Limerence

I was grounded for two weeks after skipping school, but it could have been a lot worse. Christian got four weeks since it was his idea to go on the ferry in the first place. “You both could have died, Christian! What were you thinking!? You’re lucky Iron Man was there to save your asses! I don’t know what I would have done! What would I have told your mother?!” Poor Christian had to sit through two hours of that while I tried to focus on homework. The first week went by slowly, but the second week wasn’t too bad.

Detention wasn’t even that bad, I got to actually spend some more time with Peter, and strangely enough, Spider-Man hadn’t made any appearances since the ferry incident. Although, that made it a lot easier for me to focus on school. “Hey, Callie.” Peter caught up with me at the subway station after our detention sentence.

“Hey, Peter.” I turned my attention from the book I was reading. “Hey, you work for Stark Enterprises, right? Do you know where Spider-Man’s been lately? Nobody’s seen him around.”

“Oh… I actually lost the Stark Internship.” Peter cleared his throat and kicked at a pebble on the ground. “They don’t approve of me getting detention for so long and skipping school… and the decathlon… it’s whatever.”

“I’m sorry, Peter… I had no idea.” He nodded at my apology and kept looking at his feet. “Is that why you’ve been so down this week?”

“Yeah, but like I said. It’s whatever.” Peter shrugged and grabbed onto the straps of his backpack. “I wanted to ask you something, though.” We stepped onto the subway after it came to a loud, screeching halt.

“What’s up?”

“Well, homecoming is next week… and I know you’re grounded, but you won’t be by the time… anyway, I was just wondering if you wanted to go to homecoming… with… with me.”

“Why?” I blurted out before I could stop myself, and his face fell.

“Oh… I mean, I just… never mind.”

“No, I mean, yes. Yes, I’d love to go with you. I just… thought you would have asked Liz.” I moved my hair in front of my face to hide my blush.
“Why would I ask her?” I looked up at Peter, who had a small smile across his face as he looked down at his shoes again.

“I thought you liked her…”

“I did… but then I met you.” I could feel my cheeks heating up as the subway slowed down to our stop. “So… that’s a yes?” I nodded. “Cool.” The doors to the subway opened and we both stepped off, and walked to our apartments in silence. “Oh, uhm… let me know what color your dress is when you get it so I can get a tie to match and a corsage.”

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.” I smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “I’ll see you tomorrow in detention.”

“Or… on the walk to the subway station… on Monday.”

“Right! Monday. Subway… see you there.” I started to back away, but tripped on the curb, losing my balance momentarily. “I’m okay. I’m… okay see ya later.” I ran inside and up the stairs to my apartment. “Hey, dad! Can I go to homecoming next week?” I clasped my hands behind my back and smiled. He sighed and sat his newspaper down, tossing it onto the dining room table. “Come on, I’ve been really good, I haven’t even so much as looked at my camera in the past two weeks. Please dad! I haven’t even taken a selfie on my phone camera.”

“Callie…” My dad sighed and took his reading glasses off. “You know what you did was bad, and—“

“Dad I know! I know. I’ll never skip school again. I’ve learned my lesson, just… please dad. Please? Peter asked me to go with him and I really want to go. With… my friends…” I cleared my throat and waited for my dad’s answer.

“Okay. Okay. You can go, but Peter has to come and ask my permission.”

“Dad…” I groaned. “Come on. It’s just gonna be a few friends going together. It’s not like a date or anything.” Dad sighed and rubbed his temples. “I’ll take that as an okay. Thanks dad! Love you!” I ran to my room before he could protest and shut the door behind me.

~*~

“Don’t think this makes us like... best friends or anything.” Michelle said as we walked into a retail store downtown to look for our Homecoming dresses.

“Oh no, Lea would kill both of us.” I shrugged and made my way to the women’s formal section.
“This is kinda cute.” I pulled a dress off the rack and threw it over my arm. Michelle stood beside me, flipping through the options.

“Nothing is dark enough.” She complained. “It’s all… pink and baby blue.” Michelle shuttered and moved to the other side of the rack. “So… are you going with anyone?”

“Peter asked me.” I tucked a strand of hair behind me ear and picked up one of the purple dresses and looked it over.

“You like him.” That definitely wasn’t a question, and she didn’t seem happy about it either.

“Well… yeah, kinda.” I admitted out loud for the first time. “I’m really excited… for the dance…” I cleared my throat. “Our group is totally gonna kill it on the dance floor, right?” I smiled up at M.J. as she focused on her dress hunt.

“Yeah… totally.” She shuffled off to the dressing room with three dresses draped over her arm. Did she like Peter, too? No. She couldn’t. She’s always been so… passive about him. I shrugged it off and went to the dressing rooms to try on my dresses.

An hour and too many dresses later, I decided on a simple, off the shoulder, maroon lace-like dress, black strappy heels, and a clutch to match the dress, all while staying under my dad’s budget. M.J. didn’t get a dress today, but said she’d go on her own tomorrow to get hers. “See you at school, C.C.” I nodded and pulled out my phone as we went our separate ways.

Callie: I got a maroon dress

Peter: Cool. I’ll tell Aunt May and get a tie to match