By the time the night of Betty's bachelorette party on Saturday, I hadn't even heard Peter's voice since the lunch days before. I had made good on my word and called him the night he brought me lunch to work, but since then I'd only received infrequent texts. I wasn't sure if he was just that busy with Spidey work or if he was hurt or angry or what. Thousands of possibilities raced through my head, none of them positive. I ran a nervous hand through my hair. In the back of my mind, his new suit kept popping up whenever these thoughts plagued my brain. I wasn't sure how or why his suit changed, but I was sure it wasn't normal or good. I didn't trust it.
The only thing I had to look forward to was a visit from my mom. She had a business trip in New York, so she was flying out Sunday and staying until Tuesday. I had planned a dinner for her to officially meet Peter for Monday night, but I was worried he would forget. When I texted him the details and asked if he was available, I only got a one word answer of "yes!" I wasn't sure if he really understood what he was agreeing to.
I grumbled while applying my eyeliner. Betty's party was two hours away and the lack of communication with Peter and my dislike for parties put me in a foul mood. I wasn't sure where we were going, but I had a pretty good suspicion.
In a last ditch effort to hear Peter's voice, I called him while waiting for the curling iron I had plugged in to get hot. A minute or so later of listening to the dial tone, I got his voicemail.
"Hey, you reached Peter! If you're Mr. Jameson, I promise I will send you the picture ASAP, if you're anyone else, I'll call you back when I can!"
I thought about leaving a message but decided against it. If he wasn't answering, it was unlikely he would listen to the voicemail. I ended the call and opened my messages. There was about ten texts from me to Peter and none back from him. I started typing.
'Hey, so you probably forgot but tonight is Betty's bachelorette party. Sooooo if you try to call I probably won't answer. But I might if I get a chance? Just call or text when you can. I miss you. Be careful.'
I hit send and sighed. I really cared about him, but this was getting ridiculous. He's never been this bad at communicating before. After a moment of pouting, I determinedly stood up straight and looked at myself in the mirror. The woman looking back at me was unfamiliar, sad, plastered with makeup and donned in a short blue dress.
"Okay, you just aren't going to think about him for the rest of the night," I told myself. "You are going to go out, have fun, and get super drunk." I nodded and grabbed the curling iron.
My suspicions were confirmed the moment I exited the taxi. Betty's bachelorette party was at a strip club. How stereotypical. I groaned but walked to the door to open it.
The inside was classier than I expected, but that wasn't saying a ton. Red curtains and beads covered the walls, and scattered around the room were lots of tables and chairs. To the right, there was a long bar with pulsating bright lights, and there was an enormous stage in the back with women and men dancing around poles. At least there were men too.
I weeded my way through the crowd searching for the bride. Finally, at a large table in front of the stage, I saw Betty. She was decked out in bride merchandise galore, a t-shirt with 'BRIDE' on it, a sash that said 'BRIDE-TO-BE,' and a tiara with veil atop her head. A large glass of mostly drunk alcohol completed her ensemble. Apparently she had wasted no time getting a drink. I approached the table.
"Betty, hey!" I exclaimed. "You look great!" Betty spun her head around and squealed.
"You came!" She stood up and grabbed hold of me. "I'm so happy you're here, let me introduce you to everyone!"
After learning everyone's names and promptly forgetting them, a drink was shoved into my hands and I was forced into a chair.
"The real show is about to start!" Betty was practically vibrating in her chair with excitement. "Wanna guess the theme?"
"Oooh, is it firemen?" One of the girls (Jess?) yelled excitedly.
"Construction workers?" Another shouted. (No wait, that's Jess.) Betty laughed.
"No, it's Avengers!" She screeched. Unfortunately for me at that moment, I had finally taken a sip of my drink and immediately spit it back out. The girl next to me thumped on my back as I coughed up the burning alcohol.
"You okay there, Emily?" She asked. I nodded and gave a thumbs up, ignoring the tears in the corners of my eyes. Betty giggled again.
"I thought you might get a kick out of this," she said conspiratorially. "Girls, this is the same writer at the Bugle who used to write all those articles about Spider-Man! He saved her life a few months ago and everything!" All eyes zeroed in on me, some shocked, others curious, but all jealous.
"Ooooh, I did recognize you! You were on the cover of the paper this last week with Spider-Man, he was stealing your purse!" One said. I shook my head and opened my mouth to dispute this, but this declaration seemed to open the floodgates for the other girls' questions.
"Do you know who he really is?"
"Have you slept with him?"
"Can you give me his number?"
Finally they ran out of questions and waited for me to answer. I held up a finger, grabbed a shot from the middle of the table, and downed it before continuing. The girls screamed in excitement and clapped.
"Sorry to disappoint, ladies," I said. "But I don't know anything more than you do." They all groaned.
"But he saved you!" Maybe Jess exclaimed. "You must know something!"
"Yeah!" Probably Jess agreed. "Give us something!"
"Umm," I started. "Well, he's . . . strong?" They stared back at me, some rolling their eyes.
"You aren't very good at this are you?" One (not Jess) said, frowning.
"Gossiping or human interaction?" I asked, downing another shot. A corner of Not Jess's mouth lifted up in a half smile.
"Both." I chuckled.
"What gave it away?" I responded. Everyone laughed and raised a glass.
The show was interesting to say the least. It included very sexy women and very muscular men decked out in all sorts of superhero attire. Thor's body was covered with his enormous red cape until the music dropped and he threw it off to reveal a skimpy gold thong and a hammer hooked to the side. Iron Man had lights attached to her hands and a mask. When the inevitable happened, all the girls at the table screamed.
"Spider-Man" leapt onto the stage, wearing only a mask and a skin tight red and blue thong. On his wrists he had silly string that he could shoot when he used the Spider-Man finger pose. The bachelorette party around me all screeched and pointed at me.
"Get her, Spider-Man!" They begged. "Get her with your web!"
Before I knew it, I was covered in bright white silly string and everyone was laughing. "Spider-Man" bowed and traded places with Black Widow. I looked down at myself, shrugged, and took another shot. At this point, things were seeming much better than they were earlier. I was giggling and screaming with everyone else, I even slipped a few dollars into a particularly nice looking Hulk.
Just as I was really enjoying myself, I heard my phone go off over the loud music. I frantically grabbed for my purse and looked at the caller ID.
It was Peter.
I smiled widely and excused myself to a quieter corner of the club near the entrance.
"Pete!" I answered happily.
"You're at a strip club?" He grumbled. I giggled, thinking he was joking.
"Well yeeeaaaaaah, it's Betty's bachelorette party, remember?" I responded. "Wait, how did you even know where I was? Did you follow me again?" I whispered the last part into the phone and snorted.
"I tracked your phone when you didn't text me back," Peter hissed. "I'm outside." I blinked in surprise. I looked back to the table and saw Betty watching me curiously. I held up a finger and walked outside.
"Where are you?" I said, looking up at the dark sky. Suddenly, an arm grabbed my waist and I was yanked into the nearby alley. I didn't even have time to scream before I saw the face of my would be captor.
The real Spider-Man was staring down at me, his black mask much more menacing than his original. I stumbled and felt my back hit the brick wall. I giggled nervously.
"Heyyy Spider-Man!" I exclaimed. "I haven't seen you in FOREVER." Spider-Man tilted his head to the side.
"Are you . . . drunk?" He demanded. I laughed.
"Yeeeeaaaaaaaaah, Betty gave me this awesome drink and I kept drinking and then there were shots I had some of those-"
"Why would you be so careless?" Spider-Man interrupted. I felt my brows furrow in confusion.
"Isn't that what you are supposed to do at a bachelorette party? I could be wrong, Not Jess said I wasn't good at human interaction." I laughed harder. Spider-Man growled and punched a fist into the brick next to my head. I sobered immediately.
"What even is that on your dress?" He hissed at me. I stayed frozen.
"It's silly string from the stripper," I muttered. He put both hands on either side of my head, trapping me in place.
"And why would he spray you with silly string?"
"Well that's a funny story," I tried to laugh again. "It's actually Avengers night and a Spider-Man stripper had silly string for the web! Ya know? Pew pew!" I made the Spider-Man hand gestures but he didn't laugh.
"Oh I see, the real Spider-Man was too busy and you thought you could replace me with a stripper version?!" He spat. I balked.
"Peter," I whispered, horrified. "No, of course not-"
"Well how should I know, you seemed awfully busy if you couldn't even text me back!" His mask was inches from my face at this point. I swallowed.
"Peter, can you take off your mask, it's scaring me," I begged. This time he laughed, throwing his head back.
"You see this mask all the time, what's so scary about it?" He demanded.
"You are making it scary," I said.
This seemed to break him out of whatever mood he was in and bring him back to reality. He took a few steps back and removed his mask. His face was shocked.
"Em," Peter began. "I-I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry." He tried to reach out to me but I flinched.
"It's fine," I said hollowly. "I'm going back to the party, okay?" I was a few steps away when he called my name. I turned expectantly.
"I miss you," he murmured.
"My mom will be in town," I said, ignoring his declaration. "We are having dinner Monday night. Come meet her." He nodded immediately.
"Yeah, of course, I'll be there!" I smiled sadly.
"I hope so," I whispered, walking out of the alleyway and back into the party.
So let's all agree that I'm shit at updating, yes? But trust me, I haven't forgotten about this or you guys! It's just been a rough year for me but I'm working through it!
Love you all!