Chapter 6
Johnny knew two things for certain. One, Sue was the best sister ever, not that he would ever tell her that. Two, Peter Parker would be the death of him.
It wasn’t fair.
That applied to most things in Johnny’s life. His parents dying, his dad being an asshole, him getting powers, which admittedly, were pretty cool, but made it impossible to have a normal life. His stutter, which rarely came up nowadays, but every time it did, he felt stupid and useless. And his moronic, foolish crush on his best friend, Spider-Man. And his interest in Peter Parker, the photographer, and then the fact that they both were the same person. To some people, it might have made things easier, ‘oh look, that’s convenient for you, the two people you happen to be in love with are actually the same person. Isn’t life great?’. But Johnny wasn’t most people, and Peter Parker happened to be a huge, oblivious idiot, despite being insanely smart. Maybe Johnny had a thing for idiots. Whether he did or not, it made life even more difficult, as if being a teenage superhero wasn’t hard enough as it was.
Which led Johnny to be where he was now. Sitting on a couch, his heart slowly breaking into pieces, as his best friend, crush, superhero buddy, whatever he was to Johnny, sat stone-faced next to him. Or more accurately, as far away as possible from him.
Stupid Storm Luck. Johnny glanced towards his sister, taking in the ring on her finger. Stupid Johnny Storm Luck, he corrected himself.
Johnny honestly didn’t know what he had done wrong this time. He had only been trying to help. How many times have you messed everything up by, ‘just trying to help’? Johnny tried to shake away the voice in his head, which to be fair was probably common sense but wasn’t exactly helping him at the moment. Just as Johnny opened his mouth to say something, anything, to Peter, to try and fix his mistake, whatever that was, the goddamn stupid ceiling voice piped up again.
“Sorry to interrupt your little meltdown moment here, but we have memories to watch. So, can you please get over yourselves and keep watching? It actually took a lot of effort for me to put all this together, so if you could have a little respect please?”
“Asshole.” Ben muttered. Johnny couldn’t help but agree. For the thousandth time, he wished that this wasn’t happening. That none of this had happened, and instead of being stuck in some kind of time vortex where they had to watch his best friends (‘ex best friend now’. Shut up Johnny!) memories and go through all of his traumatic experiences, he could be sitting on top of Lady Liberty, stuffing his face with those horrible hot dogs Peter insisted tasted good, and listening to all of Peter’s horrible puns and flirting with him, desperately trying to get him to realise, ‘no it’s not a joke, can’t you see I’m in love with you?’. But then again, if this hadn’t happened, Johnny would have never found out that Peter Parker and Spider-Man were the same person.
‘He would have told me though, right?’ Some part of Johnny doubted that. But then again, it wasn’t his decision to make. It wasn’t his secret to tell. But now this stupid voice in the roof, ‘was it even coming from the roof?’ was making them see all of Peter’s secrets. It wasn’t fair.
‘When has anything ever been fair? Life isn’t fair.’
Johnny-
“Flame brain! Pay attention!”
Johnny startled, his eyes instinctively darting towards Peter. ‘That’s his name for me.’ Johnny thought.
Peter’s expression flickered for a second, and Johnny swore he saw a possessive take place, before it cleared away, a bored, uninterested look returning to his face. Johnny wondered if he had imagined it.
He cleared his throat. “Don’t call me that. That’s Peter’s name for me. You don’t get to use it.” What am I doing?
Johnny couldn’t help but glance back towards Peter. The corner of Peter’s mouth twitched, as if he was suppressing a grin. Johnny felt suddenly proud. He had done that.
Johnny looked back towards his sister who mouthed, “You are so whipped.”
Johnny gave her the finger and turned his gaze back to the scene unfolding before him. He would get through this, then he would take Peter aside and beg for forgiveness. Maybe I should find out what I did wrong first? Either way, he would find a way to fix everything, then it could all go back to normal and maybe one day Johnny could admit that he was in love with Peter. He could already imagine how that conversation would go.
Johnny could feel Peter’s gaze on him but the second he turned; Peter was staring at the scene. Oh right! The scene! Johnny really didn’t want to have to deal with that stupid voice guy again. It was a guy right? It didn’t matter.
He focused back on the scene, all the while he began planning his apology to Peter. He could fix this. Johnny was not letting Peter slip away. Not again. This is my last chance. He thought. I better not screw it up.
As the new scene began, Johnny felt a tiny sliver of hope begin to sneak through his body. One last chance Johnny. Don’t waste it.