Title: Memento

by: Satine16

Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to Marvel. I do not own any of them! I am not doing

this for profit, so please do not sue me!

Chapter 2:Ghosts

"I have to go to work."

"Just one more kiss?"

"You are a fool, Harry Osbourn," Mary Jane Watson said, a smile forming on her lips.

Harry pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her small frame. After high school

Harry had grown and reached his well formed physical potential. His tall stature, with its well

toned muscles, his perfect hair with its amazing, store bought highlights, and his million dollar

smile, bleached a spectacular shade of white made Harry seem as if he belonged to another

world. He had become the perfect, Ken Doll, Brad Pitt wannabe, wax mold of a Trust Fund

child.

Mary Jane, too had done her fair share of growing up. Her once long, curly locks were

trimmed short and layered to her shoulders, framing her face, giving her a much more mature

appearance. She had also thinned out a lot after graduation. The small bits of baby fat were gone

and the roundness of her face disintegrated, leaving a firm heart shaped jaw and high cheek

bones. Although she had always been slender, she had now grown another two inches and she

had developed a beanstalk frame and simply a long, delicate appearance.

"Harry, this job is finally paying me enough so that I can afford a decent apartment. I

have to go!"

"I told you I would buy you an apartment."

"And I told you that I can't let you do that.," she kissed his forehead and wriggled out of

his arms.

"Don't forget the gala tomorrow, MJ."

"I couldn't possibly!" and with a few blown kisses she left the Park Avenue Palace.

She headed up the three flights of stairs that lead to her apartment, down the long hallway

and opened the door to her home. It was wonderful. It was her place. Not the horrible

cockroach infested hole that she used to live in, but a real apartment, with windows and

everything. She headed into her room and opened her closet doors. Selecting a pair of knee high

black leather boots, a denim mini, and a pink ballet top she laid the items out on her bed and

hopped in the shower.

"Peter Parker...you promised me! You are supposed to meet my friends tonight. They

think that I made you up...can you please come this time and prove that you exist!"

"Where are they meeting you?"

"EDGE, the new club they just discovered. They say its amazing, that I just have to go."

"Gwen, you know that it's just not my scene."

"But it is MINE. Please, Peter. Just once. That's all I'm asking and then I will just shut

up. Forever!"

"But that's not what I want either. If you shut up forever who's gonna tell me how bad

my fashion sense is?" he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into his lap. She sat

with her legs swung over the arms of his computer chair and her left arm around his neck. With

her right hand she ran her fingers through Peter's hair and brushed the front out of his eyes.

"Hey, I have an idea...why don't we just stay in?" he asked a smirk on his face, as he

started to kiss her.

"No!" she softly smacked his cheek and hopped off his lap. "Get dressed!"

Mary Jane looked at herself in the mirror, her auburn locks dripping wet, and her green

eyes smiling. Without the hair the outfit just didn't seem right. She grabbed the blow dryer and

started working on her hair. Within five minutes it was a mess, but it was dry and that was all

that mattered. She quickly got the knots out and pinned her hair down. She slipped on her jet

black, Farah Fawcett style wig, her only uniform for this job, and soon an entirely new person

was staring back at her in the mirror.

As she applied her smoky eyeshadow and liner she simply thought to herself that this job

is the closest she had come to acting in her entire three years. Slicking on a smear of lip gloss

she grabbed her leather trench and purse and headed out the door. It was eleven at night, and she

wouldn't be home 'til dawn.

"Are you ready, Peter?"

He came out in dark jeans and a form fitting black t-shirt. Gwen caught her breath as she

looked him up and down, he looked amazing. All her girlfriends would be jealous, her male

friends...well they'd be jealous, too. In a different way. She loved it that he looked so damn

good in something so simple.

"Well?"

"Wow."

"Wow, yourself. You look...wow."

"Thanks Peter...I clean up kinda nice."

Gwen had let her platinum blonde locks fall free over her shoulders and she had decided

on a black and white halter dress that really didn't leave much to the imagination. She had on

her usual three inch spikes, and she was, as usual, eye level with Peter. He grabbed her coat and

purse off the table, and grabbed his own jacket off the chair, and started to shut off some of the

lights.

"Let's go wow everybody else, babe," he wrapped his arm around her waist and the two

headed out the door.

The place was crowded. Mary Jane simply saw people all around her and there was no

sign of the crowd starting to ebb. She took a deep breath and leaned in taking a group of twenty-

somethings drink orders. They were a lively crew of seven, and Mary Jane thought she wouldn't

mind knowing them. She saw a curvy blonde headed towards the group, sighed, and having

finished these orders went to the other end of the bar to help her friend Mike with his.

"Everybody...this is Peter."

"Peter...this is everybody."

"Hi," Peter uttered the word while staring at the seven people around him, a little

intimidated.

"Okay, from the beginning," Gwen began. "This is Allen and his boyfriend Rick," the

two were very handsome, one was short and blond the other tall and dark. They both had perfect

smiles. "That is my best friend from high school, Regina," she said pointing to a girl with deep

red hair and brown eyes, Peter couldn't help but think of MJ. "This is Tim" she said pointing to

a scruffy guy in a leather jacket, "he and I used to date."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, Peter, we're friends now. We weren't good together. We're both always

right," she said a smile and his face and Peter could see the man chuckle to himself. "Moving

on, that is Stephanie, the sweetest girl you will ever meet," she was a small dark skinned girl with

eyes like black coffee and the wildest, curliest black hair Peter had ever seen. "This is Craig,"

she said pointing to a guy with shoulder length brown hair and yellow sunglasses. "Last, but not

least, this is Tanya," she sat with her lip gloss perfectly even, her golden highlights freshly

purchased, and her dark skin newly toasted; she was the ideal material girl.

Peter had gotten a warm reception from everyone and after a few drinks, felt right at

home with all of Gwen's friends.

"Hey, MJ, you going back to that side if the bar or what?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Mike, please, I'll work this side, you do that one. I know one of the guys over there and

until I can remember why, I don't want to go over there."

"Fine, stay on my turf. Why could I possibly care?" he said in a huff and walked away

with a smile.

Mary Jane watched him move, he was really muscular and he had a shaggy hair cut.

She could not put her finger on where she had known him. He looked so familiar and yet so

different. But then the blonde reached up and ran her manicured nail through his hair, brushing it

out of his piercing blue eyes. Oh Lord, that was Peter Parker. But since when had Peter looked

like that up close, and when would he ever come to a club like EDGE. It couldn't be Peter. But

when he smiled, Mary Jane was absolutely sure that it was.

But when had he gotten to be so handsome. He was always a nerd in high school. What

had happened?

And that blonde had to be his girlfriend. She was very attractive, it had to be admitted.

She had perfectly silver blonde hair that was cut just like Sarah Jessica Parker's and it fell in

perfectly smooth, strands. But it had amazing volume, like a Pantine Pro-V commercial. It just

had to be his girlfriend. Why else would she be wedged in between his legs and why would he

have his arms wrapped around her like that? That was his girlfriend. Wow. She was pretty.

"Good for Peter," she thought to herself, and wondered if she meant for it to sound rather

bitter.

The music thudded in Mary Jane's ears and a man at the bar asked for a drink,

interrupting her thought process and pulling her eyes away from her old friend.

"Peter, let's dance!" Kevin Lyttle's voice began to pound in the background and Gwen

pulled on Peter's hand. "Please?"

"I am a bad dancer."

"You are not! We dance in the kitchen all the time!"

He blushed slightly and retorted, "I don't dance in public?"

"You do now!" and with that she dragged him into the crowd with her.

When Mary Jane looked back to where Peter had been sitting, he was gone.

"Oh, where did he go, then? His friends are still here," then she saw the two dancing.

The music had a very sensual core and they danced very well together. She watched as they

moved with the music, and saw they way he held her so close and the way she touched him.

Since when had Peter been that...not graceful...but agile. She bit her lip as she watched him and

wondered what his hands felt like. Mary Jane couldn't help but imagine that he would be a really

great f .

"MJ! Let's go! You've got customers waiting!"

Quickly, she rushed back to her side of the bar.

"Okay, I'm pooped!" Gwen came back and with a few kisses and a couple waves the

couple were making their way towards the exit.

"I hope you're not that tired."

"Nope, I just wanted to get outta there!"

Peter wrapped his arm around her waist and held her close to his body as they waited for

a cab.

Mary Jane got off of work when daylight broke and she walked home from the club.

When she got there she took off her boots and her wig and passed out on the bed, she fell asleep

for four hours.

When Peter and Gwen woke up the next morning it was very late. Peter opened his eyes

to the sunlight and felt Gwen sleeping in the nook of his arm. He kissed her forehead and her

eyes fluttered open.

"I love you, Gwen Stacy."

"And I love you, Peter Parker."

"I'll go pick up breakfast. You just stay there. Don't move. I'll be

back ASAP!"

He slipped on the jeans he wore the night before and a plaid button down shirt. Noticing that Gwen had fallen asleep, he slipped out the door soundlessly.

Mary Jane woke up to her phone ringing.

"Ello?"

"Mary? Can you make it for breakfast?"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a little, Harry."

She slipped on a pair of khakis and a tank top and brushed the knots out of her red hair and pulled it into a bun. She washed off her old make-up and brushed her teeth, grabbed her purse and ran out of the door.

"Mary Jane?"

"Yea–Peter Parker?"

"Who'd of thought it?" Peter smiled from ear to ear.

They stood staring at each other from the doorways of apartments 3A and 3B.