The past two years had been exceptionally challenging for Peter Parker. If it were just the passing of his uncle Ben, or just the untimely death of Captain Stacy it would have been one thing, unfortunately the 24 months that had passed seemed to be packed full of death, heart break, and pain. It was more than luck that had Peter alive, but the assistance of his aunt May's nursing skills definitely played a big part. No teenage boy should be hurt as often as Peter was, but in his line of work, it was to be expected. A pizza delivery boy didn't get him his bruises, it was his other job – the job he had no choice in taking or leaving. This job left him wishing he could know what it was like to be in love and actually enjoy it. This unrequited business was not his cup of tea, at all.

The year his uncle died was the hardest without a doubt. Peter still battled daily with the fact it was his fault. Knowing his uncle Ben would be alive if his teenage rage hadn't gotten the best of him is a guilt he will never suppress. The death of the police captain was the second hardest. He didn't know the man very well, but it was his daughter that paid the price for Peter's handiwork. If it weren't for Peter's interference, Curt Connors never would have turned into the beast that killed the girl's father. Peter would have never had to make the promise to stay away, in turn making his life entirely miserable. With Curt Connors in prison, his aunt May working on somewhat of a normal life, and his own secret unknown to all but Gwen, Peter had honestly tried to make a somewhat simple life for himself. Unfortunately, fate scoffed at his desire for simplicity, and due to his prior indiscretions, he was faced with more enemies.

Curt Connors' old college roommate, Alistaire Smyth, had taken to Oscorp after the lizard king abandoned ship. Dr. Smyth was kind enough to keep the knowledgeable Gwen Stacy employed, having found her beauty, charm, wit, and intelligence to be the complete package in his eyes. Her work with Connors had made her a prized possession for anyone at the company, and it didn't hurt that she had connections to Richard Parker's son. Unknown to all, Alistaire was not the charming doctor everyone thought him to be. Much like the angry lizard his old roommate turned out to be, Smyth found himself enraged with this hybrid, half-man half-spider. All his work and energy had turned from his typical work in robotics to work fueled by vengeance. Creating small robots whose job it was to kill all hybrids created by Connors, it was Spider-man whose life needed to be destroyed most. With the snooping of Miss Stacy, this master mind was swiftly destroyed, along with his army of hybrid killing robots.

Two years had passed, in which two important figures at Oscorp were taken down by Gwen and Spider-man. At the age of 20, Peter Parker had found himself longing for a life of boredom unlike the rest of his college classmates. Spider-man was a shining hero in the eyes of everyone he knew; even Gwen's mother had praised the man that ultimately was responsible for her husband's death. The people at The Daily Bugle and Gwen Stacy seemed to be the only ones not pleased with this masked vigilante and for that, Peter continued to mourn. He mourned daily for his uncle Ben, for Captain Stacy, for Alistaire Smyth despite his desire to kill him. He mourned for his parents and their friend Curt Connors who while alive, would never be able to have coffee with Peter and reminisce about Richard and Mary. Mainly, he mourned the relationship that died before it could really live. His first and only love had come and gone faster than a hummingbird and with it his happiness. He mourned daily, knowing that his happiness would cease to thrive while Gwen Stacy ignored him.

She had come to him a handful of times since their unspoken break up. First, to demand an explanation as to why he suddenly avoided her after her father's death. Second, to demand he stop honoring a dead man's last wish that kept them apart. Third, to demand he stop putting his life in danger for a city that didn't care about him. She had told him that day for the first and last time that she loved him. Fourth, to demand he come to Oscorp and destroy the robots and their master before they could kill him. The last time was to demand a pizza, but Peter wasn't counting that time seeing as she probably had no idea who she was talking to on the phone. That last time was fifteen minutes ago, and according to his watch, he only had fifteen minutes to spare otherwise her food would be free.

Peter walked briskly from his bicycle to the dorms, the warming case in one arm and his iPod in the other, shuffling through songs until he found one he could live with. Nodding his head to the music as he pressed the intercom to alert Gwen of his arrival, he opened the lobby door and continued nodding to the music while he walked through the halls filled with giggling girls. He had a few flirtatious glances between the first and third floor, but none of them had really mattered. Sure, he was a 20-year-old man, but he was a sullen one and uninterested in burying his sadness into one of the all-too-easy undergraduates throwing themselves at any man they could while screaming something about sexual equality. Stopping in front of Gwen's dorm room, he quickly ran a nervous hand through his hair and pulled out his ear buds before quickly knocking on the wood.

"Pizz—uhhh, hey buddy…" As the door opened, the face behind it did not appear to be Gwen's. Did he have the wrong room? Glancing in, the blonde girl sat on her bed, flipping through a text book as she ignored the open door. Instead, his old high school bully stood in front of Peter with payment in hand. The two had become civil, and almost friendly with one another, but his presence had quickly destroyed any hope of them being buds.

"Flash.. hey, what's up—oh, here's this, and thanks." Reaching out to hand over the food and pluck the money out of the other man's hand, the only thing Peter could feel glad for in the moment was Eugene's shock. Stealing another glance to the bed before leaving, Peter's heart found it's all too rapid pattern of beating as Gwen stared back at him. That made three equally shocked individuals. Nodding to her, he quickly left, finding his fast walking even faster now. It took all he had not to leap out the window, and scale down the dorm's walls to get out of there fast enough.

Perhaps Gwen is still tutoring Flash… Yes, that was a far more logical reason behind his presence in her dorm room. The only other reasoning was far too vomit inducing to contemplate. Obviously Gwen was too gorgeous of a woman to be alone for the rest of her life, but that didn't mean she had to move on from Peter so quickly. Armed now with the desire to fight fire with fire, Peter found himself feeling something for his ex-girlfriend besides longing for the first time in over a year. Shoving his iPod back into his pocket as he exited the building, he pulled his phone out of another pocket and quickly slid it open to reveal the keyboard he used for texting. Yanking his bike off the ground, more forceful than necessary, he felt a small tinge of guilt instead of the satisfaction he was going for as he hit send.

MJ – free tonight?

Waiting a few moments to see if she'd speedily reply like normal, he shoved the phone back in his pocket and pulled the iPod back out. Scoffing loudly as he hit play, his finger moved to turn the music up to blast in his ears as loud as the device allowed. Hybrid Moments – how appropriate.

The loud music blaring in his ears gave Peter the fuel to pedal as hard as humanly possible back to the Pizza Shack. He hoped the exercise and overly amped noise in his ears would cancel out his thoughts, but there was no such luck. The thought of Gwen and Flash eating pizza together flooded his head. Followed immediately by the athletic man throwing her text books off her bed and slamming her against the mattress, and him against her. Jolted physically by the image, Peter quickly realized it wasn't the thought that threw him, it was momentum. Physics had him flying over his handle bars, over a quickly stopped vehicle, and into traffic. Landing with spider-like reflexes, he quickly looked around before running back to his bike and dragging the now broken means of transport to the sidewalk. A handful of people stopped to ask if he was okay, one woman suggesting he go to the hospital in case he was hurt.

You should probably go to the nurse. You might have a concussion.

The reminder of this send chills down his spine, and brought hot tears to prickle his eyes. Shaking his head to the people, he ignored them and left as abruptly as he'd arrived. Putting the mangled frame over his shoulder as best as he could, Peter walked the last seven blocks to work, trying a bit harder this time to pay attention to traffic before crossing the street.

Reaching into his vibrating pocket as he walked through the back door of the pizza place, Peter dropped the facility's bicycle on the floor before heading into the boss' office. Sliding open the screen of his phone, the reply from Mary Jane Watson didn't bring a smile to his face like any normal red-blooded boy. She was free tonight, and wanted to get together. That was exactly the reply he texted her in hopes of getting, so why was he still miserable? Looking up at the old gray haired, too fat to be healthy man asleep at his desk, Peter tossed part of the handle bar from the deceased bike onto Sal's desk, the noise making the husky man wake up suddenly.

"Another MVA, Sal. Bike lost."

Leaving the office without another word, Peter opened the door to the break room and immediately started coughing with the cloud of smoke that smothered him. Wafting through it to get to the lockers, he couldn't suppress the hacking cough as his two pothead co-workers continued smoking, adding more smoke to the collection. Pulling his skateboard out and throwing his work jacket in, Peter slammed the doors as he left, finding himself even more annoyed than when he first arrived.

Think, think, think.

There was a party tonight at Kappa Delta something or other. Flash never passed on fraternity parties, and if he was going, surely his girlfriend would come. Gwen never seemed big on parties – the music was too loud, the drinking made everyone stupid, and the amount of people in one small space surely wasn't abiding by fire code. Still, she couldn't say no to her boyfriend, could she? If in fact Flash and Gwen were together, she'd be forced to go out of obligation.

MJ – party tonight. You in?

Smirking to himself after hitting send, Peter let his board drop to the ground as his phone returned to his pocket. Swerving around pedestrians as he made his way back towards his house, the boy couldn't help but wonder if letting Gwen go, for real this time, would be beneficial. It would be a lot less exhausting if he didn't have to constantly pine for someone so unattainable. To let go of his unrequited love for Miss Stacy would mean he could pay homage to Captain Stacy, and keep away from Gwen for good. He could keep her safe. Wasn't that the whole reason he agreed in the first place? His genuine love for the girl meant he'd do what was best for her no matter what. Still, moving on completely seemed impossible. Not just for the simple fact he would love the bubbly blonde for the rest of his life, but for the simple fact he always thought about her. He tried to stop, it never worked. Staying away was one thing; it was out of love, not necessity. To forget her existence seemed impossible. Dragging his foot to stop at a busy intersection, Peter vibrated back to reality, his phone alerting him once more.

Petey – sounds great! What time?

MJ – 7? We can grab food then go

Petey—awesome! It's a date!

Of course it was. Groaning to himself, Peter shoved the phone back in his pocket before skating across the street and continuing on his way to his home. Mary Jane was a lot of things, but datable was not one of them. Not to Peter, anyway. Tons of guys would kill to be with her, and for obvious reasons. The red-head was beautiful, that was a given. Her curves were worthy of a road sign, and while her wardrobe wasn't that of a stripper, it definitely left little to the imagination. The constant push to date her had finally broke through, surely aunt May and Anna, Mary Jane's aunt, would be all too pleased. MJ was definitely not the 'girl next door' you expected. The understated beautiful neighbor girl that was masked as a great childhood friend who later manifested into the epic love interest was clearly Gwen Stacy. Still, fate would have it that Mary Jane Watson would land on his neighboring porch.

Picking up his skateboard when he arrived at home, Peter ran up the stairs and inside, slamming the door and dropping the board in the foyer. Hollering his hello to his aunt as he ran up to his bedroom, Peter let that door slam behind him as well as he hopped onto his computer. Searching his emails for the last one from Gwen, he quickly re-read it. It was a pattern he'd developed a while ago, and while he had memorized it months ago, it was still like he was reading it the first time every time. This time, however, he actually hit reply. Clearing out the previous message portion, he re-addressed it and paused to think about what to write as his fingers idly tapped against the keyboard.

Miss Stacy,

Hope you and your boyfriend enjoyed your pizza. Maybe you two can
run off together and live in a chocolate house happily ever after?

P.S. find a new pizza place

Sincerely,

Bug Boy