THE NIGHT OF LIZ ALLAN'S PARTY WAS ANTICLIMATIC FOR KAELYN ALBRIGHT. She was at Beth's house, the girls locked up in the girl's room and were halfway through a Gossip Girl marathon. Beth had her fingers running through Kaelyn's hair as they cuddled and shoved popcorn into their mouths.

After a moment, Beth asked out of the blue, "Does it ever bother you that I'm gay?"

Kaelyn paused the show and turned to face her best friend, "Where is that coming from?"

"I don't know," Beth sighed, avoiding the redhead's eyes, "I just, a normal person I guess would be uncomfortable if their gay friend was this close with them. I mean, I'm not into you or anything, I just wonder if I've secretly been making you uncomfortable this whole time."

"Good thing I'm not a normal person then," Kaelyn scoffed, wrapping an arm around her best friend, "Until you finally make Liz Allan your girlfriend, you can be as touchy-feely as you want, Beth. I've been single a long time, too, so trust me, I feel you."

Beth's mood seemed to drop at the mention of her crush, "Liz Allan is never going to be my girlfriend, let's be real."

"Not with that attitude!" the redhead shook her head, standing up and brushing off bits of popcorn as she held out a hand to pull up the other girl with her. "Get up, I'm getting you a girlfriend."

"What do you mean?" the dark-haired girl rolled her eyes, looking confused.

Kaelyn walked over to Beth's closet and began searching for something other than the fluffy pajamas. "Beth, we are going to that party and you are going to hike up your skirt and make a goddamn move. If you can do that, I'll go home and face the wrath of my brother. If you can be brave, why can't I?"

"Who the hell said I was brave?"

"Beth, you wanted to go to this party and I talked you out of it. Let me talk you back into it, please," Kaelyn pleaded, pulling an outfit for Beth out of the closet and throwing it at her before going back to look for one herself.

Beth looked at her best friend disapprovingly, her arms crossed and the outfit she was given thrown on the bed, "How are we even going to get there? Neither of us can drive and Liz is too far away to walk."

The redhead held up a single finger before pulling out her phone. She dialed a number that oddly enough was becoming familiar. After two rings, the boy picked up.

"Hello?" Peter's voice rang through the speaker.

"Hey, Peter, you're totally going to Liz's party, right?" Kaelyn asked, forcing a certain amount of charm into her voice to hide how nervous she was speaking to him.

The boy hesitated, "Uh... yeah, why?"

"Can you give us a ride?"

Peter was silent for a moment, but there was the noise of muffled speaking before he answered, "Yeah, but one of you is gonna have to sit in the middle."

"Yeah, whatever, that's fine," Kaelyn nodded, holding back a giggle as her best friend who was much shorter shook her head. "I'll text you the address, see you in a bit."

"I'm not gonna fucking sit in the middle," Beth shook her head aggressively while Kaelyn nodded enthusiastically, "I'm not!"

Kaelyn smiled satisfactorily from the front seat of Aunt May's car ten minutes later. She could already see the frown on Beth's face in the rearview mirror, but her expression was rather giddy. That alone was enough to help her mood as of late.

"I'm so glad you girls are going tonight, I think you guys are gonna have lots of fun tonight," May spoke with an unexpected excitement in her voice. She stopped in front of Liz's house and unlocked the doors, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do! Have lots of fun, kids!"

"May, you're embarrassing me!" Peter groaned under his breath, but Beth and Kaelyn made eye contact in the rearview mirror and giggled. They all piled out of the car, the dark-haired girl looking excited to no longer be stuck in between two teenage boys. May simply scoffed at Peter's antics and drove off, wishing them all the best and reminding them to be safe.

As soon as they entered the party, Liz came up to greet them. Kaelyn's heart dropped as she noticed how nervous Peter got. She watched as Liz tucked her hair behind her ear and tried to hide her blush. Her eyes met Beth and they both understood. However, Kaelyn was no quitter and she knew Beth wasn't either. Not too long after they were welcomed to the party, Flash Thompson was making fun of Peter.

"Aw, look at little Penis Parker! Kaelyn, babe, why you wasting your time with such a loser? You could have all this," Flash spoke into the microphone so everyone at the party could hear. The girl scoffed at his antics and felt too much pity as Peter sheepishly looked towards the floor.

"He's right," Peter whispered in her ear, but he was hard to hear over the sound of the party, "You probably shouldn't bother hanging out with a loser like me."

Kaelyn just rolled her eyes and grabbed Peter by the hand, leading him over to the makeshift DJ booth Flash was abusing. "Don't worry Flash, I don't date losers. That's why Peter's my boyfriend and not you."

The lie came one-hundred-percent out of nowhere and even Peter was trying to hide his shocked look. However, the disdain and disbelief that befell Flash's expression made the little white lie incredibly worth it.

After a moment, Flash regained his composure and scoffed, "Oh, yeah? Prove it."

Since high school students love to chant things apparently, the crowd of people started cheering those two words as well. Kaelyn scoffed, tossing her long red hair over her shoulder before chastely grabbing Peter by the chin and pressing her lips against his. Now, Kaelyn never expected her first kiss to be surrounded by a shit ton of people, but as soon as Peter kissed back the world around her melted away. The last thing she expected was for the boy to kiss back especially considering the giant crush this boy definitely had on Liz Allan. It lasted no more than four seconds, but when she pulled away she stared into Peter's eyes for a moment. There had to be something there or else he would not be looking at her like that. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Liz run away and Beth looked at where the girl had been standing before turning to her best friend and nodding. Seconds later, she ran off in the same direction.

Kaelyn, a satisfied smile forming on her face, turned to face Flash's surprised look, "Are you happy now? Sorry, you can't believe I would date someone who isn't a complete asshole. Now can you play some actually good music instead of your shitty attempt at dubstep? Thank you."

The boy was speechless, so he simply followed her instructions and began playing some trap music that would have the crowd going crazy in two seconds. Kaelyn walked off, hoping to find her best friend and leaving Peter behind. However, as soon as she was out of the main room and in the kitchen, she felt a hand on her wrist and she whipped around to face Peter. Her instinct was to rip her arm out of the grasp, but once she laid eyes on the boy she calmed.

"Can I help you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and trying to ignore his loose grasp on her wrist. There was something gentle in the way his fingertips gingerly grazed her skin, she looked down at where his hand met her skin and flicked her eyes back up to meet his.

"Uh, yeah, you can help me! You just kissed me, Kae!" Peter's voice was filled with disbelief and if Kaelyn hadn't been shaking she would have been laughing. "What was that?"

"Dude, I kissed you to get Flash off your back, there's nothing more to it," she scoffed, ignoring the fact she was lying through her teeth for the second time that night, "If you want Liz to think you're on the market just wait a week and tell her we broke up, frankly I don't give a shit. Let's just pretend this never happened, okay?"

Peter looked taken aback by the harshness in the girl's tone despite her soft, calm expression. She huffed and yanked her arm out of his grip in favor of crossing her arms and strengthening her stance.

"Oh, okay," the boy's expression shifted, but she couldn't tell what it meant. All she knew was Peter was definitely avoiding her eyes. "Uh, Ned wants me to do something so I, I guess I gotta go."

"Don't think I didn't see the red and blue under your collar, Peter," she sighed, her anger subsiding for just a moment, "Just don't do anything stupid, okay?"

"Okay," Peter mumbled before walking away.

Kaelyn soon learned Peter had difficulty following directions. Ten minutes later, Beth was still nowhere to be found, but as she was finally returned to the main party Ned came running up to her.

"Hey, you know about Peter's uh thing right? He said you did, anyway, he was gonna show off to make himself seem like he was friends with Spider-Man, but now he isn't answering his phone and you're the only one besides me who knows so I kinda need your help," Ned rushed out his sentences so much that Kaelyn barely comprehended what he said, but she understood well enough.

She sighed deeply, "I told him not to do anything stupid and what does he do? Something stupid."

Kaelyn pushed past Ned and exited the house. In the distance, she saw a burst of blue light in the distance and she just knew that's where Peter would be. It was too far away to walk, so she muttered to herself as she thought. Finally, her eyes landed on a motorcycle that was parked in someone's driveway. Just as she was about to make her way towards it, a cough interrupted her.

"Kae, if you're gonna do what I think you're doing, at least take my leather jacket just in case anything goes wrong? Your skin is too nice to get rubbed off on asphalt," Beth announced. The redhead turned around to see her best friend with a disapproving look and her leather jacket hanging from her hand. "Also, you think you can go save your superhero boyfriend without telling me?"

"He's not my boy — who told you?" Kaelyn began to correct her before she realized exactly what the girl had said.

Beth laughed, "Ned can't keep his mouth shut for shit. Now come on, I'm going with you. Besides, who here knows how to hotwire a motorcycle?"

"I would assume neither of us?"

"Nah, I come across some very odd WikiHow articles when I'm bored," the dark-haired girl tossed the jacket to her before trotting over to the motorcycle, "If you ever need to know how to dissolve a body in acid, I'm your gal! I'm driving!"

Kaelyn just shook her head before she followed. God knows this was not going to end well, but she had enough trust and enough hope that just maybe something in her life might work out for once.

i wanted to include the whole scene of them chasing after peter but i didnt wanna overwhelm y'all so imma end it here and it'll pick up immediately after this in the next chapter!! this chapter is almost 2k words which isnt a lot, but more than usual for this book so!! anyway im really happy with this chapter and i hope you guys like it! also also, HUGE thank you to el for the absolutely gorgeous new cover!