One Night Off
Thursday, June 29, 2018, 8:17 PM.
“How much longer are you gonna sit here? It’s summer, let's do something!”
Peter groaned. “Until I know I passed the final. I had like no time to study.”
“Dude, are you serious?” Harley couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You were studying for two days straight!
“I know I just… Maybe I’ll go on patrol. I haven’t been all day.”
Harley rolled his eyes. “You patrol all the time. You can take one night off to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?”
“You’re done sophomore year! We’re halfway done high school and you’re sitting on the ceiling mopping about a stupid exam that you obviously passed.”
He sighed and lowered himself to the ground. His hair stuck up at awkward angles from sitting upsidedown for so long. “What do you wanna do then?”
Harley couldn’t help but smile. He couldn’t remember the last time they’d hung out together that wasn’t Spider-Man related. With Harley at work all the time and Peter always on patrol the most they did together was patrol. He and Ned would sit in the bedroom and talk to Peter while he swung around the city occasionally stopping a robbery or a mugging.
The only time Harley could remember them hanging out normally was when they went skating together at four in the morning. That was months ago though.
“I’ve lived in New York for eight months and I’ve never been to Coney Island. Ned and Michelle are going tonight and they invited us. I told them I’d tell you so,” He shrugged.
“I haven’t been since they rebuilt it.”
“Why what happened to it?”
Peter scratched his neck and laughed awkwardly. “Uh, I did. I kinda crashed an invisible jet into the boardwalk.”
He wasn’t sure whether or not Peter was joking or not. “You can tell me the context of that on the way there. Text Ned and tell him we’ll pick them up.”
The two boys climbed into the car and headed down to Ned’s place. Peter quickly explained the story of the destruction of Coney Island after being asked about a thousand times. Harley listened silently until Peter was finished before expressing his feelings on the matter.
“Holy shit that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. You crashed an invisible jet! I hate you for not telling me this earlier.”
Peter snorted. “Yea that’s basically what Ned said too.”
“It explains a lot though.”
“What do you mean?”
“With Toomes. No wonder he was so pissed.”
“Yea.”
The car was suddenly filled with thick tension. They had hardly spoken about Toomes since it happened. It was a sore topic for both of them. It all seemed so long ago though. Harley wasn’t sure why he felt so weird about the whole thing when it happened months ago but he just always got a weird almost sick feeling about it. The most he and Peter had talked about it was on the fire escape on new years eve.
The car hummed lowly as they pulled up to Ned’s house. He and Michelle were sitting on the stoop waiting. Ned excitedly climbed down the steps and climbed into the backseat the second he saw the car. Michelle followed a bit less enthusiastically.
“Hey, guys!” Ned chirped.
“What’s going on?” Michelle asked. How did she always notice the smallest things? Her eyes squinted as if she could physically see the tension in the car.
“Nothing,” Peter answered. “Just nervous about the final results tomorrow.”
The two groaned. Harley couldn’t help but laugh. At least he wasn’t tho only one tired of hearing Peter rant about how little time he had to study or whatever.
“You did fine,” Michelle said. “I’m making a rule for tonight. Nobody is allowed to talk about school for the rest of the night. If you do you have to buy everyone else a soda.”
“Deal!” Harley practically shouted as he pulled back onto the street.
Ned burst out laughing at Harley’s eagerness but tried to cover it with a cough when Peter scowled at him.
The rest of the drive went by fairly smoothly. Michelle forcibly stole the aux cord from the centre console and started playing her music. Harley didn’t mind. In fact, he almost encouraged it. He wanted her to like him. Maybe a bit too much. Ned and Peter called her MJ but he was still somehow stuck calling her Michelle.
One time at lunch he tried calling her MJ. It didn’t go well. She retreated back into her shell around him for a while after that. It took her a few days to talk to him again. He hadn’t dared to try again. He didn’t want to risk another few days of the silent treatment. She would tell him when it was okay for him to call her MJ. Peter assured him of that.
It was a miracle they found somewhere to park when they finally arrived at the boardwalk. It seemed half of New York had the same idea to go to Coney Island that night. Harley could see why though. It was massive. It was more than just a fair like he’d originally thought. There were rollercoasters, rides, an entire baseball stadium, and attractions that went on for an entire mile.
“Well, shit,” Harley breathed. Ned, Peter and Michelle were all talking away about academic decathlon as if they didn’t even notice the thousands of colourful lights just outside the windshield. “That’s… huge.”
They all climbed out of the car and practically bolted to the entrance. A strange child-like excitement was bubbling in him. Something he hadn’t felt in years.
Harley couldn’t help but notice the creepy face illustration looming over the front entrance. Its lips were bright red and spread into a smile showing off its too many teeth. On either side of the face were the words ‘scream zone’ glowing in bright purple lights. Nobody else seemed to notice it but for some reason, it gave him a weird feeling.
The group lined up for the ticket stand. Harley couldn’t help but look at everything. He’d never actually been to an amusement park before. Sometimes there was a fair in the parking lot of the strip mall in Rosehill but that was it. This was a huge step up.
“You alright?” Peter asked. He must’ve caught Harley's look of awe at his surroundings.
Harley nodded but didn’t stop taking in everything. Just beyond the fence, he could see the bay. The sun was setting and it painted the water shades of pink, orange and cerulean. The waves were huge but calmed just before they lapped the golden sand.
“Let’s go on the cyclone first!” Ned shouted. Harley finally decided he’d seen almost everything and followed the group towards the ride.
They went on a few of the big rides before Ned and Michelle announced that they were going on the slingshot.
“Eh, that might be a bit much for me,” Harley admitted when he finally saw the ride in question. It was more of a torture device than a ride to him.
Two seats inside a little metal ball attached to massive bungee cords. It shot up into the sky and then bounced back down. Harley couldn’t help but imagine the cords snapping midway up and the little metal ball soaring into the sky untethered.
To his surprise, Peter agreed.
Ned looked like he wanted to argue, but something stopped him. “Okay. We’ll meet you guys after.”
~
Thursday, June 29, 2018, 10:24 PM.
The line for the slingshot was longer than they’d expected. So, Peter and Harley went off to the adjacent park with all the smaller less extreme rides. He was kinda glad to get away from Ned and MJ. He hadn't really spoken to her since the whole riot thing. She never mentioned the kiss or anything to him so he never mentioned it either. He still wasn't 100 percent sure she even knew it was him. He didn't want to ask either and give away his identity. So the whole thing was just awkward between them now.
“There’s no line for the ferris wheel,” Harley suggested.
Peter laughed. “Yeah cuz they always break. No one wants to be stuck up there for two hours.”
“Let’s go then. I love the ferris wheel.”
Peter hesitated. He should be out on patrol. Not stuck on a ferris wheel for two hours.
“Come on, what are the chances of it breaking when we’re on it?”
“You know just saying that makes it more likely for it to break.”
Harley rolled his eyes and began walking toward the ferris wheel. Peter followed though he still had a bad feeling about it. It wasn’t long before the two were locked into the little seat and making their ascent towards the top.
Halfway up, a loud scream echoed loudly. Peter’s head instantly snapped up and searched around wildly for danger. It was strange though, his spider-sense wasn’t going off. He stopped short when he heard Harley laughing.
“What is wrong with you?” Peter asked, gently smacking the boy on the arm.
“You need to relax. The world won’t end if you take one night off. It’s not like anything huge really happens when you’re on patrol anyways,” Harley shrugged.
“You really want to jinx everything huh?”
They finally reached the top and the ferris wheel stopped. The view was beautiful. Nothing compared to what Peter had seen every night on patrol but still. The sun had just set on the city and was replaced by the moon full and bright. There were very few stars visible in the sky, most of the lights were just aeroplanes and helicopters. Still, the big dipper was kinda visible.
“Oh,” Peter spoke up. “May wants to know what kind of cake you like.”
“Why?” Harley asked. His tone shifted in an instant from calm to defensive.
Peter shrugged. “Isn’t your birthday coming up? May was gonna make a cake. She’ll probably end up buying one though. You know what she’s like in the kitchen.”
After a long moment of thought, he shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“It’s not a hard question. I think if May wants to make one, it’ll have to be either chocolate or vanilla.”
He shrugged again. “Vanilla I guess.”
There was a weirdly awkward silence. Peter couldn’t tell if he’d said something wrong. So, they sat in silence looking up at the sky.
“Where have you been after school recently?” Peter broke the silence. If they were already being awkward, he thought he may as well bring up another awkward topic. “Cuz I know it’s not tech club. I went one day after school and you weren’t there.”
There was a moment where Harley said nothing. He seemed to think about his answer thoroughly before shrugging. “I got a job.”
“Really? Where?”
“At this lab near the apartment. I mostly just lift the heavy stuff.”
“That’s awesome! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Harley looked surprised at Peter’s reaction. “I dunno just… Didn’t know how you’d react.”
“You know you don’t always have to hide everything you do. You can tell me anything.”
He rubbed the back of his hand against his nose. “Yeah sorry. Sometimes I forget that things are different. It’s just easy to keep sneaking around sometimes.”
The silence that followed that statement was uncomfortable. Peter realized that he really had no clue what Harley’s life was like before he moved to New York. He never talked about his mom anymore. Or his sister. It was just a huge chunk of his life that he swept under the rug.
“We’ve been up here for a while,” Peter realized. The two boys leaned over the edges of the seat to try and get a better look at the ground below. “You think it’s broken?”
There was nobody in the area below them. Not even a person standing by the ride. Peter was instantly covered in goosebumps. His heart beat faster and he could feel a tingling in his neck.
There was a loud boom from a few feet away. The whole ferris wheel shook. People screamed and ran in different directions towards the exits.
Peter shook his head. “You had to jinx it didn’t you?”
It was easy for him to wiggle out from beneath the little bar and begin undressing. His suit was already on under his clothes.
“Did you have that on the whole time?” Harley asked. Peter ignored him.
“I’m gonna go help. I’ll be back.”
“What do you need me to do?”
Peter slipped his mask on and the lenses calibrated. Karen instantly began showing him what was happening below. “Stay here.”
“Seriously?”
He lept from the ferris wheel and shot a web at one of the taller rides. He swung towards where he’d heard the explosion and landed on the Cyclone. He looked around for a moment until he saw it. At first, he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. It sorta looked like four claws from those claw machines all connected to… a person?
The claws were tearing apart the track of the rollercoaster. They dug into the track and grabbed hold of huge pieces of metal before tossing them away like garbage. Peter had to swing around and web the hunks of metal to the side of the coaster before they could crush anyone.
Peter silently thanked whatever higher power that they rode it an hour before.
“I’ll need to see your ticket before you can ride!” He shouted at the man(?).
He instantly turned and looked up at Peter. He was a squat man (definitely a man) with weird circular goggles on. The four metal claws were coming out of a machine on his back. He couldn’t tell if the machine was fully attached to him or not.
Without saying a word, the man grabbed a chunk of the track with two of the claws and hurled it directly at Peter. He shot two webs at it just before impact and redirected it at the man. It hit him hard on the back and he groaned angrily before pushing himself up with the claws. His feet dangled a few metres off the ground as he used the claws to climb to a different part of the track.
What did this guy even want? To cause chaos? Did he just hate rollercoasters?
Peter kept a small distance from the man in fear he could be grabbed by the claw but followed. The man started tearing apart the track again. Peter rolled his eyes and webbed the claws to the track.
“Line jumping is against the rules here,” He called. “Wait in line like the rest of us.”
That seemed to catch his attention. He looked up at Peter for a moment before one of his claws was sent directly at Peter. He dodged it but didn’t see the second one coming. It grabbed him by the ankle and lifted him off the ground. He was flipped upside down and carried toward the man.
He quickly aimed his web-shooters at the man’s face but his wrists were grabbed tightly by the claws. They squeezed down hard. So hard he could feel the bones in his wrists grinding together. The man looked at him as if he could see right through the mask before tossing Peter over his shoulder like a piece of the track.
He tried to shoot a web to catch his fall, but his web-shooters were completely shattered. He slammed into one of the nearby rides with a WHACK. Luckily, he gripped onto the cold metal and stopped himself from another painful landing on the ground. His head swam for a while. He’d definitely have a bruise he wouldn’t be able to explain to MJ.
Once he was able to see clearly with no stars in his vision, he turned back to where the claw guy was standing. He was gone. Basically disappeared into thin air.
“What the hell was that?” He asked no one in particular.
He couldn’t have been more relieved when he saw Harley still sitting at the top of the ferris wheel. Peter climbed back into the seat next to him and pulled his mask off.
“Jesus, what happened to your face?” He asked.
“That bad?” He asked touching where his face had impacted. It stung at the slightest touch. Blood slowly dripped down from his eyebrow. “What am I gonna tell MJ?”
“Oh right. She doesn’t know does she?”
Peter shook his head as he slipped his shirt and jacket back on.
“I mean, you could just tell her. She’ll probably be cool with it.”
“I can’t keep telling people. Yea, I want to tell her. It would make everything so much easier but… I already messed up your life so much by telling you. I can’t do that to her.”
Harley nodded but didn’t press any longer. “So we just make a run for it? Hope she doesn’t see us?”
“And ditch them here? How will they get back?”
Pulling out his phone, Harley rolled his eyes and texted Ned. “Peter’s hurt. Come to the ferris wheel and grab my keys. Take Michelle home and then meet us at the apartment.”
“What do I tell MJ? She’ll ask questions,” Ned texted back.
“Figure it out.”
It didn’t take long for Ned to appear at the bottom of the ferris wheel. MJ followed behind him and grinned up at the two boys. “Having fun up there?” She shouted as Harley dropped the keys into Ned’s hands.
“I told him we’d get stuck!” Peter shouted back, sure to keep the injured side of his face away from MJ.
“Sorry, my mom will kill me if I'm not home before midnight,” Ned called up to them.
Harley waved a hand at him dismissively. “Just drop the car back at the apartment in the morning. We’ll get a cab.”
Ned practically dragged MJ out of view of the ferries wheel and towards the car. Peter waited a good ten minutes before deciding the coast was clear. The park was basically deserted other than a few red and blue lights approaching the beach rapidly. It was now or never. Peter pulled on his mask once again and wriggled out from under the lap bar. He held out his hand for Harley who took much longer pulling himself out of the seat. He stole looks down below every once in a while as he did, almost considering the fall he might face should he misstep.
Once Harley was standing fully up, Peter wrapped an arm around his middle and shot a web at one of the neighbouring rides. He felt Harley tense as their feet left the ride. Harley’s hands gripped Peter’s arms so tightly he was surprised at his strength.
It took longer than it should have to get back to the apartment via swinging. Harley definitely weighed him down but also would nearly slip and fall if Peter performed a particularly tricky maneuver.
They finally landed gratefully on the fire escape outside the bedroom window half past midnight. Peter saw Ned was sitting on the floor through the window. Harley didn’t let go immediately. He clung to Peter like a lifeline for a moment before finally dropping onto the rusty metal steps of the fire escape. His hair was windswept and messier than usual and he looked slightly green and sickly. Despite this, he grinned up at Peter.
“That was awesome,” He breathed as Peter pushed the bedroom window open. “I mean I’m definitely gonna puke. But, that was really cool.”
Peter snorted and climbed through the window. Ned instantly bombarded them with questions about the man on the rollercoaster and what he was up to and how they swung home- “You swung with Harley? You never did with me!”
Before Peter could answer any of the questions, May knocked on the door. She was still in her scrubs from work. “Ned your mom is outside waiting for you. How did your last exam go-”
She froze upon seeing Peter’s beaten-up face. “Did you patrol all day?”
“Just for a few minutes. We went to coney island and this guy with-” He was cut off by a loud relentless honking from the street below.
Ned jumped and scrambled to collect all his things. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow! Tell me everything! Bye May!”
They all stood there stunned silently for a minute until May spoke up. “You two don’t stay up too late okay? Peter, no more patrolling tonight.”