Kate now sees Peter as more than just a cute guy; he has experiences, a backstory that literally no one knows except him. It is all too obvious to her that Peter needs someone in his life to tell secrets to, someone to trust, someone to be there for him. Now, by force and by choice, that person is her. She is happy that it is her, because she can relate to the whole superhero thing. She can help him get through life without many people, because she really can understand why he does not want others around him. Actually, he does not HAVE anyone around him. She knows that he needs her. She knows that he needs Kate.

Peter is optimistic. Now that he has someone who can relate to him and who he can just TALK to, he does not feel alone anymore. He has someone. That is it. That is all. He is happy. Maybe things will work out with Kate. However, he still has to officially break up with MJ.

On his way home, he decides to stop by the coffee shop for a minute, to see if MJ is there.

Unfortunately for both of them, she is. She is wiping counters down, now that it is past 7PM and there is nothing else to do. No (sane) person buys coffee at 7PM unless working the night shift.

The bell rings when Peter swings open the door. Simultaneously, his and MJ's hearts stop when their eyes meet.

MJ, shocked yet not surprised, says, "Hello, Peter."

"Uh… hi," Peter responds. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," MJ says distantly. "You?"

"I'm good," Peter replies. "Listen, MJ, we need to—"

MJ interrupts. "Peter, we need to break up."

Peter has no idea how to respond. "Uh… I… uh…" This is not what he expected.

"Sorry," MJ says meekly.

"No, no, don't be," Peter says. "To be totally honest with you, I came here to break up with… you."

"Well, I beat you to it," MJ chuckles awkwardly. "Wait, rewind a second, why do you wanna break up with me?"

"I'm seeing someone else right now," Peter says. "Now, why'd YOU—"

Again, MJ interrupts. "It's Kate, isn't it?"

"How'd you know?" Peter asks, not fully expecting MJ to know.

"We're friends," MJ says. "Well, used to be. Maybe we still are, I don't know. It's… complicated."

"Ah," Peter reacts, not really knowing what else to utter, considering the fact that he and Kate are together. He asks MJ, "Why did YOU wanna break up with me?"

"Because of Kate," MJ explains. "When Kate told me that you were going out with her AFTER you kissed me just earlier that day, it hurt, Peter. It hurt. It felt like you were cheating on me."

Peter feels somewhat validated by that last statement.

MJ goes on, "This early on, if you're literally kissing me then going out with another girl, I can't trust you, you know? I liked you, and you seem like a pretty cool guy, but you're either everybody's guy or nobody's guy. Again, this early, I can't trust you."

"Sorry," Peter mumbles. "Just wanted to protect you."

"From what?" MJ questions.

"You know how I said that I do social work?" Peter asks.

"Yeah…" MJ reacts.

"Well," Peter says, "it's kind of catching bad guys. That kind of social work. If I run into, I don't know, the mafia or something, you see how they could hurt you to get to me?"

"In what scenario would I be captured by the mafia?" MJ responds. "Either way, I know how they work. I could talk my way out of the situation. I could talk my way out of ANY situation. But yeah, I see where you're coming from."

"Okay, cool," Peter says. "So, we're done then."

"Yep," MJ confirms.

"And we're both in agreement?" Peter checks.

"Uh huh," MJ confirms again.

"You're not going to cry yourself to sleep over me, are you?" Peter asks. From past experience with her, he can tell if MJ is okay or lying.

"I'll be good, Peter Parker," MJ says. "Take care of yourself."

Peter can tell that she really is good. She is over them. So is he. It is done. He can be with Kate.

Out of generosity, he grabs a five-dollar bill and puts it in the tip jar when MJ is not looking. Then, he goes to leave. As he puts his hand on the door handle, he hears MJ behind him.

"Peter Parker?" MJ asks.

"Call me Peter," Peter responds, turning around.

"I need help with something," MJ says.

"Okayyy…" Peter reacts, getting an iffy feeling about the situation.

"Don't cheat, okay?" MJ begins. "Just don't. It hurts everyone, especially the person you're cheating on. But I'm over it. I need you to work with me here."

"Here, as in the coffee place, or…" Peter is not sure what MJ is trying to say.

"Well, we could always use extra people here," MJ continues. "Nah, I want revenge on Kate."

"What?" Peter reacts, not asking MJ to repeat but rather just reacting.

"Look, I'm cool with you," MJ says. "I'm over us. Not over Kate. She basically reached into my mouth and down my throat, grabbed my heart, ripped the arteries off of it, and pulled it back up through my mouth just to stomp on it."

"That's very vivid and graphic and disgusting and dark," Peter comments. That darkness is one of the things he loved about MJ. He loveD about MJ. He can feel her slipping through his fingers, and that is okay. He finds himself surprisingly neutral about her not being his.

"Right now," MJ continues, "she could just ignore me. We haven't spoken in a while. I doubt I could have much affect on her at the moment. You're probably the only person I can think of who can make her mad."

"MJ, do you hear yourself?" Peter responds. "You're asking me, the guy Kate is dating, to do something to make her mad. Then we'd both be unhappy with each other, and we'd both be unhappy at you. I can't do that. It's not moral."

"I figured," MJ says. "Just thought I'd give it a shot."

Peter mutters, "Yeah." He leaves the coffee shop and goes home.

Peter has what he wants now. He is on good (enough) terms with MJ without dating her. He is with Kate, who can be his confidant. That is what he wants.

Meanwhile, MJ is really fine with Peter. She is okay with that. As for Kate, MJ wants to pound her into the ground. She told Kate that she thought Peter was cute and that she wanted him, but Kate ignored her. Then, after Peter kissed her, Kate took him. To MJ, it does not matter who got that going, the thing that counts for her is that Peter and Kate made plans to get together the very same day that Peter kissed her. She figures Peter is kind of a scumbag for that and someone she should not be around; that helps her get over Peter. But Kate was her friend. Kate took her friendship and spat in her face. And now that Kate has really pissed MJ off, she's going to finish Kate nice and slow.

It is at this time that MJ, seething in her anger, gets a text from Kate. The text reads:

"Hey MJ sorry about dating peter after you guys kissed. i hope we can move on from this?"

MJ sees this a shallow and petty attempt to keep their friendship together, when Kate took the very thing she knew MJ wanted. MJ responds:

"how can we move on?! u took peter after i told u i liked him!"

Kate, seeing competition, feels like she should put the final nail in the coffin of this argument. She answers:

"Bruh you werent really that assertive. U had your chance. Has he broken up with you yet?"

MJ knows that if Peter had not broken up with her yet, even if she had already decided to break up with him, that this last question would have made her much more angry than she is now. She views this as Kate trying to provoke her. It makes her feel unloved, when her friend takes her crush from her than asks her if that crush has left her yet, sounding like there was nothing she could do to keep him from leaving her. This makes MJ feel like trash. Disposable. Unwanted. She is now furious with Kate and sad that Kate would say such a thing. Hot tears fill her eyes and tries to text fast, but a couple tears fall on her phone, preventing her from typing effectively. When she is able to respond, MJ says:

"really? youre gonna say that? we arent friends anymore."

A moment later, Kate responds with:

"I thought we were tho. I apologized."

MJ responds with:

"if he ended up mine would u still be apologizing"

Kate leaves her on read, not wanting to respond, knowing that an honest response would ruin things just as much as lie.

MJ now really wants revenge on Kate. She wants Kate to hurt as much as she has. She wants a way to hurt her.

Just then, a customer walks in. MJ quickly wipes away her tears and puts her phone in her pocket. With a shaky voice, she asks the customer, "What can I get for you?"

The customer ignores her and laughs in Russian about something that someone else said. She is not on the phone. She is not wearing an earpiece, proven by her open ears, her blonde hair in a pulled-back ponytail.

If you haven't guessed by now, it's Yelena.

Yelena says to MJ, "Hi, can I just get like four dozen chocolate sprinkle doughnuts?"

"We…don't… have four dozen available," MJ says, looking at the display behind her. "We could make more, but it would take time."

A deep, manly, somewhat accented voice speaks to Yelena, but MJ cannot hear it. Only Yelena can hear it. The voice is

VENOM

Venom says to Yelena, "To make up for it, we get all the chocolate sprinkle doughnuts, plus five dozen of a mix of anything else."

Yelena, repeating what the voice told her, tells MJ, "To make up for it, we get all the chocolate springle doughnuts, plus five dozen of a mix of anything else."

The voice tells Yelena, "Please."

Yelena tells MJ, "Please."

"That's gonna cost you," MJ says.

Venom exclaims to Yelena, "I don't care! I just want doughy pastry and sweet toppings in my belly!"

Yelena says to MJ, "That's okay. I…"

Venom tells Yelena, "We're having a party."

Yelena explains to MJ, "I'm having a party."

MJ responds, "That would explain it. I'm gonna go to the back and grab Sasha to help me fill this order."

Yelena replies, "Take your time." She sits down at the counter and goes on her phone. She pulls up an old recording of a news report of Mysterio claiming that Spider-Man killed him.

Venom says to Yelena, "Spider-Man is a murderer! He must pay!"

Yelena replies, "Obviously, all murderers must pay."

"Yes!" Venom reacts. "But we don't accept cash transactions! Only organ transactions!"

"Seriously, what is it with you and organs?" Yelena groans. "It's disgusting."

Venom argues, "But you said you liked the chicken liver at the Wilsons' tailgate!"

"Okay, two things," Yelena says. "First, it was cooked, second, it was chicken and not human!"

"All organs taste the same," Venom states. "I've eaten the innards of dozens of animals since Brock left me here. Horse, ladybug, dolphin, jellyfish—"

"Jellyfish don't have organs," Yelena interrupts to point out.

Venom is quiet for a moment before responding, "They don't?"

MJ interrupts the conversation as she sets seven boxes of doughnuts (each holding a dozen) on the counter. She shows Yelena the pay machine thing. "There's your total."

Venom exclaims, "YUMMY! DOUGHNUTS!"

Yelena pays for the doughnuts and leaves.

MJ goes to the back with Sasha, only saying, "That was weird."

Meanwhile, Venom tells Yelena, "Okay, first, doughnut party, just the two of us. Then, we find Spider-Man."

"Just how long do you plan on inhabiting my body?" Yelena asks.

Venom growls lowly, muttering, "Till Spider-Man is dead."