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Cindy Moon was waiting along with the rest of the decathlon team at Flash’s apartment. See, every first weekend of the month they would regroup at one of the members' places to study and practice for a few hours, and this month it was Flash’s turn to host. Almost everyone was here except the one and only Peter Parker for a change. You see the problem with that statement was that it was a lie, Peter was always late for everything, and Cindy was ready to bet all her money that he would be late to his own wedding.
So the (almost) whole team was waiting in Flash’s living room, making themselves comfortable (well, as comfortable as you can be when you are sitting in the living room of the school's greatest persecutor), when Abe finally broke the silence.
“Who would have thought you were such a nerd Flash.”
“What?” Flash answered raising an eyebrow.
“Well, I mean there is a half-finished Lego set on your kitchen counter, DVDs of the whole Star Wars franchise underneath the TV among other science-fiction movies, and a poster with a cute lightbulb saying ‘Be positive no matter watt’.” Abe said, looking around the room pointing at everything to make sure everyone saw. “And you call Peter a nerd?”
Flash only scoffed at that. And Cindy took it as her cue. “Speaking of Peter, where is he?” she said looking at Ned.
Ned only looked offended. “I might be Peter’s BFF for life and we might be like two peas in a pod and nothing can ever keep us apart but that doesn’t mean I know every one of his whereabout, I’m not omniscient you know.”
Flash snorted. ‘Weird, what do you know, Flash?’ thought Cindy because she was not blind and she could see that lately he had been abnormally tamed. Suspicious, he did not even say he could take Peter’s spot on the team. Extremely out of character for him.
“You’re just mad he didn’t text you.” Said MJ factually. “Whatever, we are just gonna have to start without him.” At that everyone agreed and took out their textbooks. But before they could start Abe said something that could have explained Peter’s lateness if it was someone else they were talking about.
“Maybe he just got lost and couldn’t find the address?”
At that Charles perked up. “Are you stupid? It’s Parker we’re talking about he’s late even when he knows the address. Hell, he’s even late for lunch at the cafeteria! Who in the world would be late for lunch??”
“He’s right.” agreed Ned. “I know him best and I can tell you he would be late for his own birthday. Actually, he was late for his birthday.”
“Enough talking about Peter we are here for one thing and it’s working, so let’s get to it. I have a program and I would like to get on with it. Peter or no Peter.” announced MJ reminding everyone she was team captain.
So they went and did the work for about an hour with no Peter on the horizon. Ned was even starting to get anxious, saying he was not answering his texts, but Mj was quick to tell him that he was probably OK and just forgot. When suddenly Flash’s phone started ringing. He looked at his phone and his eyes grew wide at the caller ID.
“Sorry guys, I gotta take this.” He got up and went to what Cindy assumed was his room and the gossip she is wished he hadn’t.
“Whatever, we can continue without him.” said MJ. So they did for a few minutes until they heard Flash scream from his room.
“You WHAT??!!!” Flash came out of his room in a fury and grabbed his car keys from the counter. “Where are you??” Then he looked at the group. “Sorry, I gotta go real quick, I’ll be back as fast as I can it’s an emergency.” Then he replied to whoever he was on the phone with, “What do you mean you don’t know?! Send me your location on maps!” Then he hung up the phone and ran to the door.
Abe looked at him with a questioning look. “Where are you going? I mean we are at your place and you're just leaving us here.”
Flash sighed, or more like blew a fucking hurricane of frustration out of his nose. “I have to go and find Parker now. Snacks are in the kitchen so suit yourself.” He was about to go through the door when he stopped and turned back. “Do NOT go into my room!” and like that, he was gone.
“Well, that was weird.” said Charles. “He said he was going to get Parker. Ned, did you know about this??”
Ned looked Flabbergasted “No.”
“Uh...”
Then it was Abe’s turn to talk. “So, are we going into Flash’s room?”
Cindy really liked the idea, of course, snooping was bad, but come on she is only just a girl. “I second that. Are we?” she exclaimed.
MJ looked at them with pointed eyes. “No, we are not. We respect Flash’s boundaries.” And it was final what MJ said always was for some reason.
“Aw...” they both cried.
Then Cindy turned to Ned. “Are Flash and Peter like friends?”
“I don’t think so, he would have told me. I mean, it’s not something you hide from your best friend I think.”
“Well, you have to admit it’s weird. Why would he call Flash if he needed help? I mean they hate each other.” She says thoughtfully. “And Flash was like a mix of worried and exasperated.”
Charles looked at her. “I mean, he has been significantly less awful since he moved out of his parents' house.”
“You’re right.”
MJ reminded them that they still had work to do and Flash’s absence was not an excuse to not do it. But honestly, Cindy couldn’t concentrate, she was just waiting for Flash to come and see what the hell was going on. And she could tell she was not the only one as she looked at Ned, who couldn’t stop clicking his pen and looking around like the walls held the answer. Which they did not, by the way. After about 20 minutes, they received a text from Flash in the group chat. “Found Peter be we’ll be there in 10.”
“Cool, so Parker arrives when we are basically done...again.” sighed Abe.
Ned, in an urge to defend his best friend looked up. “Peter has a lot on his plate, he probably had a good reason to skip.”
“Or he just forgot, this has happened before.” Shrugged Cindy.
“Whatever. Anyone want a snack? I’m hungry.” Abe stood up and went to the kitchen and grabbed a box of Oreos on the counter, and sat back down. They all ate as they finally finished MJ’s program and talked about whatever came to mind until Flash came back. Finally, after what felt like half an hour but probably was just five minutes, they heard the sound of the door being opened. Flash came in supporting Peter, who was limping. What?
“Hi guys!” Peter greeted them in his usual cheery voice. Yeah, okay, this is normal. Flash directed Peter to a chair and made him sit. Wait, was Peter bleeding? Yes, he absolutely was. Ned seemed to have noticed as well because he ran towards Peter screaming.
“Peter! your bleeding!!”
He looked down at his red shirt. “Oh that? Its nothing, I just got stabbed a little.”
This seemed to be the last straw for Flash. “A LITTLE?! I told you when you went out this morning, ‘Don’t do anything stupid, Peter. Remember we have decathlon practice today.’ Did you listen? No, you just did something careless and got stabbed AGAIN!”
Cindy thought that Flash and Peter looked like a married couple at that moment. Wait, did he say again? “What do you mean again? Peter, have you been stabbed before?”
Peter looked at her and said, “A few times.” as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She did not know what to answer to that. What the hell is going on… Next to Peter, Ned, who did not look surprised, was giving odd looks at Peter and she realized they were communicating without talking. It never ceased to amaze her how in sync those two were.
Flash, whom she did not see leaving the room, came back with a med kit and crouched down next to Peter. “Take off your shirt.”
“What, right now?”
Flash groaned. “Look, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. I just need you to take off your shirt so I can treat your wound.”
“Right, I know that, but in front of all these people?”
“Well, you should have thought about that before you decided to go out and” Flash seemed to think about what he was about to say before settling for “get mugged.”
“Fine.” And with that, Peter took off his shirt. Since when did Peter Paker have abs?
And like he was reading her mind, Abe exclaimed, “Dam Parker since when are you so ripped?!” Peter did not answer the question and buried his face in Flash neck, who still patching him up. At that moment Cindy has a revelation.
“Wait, are you guys dating?!”
Flash stopped what he was doing and looked her in the eyes. “That’s none of your business.”
“Oh my god they totally are!” screamed Charles. Peter’s face was so red he looked like he was about to explode and Flash tried to look nonchalant but failed as his face was also as red as Peter’s.
“So that’s why you have all that nerdy stuff here. It’s Peter’s, I knew you wouldn’t have bought that poster yourself.” Stated Abe as if he had solved the greatest mystery ever.
“Hey! It’s a great poster!” retorted Peter.
At the sound of Peter’s voice, Ned got out of his stunned state “Is this true? Are... are you guys dating?”
“Uh...yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Peter thought for a moment, “Honestly, I was just waiting for you to figure it out.”
Ned looked at Peter like he couldn’t believe it when MJ broke the silence. “Well, this was fun but I have to go, so see you later.” She grabbed her thing and was about to leave when she said, “By the way I figured it out almost instantly after they started dating, you guys should really work on your observational skills.” And with that she was gone.
Ned took it as his cue to look at his phone. “Crap, I have to go.” He went and grabbed his bag. “I’ll call you later tonight we’re talking about this. Bye everyone”. Then he left too.
Charles spoke up next. “I hate to be that guy, but shouldn’t you go to the hospital?”
“NO HOSPITAL!” Peter and Flash exclaimed at the same time.
“Okay gee, no need to scream. Anyway, I Gotta go too my mom is waiting for me. Bye guys.” He took his backpack and left.
Right after Charles left, Flash got up. “Alright, I’m done go get changed. “Peter was about to put his bloody shirt back on. “Not this one it’s disgusting!” Peter stood up and went to Flash’s room. “Is this not common sense?” he muttered to himself looking at the dirty shirt on the floor, then looked up. “What is it, Abe? I know you’re dying to say something.”
“No wonder you’ve been less of an asshole. He made you soft.”
Flash looked at Abe, and he was not happy.“I am not nice, now, if you say anything about what you saw today to anyone, I will make your life miserable, okay?”
“Oh, I see you just have favourites. I get it.”
Cindy could see that Flash was trying to not attack Abe and decided that it was time they left before things turned violent. She grabbed her bag and Abe’s before handing it to him. “Well, I think it’s time for us to go right, Abe?” she said giving him a pleading look.
"Ugh, fine…bye Flash!”
“Bye Flash! See you on Monday!” They quickly made their way out of the apartment and went home.
Later that night while she was lying in her thinking about it, she said to herself, “Peter and Flash getting together was not on my bingo card of the year.” Yes, it is really important to point it out.