Status: Work-In-Progress

Limerence

What Are You Doing Here

I bounced my leg as I did my English assignment, waiting for the bell to ring. I had free period next, and I was determined to catch Peter outside of his shop class and ask him about D.C. I had lost the opportunity this morning, but in my defense, I was having too much fun having an actual conversation with him that I didn’t care to ask. When the bell finally rang, I jumped from my desk and practically ran to the shop class. “Peter! Hey!” I ran up to him in the hall. “Hey, I need to talk to you about something.”

“What’s up?” He stepped out of the doorway and faced me with a smile on his face.

“It’s… it’s about D.C.”

“Oh… what about it?” His smile faded and he crossed his arms over his chest, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

“I just… where were you? In D.C.. Everyone was crazy worried, especially when all that stuff with the monument happened. I mean, you could have been dead and—“ I was cut off by the late bell.
“Seriously—“

“Callie, can we talk about this after school?”

“It’s important, Peter.” He looked into the nearly empty classroom and sighed.

“Okay, if it’s so important… I wasn’t feeling great, so I stayed in my hotel room.”

“Really?” Peter nodded. “Because Ned swore you were up in the Monument with him.”

“Oh… I… was…”

“Huh. You didn’t go up… or down.”

“Callie, I really gotta get to class.”

“Peter—“

“I can’t talk right now, Cal. I’ll see you after school.” Peter ended our conversation abruptly and went into the classroom. I groaned in frustration and walked through the front doors of the school. I had five out of my seven classes left today, but I couldn’t be here right now. Plus, I was sure my dad would write me an excuse for the classes I missed.

“Callie!” I turned around and saw Christian following me to the front gate. “Where are you going?”

“Oh… uh…”

“I don’t really care. I have a Spanish quiz to get out of. Let’s go.” He caught up with me and threw his arm around my shoulders. “Wanna get some pictures of Staten Island? There’s a ferry leaving soon and you could get some pretty kickass pictures.”

“Sounds great.” I smiled up at him before he tousled my hair.

~*~

“Christian, which one should I use?” I asked my brother and pointed the camera screen at him., not that he actually cared, but it was always nice to get a second opinion.

“I like the third one.” He said without even looking.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I rolled my eyes and kept taking pictures of the Manhattan skyline in the distance. “This was a great idea, Christian. Thanks.” I smiled as I walked over to him. “It’s a perfect way to clear my… oh you’ve gotta be kidding me.” I groaned as I saw Spider-Man climbing up the side of the ferry.

“What are you doing here?!” Spider-Man asked when he looked up and saw me.

“I wanted to get some pictures of Staten Island!” Spider-Man jumped up and landed beside me.

“What about him?” He asked, motioning towards my brother.

“It was his idea! Why does it matter to you, anyway? I don’t know you!”

“Uh… you just look like you should be in school is all.”

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” He hesitated for a moment before he shot webbing out of his wrist and swung up to a higher level on the ship. “That’s what I thought… Peter.” Not long after Peter left, three guys came down to the car level where my brother and I were.

“Hey, you guys… you shouldn’t be down here.” One of the men said as he walked towards us.

“We were just leaving.” Christian said and stepped in front of me. I peeked around his arm to see who they were, and saw none other than Spider-Man watching from overhead.

I opened my mouth to say something, but he put his finger over where his mouth would be under his mask, so I assumed he had a plan. “Come on, Christian. Let’s go back inside the ferry.” Christian grabbed my arm and kept me close to him as we went back inside, looking for some place to sit. “Those guys were—“

“Freaks. This was a bad idea, I shouldn’t have asked you to do this with me.”

“Christian, I’m fine. They didn’t do anything to me, and we’re back inside now, so they can’t do anything.”

“I know, but what if they had done something, Cal? I’m your big brother. God, I don’t know what I would have done if they had hurt you.” The ferry shook a little, throwing me off balance for a moment.

“Christian, I’m fine, okay?” I found us some seats across from each other and sat down. “See? I’m totally fine.” Just as I said that, a purple ray of light shot up between Christian and I, cutting through the floor and ceiling.

“Callie!” The laser continued down the center of the boat, slowly cutting it in half. Christian ran over to me and pulled me close to him, making sure we weren’t separated in the panic starting around us. “Are you okay?” I nodded and the boat started to split apart.

“Oh my God!” My grip on Christian slipped and I slid across the floor to the side of the ferry as our half began to sink further and further into the water. “Christian!” I reached out to where my older brother was standing before, but I couldn’t see him. “Christian!?” I looked around frantically. Where was he?! Did he fall into the water? Was he okay?! Webbing shot above my head, cutting my thoughts short as I watched Spider-Man trying to keep the two sides together. I tried to slow my breath and search for my brother again. We were safe for now.

I spotted Christian hanging on to one of the seats, looking around in a panic. I moved slowly over to him and placed my hand on his shoulder as soon as I finally reached him. “Callie! Oh my God.” He wrapped me in a hug and I could hear his heart thudding hard in his chest. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

“Promise.” I laughed before the webbing that held the boat together began to snap. “Dad’s gonna kill us if we survive.” I tried to joke and keep his focus on something other than the sinking ferry we were on. I shut my eyes, waiting for the worst. Christian’s arms fell from around me and I opened my eyes as there were small metallic clanking sounds coming from both sides of the ship. The ferry was… being put back together?

I stepped away from Christian and made my way over to a window to see what was going on. “Oh my God!” I jumped as freaking Iron Man raised into my view. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. Iron Man flew above the ferry and helped fuse the ship back together as everyone around us applauded him before he gave a small salute and flew off, Spider-Man following close behind.

No one was ever going to believe me.