o8. Normal

EIGHT NORMAL

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    They sat on the fire escape that night. Lyra felt utterly defeated. She hugged her sweatshirt closer to herself as she leaned her head against the edge of the open window, not knowing what to say. Her and Peter didn't have to talk, sometimes a night called for silence. The mission they had ahead of themselves was impossible, just like the idea of breaking this curse. Lyra had been stupid to think she would survive.

"I can ask Mr. Stark about it, I'm sure he'd be happy to help," Peter suggested, his voice stupidly optimistic as it always was. "I'm sure he knows all kinds of stuff about missing alien artifacts — hey, no, don't look at me like that, I'm serious. He deals with this stuff all the time." 

"Peter," she sighs, "You're my friend, right?"

He nods immediately, "Uh, I think so, yeah. I mean, we don't know each other super well, but yeah, I'd consider us friends considering the circumstances—"

Lyra chuckles, cutting him off as she asks, "A simple yes or no would suffice, dork."

"Then yes, we're friends," Peter smiled at her, his eyes crinkling up at the edges in a way she just wanted to reach out and touch. Still, she held back. "Why?"

She shrugged, "You'd tell me if this was a lost cause, right? I'm gonna die, Peter, the best thing I can do is go out now and avoid taking everyone down with me."

Peter's expression was suddenly serious as he shook his head, "No, we're not gonna think like that, I won't let you. You're sixteen, Lyra, you don't... you don't deserve this. We can break this curse, I promise you. I don't even care if you take me down with you as long as you get out of this alive and uncursed."

"I don't know, Peter." The conversation fades as the cool night air blows in through the open window. Moonlight casts a shadow upon Peter's face as he looks up at what few stars are visible in the city that never sleeps. Lyra's gaze sticks to the boy, but the calm doesn't last for long.

"Lyra! Your dad let us in!" a voice calls from inside the apartment and Lyra instantly knows it's Melanie and Archie. "We came to check in on your after your date with Peter because someone kept leaving us on delivered."

"I thought I was supposed to be the only white boy in your life!" Archie added on as she heard her bedroom door open. She contemplated having Peter leap up to the roof or something using his weird spider powers she still didn't quite understand, but it was too late because the two had already seen them. "Oh, it's still going."

Lyra groaned, "This wasn't a date, Peter, you would have told me if this was a date, right?"

He looked caught off guard at the arrival of her two friends, but he nodded, "Absolutely I would have. It would be rude not to."

"See? there, no date," the girl nodded as her two friends joined them on the fire escape, looking suspicious. Mel's gaze stuck to Peter as if she was waiting for him to make any sudden movements.

"So you guys are just... what? Stargazing together? As friends?" Mel asks, sounding skeptical. "Sounds like a date to me, right Archie?"

"Right," the blond boy nods.

Lyra sighed, knowing that her two friends couldn't be anymore wrong, but she had no idea how to tell them that. How do you tell two of your favorite people in the world that you'll be dead by this time next year? It's an impossible thing; Lyra would rather just let them think her and Peter were secretly dating.

"I appreciate you guys checking up on me, I do, but really? we just lunch and helped each other finish the math homework. Archie, do you need pictures of my answers?" she tried to explain as casually as possible. She had never been a fantastic liar and trying to lie to her friends made it even worse. Judging by Mel's stare, she had a feeling the girl could see right through her.

Archie, however, just nodded, "Oh, shit, yeah, can you send it to me later?"

"Yeah, I got you."

"So..." Mel interrupted, "If this isn't a date, you wouldn't mind if we joined you at all?"

Peter chuckled at this, "Well you kind of already have."

Mel squinted at him, obviously trying to keep up this overprotective facade, but it faded as she smiled, "Yeah, true. All right, enlighten me, what conversation did we interrupt?"

"None," Lyra shrugged, picking at her cuticles, "We were just kinda looking for any stars we could see. Not very many, unfortunately. Still pretty, though."

Archie squinted up at the sky, "If you look really hard, you can see Orion's belt! Boom, got one!"

"It's not a competition, dimwit," Melanie laughed as she shoved the boy playfully. "Wait, where was that? How'd you see it?"

Leaning closer to the girl, Archie pointed up, explaining, "See, look right over there, the three in a row? You can't always see all of Orion, but you can always spot his belt at least."

Lyra shot Peter a knowing look as they looked over at those two. Without thinking, she scooted closer to him, choosing to blame the chill of the night rather than anything else. Mel seemed to notice this, looking away from the sky to raise an eyebrow but say nothing. Lyra just shook her head and the girl went back to looking for constellation with Archie — not that they were going to find much, but it was fun to watch them try. Her gaze drifted over to Peter as she tried to silently convey an apology for her friends interrupting their conversation. Secretly, she didn't mind. Today had been harder than most and her friends always had this way of making her feel better. So, in reality, she was kind of glad they were here. Her eyes met Peter's and secretly she wondered how this night would have gone if they were alone. She needed to put a stop to thoughts like these — it was doomed and she knew it. Lyra was going to die and as much as Peter wanted to, he couldn't stop it. Developing a crush on him was just going to make everything harder than it needed to be. Before she could stop herself, though, her gaze flickered to his lips before meeting his eyes once more. She wondered what it would be like if things were different. She wondered if Peter thought the same things.

The moment was interrupted by Archie's girlish yelp as Mel pretended to threaten to push him off the fire escape. Lyra watched as Archie gripped onto the railing but Mel just laughed and wrapped her arm around his shoulders to pull him a little bit closer to safety. A small smile ghosted Lyra's face as she watched her two friends, yearning for things to be normal again.

Still, she knew things were never going to be normal. Not anymore.

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