old news
“I’m Spiderman.” Miles blurts, opening up his jacket to reveal his suit underneath as he mentally braces for impact. His face is flooded with worry, and he’s taking deep breaths just staring at you, waiting impatiently to gauge your reaction. He’s sweaty, anxious, and likely on the verge of a meltdown– but you don’t falter.
“...Wow.” you manage to mutter in a flat tone, blatantly unsurprised.
It was nearly 9 pm and you’ve been sitting on the stairs of your fire escape for the past twenty-five minutes watching miles try to tell you he’s Spiderman. He’d spent half the time trying to make you promise things wouldn’t change between you, and the other half trying to actually work up the courage to actually tell you.
If you didn’t already know, you would’ve assumed he was coming out.
You take notice of the way Miles pauses and narrows his eyes in faint confusion and disbelief at the anticlimactic confession. He’s pictured this scenario a hundred different times before, and in none of those scenarios had you stared up at him so apathetically. “Wow?.. That’s all you have to say?” he asked, his voice prompting you to say more. “You do know who Spiderman is, right?”
You feel the corners of your lips turn up, forming a small grin of amusement, as much as you tried to hide it. It was funny to sit here and try to process your reaction to the obvious.
“He saves New York?.. He’s a superhero?” Miles hints, looking at you bewildered. “You’ve been living in Brooklyn for like four months you have to know who-”
“I know who Spiderman is.” you cut in promptly, standing up to meet his eye level.
Miles blinks at you, confused. “You don’t seem.. Impressed. Or surprised.”
You shrug, silently, not letting on more than what meets the surface.
Miles begins to scale the wall, looking over at you to see if you’d react, which you don’t. “Seriously? Nothing.”
You gently shake your head, pursing your lips into a tight line trying to contain a laugh from coming out. It was cruel, to take such joy in his utter confusion to his most vulnerable secret like this; but you undeniably could not help it. He looked so.. Puzzled, and bewildered in a way that could only be expressed
properly through those animated kiddy cartoons.
Miles begins to crawl upside down on the fire escape landing above you, moving to hang upside down as he holds himself up with a web by his feet. “Come on, you have to admit this is a little impressive.”
You’re now face to face with him, him upside down, you right side up.
“Miles, I can do that too.” You remind him knowingly.
“Oh right.” He coughs, clearing his throat in faint embarrassment. “But I’m Spiderman! How is this not shocking to you?” he exasperates, releasing the web and landing back on his feet in front of you.
A small laugh escapes your mouth, and you quickly move a hand over your mouth to try and stop it.
“What? This is funny to you?” Miles asks in mild frustration, throwing his arm up as if to exaggerate his emotions.
You roll your eyes lightheartedly. “Miles, I’ve known you’re Spiderman for months.” This seems to catch him off-guard. He freezes where he is, an intrigued but concerned expression on his face.
He stares at you, completely dumbfounded in silence for a moment, struggling to find the words to even convey a fraction of what he’s feeling. You expected that much, watching his facial features contort in ways you hadn’t before. He finally clears his throat after a minute, gaining (some) composure. “..What? How- when?”
“The night of your dads birthday. After you left to ‘get your steps in’, I saw Spiderman sneak into your room so..”
“Oh my god..” he groans, burying his face into his hands, walking over to sit on the stairs where you just were.
You move to lean against the fire escape railing across from him. “I haven’t told anyone if that’s what you’re worried about.” you reassure nonchalantly.
He ignores you, muttering to himself as he tries to keep himself from going into a spiral. “How was I so careless?..”
“If it makes you feel better I was kinda.. following Spiderman in a way.” You say hesitantly.
Miles pulls his head out of his hands and looks up at you. “Oh who’s the stalker now?” he quips, and although he’s making fun of you, it’s obvious he’s still stressed out by the revelation.
You flash him an awkwardly sympathetic smile, the wind comically blowing your hair into your face as if the universe didn’t want him to see it. “In all fairness, it wasn’t too hard to figure it out. I’m surprised no one else has.” you murmur, fixing your hair the best you can as you hold eye contact.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Miles scoffs, standing up.
You narrow your eyes, looking beyond the fire escape platform as you hold your hair away from your face. “I mean for starters you revealed your secret identity to me on a fire escape that overlooks a busy street.” you point out dryly.
“Oh.” Miles clears his throat, looking over the railing, seeing that it was a busy street.
You roll your eyes, climbing through your bedroom window. “Let’s talk inside.”
He follows you in, looking around your room. You’d made a few changes since the last time he’d been in here.
For one, you’d hung up some of the painting’s you’d done for school, and put up a bunch of polaroids on your wall. He focuses on one of them, it’s a picture of you in your school uniform holding up a blue ribbon next to one of your paintings, indicating you’d won first place for it.
“You’re up here too.” you say blankly, walking over to where he was. You point at a polaroid where the two of you are passed out on his couch after watching a movie. His mom took the photo.
“Oh, yeah I guess I am.” he smiles to himself.
You notice this and move to sit on your bed, away from him. “So why’d you feel the sudden urge to tell me you’re Superman?”
“Spiderman.” he corrects, turning to face you sounding annoyed.
You bite back a laugh, shaking your head as you exhale a soft sigh. “You know I’m only kidding. God, you’re as uptight as ever.”
“You told me about your secret.. Figured it was the right thing to tell you about mine.” he shrugs, smiling awkwardly as he fidgets with the zipper of his jacket. You hold his gaze for a moment more, only before he turns to look back at the candid polaroid of your movie night a while back.
“You can keep it if you want.” you say.
A moment of comfortable silence takes place between the two of you as some Bowie song plays from your computer; and although the circumstances were entirely strange and inconvenient, It felt good to be with Miles in a regular setting again.
“Nah, it’s okay. I'm sure we'll take more.”