Re: Jurassic Park: Gwen & Peter
Peter was hardly ever at a loss for words. He almost always had words, even if they made no sense. He could string them together into a sentence, a joke, whatever, but just then he was having a really hard time managing. It wasn't that he didn't see Gwen's point, he did. Jason shouldn't have slept with MJ. MJ shouldn't have slept with Jason. But he'd known the redhead since they were kids, and it felt like some kind of betrayal to sit here, on a car, and talk about how wrong she'd been. Just like it felt like the same kind of betrayal if he went to MJ and agreed that yeah, Gwen was being unreasonable. Taking sides? Didn't feel right. But staying neutral, walking a super fine line, didn't feel right either.
He was stuck. He was the king of wiggling out of tight spaces, and he was so totally stuck.
"I guess." The way she looked at him, the hurt he saw in her eyes, made him squirm guiltily. He hated it. Her asshole boyfriend had cheated on her and he should be supporting her; he wanted to, he just didn't know how without throwing MJ under the metaphorical bus. That didn't mean he absolved her. It didn't mean she hadn't screwed up big time. But how was he supposed to explain that? "Look, Gwen, I-- I'm not saying you're wrong. Neither of them should've done what they did," he said, but she didn't want to talk about it, and when she looked away he just sighed. No matter what choice he made, it never felt like the right one. "That's good," he said of Emily, being with her mom. "Right? Your mom's got her, and they'll drop the charges. It'll work out." Something had to.
As for where they stood, in the midst of platonic friendships and not-boyfriends, Peter figured that really wasn't a conversation they should have now. Or anytime soon. Space, he could do space. It was fine. Never mind that the last time he'd tried to give her space, he'd ended up turning into a Spider-stalker extraordinaire.
He had no earbuds to tuck in his ears, so he was off as soon as he turned the key in the ignition and put the vehicle into drive. Webslinging would always be his favorite method of transportation but he could work with this, too. He hollered in protest when Gwen swerved ahead of him, and okay, maybe there was some road rage happening here. But he wasn't giving up his head start, screw feeling guilty (not really) and being nice (also not really). He drove until it was literally impossible to keep going, and he stopped where the trees got thick and climbed out of the vehicle, backpack in hand, trying to get a running start.
"You can't beat me, Gwen Stacy!" He laughed, complications and tension momentarily forgotten as he plunged into the thick greenery and surged ahead.