractive when you put it like that MJ."
She looked at him, "You know what this stuff is?"
"I think... MJ I think it's...webbing."
"Webbing? Oh God Peter, this spider stuff is kinda creeping me out."
"Tell me about it." He gave her a wry smile. "But look, I think it's ok."
With careful aim he set down an empty Dr. Pepper can and pushed down his ring and middle finger.
Again the stuff thwipped out of his wrist and made a target somewhere completely away from the Dr. Pepper.
He knit his brow together and looked at the string.
Finally after practicing for another half hour he finally had it down.
MJ was lying on her stomach, watching him from the bed.
He turned and shot her a hesitant grin. His room was full of webs.
"Sorry Mary Jane."
She started laughing at the absurdity of it all.
"Come here Tiger," Peter awkwardly maneuvered his way through the strands of webbing until he was standing by her.
He knelt down on the floor so their faces were even.
Peter sucked in his breath for a second as they just stared at each other's faces. She had a freckle at the end of her nose and there were flecks of emerald green in her blue eyes.
"You're so beautiful." He murmured.
Peter blushed after he said it, not really expecting his mind to voice out his thoughts out loud.
MJ smiled at him, and her smile just made him melt even more.
"I don't think you're half bad either Pete."
Peter looked at her thankfully.
"MJ I'm so glad you're here with me now. I... I don't know how I could handle all this stuff alone. I'd think I was going nuts."
Mary Jane reached out and grabbed his hand, careful this time not to let her fingers push his down in a web shooting position, lest she get sprayed in the face with webs. With her other hand she reached out and touched his cheek, watching as his eyes seemed to almost close with contentment.
Once again for what seemed like the fiftieth time she was struck with how different Peter was. He was in heaven when she just touched his face. He loved her that much that that tiny gesture was enough to keep him happy forever. She was beginning to notice that little things he did too were beginning to affect her. When he would kiss her he'd always pull back after a moment, just to make sure she was okay with it. His praise always came straight from the heart and she found herself admiring him more and more. He was beginning to become the voice in her head.
"I'm beginning to love you more than I've loved anybody in my whole life do you know that Peter Parker?"
Peter's eyed widened comically, and then a surprised smile slid onto his face.
"I love you too Mary Jane."
And then he kissed her, and all the doubt and uncertainty that came with having these new spider powers faded as the only person that mattered kissed him back.