Listening to her best friend Liz Allen had turned out to be a very bad idea. Not only was Michelle uncomfortable in the short, sheer dress Liz had picked out for her, just about every guy in her vicinity was staring at her. She had never been one to crave attention like most of the other girls at her college, her usual dress code consisted of jeans and a t-shirt, with something empowering on it, of course. It’s not that she didn’t want to be noticed, she appreciated being noticed for a good paper or drawing she did, but all the guys staring at her now were noticing her for all the wrong reasons.
She needed to find Liz and ask her when they would be leaving, going to a club wasn’t her normal idea of fun, but it was Liz’s Friday to choose what they did and they had a strict rule of no arguing or backing out. A rule she was very much regretting.
She wandered the crowded room, trying not to cringe away at every sweaty arm or leg that touched her as she scanned people’s faces, but she couldn’t seem to spot her best friend. She groaned and moved toward the bar. Getting a little tipsy wouldn’t hurt her current situation.
Before she could make it a hand grabbed her wrist forcing her to a stop, she turned in annoyance. It wasn’t unusual to have drunk guys trying to dance with her but she still gagged at the smell coming off of the man in front of her. Not only was he obviously hammered, he looked like he was in his late thirties, definitely too old to be in a club filled with college students. He was still gripping her wrist and she pried it out of his hand.
“Sorry, not interested!” she called over the music breathing out a sigh as she began walking toward the bar again, he grabbed her by the wrist yet again and she turned, this time immediately pulling her arm away.
The sweaty man frowned, “a pretty girl like you shouldn’t be here all alone,” he took a step toward her and she took two steps back, a flash of panic running through her chest, this wasn’t going in a good direction at all. Was she going to have to punch somebody tonight? A part of her wanted to, the only person she’d ever punched was Flash Thompson, but that was in middle school and this guy was a lot bigger than Flash ever was.
She let out a nervous laugh, “uhhh actually I have a boyfriend here!” it was a complete lie but she couldn’t think of anything else to say, she glanced backwards and scanned the crowd for Liz with no avail.
“I don’t see any boyfriend,” the man said taking another step toward her. He couldn’t do anything, right? Not with all these people watching.
She glanced back again and swallowed, “no, uh he’s right here!” She grabbed the shirt of some white guy who was standing with his back to her next to her and kissed him square on the lips, surprisingly he went along with it, he was most likely drunk and drunk people would practically do anything, but Michelle had to admit, he wasn’t a bad kisser. His lips were soft and he didn’t even smell bad like most everyone around them.
She pulled away and turned back toward the man who had retreated a few steps, “see!” she said motioning to the guy, “boyfriend.” She nodded hastily forming her lips into a tight line. The creeper, as she’d decided to call him scoffed and moved away.
“Okay uhh I think you might have the wrong guy?” the boy she kissed stuttered out and she rolled her eyes turning back to him, “Michelle? Mj? That’s you right? I thought I recognized-” he stopped himself and cleared his throat.
Her jaw went slack as she recognized the face of none other that Peter Parker, the boy she had been crushing on all throughout high school. Maybe it would have been better with the creeper. She quickly dismissed the thought, and tried to form a sentence.
“Oh my god,” she managed out touching her lips unconsciously, “oh my god,” it was just hitting her what she had just done. She turned away quickly and tried to walk away, now she really needed to find Liz. But another hand wrapped around her wrist pulling her to a stop. This one was gentle, and non threatening, much different than the creeper’s.
“Michelle,” Peter’s voice was softer now, “are you okay? Do you need help or something because you could have just asked,” he let out a nervous laugh and let go of her wrist after a few seconds.
“Yeah, I’m all good Parker, some guy was just being creepy and I had to tell him that I had a boyfriend,” and glanced around for Liz again, where the hell was she?
“So you kissed me,” it wasn’t a question, just an observation. She noticed that he still had that adorable stutter from when they were in high school. Not that he was adorable, of course not. She had gotten over Peter Parker when they’d left for college, obviously.
“Pretty much,” she nodded and let out a sigh, “it was nice catching up with you loser, but I’ve got to go find Liz.” She turned away but he grabbed her wrist again.
“I swear to god if one more person touches my wrist-” her patience was running thin and she needed to get away from this boy and back to Liz and then back home where she couldn’t do stupid things like kissing her high school crush.
“S-sorry,” he released her wrist quickly before adding “Wait Liz Liz? Like high school Liz? I thought she moved away?” his nose did that little scrunch thing that it always did when he was confused and she grit her teeth to keep from smiling.
“What other Liz’s do you know? Plus, that was years ago nerd, she moved back to go to college here, now are we done? I’m really grateful that you were drunk enough to kiss me back and make it look real but I really should be going-”
“Drunk? I’m not drunk,” he said in confusion, “I uh, I recognized your perfume when you kissed me so uh, I knew there was probably a good reason for you kissing me even though we haven’t talked in almost two years. But I mean we’re still friends right? Even though-”
“Peter!” she cut him off, he had begun to ramble and she really didn’t want to be here forever, he paused looking at her, “shut up okay?”
He laughed nervously again, “S-sorry, when I get nervous I start to ramble and it’s just, I haven’t seen you in so long and you kissed me and-” he froze when he saw the look on Michelle’s face, “annnd I’m doing it again... sorry.”
“Let’s just drop it okay?” the more time she spent with him the more she didn’t want to leave and really didn’t need to develop feelings… again.
“Okay deal,” he said with a smile, “as long as we can maybe hang out again? I’ve missed you, er- missed hanging out with you.” And just like that her heart betrayed her and she felt the tug that was so familiar to her during highschool.
“Yeah sure Parker, just text me, you still have my number right? Or did you break your phone, because that seems like something you would do.” she was surprised that they were falling back into their banter so quickly, usually she wasn’t very good with that kind of thing.
“N-no, I’ve got it, I’ll text you,” he glanced down at her lips and she swallowed harshly taking a step away from him.
“See you around loser!” God, what had she gotten herself into?