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Peter was surprised when he found the first note in his locker. It might have been a joke from Flash or someone making fun of him. The stationary was too nice. The kind old ladies used when they were writing important letters. It had little heart stickers on the envelope.
It’s got to be a joke, he decided to himself. The envelope said, “To Peter From Your Secret Admirer.” Maybe it was Liz or Ned trying to make him feel better about himself? He refused to comprehend that the note might be from some who actually admired him or had a crush on him, or whatever. He had been staring at the unopened envelope for a while when Flash leaned against the locker next to him. “What you got there, Parker?”
Peter’s first instinct was to hide the note anywhere so Flash couldn’t see it, but he didn’t have time. So he just said… “Uh…”
Flash took the letter out of his hand.
“Don’t take that!” Peter hissed.
“I’m just looking,” Flash said. “Wow, it looks like someone likes you.”
“I don’t know,” Peter said. “Can I have it back?”
“This is nice stationary,” Flash commented. He pretended like he wasn’t going to give it back to Peter.
“You can’t read it,” Peter said.
“Relax,” Flash said, handing him back the letter. “I already know what it says anyway.”
“Wait… what?” Peter asked. Flash was already walking away and didn’t answer.
Peter stuck the letter in his binder, but he was already late for class. He would read it later when he didn’t have anyone peering over his shoulder.
He had forgotten about the letter by the time first period had ended. He picked up his binder when he was leaving and the envelope fell on the floor.
MJ of all people picked it up. She was the only one that was worse for making fun of him than Flash. “Whoa. What’s this?” She looked at the envelope. “Did you send this to yourself, Peter?”
“No,” Peter said. “It’s probably just some kind of prank.”
“The envelope is sealed,” MJ noted. “You didn’t open it.”
“I’ll open it later,” Peter said.
“Aren’t you interested to see what it says?” she asked.
“A little,” Peter admitted. “But someone liking me sounds fake.”
“It could happen,” MJ said. “You’re… not the worst.”
That was a pretty nice compliment considering it was from MJ. “Okay, I’ll open it,” he agreed.
The envelope was sealed with one of those heart stickers and Peter almost didn’t want to rip it, but he did anyway. He was starting to get curious about the contents.
He had expected a cheesy letter, but instead there was a Taylor Swift concert ticket and a note that said informed him that the “admirer” had a ticket and that they should meet by the front door half an hour before the concert on Saturday.
“Now aren’t you glad you opened it?” MJ said. “You would have missed the concert and whoever bought you the ticket would probably be really pissed that you didn’t show.”
“Who do you think sent it?” Peter asked. He found it hard to believe someone would send him a concert ticket for Taylor Swift for him as a joke. They were pretty hard to get and probably expensive. Peter was pretty sure the tickets had sold out in like ten minutes or something.
“Do you like Taylor Swift?” MJ asked.
“Life’s too short to pretend I don’t like catchy Taylor Swift songs,” Peter said.
“I just mean, maybe who knows that you like Taylor Swift?” MJ asked.
“Well, now you know…” Peter said.
“I didn’t send you the note, Peter,” MJ said. “Maybe it was Ned?”
“Ned?” Peter asked. “I don’t think he could afford Taylor Swift tickets. And I don’t think he would be this weird about it if he wanted to ask me out.”
“So who do we know that’s weird about stuff?” MJ said.
“You,” Peter said.
“I already told you I didn’t send the note, Peter,” MJ said. “Give up, hope.”
Ned was the of the opinion that it was really super cool that Peter had a secret admirer that wanted to take him to a Taylor Swift concert. “You’re so lucky,” he said. “I wish a girl would take me to a concert.”
Okay, so it definitely wasn’t from Ned.
“I don’t know what to wear,” Peter said. It was the night and he was more than a little nervous. “What do people wear to Taylor Swift concerts?”
“Dresses?” Ned asked.
“I don’t have any dresses even if I wanted to,” Peter said.
Aunt May knocked on Peter’s door. “Peter, someone left you a package by the door.”
Ned opened the door.
“It says from your secret admirer,” Aunt May said, amused. Peter hadn’t told her about the note. He had lied and said he was going to the concert with Ned. Really, Ned was just walking him most of the way for moral support.
“Oh,” Peter said. “That’s weird.”
“Are you going to open it?” May said, passing him the package.
“Umm…” Peter was nervous. He didn’t know what was in there and what if it was something that would embarrass him in front of May or Ned? “Alright.”
The package wasn’t heavy and when he opened it he discovered that it was a Taylor Swift shirt. It was his size.
“Cool,” Peter said. “Now I have something to wear.”
“I wonder who sent this,” Ned said.
“I guess I’m going to find out,” Peter said.
Peter ended up being about five minutes early. He hated being early. He hated waiting. He had no idea who was going to show up and he was really nervous. What if the date was super awkward? Was that even what it was? A date?
He thought about the heart stickers. Yep, it was a date.
And then Peter saw what he had expected to see least.
It was Flash Thompson. Wearing a matching shirt. Almost as if he had sent Peter one so that they would have the same one. No. This could not be happening. Flash saw him and Peter ducked, trying to avoid being seen. That was a stupid thing to do. Flash frowned and saw him anyway.
“Hello, Parker,” Flash said, trying to play it cool.
“Hello, Flash,” Peter said. “I’m supposed to be meeting someone here.”
“I know,” Flash said. “I told you I knew what the letter said. You know, because I sent it.”
Peter did not know what to say and there was an awkward pause. “So, you like Taylor Swift?” he asked because he couldn’t think of something better to say.
“Peter, life’s too short to pretend you don’t like catchy Taylor Swift songs,” Flash said.
Peter smiled at him. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad if Flash wasn’t going to tease him the whole time. Flash grabbed his hand which Peter found unexpected but not necessarily unpleasant. “Come on,” Flash said. “Let’s go check out the merch before the show.
It turned out to be not awkward at all, surprisingly. Like Peter, Flash knew all the words to most of the songs. It was a lot of fun. It turned out Flash was actually pretty cool when he wasn’t being a dick. After the show he bought Peter a black hoodie with a snake on it and Taylor’s name on the sleeve.
“So what, are you my sugar daddy now?” Peter asked. He was mostly joking but he was also feeling a little awkward. He wasn’t used to people paying for stuff for him.
“Don’t make it gross, Parker,” Flash said.
“Maybe you should start calling me by my first name,” Peter said. “If you… like me or whatever.”
“Don’t be gross, Peter,” Flash said.
“So you do like me?” Peter asked.
“I don’t know how to be any more obvious,” Flash said.
“Well, I mean you’ve never exactly said that you liked me,” Peter said.
“I was waiting to see if it was mutual,” Flash said.
“You go first,” Peter said.
Flash rolled his eyes. He took Peter’s hands in his. “Peter Parker, I like you. I really, really, really like you.”
“Is that Carly Rae Jepsen lyrics?” Peter asked.
“Yes, but I don’t really think that’s what you should be focusing on right now,” Flash said.
Peter tried to find the words to describe what he was feeling. He was awkward at this. He knew Flash had tried really hard to make this a great night for him and he really appreciated it.
“I like you, too,” Peter said. He realized they were still holding hands.