"you?" "me."

As I change into my pyjamas, I feel my hands shaking. She knows now, Peter. No more hiding, time to put your soul on the line.

When I re-enter the room, Elle is sitting in my desk chair waiting patiently.

She wasn’t meant to be on that fire escape.

“I don’t  know who I expected the amazing Spider-Man to be, Peter, just not you,” she said dramatically, while lying her head on my chest. I laugh feeling her head rise and fall with each breath.

“Why not me?” I said looking at the ceiling.

She lifted her head off my chest and looked at my face, brushing a few strands of hair away from my eyes.

“Because, I don’t know, maybe I expected it to be Flash, for some reason,” she said innocently and I scoffed a little.

“Why that jerk?”

“He just seemed like the type who would want to fight criminals, even though he is pretty much one himself,” she said laying back beside me.

I sigh and put my arm around her, bringing her closer.

I can’t remember when we fell asleep but we talked for a while, about me being Spider-Man and about nothing else in particular. I woke up the the glaring sun, checking my watch. 1pm. May is at work, despite it being a Saturday. I get up, careful not to disturb Elle, except to kiss her cheek. She looks so precious when she is sleeping. I go to the kitchen to make something to eat, careful not to make eggs because she doesn’t like them. I made pancakes and sausages.

She walks out of the room, stretching and yawning. She walked up behind me and wrapped her short arms around my waist. I turn to face her and lean down to kiss her as she goes onto her tiptoes, causing me to bash my nose into hers. We laugh at our awkwardness as we both rub our faces. She reaches behind me and grabs a sausage, taking a bite of it and smiling with delight.

“I didn’t know you were a chef, Parker,” she said giggling.

I wrap my arms around her, “As it seems I might be a bit of the mystery man you wanted me to be, huh?” She laughed at me.

There was a sudden and sharp knock at the door. We stop and I stop her from moving going to the peephole. I look into it seeing Ned with a backpack full of something. I look back at Elle and mouth, “Ned”. She quietly tiptoes to my room, hiding the fact we spent the night together. Once the door is closed, I open the door to Ned’s smiling face.

“Ned, dude! What are you doing here?” I say awkwardly rubbing my head.

“Seriously, Peter, did those guys bust up your brains or something?” He shakes the bag at me. “Elle’s party set-up?”

“Shit,” I curse under my breath, knowing she could probably hear from my room, unless she left.

“They must have, Ned, cause I completely forgot. You can start without me. Let me get dressed and I’ll be out to help,” I say while I’m already at my door about to open it. I look back long enough to see him shovel a few sausages into his mouth. I close the door quickly behind me. I turn around and see her sitting there.

“Okay, Elle, go get dressed. Ned and I are working on your party set-up, so act surprised please?” I whisper, flashing the big brown puppy dog eyes that I know will get her to surrender.

“Fine,” she smiles and kisses me quick. She walks over to the window, climbing out and up the fire escape.

I get dressed faster than I think I have ever gotten dressed and walk back into the living  room. I look up to see that Ned has put streamers on the ceiling and hung up the banner. Lying lazily against the beige wall, bright yellow letters spell out “Happy 16th Eleanore”. I smile and look to Ned, who has moved on to blowing up balloons, some but not all with helium.

“Finally, I thought you had died in there. Who were you talking to?” Ned said curiously.

“May called to ask how the set-up was going,” I smile and start helping by blowing up balloons with helium.

Ned just hummed and turned on some music using a speaker he had hidden somewhere. I get up and clean up breakfast, putting some in a container and placing it in the microwave to keep it warm, so Elle and I might finally get to eat it together. I put the dishes into the dishwasher and start it.

About 3 hours later, we are done setting up and people start arriving, all except May, who allowed the party only because it was for Elle, and promised not to ruin it. The one person I didn’t expect to show up that did though, was Flash. Ol’ reliable Flash Thompson, except the only thing you can rely on him for is being a dick. I walk to the door as he enters.

“Flash, why are you here? You weren’t invited,” I say defensively.

“Come on Penis, a party, and you expect me not to come, especially when it’s for such a pretty girl,” he said, obviously referring to Elle.

“Don’t you dare go near her,” I lower my voice threateningly.

“Or what, your buddies Spider-Man and Tony Stark are gonna show up and kick my ass?” he said laughing and shoving past me, into my home.

Stark was going to show up, but as a surprise for Elle after she gets here. As if on cue, I feel my watch buzz and check it, Stark is at the window. I run to my room and let him in, going back over the specifics of the surprise. Ned knocks and then comes in, almost dropping his drink when he sees Mr. Stark. I run and close the door shutting out the noise of the party and telling him to keep it a secret.

I go up to Eleanore’s door to get her for the party. She opens it and my god she looks absolutely stunning in that outfit. It’s a dress which is totally out of character for her, but I love it. She kisses my cheek and grabs my hand. We walk down to the party.  I texted Ned to say that we were coming, so they could hide and turn off the music, even though she already knows but he doesn’t know she knows.

She unwillingly lets go of my hand when we reach the door. I open it, letting her walk in behind me as I open the door for her. I flip on the lights, which also triggers the music. They all jump up and yell surprise. Once she greets her friends and even regards Flash with a false happiness, I message Stark. I announce that there is one last surprise left for this party and she kinda glares at me. Everyone circles around us as I hand her a box.

“Surprise its a box,” she laughs as she opens it, her face falling out of shock when she looks inside and back up at me. 

"You're fucking joking me, Peter," she said her voice devoid of jokes.