The coffee in my hand sits lukewarm and turning stale as I sit outside the museum waiting for Peter to show up. I know there's a new exhibit about Khandaq that he's not going to be able to pass up checking out. He may be a science geek at heart, but he love antiquities just as much. The two of us watched Indiana Jones way too much when we were younger. If he wasn't so naturally proficient in sciences and mathematics, I would expect him to be an archaeologist himself someday.
The conversation we had last night where I asked him to meet me wasn't the most tender between us. He's clearly upset that I haven't talked to him since he told me he loves me, and I'm clearly not the most comfortable about the situation still. But I know he won't pass up the opportunity to go to the exhibit, and he probably wants to talk as much as I do.
It doesn't help that Johnny Storm has thrown me for a complete loop. Knowing that Peter and I didn't end up together in his world has me thinking maybe I'm wasting my time in this relationship. That Peter is meant for someone else. Then of course I think about how Peter and Mary Jane were together in that reality, which is completely absurd to me. Plus, Peter is...well was, Spider-Man there. Maybe that means there really is no true destiny.
That of course brings me right back to Uncle Ben. He's dead in both of our worlds because someone, either Peter or I, failed to act against a crime. The fact brings back the doubt I felt when I first decided to get together with Peter. Uncle Ben is dead because of me. I should have stopped the man robbing the bank. This is a fact. This is also something I'm going to have to tell Peter sooner rather then later.
I've been putting it off for the same reason that I didn't stop Ben's murder to begin with. I'm being selfish. I don't want to lose Peter. Not as what we've become, and even more importantly not as the friend he's always been. Not to mention it puts my entire secret life at risk. It'll lead to him keeping yet another secret from Aunt May, and I don't know if I can handle that. I also couldn't handle her finding out the truth and knowing that the love of her life is dead because of me.
Johnny's warning about things eventually reaching those closest to me doesn't help either. For all I know I'm putting Peter in the same kind of danger I unwittingly put Uncle Ben in when I didn't do my job that night. What if keeping people close to me puts them in the crosshairs just as easily?]
All of this is floating through my head as Peter approaches and sidles up next to me,
"Hey.""Hey," I smile and give him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Should we go in?""Yea, sounds good," he smiles meekly.
After buying our tickets, we begin strolling the halls of the Museum of Natural History, the sights, smells, and sounds of nostalgia filling my ears. My mom used to bring Peter and I here often, fostering our love for learning. She had always enjoyed it as much as we did. She was always so adamant about us learning about other cultures, and how important it is to understand our fellow man. I owe her a lot. I've seen how people act when they're not taught that. It's disgusting, to be frank, that so many people will not accept others for who they are.
Miss you, Mom.
As we silently make our way to our destination, I try and come up with an ice breaker. Something I can say to generally breath the awkwardness. Everything gets caught in my throat, however. How can you tell a person that means so much to you, who thinks you're the source of their happiness, turns out to be the person who delivered their biggest heartbreak? Oh, and that's on top of telling him I'm not in love with him. Well, not yet at least. And I don't know if I can ever get there because of all the rest of this stuff weighing on my brain.
Thank you, crazy teenage hormones. Thank you so much.
The two of us reach the Khandaq exhibit, and my breath is taken away at the tapestries hanging from floor to ceiling. They tell the tale, allegedly fictional, of the Teth-Adam. Like Gilgamesh and Hercules, Teth-Adam is the great hero of legend in his culture. The tapestries, golden silks embroidered with reds, blues, and blacks, show Adam diverting floods, taking souls back from the land of the dead, and saving the sun from eternal darkness. They're all incredible stories, to be sure, and this is the first time they've ever been on display thanks to an agreement with the Khandaqi people.
"Incredible," Peter says, beaming at the display.
"Centuries old and they look brand new. It's said to be some sort of treatment lost to the ages. Amazing what people knew back then that we somehow lost during the way.""Now we'd just spray stuff with some plastic and make sure it never degraded," I chuckle.
"Yea and it probably would anyway," he shakes his head.
"Besides, that's not how art is meant to be seen. This? This is how art is meant to be seen. Pure, unrefined. Well, unrefined in the materials sense. Not processed through the modern lens."My eyebrow raises at him,
"Since when are you an art critic?""Yea I dunno where that came from," he laughs slightly.
"Harry and I were fighting about video games. I think it probably came out of that.""So about the other night..." I finally get out.
"I shouldn't have said it," he blurts out.
"You were going into a crappy, dangerous situation and it just came out. I know it was too early.""Yea. I mean no. I mean...I don't know," I shake my head.
"Peter we've been best friends forever. This is so new. It's been great, but we're in high school. Neither of us know where this is going or where we're going to end up. I just...don't want to rush into stuff that's going to jeopardize what we have. I hope to get to that point. Eventually, I really do. But right now I just...""It's okay," he smiles.
"I get it. I don't want to rush either. It's just...well your hobby isn't the safest in the world, and I don't want things to go unsaid. I had so much to say to Uncle Ben that I never will again. I don't want that to happen again."And there's the mention of Ben. I look down at my feet, shuffling them back and forth. I've waited too long. It's time to come clean with him.
"Pete, about that-"Before I can continue, the alarms in the museum start to go off.
"Oh what the hell?""Do you have your costume?" he whispers.
"Yea, I just need to find somehere to put it on."
Captain Uni,
Eddie Brock,
Master Bruce,
Sep,
Cyberlad
