Ned frantically gestured away. "What are you doing?! You have to apologize, Peter!"

"Apologize?" cried Peter. "She will beat me up before I even have a chance to say sorry!"

Peter's eyebrows came together in distraught. What has he done? That was uncalled for and mean for no reason. Peter should have never let his frustration at home on someone else. He knew that Ned was right, but that still didn't mean he really wanted to confront Michelle... again.

"I'm going," Peter finally decided with a dejected sigh. He lifted himself from his seat, leaving his friend alone. When Peter left the lunch room, he wasn't sure where the look. Suddenly, the school seemed ten times bigger and he felt smaller. Where was he supposed to find Michelle?

Without a destination in mind, he walked ahead through the hallway. His pace was slow and at every intersection, he checked all around in hope that he could spot her. Finally, he heard sniffing around the corner. He followed the sound and the color drained from his face.

The girl's bathroom.

Peter didn't know how long Michelle would be in there... probably for the rest of lunch. And it would seriously hurt him for the rest of the day if he didn't say his apology to her. So, he dared to enter the girl's bathroom for the first time.

When he placed his hand on the door, he cringed. He would get in so much trouble for coming so near. But he decided that the risk would be worth it. Michelle being this upset with him was not something he could easily live with, and not fair to her.

After all, like he said, he and Ned were the only ones who tolerated her genuinely.

Peter pushed open the girl's bathroom door and peeked his head inside. Thank god it wasn't busy, otherwise, he couldn't go through with this plan of action.

He felt like he entered a sacred ground. The girl's bathroom didn't look too different from the boys, just the exclusion of urinals. In fact, it seemed a bit cleaner than the boys, until he noticed little pieces of floral paper on the ground underneath the stalls. Is... that...?

In the biggest stall, the handicap stall, Michelle was crying. Peter bit his lip, slowly approaching her stall door. He gently rapped his hand on the door and she suddenly stopped. She must have seen his shoes from beneath the stall door and she pushed the door hard enough to make Peter go backward. His face hit the door and he grunted from the impact. His hand went to cover his nose and mouth since they too stung.

Michelle stepped out of the stall. Definitely more furious than sad at the moment. Her eyes may have been slightly red, but they regarded Peter as if he was the enemy. Her cheeks were wet with tears that had already begun to dry up.

"You know," she said with her chest heaving impulsively. She squeezed her eyes shut to concentrate as she regained her composure. "I didn't think you'd have the balls to follow me in here."

"Well... I'm here." Peter had no clue what he should say. He didn't know what was the right thing to say to fix all of this. Was there even a fix to this? "Look, I didn't mean to make you cry."

"I'm not crying," she denied harshly. She passed by him and went to the sink. Her hands curled on the sides of the sink and she ducked her head low, refusing to look at him. "And you still said all of that shit whether you wanted me to cry or not, asshole."

"I am an asshole, you're right." Peter hesitantly took a step toward her, but she didn't see. "What I said isn't true-"

"God," Michelle groaned. "Peter don't bullshit me. Every word you said was true." Under her breath, she grumbled, "This is the thanks I get for trying to be nice."

Peter surged towards her, gently grabbing her wrist. "Michelle, you were nice-"

Michelle yanked her wrist from his grip, her mouth forming a snarl. "Peter-" she began but she and Peter both blinked rapidly at the sound of a toilet flushing.

Michelle stepped away from him, utter annoyance evident on her face as a small girl opened the stall door shyly. The girl glanced between the two during their fight and trying to make her way towards the sink to watch her hands. Michelle, without ever so much as look at the girl, growled, "You can wash your hands somewhere-fucking-else."

And the girl scampered off to wash her hands somewhere else.

Once the door to the bathroom closed, Michelle released a sigh. "Peter," she continued, her voice much tamer, "Get out of my face."

"No, I want to make it up to you and make it better," Peter begged, "I want to make it right to you."

Michelle turned her head to the side, her eyes watching her own reflection in the mirror above the sink. "No... No that's not what you want." She returned her gaze to him, her nose twitching in disgust. "You just want to use me for your own gain. That's what everyone seems to want."

She left without another word, and Peter had let her slip through his fingers again.

"Aunt May?" Peter entered his apartment home using the front door, skipping his routine of patrol right after school. He saw the back of his aunt's head since she was sitting on the couch watching a movie. He could hear her slowly munch on popcorn. "Hey, I just wanted to check in on you before I go to the mall."

"What's at the mall?" she asked tiredly.

"I'm going to go costume shopping. If you want me to stay and not go to the party, I understand..."

"No, no." May spun around and looked up at Peter. She managed to pull on a tired, sweet smile for him. "I want you to go out and have fun. Live a little. Plus, I kinda... I kinda want to be left alone for a little while if that's alright."

Peter nodded and then he leaned his head against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. "That's alright. Whatever you want."

"You need any money?"

"I've got it covered, thanks though." Peter waved goodbye before he went back downstairs to gear up on his bike and head to the mall.

Peter couldn't find anything. The costume stores were all sold out already since he had waited too late. Halloween was tomorrow after all. He even went to the department stores to find something salvageable. There wasn't a single jumpsuit or one piece suit of an animal like a bunny or something. Peter walked past a display at a comic book store and peeled to a spot.

He ran back to the display to see a poster of a certain web-slinging superhero. His mouth fell open in awe. It was Spider-Man. It was him. Peter's hand instantly dug in his pocket to buy it, but he turned his head to the side and saw her.

Peter had never seen Michelle so... happy. Much less in a skip.

She was laughing heartily, mouth wide, showing her teeth as she skipped ahead of a taller woman who appeared to be her mother. Her mother, a beautiful woman, pregnant with another child. Clutching her hand, a small little boy grinned and tried to skip too, mimicking his older sister.

Michelle spun around and yelled "Boo!" to scare her little brother and he yelped in excitement. Michelle laughed, "I got you!"

Peter couldn't believe this was the same person that had slapped him earlier. The Spider-Man poster was long forgotten at this moment. He let his legs do the thinking for him as he trailed after them, unsure of what he was even doing.

Michelle's mother asked, "Anything interesting happen at school, M?"

"Interesting?" Michelle shrugged. "Yes. Was it good? No."

She frowned down at her daughter. "What do you mean?"

Michelle pursed her lips then sighed. "Well, I tried your advice, mom. Play nice with others. Make some friends."

Now it was Peter's turn to cringe. Michelle was only doing what her mother had advised her to do and well, Peter's hostility towards Michelle had blown up in her face. He wanted to go off to the railing in the middle of the mall's walkway and puke over the edge.

"So, like, I tried talking to Peter again," she continued. "He was in some weird funk today. And I guess I made it worse and he snapped at me. He yelled at me in front of the entire lunchroom. Said I was a loser and that he and Ned are the only people in school that tolerate me, and that he doesn't even like me enough to call me a friend."

Ow. Peter's stomach ached.

He watched them enter a clothing store and he slowly crept in, following just out of sight but able to hear.

The smile fell from her mother's face. "That's... awful, sweetheart."

"What's worse is that I actually... I actually began to cry like a wimp. He followed me into the bathroom 'to make it right'," she mocked his voice by making hers go deeper. "But I left."

"He was trying to apologize and you left?" Her mother shook her head. "Why is it so hard for you to..." her mother droned off.

Michelle lifted an eyebrow at her skeptically. "For me to... what, mom? To be a normal, functioning social human being? I don't know," she replied sarcastically, "people aren't really worth the effort. All they do is hurt you."

Her gloomy state evaporated as she bent down and poked her little brother's sides. "But not you, Teddy. You would not hurt anybody, won't you?"

Teddy giggled.

Her mother rolled her eyes. "But Michelle, someone will always be worth the effort you put in. You can't be alone all of your life, it's not right."

"I hope you're not saying that Peter Parker is someone worth my while," scoffed Michelle. "Because Peter Parker is a shallow, goody-two-shoes, disrespectful, aggravating, unreliable-"

A bulky man backed up into Peter, who was peering around the corner at the conversation between Michelle and her mother. The man knocked Peter off balance and he stumbled into view, right in front of Micelle as she continued her rant. "-little piece of pathetic trash, who deserves to- Parker?!" she gasped his name, horrified to see him. "What the hell?"

"Hi, Michelle," This was the third time that Peter's face felt numb today because of Michelle, and it wasn't because she had hit him. "Hi, Mrs. Jones."

Her mother blinked at him. "Hi, you must be Peter..." She looked over at her daughter and darted her eyes at Peter suggestively. "What... a nicesurprise."

"Excuse me, mom." Michelle grabbed Peter's forearm and dragged him behind her out of the store. Peter waved at her mother, saying that it was lovely to meet her. Michelle let her grip on Peter go and she frowned at him. "Of course we are at the same mall, at the same time. Our world is truly small for me to get the displeasure of seeing you twice in one day."

"Michelle, I am sorry. I am sorry for lashing out at you. I am sorry for hurting your feelings. I am sorry for following you to the bathroom. I am sorry for sneaking up on you and your family- you have a very nice family, by the way, your brother is really cute." He lost track and shook her head rapidly. "I just... I don't know how to fix this." Peter stared at her, his eyes as big as a puppy's.

Michelle chewed on her bottom lip, pulling her eyes off of him as she thought. She shifted her weight and used one hand to grip her arm with uncertainty. "You know what?" She turned to look at him again, a smirk forming on her lips. "If you can keep up with me at the Halloween party tomorrow, you'll be forgiven- barely."

"Y-Yeah," Peter thought that was brilliant. This was his chance to make it right- just impress her tomorrow somehow. Be friends with her. That's all. "Yeah, it's a date."

Michelle stared at him. Blinking.

He didn't realize what he had said until it was too late. "N-No wait, I didn't mean that. Date? Haha, no that's not what I meant. I mean like, tomorrow marks the date for... whatever this is. Just you and me, chilling at the party, you know-?"

Michelle shook her head and scoffed, "Oh my god, Peter, please just stop. You're making it worse than it already is."

Then he saw the corner of her lip rise to a smile. She burst out in a laugh, lifting her hand to cover her mouth. "You're embarrassing," she giggled.

"Yeah..." Peter was lost for words. For a second, nothing seemed to matter all around him. He only saw her laugh in one perfect moment. "I really am."