Who: Gwen, Flash and MJ When: After new spidey showed up on the journals Where: Flash/Gwen apartment What: Talking about what to do with the spider Warnings: Flash and MJ swearing.
Flash made the mistake of checking the journals while he was still wearing the Venom suit and that’s when everything went to shit.
He had been spending his spare time trying to piece the city back together after Loki’s long black out party and when he wasn’t at school or studying with Gwen, he was in the suit. Granted, New York wasn’t exactly happy to see some black goo monster saving stores from looters or catching construction workers who slipped while trying to do repairs, but they were taking what they could get. Venom wasn’t a household name, not even close, but he was finally doing something with his powers. He finally felt like he was more than just the Flash Thompson everyone knew at school. So, when this new Parker showed up with everything that happened through the door erased, he might have flipped. Just a little.
But, what made Flash feel like his jaw was about to unhinge so his mouth could grow bright white shiny teeth, was that this Parker talked like the one in the comic books. He wasn’t shy with a side of snarky like the one Flash grew up with, but a fucking motormouth and enough confidence to slap Flash down on day one. He could hear Venom hiss. Hear it gurgle Spider-Man in the back of his head with this rising urge to tear him apart. The worst thing about Venom, the thing that made all the other guys who had it fail so miserably, was that it could be very convincing when it was the only one talking. It told him to go outside and get some air. Keep the suit on, go help some people instead of worry about Spiidddderr-Man. Which, essentially, was code for go do something really fucked up.
And, the teenager with an alien on his back nearly did it. He nearly stormed out of the apartment only minutes after getting home to go wreck some shit. But, that’s why Gwen was there. To talk him down. To get him to take the suit off instead of go ruin everything they had been working towards. He didn’t have to tell her, but without Gwen, Flash would have lost himself to the Venom a long time ago. That wasn’t the kind of stuff guys like Flash admitted to and it totally wasn’t the kind of thing Gwen needed to hear. She already knew. It was probably why she stuck around. They both got it, which was really the theme of their friendship from the start. So, now he was laying on the living room floor partially under the coffee table and trying to drown out the sound of Venom whispering at him from his room. “We have to keep that thing at Banner’s from now on.” Flash looked up at Gwen, who had been sitting with him until he stopped freaking out. MJ would be here soon, too and then they could all talk about the new Peter Parker.
Gwen was wrecked. She was pajama pants with the periodic table floating on them in little boxes, and she was a Cornell sweatshirt, and she was puffy red eyes and a container of Froyo on her lap (she was still too aware of the effect of cholesterol on the arteries to really go for Flash's ice cream). She hadn't been kidding when she'd told Mary Jane that she wanted to downplay the return of a Peter that wasn't her Peter, but that didn't mean she could keep from sobbing about it for 12.3 minutes, before she managed to control herself enough to go babysit her Brony in the living room. And she knew this was bad. This was so bad. Her Peter had been a real jerk most of the time, but they'd all come to some kind of tentative understanding, and now that was gone. It was replaced by this new Peter, one that had a different perception of everyone than the previous one had, and the timing was just terrible.
Had Gwen known that her Peter was going to disappear just after they got back together, she would have skipped that reunion, but it was too late for that, and they had bigger problems now. Flash, namely, and maybe Harry, and definitely Mr. Osborn. Even Mary Jane had to deal with a Peter Parker who didn't talk to her when he was upset, and Gwen was fairly sure that had never happened in Mary Jane's entire life.
The Froyo was poked at with the edge of her spoon, and Gwen looked down at Flash, who she poked in the belly with a Ugg-ed foot. "Dr. Banner hasn't been around for days," she reminded Flash, because that was a problem too. Director Fury had gone missing from SHIELD too, and she felt like they were completely on their own for the first time since she'd ended up here. And she didn't even want to mention the fact that Connors had been sighted, in full-on lizard, because that wasn't going to help, and neither were the rumors of Doc Ock and Goblin messing around with a hospital during the blackout. Maybe she should have gone for the ice cream after all. "We're going to need to find a safe lockdown place, Flash, and a secure lab for me to work out of," she concluded, which was something tangible and easier to focus on than Peter, despite the fact that the city obviously needed him. Finally, she sighed. "Maybe he'll work with us."
Half of Flash’s face bunched up in a dimpled thinking stare up at her and the ceiling that looked kind of painful. Thinking wasn’t really his bag. He had more common sense than Gwen, he was sure about that, but she was always a lot better at planning stuff out or even remembering how many checkers were still on the board. His expression turned into a small almost-smile when she poked his stomach and then the half worried look switched sides on his face. Dimple a little bigger on the left than the right. “Banner’s patience is running pretty thin with us.” He said it like he didn’t know if that really made a difference with him. Smart guys, even ones with serious anger issues, were hard for Flash to deal with. They worried about more stuff, saw more problems. They didn’t just go for stuff like Flash did.
He grabbed her ankle lightly and shook it back and forth. A weird jockish sign of affection that was about as pointless and silly as he could get on his best days. “I’m putting you on the real stuff. No more of that girly shit.” Flash said about the Froyo like she had tried to put a bandaid on a broken arm. He didn’t know a whole lot about girls, but he knew when they got sad this low-calorie crap didn’t make a difference. And, just then there was a knock on the door and Flash squirmed out from under the table, shoulders moving up and down like he was trying to be a backstroking snake and then eventually rolled to his feet. Dressed in checkered pjs and his Brony shirt, he fixed his hair on the way to the door like any teenage boy about to hang with a hot chick would do. Swinging the door open, he put one arm out for a hug. “Sup, little red.” Flash said, all cool guy gruffness that didn’t go away even with the brony phase.
Mary Jane took a deep breath just before Flash opened the door to steady herself, and when the door swung open, she flashed him a shaky smile before stepping into his arm for a desperately needed hug. “Hi, Flash,” she mumbled against his chest, since that was as high as she ever reached on the hulking former football player. She was bundled against the New York cold, black peacoat, bulky scarf, and floppy hat tucked on top of her bright red hair, and while she wasn’t like, completely dressed up, she still felt a little overdressed in her jeans and knee-high riding boots. But, whatever. There were other things to worry about, like how she had been completely wrong. Well, not completely wrong. Peter had come back. But, despite all her wishing and reassuring Gwen, it just wasn’t their Peter, and this new, bizarre Peter threw a wrench into their little dynamic. Things were going well before their Peter disappeared, and everyone was in a tentatively good place. Now, they were all turned on their ears, and all the already overly stressed teenagers scrambled to turn their worlds rightside up.
And, god, did it manifest in the sharpest pain in her chest. When he was around, MJ could easily ignore the buzz he filled her brain with or the butterflies in her stomach because she could just simply brush them away. No, she didn’t have feelings for her best friend. Even when he blinked out of existence for those agonizing couple of weeks, helping around at Stark Industries distracted her when it hurt most. But now, with this alternate universe Pete who wouldn’t talk to her, MJ was devastated. She hadn’t cried though; she wouldn’t let herself. No, Gwen was probably sobbing her face off, and Flash was about to go off the deep end. She had to be the strong one.
Pulling back from the hug, she stepped into the apartment and spied Gwen on the couch with her froyo, which almost made MJ smile. Even Gwen Stacy fell into those silly cliches now and then. “Hi, Gwen,” she said, voice bleeding with wariness. She knew she shouldn’t have tried to convince either of them that their Peter would come back because when did things actually ever work out in this fucked up door business? “Guess I missed the pajama party memo,” the redhead teased, unraveling the scarf and tossing it on a nearby chair. From the bag slung over her shoulder, she procured a 3/4ths full bottle of Jack Daniels. “It’s my dad’s. I think we might need it tonight.” Ice cream (or froyo) was fine and dandy, but MJ wanted that burn in her stomach. She wanted to forget that conversation with Peter, however brief it was.
Flash gave an actual fistpump at the sight of booze and closed the door behind her. “Dude. Yes.” Was all he said and went to the kitchen to get three (yes, three Gwen) little juice glasses, the rocky road and some spoons. Being a good host or whatever gave him an excuse to ignore the girls sizing each other up. Because that’s what girls did. They checked to see if the other one was in as bad of a shape and then either felt great or terrible about it. It was why girls who went to those private schools still wore hell of makeup and tried to make their skirts shorter. Flash used to think it was just lesbians, but nope. Bitches be competitive even when they’re trying to be nice and collective.
He eventually joined them back at the couch, pointing his finger at Gwen with a dead serious: “You’re drinking.” Flash had tried the demand thing from her with VERY little success, but he was never a fast learner.
Gwen thought Mary Jane looked great, which only made her dig into her Froyo with more gusto. It was, she knew, a normal reaction to deal with stresses by doing things that released positive endorphins, and eating something sweet generally qualified. But the yogurt didn't make her feel any less splotchy, any less blonde, or any less pathetically alone. Or maybe it was that hug at the door that had done it, but the rest was the same. More yogurt, and a muttered greeting that didn't actually qualify as a real greeting at all. And maybe it was telling that she didn't even blink at the bottle that Mary Jane carried with her. Living with Harry had resulted in more than a few hangovers, even though Mr. Osborn's liquor was of much better quality than what Mary Jane brought with her. But, yeah, she'd made some progress in the last year when it came to drinking and lying; her dad would be so proud.
"You're a terrible influence," she told Flash, but she didn't contradict him. "Peer pressure will get you kicked out of the Brony club. Twilight Sparkle wouldn't approve," she told him, even as she finally gave Mary Jane a longer look. "Hey," she added, because none of this was actually Mary Jane's fault, which she logically did realize, even if she wanted to blame the redhead with her perfect boots for everything just then.
MJ’s tentative smile dipped down to a frown for a fraction of a second when she saw Gwen bury her face into that froyo. She felt guilty, crazy guilty, that Gwen lost Peter just when they patched up all that stuff. Because she didn’t want Gwen to suffer, not like that, and she knew Peter would choose her every time. No matter what some comic book or movie or whatever said. This was just all sorts of fucked, and MJ wished she could turn back the clock to a time before any of this happened. And, seeing Gwen curled up on the couch like that made her only want to do it more. See? She could be nice about it. Now, actually doing anything about it? That might be out of the cards for the night, at least, except for drinking away their collective pain.
Stripping her coat off and tossing it over that same chair, she took to filling the juice glasses with the amber liquid. “He’s the worst influence,” she agreed, looking up for a second and beaming over at Flash. “The worst.” She pushed a glass towards Gwen, then another towards Flash, and then wrapped her fingers around the third. “Tooooo us, I guess?” MJ gave a shaky toast, then a shaky smile, and then took a long gulp before Flash or Gwen could say anything.
Flash beamed at them when they both agreed he was a bad influence like they just awarded him a gold medal. And, he was proud of Gwen when she didn’t not disagree to some booze. Hell, she probably needed it more than he and MJ, though with the whole Venom suit involved that could be debatable. He took a seat on the floor next to the coffee table and picked up his glass. “Us? Yeah I guess.” Flash shrugged, gulping the whiskey down and slamming the glass on the table. This was weird. Drinking with MJ wasn’t out of the ordinary, but to them it was always something they did when they were at a party or just bored. This felt like adult drinking.
He sighed and propped his elbows on the table, making two fists and trapping his face between them. “So this has happened before. There was a Peter before I showed up?” Flash was still having a hard time wrapping his head around everything. “I just don’t understand. Parker was here a long time. Shit happened.”
Gwen swallowed her own juice glass of whiskey with her eyes screwed shut, and she still couldn't help from coughing after. Mr. Osborn's stuff was so much smoother, and she almost logicked out the scientific difference between whiskey brands in her head for a second. But she stopped herself in favor of concentrating on the conversation, after throwing a couch cushion at Flash's smug face. She set her Froyo on the coffee table, and she nodded. "I've been researching it on the journals, but I don't see any consistency in when people disappear or why. There are tons of variables, and I don't think any of them are gonna explain why Peter's gone," she said, because (for once) all the science in the world was pointless.
After a shrug, Gwen sat back on the couch. "This Peter is going to to tell Harry about Mr. Osborn, about Hobgoblin and Goblin and all the rest. I don't think he'll listen either." She looked from one of them to the other. "If he knows about Venom, we're going to need to win him over, and I don't know if any of us can do it." And she sounded absolutely confused about that, because she couldn't imagine a world in which Peter Parker didn't at least like her. "I don't even think I'm friends with this one," she admitted, and she managed to say it straight, as if it was a scientific observation, nothing more.
Kids like Flash and MJ got the cheap alcohol because their parents had the cheap stuff or because that was what they could get from the corner store or liquor stores in Queens that didn’t card underage kids. So, the Jack went down pretty easily for the redhead, only the slightest shiver coursing down her spine before she placed her emptied glass down as well and busied herself with providing refills. Her stomach felt warm, and for the first time that night, her nerves weren’t completely frayed, and a bubble of laughter escaped when Flash got smacked in the face with the cushion.
Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she sighed as they both theorized over the new Peter and took a seat on the floor, too. “There isn’t any consistency. It’s random as hell. Adam had someone before, right? That Pym guy. But he didn’t come back at all?” She looked to Flash for confirmation before turning back to Gwen. “But you’ve bounced around a bunch of different people’s brains.” She didn’t know why she was rambling. Maybe to put off facing the reality of their Peter being gone. Her Peter. “He’s completely different,” she said, and before she could prattle further, she buried her face into her glass. But, the sentiment was still there. Peter Parker didn’t brush her off, not like this, and MJ wasn’t pleased.
Flash made a satisfying oof noise at the cushion to the face and teetered back with a grin. It was complete bullshit that he and MJ and Gwen all got along pretty okay now that Parker was gone. Their Parker. And, he imagined what would have happened if everything stayed the same. Their group would have finally been a group instead of some weird splintered tree of teenage melodrama. Well, except Harry. Harry always put himself on the outside like a weirdo. “Yeah, this new guy is like a hyperactive Parker. Talks too fucking much.” Flash prefered an overuse of sups and bro with not a lot in between.
“But, okay. Fucking granted he’s not the same guy and more of a tool than than the last one, he’s still Spider-Man. And, he’s still going to need to know about Venom one way or another.” Flash was almost whispering, like he didn’t want his suit in the other room to hear. “And, frankly at this point I don’t trust myself around him in that suit. I’ll probably even want to kick his ass at school. Venom suit or not.”
"Well, logically we can't tell how different he is yet, not from one conversation where both sides were emotional," Gwen said logically, even with the whiskey warming her through and making her a little slower about everything, including grabbing the Rocky Road to replace the Froyo she'd set aside. "But you're basing it on the fact that Peter Parker would never not talk to you, right? I'm used to that," pause, "recently, anyway." Which made her sound a little grumpy, and she illogically wished she had another cushion within reach to smack Flash with, because smacking Flash with things was surprisingly soothing. "We have to win him over, or we're going to have to trouble," she added, because that's what all of this came down to. If they didn't want this Peter turning Flash in for Venom, or making Harry insane, then they needed to win him over. "But, bright side," she added, "Harry pointed out that no Peter means no bridge threat, and I get to live to be a hundred or something."
MJ looked over at Gwen, deadpan serious. “You were always going to get to live till a hundred.” Fuck those comic books for making them think they were all destined to be miserable and lonely and screwed up and dead. She always held steadfast to the idea that they weren’t, and what was that thing everyone said about self-fulfilling prophecies? Whatever, she took another sip of whiskey before she said something else. She made a noncommittal sound at Gwen’s theory of why she thought that because the blonde was mostly right. And, she was irrationally angry at the idea of having to make Peter like her. Everything with their friendship was always so natural. Why would she have to make him be her best friend again? But, for Flash’s sake. “You were right. Harry might have the best time with him. Maybe they’re best friends where he comes from.” And she tried her hardest not to sound bitter about all that. “I haven’t asked him, but I’ll talk to him tomorrow.” Resting her elbow on the coffee table, she propped her chin in her hand.
Flash poured them all another helping of whiskey, bringing the juice glass to his lips and downing it unceremoniously. He was naturally envious of Parker in a way that wasn’t fully realized. The kind that could snap at the smallest thing like MJ taking obvious priority or Gwen sulking. But, this past year had put most of that to rest, the Parker he grew up with became more of a friend than a rival and that put things in perspective. “Gwen. You have to warn Harry about what Peter is going to say about his dad. Parker is probably right. I talked to Osborn’s guy in Vegas and he said Osborn is pretty crazy about Spidey, so that fucking sucks.” Flash took a spoon and dug out a sizeable chunk of the rocky road, messily shoving it in his face. Chomp, chomp, chomp. “Doesn’t matter if it’s true. Harry will freak. MJ should just try to talk to Parker. Aahhh fuck brain freeze.”
First things first, Gwen licked her spoon clean, and then she thwapped Flash on the head with it. "Eat right, Flash," she chided, using the same tone she used when she got on him about homework or about his future. "I'm supposed to see Harry at Oscorp," she admitted reluctantly, because she didn't really want to get into a conversation about whatever the messed up thing going on with Harry since Christmas was. There was no good way to say 'hey, I made out with older Harry,' without it sounding weird, even when she was buzzed. "I can try to tell him, but it isn't going to go over well." But the fact that Flash had managed to talk to Norman's Vegas person was news, and she wanted to thwap him with the spoon again. "Did he mention bridges?" she asked, before turning her attention back to Mary Jane. "You better still ask Harry to talk to Peter. He'll probably shut me out for awhile if I tell him about his dad."
MJ snorted again as Gwen whacked Flash with her spoon. It was the first time she’d seen the two of them interact outside of school, and she could totally feel a small lick from that green little monster known as jealousy. She knew, objectively, that Gwen didn’t have a thing for Flash, and vice versa, but she couldn’t help it. It looked so easy with them. Maybe this was just a fraction of what Gwen felt about she and Peter’s relationship. Still she quirked an eyebrow at Gwen’s hesitant tone. Trouble in best friend paradise? She didn’t know about any of Gwen’s stumblings with Harry, but clearly something was up. “Well. You should try first with Harry, maybe, and if shit hits the fan, I’m on deck?” She shot Flash a not-so-subtle Some shit is going down those two look. Then, she sighed, and for the first time that night, there was a flicker of that raw and stinging upset. “He made it pretty clear how he feels about all of us.” But, it was gone with the shake of her head and a gulp of whiskey.
Flash gave Gwen a look like a puppy who got smacked in the head during playtime. “Stop abooosing me.” He warned like he had said that to her a thousand times and this was just stage three of typical Gwen and Flash friendship times. It didn’t even occur to the ex-football star that he and Gwen were acting cozy or anything like that. Just the thought seemed completely absurd like it broke every single caste system in high school. And, maybe he heard someone in the hallway whispering that their apartment was a sex home for sexy times but that was so gross it was kind of funny. Flash was a slut, but even a slut had boundaries, okay.
“No, obviously if he was going to throw you off a bridge, he wouldn’t have mentioned it. He just confirmed that old dude is totally obsessed with Spidey. That’s a bad start, yo.” Flash went for another spoonful of ice cream, this time trying to portion his bites so he wouldn’t get another brain freeze. He turned to look at MJ almost exactly when she gave him that look, returning it with a flat eyebrow raise that was commonly used when he suspected two people were hooking up or wanted to hook up and then he slowly gave Gwen the same look but with 100% more disapproval. He didn’t like Parker, but Harry was way worse with his money and brains. Like he was so much better than everyone else. That wasn’t the point they were all here though and really Flash couldn’t give a lecture to anyone about who is a good person to want to hook up with since he was the shining example of who not to.
“You two are retarded.” Flash said finally, buzzed and sweet in his own abrasive way. “He’s being a dick now, but I don’t think there’s any canon fucking universe where you two don’t have some weird spell on him. With your wiles and whatnot.” He gave them a look like he was talking to a room full of witches with magic and spells and crap. “Two minutes of you guys being all nice or whatever and he’ll crack. Fucking two.” Because that’s how long it took with Flash, okay.
Gwen had no realization of Mary Jane's teensy bit of jealousy. She wasn't particularly socially clued in, and the fact that she and Flash had no chemistry was practically science; she assumed everyone could see it. Peter had freaked out about her and Flash living together for five seconds, but even that hadn't been about jealousy. But Peter had never gotten jealous, and- no, no, she wasn't going to go down that path. She took another spoonful of ice cream instead, and she mentally counted the calories and converted the fat percentage.
It was a bad start, the thing about Mr. Osborn being obsessed with Spider-Man, and even Gwen couldn't hide from that reality anymore. It was that part where something went from a theory to a hypothesis, and the chances that Mr. Osborn really was Goblin here just climbed exponentially. "I'll talk to Harry," she finally said, more decisively this time, because it was better coming from her if it was true. She didn't catch all those looks between Mary Jane and Flash either, but then she and Harry weren't talking about anything to each other, so she didn't think it showed when she talked. Again, social cluelessness in spades.
As for Flash's assertion that Peter would come around, she wasn't sure about that either. "The only person that's true about is Mary Jane and Harry," she said, knowing enough about the comics now to know there were a few constants in everything. Mary Jane and Peter always ended up together. She always ended up dead. Harry and Peter were always friends. She didn't look at Flash then, because none of that boded very well for either of them, even if she tried to ignore it as much as possible these days. "Mary Jane should give Peter another try, and I'll talk to Harry first. Flash, you find a place for the suit." She didn't want to admit that she didn't think Dr. Banner was coming back, but she didn't think Dr. Banner was coming back.
MJ was glad that Gwen would tackle all the Harry talking. As flirty and friendly as they were when they did talk, that’s all it was right now: friendly flirting. She and Harry hardly spoke at all lately, and she figured Gwen could get through to him far easier. Like she could usually get through Peter’s thick skull no matter what. Though MJ was now convinced soooomething was happening between the two Upper East Siders, and she didn’t know how to feel about all that. Whether she should be jealous or encourage it or have this new Peter’s back because this one was probably in love with Gwen too.
Speaking of. Mary Jane couldn’t help the long, angry, narrow-eyed look she shot Gwen. “Are you stupid,” she said, not asked, because clearly Gwen was stupid about certain things. And maybe, she should stop with the whiskey, but it made her stomach feel warm and the faulty filter in her brain just break. The redhead wasn’t used to having to hold back, it wasn’t her thing, and she certainly wouldn’t right now. “Like, I know you’re actually a genius, but are you blind? It’s not just me, and it’s not just Harry. Peter’s crazy about you, Gwen. Jesus Christ.” She wasn’t saying it to be mean, and the way she sighed made that obvious, as did the exasperated look she shot Flash. “Stop it. Okay? Stop. I’m not being a bitch, I’m just saying the truth. All you smart kids are so blind sometimes.”
Flash was in the middle of round three (or four? he lost count) of drinks when MJ snapped and he didn’t even fight back a grin. Neither him or the fiery little redhead planned on letting Gwen put herself down anymore. Not when she was hanging out with two people who had spent most of their lives determining what was cool and living the science of social cues. “Dude, seriously.” He agreed emphatically with MJ, knocking back another juice cup of whiskey and then swaying a little wobbly. “Gwen.” Flash started, one eye open with an expression that looked like he was trying to be serious and really thought-provoking, when really it just came off like he was hit in the head too hard. “Here’s some perspective. Parker used to ask me for advice on you. Yeah. I know.” He looked to MJ like that was the biggest secret he had been carrying around all year. Not the big goop alien suit.
“And, even if he’s different, that shit doesn’t change. Like I’ve read about me in other places. I’m pretty much the same guy just like way more stupider. If this MJ left right now and was replaced by a different one I’d be sad as fuck, but I know she’d still want to get with me.” Flash gave her a couple eyebrow raises for effect.
Booze just made Gwen uninhibited or sad, depending on who was around. No uninhibited candidates in the room, so sad prevailed. But she managed to roll her eyes and give Mary Jane a look. "You're being illogical. I talked to this Peter for awhile. He's never dated me. He's met me. It's different. His story or whatever, it's different. My Peter was my Peter. This one isn't into me. I don't know if he's into you. I didn't ask," which she said a little sulkily. "And it doesn't matter anyway. Me and Peter spent almost all his time here fighting. I spent more time with Ha-" Stop. Rewind. Stupid booze. "It doesn't matter. This one talks about things I don't even know about. I guess I lived with him and Aunt May. We never hooked up. I bet he's yours," she said, pointing the spoon at Mary Jane and looking over at Flash. "And you shut up, Flash Thompson."
There. Point made, and Gwen went back to her ice cream until, that was, Flash said Mary Jane would still be into him regardless of replacements. "You are so full of it. Tell him he's full of it," she told he redhead, because they'd already decided on gameplans, right? Despite all of Mary Jane's arguing, she would talk to Peter, and Flash would stash the suit, and she'd ruin Harry's life. She stood, ready to go meet Harry (after finding a better bottle of booze) and let the lovebirds have some privacy. "Should I tell Mr. Osborn that I'm going to tell Harry?" The man was her boss, after all, and he'd been nothing but nice to her.
Pursing her lips, the redhead looked at Flash after his little confession and tried her best to keep her poker face. She was torn between being amused that Peter actually asked advice from Flash or upset because Peter asked it about Gwen and not her. Shaking her head, MJ, too, downed the rest of her juice glass of that burning amber liquid, and she smacked her lips together to lick the excess liquor off her lips. Gwen needed some serious social help, okay, and clearly she and Flash would have to collaborate to help this girl. Because, fundamentally, the redhead liked the blonde, jealousy and awkwardness and natural competition aside. She rested her chin on her shoulder and gave Flash a We need to help her look. And, she rolled her eyes when Gwen went on about logical things because MJ was never really a logically based girl. “Blah, blah, not everything is about logic and science, Gwen Stacy.” No, it wasn’t, or else MJ wouldn’t have been able to understand a lot of the world. “Just because he hasn’t dated you doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to. Or he won’t.” She blinked, then, at the other girl saying that she lived with Peter, that Gwen did, not MJ. Sighing sharply, she pushed herself off the floor with a little sway and snatched the bottle to drink from it directly.
“You’re an asshole,” she said to Flash, eyes narrowed but smirk curling up her lips. “Who says I want to get with you at all?” Oh, she did, but part of their game was dangling herself just out of his reach. And, all of that made these fuzzy feelings in her stomach even more confusing. It was easier when she was just bouncing around from popular kid to popular kid. No time for feelings there. Then, she was waving her hands in front of her, shaking her head back and forth. “Isn’t he crazy? Osborn? Isn’t he fucking nuts? Hell no you shouldn’t tell him!”
Flash grinned up at MJ and made a grab at her but fell over on his side and decided he was happy just laying there on the ground for a while. “We don’t even know for sure this one is going to end up as a nutcase. Just give the info we gathered so far about the whole thing to Harry. That’s it.” Leave it to Flash to try and keep things simple. He laid there for a while, thinking maybe things would be okay for half a second before coming to terms that things had always been kind of fucked up. But, the more trouble they got into, the better Flash came out of it. At the Christmas party he had seen who he would have been without them and Peter. Flash wasn’t about to forget about that.
"Name calling is part of your foreplay stuff that I don't understand, isn't it?" Gwen asked Mary Jane, even as she stepped over Flash and nudged at him with her foot as she passed him. "Fine, I won't talk to Mr. Osborn. Just to Harry," she promised with a little uneven tilt, and with the thought that she would work in the lab for a while before asking Harry to meet her, so she would be more sober when the time came. As for whether or not everything was logic and science, she just shook her head at Mary Jane. She and the redhead couldn't be more different, but that didn't bother her as much as it had once. She considered leaving it that, but in the end she turned once she was halfway across the room. "The guy just got here. He might not want to date any of us," she told them both, because that was absolutely true. If they were going to insist that their lives weren't charted out for them, then maybe Peter's wasn't either. Maybe he'd fall for some mousy brunette somewhere. And watching Flash and Mary Jane, she almost hoped that was the case. She disappeared into her room a second later, and the water started up a few seconds after that.
Instead of watching Gwen as she made her slow retreat from the room, MJ stared down at Flash for a moment, eyebrows knitted together and legs rocking back and forth. Maybe she shouldn’t have drank so much, but whatever. None of them were fighting, and none of them were crying. That was a victory in her book. The redhead spluttered when Gwen asked about their name-calling, looking up at her with wide eyes and a twitching smile because Gwen Stacy saying foreplay? That was funny shit. MJ nodded in approval with a muttered “good” before she tilted her head to the side. Yeah, maybe she was right. Maybe Peter wouldn’t want either of them. And that? That made her stomach flop and a lump crawl up her throat, but she swallowed hard and called out a goodbye to the disappearing blonde.
“We need to help her with like, social cues,” MJ said to Flash once she heard that water start rushing, and she raised the bottle to take another swig. “Charity work.”
A couple months ago this would have all gone pretty terribly. The two girls were always at odds because they were so different and neither of them were passive enough to just take shit from each other. But, something about losing part of the group made bonding a lot easier. And, Flash? Flash was just happy he had a couple people he could count on when shit got bad. “Charity work.” He agreed, rolling around on the ground a little like a dog. “We’re such good people.” If Gwen hung out with them long enough, she might learn something that didn’t come in a textbook or from her weird logic. She might even learn how to be cool.
But, Flash caught the disappointment in both girls about Peter. MJ was better at hiding it, but the brony had been around her long enough to pick up on what she was really feeling. Normally, he’d take advantage of being a little drunk and try to get her to mess around for the rest of the night, but deep down...not even that far deep down, he still felt jealous of Parker. Even this new one. “I give her and Harry two weeks tops.” Flash said finally, sitting up and fighting back the rush of stars around his vision. “I have to go hide the suit somewhere.” He said it like he was totally going to do it right now, which was a terrible idea.
“We’re the greatest. So selfless. We’re getting sainted.” Mary Jane Watson and Flash Thompson helping the neediest of the needy nerds. And she already knew how to deal with them given growing up with her Peter. She knew, deep down, that Flash could probably pick up on how she was really feeling about Peter. They’d known each other too long for him to not be able to, but she didn’t want him burrowing inside her brain, not when it was all wishy-washy with Jack Daniels. Her knees wobbled a little, and she leaned a hip against the nearest chair. After taking one more swig, she held it out for him to take. “Give them two weeks before they’re screwing each other in his daddy’s penthouse?” she asked, amused. Maybe Harry could teach her a thing or two about being cool. He was the king of aloof, after all.
“Uh-uh,” she said, and she shoved at his shoulder. “Not now. You aren’t going near that suit right now. No drunk black goop-ing. It’s illegal, I bet, okay.” She pulled out her phone and mimed looking up something. “Look, yeah, see, I’m totally right. Look,” she repeated, waving her phone near him. “Gwen’s intoxicated, so I am your designated...venom-er. No alien business now.” She chided him and tried not to grin. “Okay? Okay.”
Flash sighed, nodding his head as if her phone held some obvious truths that they both knew. No, he wasn’t in any condition to go hide the Venom suit because that would probably result in him running around until dawn in the suit and drunk off his ass. Still, he didn’t want to be in the same room as it. “You got anywhere to be tonight?” He asked her casually. “I’m going to crash out here. Watch some Die Hard until I pass out.” As much as he might have been running with bronies, nothing calmed Flash down more than a patriotic eight hours of Bruce Willis killing terrorists. “You in?”
MJ paused, tilting her head as if mulling over whether or not she had anything to do, even if she knew she didn’t. She knew she needed to keep an eye on Flash, especially now. Now that he was all keyed up because of the new Peter and drunk from the whiskey, she couldn’t help but worry about what the venom could do to him. Plus, she didn’t really want to go home, nor when she was drunk herself and when her dad was home. She tucked her chin into her chest to look down at him with a smile. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t think there’s much going on tonight.” She held out her hand for him to take. “I’ll have to suffer for the better good of humanity or whatever.”