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“Oh my god, I’m going to throw up,” Ned said, swallowing past the heaving sensation of anxiety crawling up his throat.
Michelle rolled her eyes at Ned’s statement with a laughing huff. “That’s what he said an hour ago, too,” Michelle joked dryly. “You two really are best friends.”
Ned’s fingers drummed against the booth’s table, his eyes darting out the window every time someone passed by outside. They were at the coffee shop that they like to frequent since high school. MJ had long since stopped working there after getting busy in college but the owner still loved having them around and hooked them up with the pastries that didn’t sell at the end of the day.
This specific location was picked as the reunion spot because apparently Ned’s best friend that he had forgotten about would come by here often when they were still around to watch them and was pretty much dead at this time of day. It might have sounded creepy and stalkerish to those that didn’t understand why his best friend had to do something like that. Ned tried to rack his mind for who exactly it could be but the shop had a cult following and there were many frequent customers that Ned knew from over the years.
Across the table, Michelle looked too calm but it was a façade. She had come ahead of Ned’s best friend to make sure everything would go smoothly much to own internal protest. Since the reveal of who he was, Michelle had to pry herself off of her reunited boyfriend’s side just for this. Ned, himself, had been a nervous wreck since he got the text that Michelle had found their missing member in their trio and that it was time to reunite Ned with him. He had been counting down the minutes since he got the text yesterday with a location and time for when it would happen.
Michelle’s phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. Her eyes scanned the screen quickly before she shot off a quick message and put her phone away. “He says he’s close,” Michelle relayed to Ned, the edges of her lips quirking up.
Ned’s pulse quickened and his leg pounced under the table anxiously, shaking it and making their drinks they had gotten out of habit slosh around in their cups. He had been searching for so long at this point and the search was finally over. Years of looking for any clue where his best friend – the person he considered a brother but somehow was gone from his memories – could be in this large world.
People always said the world was small but it sure didn’t feel like it when Ned was searching for one person among eight billion.
Michelle noticed Ned’s nerves and she reached across the table to cup one of his hands. “It’ll be fine,” Michelle assured Ned. “He is going to walk through those doors and you two will have your romcom reunion and cry it out.”
Chuckling, Ned shook his head. “I think you two already took care of that for us,” Ned jokes.
“Well, I guess it is my job to handle the kissing department,” Michelle joked back, twirling a strand of her curly hair around her finger. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks.
This time, Ned sighed as he pulled his hand make and used both to grip the edge of the table. Another person passed by and Ned’s rising hopes crashed when the person walked right past the shop without looking up from their phone. “Why won’t you just tell me his name already? It’s not fair that you get to know and I don’t,” Ned frowned at Michelle.
“Take it up with him when he gets here.” Shrugging, Michelle tapped her fingers along the side of her to-go coffee cup. “He said he wanted to test something about breaking the spell. Didn’t really get the chance to with me and all that happened.”
“Yeah, because you two went on an adventure without me,” Ned huffed in annoyance, looking off to the side. Yet another person passed by and walked right past the shop to head into the pizza store next door.
“Not like we planned that. It’s not my fault you had gone back up to Boston for the weekend and missed out,” Michelle pointed out, finger dropping from her hair. “Though, I should be thankful for it or else he would still be out there alone.”
Ned slouched so that his chin was on the table. It physically hurt him at the thought that his best friend had been alone in the world for so long. With the feeling – that was now a confirmed fact – that his best friend is Spider-Man, Ned has been worrying himself to the bone at the thought of anything bad happening to him. Ned kept up-to-date on all Spider-man related activities and each time he saw Spider-Man limping away from a bad fight, it nearly sent Ned on a citywide manhunt for the wall crawler.
A person entered the café with bell ringing and Ned sat up in anticipation. To his disappointment, the person made their way to the counter and ordered a drink. The barista called out in confirmation before turning to make the drink.
Ned groaned and slouched in his seat. “I can’t take this,” Ned complained lowly. “My nerves are absolutely shot.”
“Ned, breathe,” Michelle urged Ned. She looked off to the side out the window at someone passing by and then to Ned. “If you’re going to panic, then he is going to panic and you two will be a mess.”
“Too late, I’m already panicking,” Ned whispered harshly at Michelle. “Just tell me his name, please, MJ. I need something to cling to.”
Michelle regarded Ned seriously before sighing. “Alright, fine,” Michelle relented and Ned perked up in excitement. “His name is—”
“Hey, uh, got room for one more?” someone piped in hesitantly. Ned and Michelle looked up to see someone the former didn’t notice sneak into the café approaching the table. Michelle’s lips quirked up at the impeccable timing.
“Hey, what’s up man?” Ned greeted politely, smiling past the slight annoyance of someone interrupting right when he was about to relearn the name of his best friend. While Ned did know a good number of people that frequented the shop and recognized this person’s face, their name escaped him. What he did remember was that he was a neighbor of their’s from down the hall and had come by to one of their dorm parties.
The neighbor looked uneasy and shifted on his feet. He casted a look from the side of his eye at Michelle and the girl just gave a slow nod. The neighbor hesitated a moment before giving a firm nod of his head to himself and raising a hand towards Ned in a handshake.
The two clasped hands easily and when Ned was about to let go, the neighbor adjusted his grip on the handshake into a different position. It was muscle memory for Ned then. The handshake morphed into something entirely different the norm you shared with strangers to introduce yourself. It was one that was more convoluted than it should be, having started off normal but grew with new bits added on after time.
The handshake continued but their neighbor didn’t seem to falter at all. Ned’s eyes dropped down to his hand that performed an intricate dance with another that shouldn’t know the choreography. As soon as it had started, the handshake ended.
Just in time for a rush of sights and sounds fill in the holes in Ned’s memories.
Michelle watched as a new level of recognition shone in Ned’s eyes. He stared at his and the neighbor’s mirroring hands. No, not the neighbor – he was someone that Ned knew the name that went along with the face. With a knowing smile, Michelle took a sip of her lukewarm coffee.
Ned looked up and met the other’s desperately hopeful gaze, a smile growing on his lips. “Peter,” Ned gasped.
Peter smiled softly with his eyes growing wet. “Hey, Ned,” Peter whispered, gulping past the growing lump in his throat. “It’s been a bit.”
Ned was quick to slide out of the booth and jump to his feet. Peter only had time to open his arms before Ned came barreling into him, grabbing onto his newly remembered best friend as tight as he could. Ned’s hands gripped the back of Peter’s jacket tightly as he ducked his face. He could feel Peter give a shuddering breath before hugging Ned back as tightly as he could without hurting him.
“You jerk,” Ned grumbled past the tears rolling down his face. “You were always right there. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I’m sorry,” Peter apologized around his own tears. “I didn’t want to hurt either of you again. It was safer for you to continue to not remember me.”
Ned pulled away enough to still hold Peter by the shoulder with one hand and rub at his face with the heel of his other hand. “That wasn’t up to you to make that call,” Ned sniffled. “I’m your guy-in-the-chair. I’m supposed to be there for you always.”
“I know,” Peter shook his head. “I know. It was stupid for me to take that choice from you both. I’ve already been reamed out for it.”
Ned looked over Peter’s shoulder at Michelle and she held her drink in the air with a nod of her head.
Sniffingly and rubbing at his face more, Ned put on the biggest smile he could manage without breaking down into more relieved tears. “I still can’t believe it,” Ned laughed incredulously. “You’re actually here back with us. There is so much I want to ask you about what you’ve up to while we were gone.”
“Oh, trust me, it’s a whole lot of nothing but crime fighting,” Peter laughed nervously. He could feel how Michelle glared at his back.
“I don’t care what it is. I want to hear everything,” Ned said.
“You sure? I would rather hear about your adventures,” Peter said.
“Not this time. You’ll get your turn later but I’m missing a lot of info as your guy-in-the-chair,” Ned grinned. “You need to catch me up to speed so I can get back to work.”
“Just humor him or else we’ll be here all day,” Michelle piped up behind him. “Also, don’t expect to go home alone after this. I doubt neither Ned or I are going to let you out of our sights for the foreseeable future.”
“Well, if you put it like that, I guess I can’t argue,” Peter shrugged with a soft smile on his face. Letting go of Ned, Peter took a seat next to Michelle and grabbed her hand to hold. A certain softness settled into Michelle’s limbs and she melted slightly against his side. “Well, what do you want to hear about first?”
Ned slid into his abandoned seat and leaned across the table, eyes sparkling in both anticipation and joy that Peter was back. The missing member of their trio was finally home. “Start from the beginning. Tell me everything and spare no details.”
Peter smiled and opened his mouth to launch into the first of many stories to come, the entire feeling more at peaceful than they had in years.