Authors Note:

I was very happy about the postiive response this story is getting so far! I have it posted on two total websites, so it's nice to get reviews from people saying they like it. If you like it OR DONT LIKE IT, please review, it's really helpful for an author to see what they are doing right, and what they are doing wrong. Thanks!

----Leha

As the bus slowed to a halt, Mary Jane fumbled with her large shopping bags and walked down the middle aisle of the bus, bumping the other passengers with her shopping bags. Finally exiting the bus with somewhat damaged bags in hand, Mary Jane slowly began to walk the short distance to her small, but well kept apartment. Though her modeling and acting paid well, she had relatively few jobs at a time, and any apartment in the center of bustling New York City would have been very expensive. She walked up to her door and clumsily searched her purse for the keys, which proved very difficult to do while holding a large array of heavy bags. Slowly but surely, she found the keys, all hooked to a pink plastic carabineer, and pushed open the door of her new home.

Putting her bags down right inside the entryway, Mary Jane locked the front door and threw her keys and purse on the kitchen counter, and collapsed on an old couch in the living room, which was divided from the kitchen only by a counter. Mary Jane briefly surveyed her living space. The apartment was a blank canvas waiting to be decorated, preferably by someone with a large paycheck. The Kitchen housed only a fridge, cabinets, a toaster, a stove and an oven: the bare bones of an kitchen; fortunately, a blender and microwave would soon be adding themselves to the list of appliances. The small dining area across from the kitchen was bare except for a folding card table and a wooden chair that had been in her bedroom next to her desk in the old apartment. The living room housed only a couch and a few framed photographs, one of herself from her "Emma Rose" advertisement, and a picture Peter had taken of Central Park in the spring, with brilliantly colored trees in greens and pale purples. Mary Jane, somehow, was reminded of the "Cement Pond" from the Beverly Hillbillies, because the trees were surrounded by concrete, but they looked beautiful and untamed. Her bedroom also lacked furnishing; the only piece of furniture in the room was an old wooden dresser, while her mattress and box spring sat on the floor, bed frameless. It was of some consolation, however, that he favorite cream colored 330 thread-count sheets adorned the bed: a wedding gift from the wedding that never was. Though she had offered to return the gifts to all those who attended the wedding, the woman who had given them the bed linens had refused to take them back, so Mary Jane kept them. Fortunately, the rest of the furniture was being shipped, and would arrive within the next 2 weeks.

Mary Jane dragged herself up off the couch and walked into the kitchen where her phone was plugged in. Looking at the machine, she saw that she had two messages, and decided to check them. The first message was from her aunt, asking if she had gotten back, and telling her that she would call back in the morning. Mary Jane simply erased the message, and moved on. However, the second message gave Mary Jane chills. It was Peter Parker's voice on the other line, whose voice she hadn't heard in days, but it seemed like much longer.

"Hi MJ, it's Peter. I was calling because I was a little bit worried because I haven't seen you in a while, and you know how much I worry about you. If you're in New Jersey right now, I guess I'll see you when you get back to the city, but if you're not there yet and you get this message, be careful while you're there, I don't know what I'd do if anything bad happened to you while I wasn't there to protect you. Don't go down any dark alleys. I miss you; call me back if you get this message. See you soon, Love you." Mary Jane listened to the tape stop rolling as a voice on her phone clearly stated, "end of messages." She smiled softly thinking about the message Peter had left her, and made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a giggle.

Peter was very sweet, even when he was being a little over protective. He had trouble believing that she could take care of herself, and it made him sick with worry when he hadn't seen her for long periods of time. It also seemed sometimes as though peter had some sort of spider sense like mechanism that alerted him when Mary Jane most needed to hear from him, because every time she needed someone, her phone had a message from Peter sitting in voicemail. She smiled and walked over to her bags, picking them up and beginning to decorate her apartment with the new buys. Her first priority was to set up the new microwave, or any meal tomorrow would be a problem. The only food she still had in the fridge was frozen, and heating frozen meals in the oven is quite a hassle. She assembled some minor parts of the microwave and put it all together, finding the perfect spot on her white countertop for the new microwave. The blender required very little set up, and was therefore placed on the counter near the microwave.

Now it was on to the DVD player. Mary Jane's very limited knowledge of technology became terribly evident when she opened the box, to find hundreds of wires and cables, corresponding with hundreds of ports on the television and cable box. A red cable had a corresponding red hole on the back. No, a red cable had 3 corresponding holes on the back. And there were 3 almost identical white holes, 2 similar blue holes, yellow holes and green holes, an at least 5 black plastic slots. After about half of an hour of unplugging and plugging in all the cables, Mary Jane collapsed on the couch with the remote. She pressed the button to turn the TV on, but nothing happened. She pressed it again, nothing. She pressed it a third time, and nothing happened. Frustrated, she tossed the remote on the couch, and the battery cover popped off, revealing that the battery port was empty. Annoyed with her foolishness, Mary Jane searched for batteries, but found none and decided to buy some tomorrow, as she was far too tired now. She dressed in her favorite pajamas, a Christmas present her mother bought from Gap, and slid into her soft bed sheets. Normally, sleep did not come easy to Mary Jane, but having slept little the night before in an unfamiliar town, Mary Jane fell quickly to sleep to dream of Spiderman.

Mary Jane was walking on the streets of New York, paying no attention to where she was going, when suddenly, she found herself on the top of the Waldorf-Astoria, having no recollection of getting there. Mary Jane was absolutely terrified, she had never liked heights, and she was suddenly trapped on top of an incredibly tall building with no apparent means of getting down. She looked over the railing and saw a balcony about a story down, maybe two, with a patio covered in feather pillows. Mary Jane jumped directly to it, but as soon as she was about to hit the balcony, it disappeared. Mary Jane was suddenly in freefall, plummeting to her death in the middle of New York City. She screamed in terror, no one was there to save. She drew closer and closer to the ground, she was only 40 yards away from it, screaming fearfully, when suddenly, she wasn't falling. She was suspended in the air, attached to a silver string from what looked like a giant Spider web. She looked above her, and there was Spiderman. He pulled his web back in, and wrapped her up in his arms as he swung with her through the city. Spiderman turned to her, his mask had disappeared, and it was Peter. He looked deeply into her eyes, their lips only inches apart, and said:

"Goooood Morning New York City! This is Johnny J. in the morning and you're listening to 97.9 KHPR, it's 7:00." Mary Jane groaned, another good dream ruined by modern conveniences. She rolled sleepily out of bed, brushing her teeth and climbing into the small shower. She washed her long red hair, combed and toweled it off, letting it dry in loose waves. She slipped on a white tank top, brown and pink floral satin skirt, and a pink cardigan with white ballet flats and rushed into the kitchen, pushing a frozen toaster pastry into the toaster.

She impatiently waited for the strawberry pastry to pop up, going outside to catch a breath of fresh and bring in the morning paper. However, a quick look at the headlines and Mary Jane felt a twinge of sorrow. "Masked Menace Wanted for Robbery: Spidey Aids Bank Robbers in Major Heist." Mary Jane had seen the headlines nearly every morning for years, and laughed it off. Everyone knew Spider-man wasn't a menace. But now that she knew that Spider-man was really Peter Parker, she felt hurt that people would say such things about Peter. If they only knew whom Spiderman really was, just a kid trying to do the right thing.

The pastry popped up and Mary Jane sauntered over to the toaster to grab her breakfast. She ate it quickly, grabbed her purse, and walked out the door, locking it behind her. But while she turned the key, she was grateful that there were people like Peter in the world who tried to make sure you didn't have to be afraid to leave your house.