Chapter 16: The Tragedy Of The Unknown
"Now I'm standing alone in a crowded room
And we're not speaking and I'm dying to know
Is it killing you like it's killing me, and the story of us
looks a lot like a tragedy now"
- Taylor Swift

She stared at where Peter was standing just a few seconds ago, confused. Peter wasn't a bad guy and he was generally sweet with her, but now for some reason he blew her off completely, and it hurt. Ember took a deep breath, put on a fake smile and tried ignore the pain she felt in her stomach. If Peter Parker thought she was the kind of girl who would just allow him to be rude without any explanation he was very wrong. Ember Snow was not about to be blown off without an explanation by two guys in less than twenty four hours. If Peter didn't want to talk at the moment, she could understand that, but he had to talk to her at some point, right?

Turns out maybe not. For the rest of the morning Ember tried to catch up with the boy and talk to him but he was nowhere to be found. He was avoiding her and she knew it, the question was why. If he was mad at her for something she wanted to know or if it had nothing to do with her then she still wanted to know and try to help him with whatever was bothering him.

"Did you catch up with your boyfriend?" Michelle asked, once she spotted Ember walking towards her. After first period, Ember ran off trying to catch up with Peter and the brunette decided to go to her next class instead of following her, now, it was the first time she saw the blonde since then and she wanted to know what happened.

"First of all, not my boyfriend" Ember pointed out, something Michelle decided to ignore as the two girls began walking towards the cafeteria "And I guess, kind of?" The blonde answered the question, which made her tall friend look at her expectantly "I apologized but he barely said anything. Even when I asked if we were okay, he just walked away with no answer. He's avoiding me"

Michelle frowned, that was unlike Peter. Everything with that boy was very weird lately, she knew he was hiding something and she was almost certain about what that something was, but still, she never thought he would ignore Ember especially when he was always looking at her with lost puppy eyes. Michelle was confused, things seemed just fine between the two when they were on their way to Washington, sure then Ember had a little break down but Peter seemed to care when they bumped into him that night. The brunette basically told him Ember liked him and that she was just waiting for him to say something, and from the way he reacted Michelle was almost certain he was going to talk to the blonde. Maybe Michelle misread the sings and Peter wasn't into Ember, maybe he liked someone else and he was listening to what she told him, he was letting Ember go because he didn't care. It was possible but something wasn't adding up for her.

It was quite a coincidence that both Spider-Man and Peter Parker decided they wanted nothing to do with the short blonde at the same time. If Michelle's theory was correct, Peter Parker and Spider-Man were the same person, but why would they choose to blow off their ally or friend in Peter's case at the same time. And then it clicked, Peter knew Ember was Ice Sorceress. Somehow he discovered the truth and for some reason he decided to push the blonde away.

Just when she was about to voice out her thoughts, the tall brunette spotted Peter rushing down the hallway, going the opposite way from them.

"Hey, E" Michelle said, catching the blonde's attention "I just remembered I have to talk to Mr. Harrington, I'll catch up with you later" the brunette didn't wait for an answer, she started rushing after Peter Parker. Michelle had a good theory, but she had to make sure before she mentioned anything to Ember.

❅

"Hey, Ned" Ember smiled at the boy who was sitting alone at their usual table.

Ned smiled at her and watched as she sat down in front of him. The two of them rarely talked, they were always with their respective best friends and Ember was always scared of making friends. Still, the blonde was trying to change that and she never got the chance to finish talking with the filipino boy back in Washington. Seeing as he was also alone it may be the time to try to be friendly.

"No Michelle, huh?" Ned greeted, looking over the blonde's shoulder expecting for her snarky friend to appear.

"No Peter, huh?" Ember retorted, still smiling at him. Angela always told her that the best way to get people to like you was by smiling and even if they didn't like you smiling like you didn't care was also the way to rile them up. Ember was usually seem as weird and awkward but almost every time you looked at her you could find her smiling.

"He has detention for the next two weeks" Ned told her, offering her some of his chips.

"Why would he bail on the team? That's not like him" Ember said, grabbing her sandwich and some grapes, silently offering some to Ned.

"He, uh, probably had his reasons" Ned said, nervously grabbing some of the grapes she was offering him and shoving them into his mouth trying to avoid the subject before he told her something he would regret.

The blonde gave him a questioning look as Ned kept stuffing grapes into his mouth until there were none left "And you covered him, even when you didn't know what he was up to?" Ember added, curious about what was going on inside Peter Parker's head lately.

"Well, y-yeah" Ned gulped, looking around for someone to come save him form the blondes questions "Wouldn't you do the same?"

"Of course, I just think it's so unlike him." Ember shrugged, taking a bite from her sandwich, her gaze firmly set on Ned's eyes waiting for him to break and drop some information.

Poor Ned shifted uncomfortably on his seat, his palms sweating as he nervously chuckled trying to ignore the look she was giving him "He's had a lot going on" Ned finally said, making the blonde nod in defeat. She wouldn't get anything from him, just as she expected.

After that it was quiet for a few seconds, the blonde was silently picking at her food as Ned tapped his fingers on the table trying to think of some excuse to bail.

"Is he mad at me?" Ember broke the silence, putting her sandwich down and looking at Ned once more with pleading eyes

"N-no," Ned said, looking at her in shock "why would he be mad at you?"

"I don't know, he's avoiding me" She said, sheepishly giving him a sad smile.

This was news to Ned, Peter hadn't said anything about being mad at Ember and it was unlike Peter to avoid, but then again his best friend was too worried about the whole guy with the wings situation that he had barely talked to him since they got back from Washington, "Like I said he has a lot going on" Ned said trying too reassure the girl, surely Peter was just stressed out and he wasn't ignoring her intentionally, right?   "And by the way I don't think Peter's capable of being mad at you" 

That made Ember smile as she tried to hide her blushing cheeks with her hair.  Maybe it wasn't a big deal and Peter just needed some time to breathe, maybe he would explain what was going on with him and everything would turn back to normal. But she was wrong.

❅

[word count: 1345]
A/n: I just added a trailer at the beginning of this book in case you want to check it out! Sorry for the short and crappy chapter but I had a bit of a writers block and thank you to the ones who are still reading this book.

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