"Up next, what happened with Marley Sheppard? Why was she present during the fight that broke out last night at the courtyard on campus? And does it have something to do with American superhero Spiderman being at the scene? All that's coming up in just a few. Stay tuned."

I crossed my arms. I never liked having anything to do with the studio. They were all a bunch of gossips who were in the business just to get views. But, seated between Gerard and Luke, there was no way out of it.

"You're up." Gerard whispered to me, patting me on the back.

I took a seat on the stage next to the two hosts— one I knew as Miranda, the other was a more feminine guy who I had never met before.

"Do you want a list of questions we're going to talk about?" Miranda said, a little too conspiring.

"No thanks," I smiled. "I like to be authentic, not scripted."

She took that personally, looking away and muttering something to her co-host.

On the air.

The light came on as I crossed my legs and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible even in this awkward situation.

"And we're back with the beautiful Marley Sheppard!" Miranda put on the fakest tone of voice I had ever heard. "How are you doing, Marley?"

"Could be better." I chuckled. "Still getting use to this cast.."

"At least you only need a cast on your ankle! Watching the video, it looked pretty rough.."

"There's a video!? Oh no.." I covered my face. "That's embarassing."

"Well, we were all wondering what happened to you! Watch the video, here." The guy clicked a button and I saw the scene on a screen behind us.

Turning to watch, I saw Peter's last move, flipping from the wall before fist fighting the trenchcoat guy who disappeared to thin air. Even on video it wasn't believable. I could see Peter's muscles tense as the bomb flew into the air. I started running towards it, red hair trailing behind me like flames.

All you could see was a bright flash. Whoever was taping started running, the screen focusing on pavement underneath. A few seconds later, the video steadied again, in the lens was my limp body being hoisted up by Spiderman.

"So, tell us, what happened, Marley." Miranda leaned forward, waiting to hear the story.

"Honestly, I don't remember anything more than the video already showed."

"It was a bomb, but it didn't seem to explode. In fact, people have said that there was no impact from it."

I could've sworn I felt an impact from the bomb, but then I remembered what Tasha had said about my force field absorbing the impact. Which could've very well been why I passed out.

"So, then, one of the first things we want to know is, why did you pass out?"

I gathered my thoughts. "I can't completely say why I passed out, except that there may have been a force surrounding me that took the impact from the bomb. That is a theory though, and it is all still up in the air. Like I said, I don't know much more than—"

"What about Spiderman? This is the first time we've seen you with the American superhero. It's not merely a coincidence that you two happened to be in the area at the same time. Is there a secret relationship we don't know about?"

Frustrated with Miranda's antics, I sat up taller. Instead of trying to cover up more secrets like she expected, I decided to come clean with the full truth. "We were trying to keep the state of emergency under wraps, but, to put any rumors to rest, Spiderman has been doubling as a body guard for myself. All of the KKs have been assigned bodyguards actually. We do not want the public to be frightened though, as these are just precautionary measures."

Miranda sat back, defeated.

"Thank you for the clarification, Marley. Despite the state of emergency, I think the public is a little disappointed that there's not a new lover in your life."

I busted out laughing with the interviewer. "Maybe when the timing is more appropriate."

"Well, thanks for coming on the show, Marley. It was a pleasure having you." Miranda cut the interview short to my satisfaction.

"Thank you," I said before the on-air light went out.

We let few moments of silence pass to make sure we were off the air.

The guy host, whose name I still didn't know, turned to me. "Would you mind if I get an autograph? My niece is a big fan."

"Josh, don't you think that's a little inappropriate?" Miranda cut him off.

The guy slinked back in his seat.

Ignoring Miranda, I grabbed a sheet of paper and signed it for him, spitefully with a smirk on my face.

"Marley?" Luke asked, motioning for me to join him.

I gracefully walked off the stage, leaving Miranda behind me, and vowing to myself never to be pressured into an interview like this again.

I spent the whole ride home loathing the circumstances.

"Can you believe her? It was like she was trying to get me to admit that I'm a player and have some sickly disease I contracted from a guy." I went off to my brother, who stopped responding half an hour ago. He was just letting me vent.

"What happened?" Peter asked as we walked into the coffee shop. He was at the coffee bar stuffing his face with crackers.

I hobbled over to the stool next to him at the bar. "This interviewer was a jerk. Asking me tons of accusing questions, like, 'why are you with Spiderman?', 'did you pass out from an infectious disease?', 'how aware are you that the world despises you?'"

"Okay, so she didn't ask that last one." Luke interrupted.

"She may as well have." I snatched one of Peter's crackers. "How was your night off?" I asked Peter with my mouth full. Gerard had decided that Peter could have a break from bodyguard duty since I'd be escorted by not only Luke but also Gerard himself.

Peter shrugged. "Productive. Slept for an hour. Caught up on my favorite TV show—"

"Did you have a life even back in America or were you this boring all the time?"

Peter threw a cracker at me.

I laughed, catching and popping it into my mouth.

"I'm going to sleep. Close up shop for me?" Luke asked, before jogging up the stairs.

Once he was out of ear reach, Peter turned to me. "Where is his bodyguard all the time?"

"Who knows. I thought they decided on Black Widow, but I never see her around. I think it got changed to someone else.. Antman or something?"

"Explains why we never see him." Peter said, obviously knowing that an Antman did really exist. Who knew?

It didn't take too long to close up the shop. I cleaned the counter tops and the various tables throughout the patio and seating area. Shut off the "open" sign. Locked the front door. Nearing the coffee bar again, I found Peter cleaning the dishes left over from the night.

"You don't have to do that. I got it." I walked behind the bar, reaching for the dish scrubber.

"I can't help?" He asked, the dish spray nozzle still in his hand.

"You can, but I can do it on my own. I don't need a guy's help." I went to snatch the nozzle out of his hand. Somewhere in between my hand and mid-air, the hose snatched the nozzle back, making it twist towards Peter and I spraying at full blast.

I shrieked, using my bare hands to keep the water from drenching me.

Peter reached forward, shutting the water off.

I groaned.

"What was that about not needing a guy's help?"

I glared at the boy as he strutted off, taking a seat at the coffee bar once again. He dried his face and arms off with a kitchen rag.

I decided against cleaning the dishes by hand and just stuffed them all into the dishwasher.

"I found something you might find interesting.." Peter said, flipping around the camera in his hands to face me.

I leaned closer to the camera's digital screen.

"I flipped through all the pictures you took. Some awesome action shots, by the way. But, I doctored this one to highlight the dark parts of the photo. I know you can't see his face too well.. I figured it's something though."

"It is something.." I took the camera out of his hands. "I know this guy's face from somewhere.." The hood covered the man's pale face. From what you could tell, he had a scowl on his face with a goatee that would put even Tony Stark to shame.

"Well.. Maybe it'll come to you?" Peter said, optimistically.

"I don't remember." I put my head in my hands, frustrated.

Peter took his camera back. "The good news is, tomorrow's another day. Maybe a good night sleep will help it come back to you."

Peter shot me a small smile, which I reciprocated before starting my trek up the stairs to the bedrooms.

"Do you need help?" Peter asked, watching my struggle as I lent onto the railing with each step.

"I got it! I got it." I waved my hand at him.

He was standing in my way within seconds. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

I crossed my arms.

"Easy way, you let me help you up the stairs. Hard way is, I'll carry you anyways."

He caught me rolling my eyes at him as he went on. "I couldn't stand to let anyone do this alone. Why do you take it so personally?"

I obliged, wrapping an arm around his neck as his arm around my waist helped stabilize me.

"I, do not, take it, personally." I said in between hops up the stairs.

"Never accepting my help? Pushing me away at the first sign of defenselessness? Sounds personal to me."

We made it to the top of the stairs as we unlatched from each other.

As I made it to my bedroom door, I sighed. "Do you know why I got into gem production?"

He shook his head.

"Because people told me I couldn't. I remember the day I woke up and saw the news article, 'KK Rejected into Potion Formulating due to Intellectual Incompetency'. They thought I was too dumb."

"You proved them wrong."

I smirked.

"If it means anything, you're one of smartest people I've ever met. And standing up to Gerard the way you do, not many people can do that."

I could tell Peter was telling the truth. I could always tell when he was. He had this glisten in his eyes. An innocence that could never lie. Realizing that I had been staring, I turned to my door, trying to hide the blush.

"Good night, Peter." I said, before shutting the door behind me.

I was so not blushing at Peter. I just blush at awkward moments. Moments I didn't know how to respond to. Growing up for a time without emotions, I always had trouble deciphering them. But one thing I did know was that I was not blushing over Peter Parker.

Too bad I was up for the next hour running through my head what might've caused it.

Nope. He was not one of those things.