Two weeks passed uneventfully. Mary Jane began to feel as though perhaps she had only dreamt of Spider-Man's return. Once again, she began to watch the news, feasting on every syllable the news anchors spoke but still: no word of Spider-Man or the Kingpin.
Life continued. Mary Jane was able to land a small role in a play at a rundown theater while still juggling her class schedule at Empire State University. Gwen's schedule remained the same: school and study, rinse and repeat. The fall dragged on, balmy and unseasonably warm.
And then one morning, like the slightest stirring beneath a placid lake, a ripple was created; a ripple whose effects would be felt until the end of time.
"You better get a move on if you don't want to be late to class, Sleeping Beauty!"
Gwen smiled behind Mary Jane's closed door. She was replied with a muffled groan and the subsequent clattering of unknown objects hastily tossed around the room as Mary Jane finally shook herself from a deep sleep. Gwen let her believe she was going to be late to class because she knew that was the only way to get MJ to class on time.
Her complete opposite, Gwen had already showered and dressed, made breakfast for the both of them, ate her portion of said breakfast and was gathering her books from the kitchen table when Mary Jane came skidding out of her bedroom, shirt on backwards.
"What time is it!" The red-haired cyclone spoke breathlessly, eyes wide in panic.
Before Gwen replied, she carefully guided her friend to the kitchen table and forced her to sit.
"It's only 8:00. Your shirt is on backwards." She handed Mary Jane a fork and knife, "Bon appetit."
"Wha-" Mary Jane's pouted as she yanked her shirt off and put it back on the correct way, "I still have an hour! I could've slept-" The sight of oatmeal and sunny-side up eggs caused Mary Jane's words to trail off. "Ooh!" She squealed in delight, "Breakfast for me?!"
Gwen smiled as she sipped her coffee. She sat down in the chair opposite to her friend and began to absentmindedly rifle through her book. After a moment of silence, she spoke. "So, in my Chem class I have a lab partner."
In between mouthfuls, Mary Jane laughed, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how dweeby is he?"
"Well, actually..." Gwen smiled as she recalled the tall brown-haired boy from her class. There was something about him that seemed dangerous to her, not at all like the usual boys she found in her advanced chemistry classes. It had been two weeks and she still couldn't figure him out. He was different and that difference intrigued her. "He's not dweeby at all. He's pretty cute, really."
"Cute and smart?" Mary Jane's eyes lit up. "You hit the jackpot this time, Gwendy. You gonna bring him home so I can give you both my blessings?"
Gwen nodded, laughing at Mary Jane's ever-theatrical nature. "We have a quiz next week. I'm going to see if he wants to study with me this afternoon. We may come back here to study." She shrugged her shoulders, "Or we may go to a coffee shop and study. Who knows." She glanced at the time on her wristwatch, "Oh, shoot! I better get going. My class is halfway across campus."
Gathering her books, she made her way to the front door of their apartment.
"One more thing!" Mary Jane's tone lowered to a sultry level, "Just remember that a tie around the doorknob means 'the apartment's a-rockin so don't come a-knockin'!" Mary Jane pressed her lips together and made the most obnoxious kissing sounds that she could muster up. Gwen's jaw immediately dropped at her brash comment causing her to burst into a fit of giggles.
"Where do you come up with this stuff, MJ!" Gwen shook her head, chucking a balled up piece of paper at her friend's head. As she shut the front door behind her, Gwen couldn't help but laugh at the comment as well.
Peter was always quiet but today he seemed even more quiet than usual. In fact, today he seemed downright run down. Gwen watched him from the corner of her eye as he stared vacantly at Professor Connors, his eyes hollow and bloodshot. He sat with his elbow on the desk, cheek cradled in his palm. Thirty minutes into the lecture, Gwen saw his eyes flutter shut and his head begin to bob with the throes of sleep. She gently nudged him with her elbow before the professor, a man who loved to make an example out of students who fell asleep in his class, could notice. He immediately perked up, clearing his throat, but within moments his eyes were fluttering shut again.
Peter was able to make it through the entire class without the professor taking any notice of him. As the students shuffled hastily from the room, Gwen took her time gathering her books. Peter was slow moving and so, their paces matched perfectly.
"Heya, party animal." Gwen smiled up at Peter as the two began to move towards the door.
Peter chuckled at the thought of him as a party animal. Delusional from lack of sleep, he imagined himself sitting down with the Kingpin at a bar. He was dressed as Spider-Man and the Kingpin was dressed as usual, his bloated body stuffed like a sausage into his expensive white pant-suit, bulbuous purple lips curled around a smoking cigar. As his daydream continued, Spider-Man and the Kingpin clinked their beer mugs together in a toast, both laughing uproariously at some private joke. Peter shook his head to clear his mind of the disturbing image. "Not quite."
"You probably missed today's notes, huh?" When he groaned in reply, she laughed. "In that case, would you like to study for the quiz at my place later?"
Gwen felt her palms beginning to sweat, the heavy books in her grasp becoming slippery.
"Uh, I didn't even know there was a quiz." Peter stalled. 'I should be tracking the Kingpin and his men...' Peter's sense of responsibility was unfaltering but here was a beautiful girl walking beside him, inviting him into her home. He looked down at her, her nervous expression unmasked and pure. 'Live a little, Pete. Mary Jane will be okay without me watching over Kingpin's men if it's just for one night...'
"Yeah, sure. That sounds great."
Gwen's nervous expression broke into an expression of surprised joy, "Okay!" She reigned in her excitement, cheeks blazing red. "I'll write down my address for you. It isn't far from here. Actually, if you wanted, you could even walk there from here." The two stopped walking so Gwen could pull a pen from her purse and write her address down on a piece of notebook paper. She folded the paper then handed it to Peter, her sky-blue eyes sparkling.
"Okay, well I'll expect you around six." She cradled her books against her chest, walking backwards from him as she spoke, "Don't worry about bringing your notes with you. I'm a great note-taker!"
Peter nodded, "Six it is."
Gwen waved one final time then turned on her heels and walked away from him, an extra bounce in her step. Once she had walked some distance from him, he glanced down at the folded piece of paper in his hand. He unfolded it and read the address aloud,
"673 Spring Street..."
He glanced back up at Gwen's retreating figure.
'Why does that address sound so familiar?'
6:00 rolled around and Gwen paced the living room nervously. The apartment she shared with Mary Jane was small and sparsely furnished. Walking into the apartment, one would first see the small kitchen table and the kitchen to the left. Past the kitchen table and into the living room, they had just enough room for two mismatched loveseats and a coffee table that sat catty corner to a decently sized television sitting atop a console. It wasn't much but she had spent the last hour tidying and re-tidying the entire apartment. Her books and notes sat opened on the coffee table.
6:15 rolled around and Peter still wasn't here.
6:23 rolled around and still, no Peter. Gwen's stomach begins to rumble so she orders pizza. She sits on the couch and begins to study as a final attempt to keep her mind off the time.
6:25 and her intercom buzzes. She jumps up and sprints to it.
"Hello?" She holds down the button and speaks into the speaker.
"Hey, Gwen?" It's Peter's voice. He sounds very unsure of himself.
"Hey, Peter! I'll come down and let you in." Gwen did as she said she would and after cordial greetings, the two rode the elevator back up to her sixth floor apartment in relative silence. Gwen was the first to speak. "Did you have any trouble finding the place?"
"Not at all," Strangely, Peter kept his eyes locked on the closed elevator doors. Of course he hadn't had any trouble finding the apartment building. He had been here before, two weeks ago. Only last time, he had seen the building from the rooftop and not from the street. "Easy-peezy." His voice was hollow and Gwen could tell that he was deep in thought. She glanced sideways and noticed the deep crease between his brows.
"What?" He noticed her curious look. She shook her head, glance retreating back to the closed elevator doors. Just in time, the doors opened and the two exited onto a small loft. There were three apartments on this floor. Gwen walked to the apartment door to the right. She unlocked the door and they walked in.
"I hope you're hungry." She walked to the living room and sat down in front of her opened books. "I ordered pizza. It should be here soon."
Peter closed the front door behind him, scanning the apartment.
'Calm down, Parker. If Mary Jane is a student at ESU, it makes sense that she would live in this building too. There's at least fourteen different floors here. She could be in any apartment.'
"Great. I'm starving." He came to sit down on the couch perpendicular to Gwen, his back to the front door. He leaned over the coffee table to glance at her notes, neatly written and color coded. "Yikes. I hardly even remember Connors mentioning this stuff."
Gwen smiled easily then flipped to the first page of notes. "Alright- let's start from the beginning."
After a full day of classes, I still had rehearsal at a rinky-dink theater across town. Normally we're out of rehearsal well before the sun sets but tonight we all lost track of time. We were a motley crew of actors, some young and some old, some sane and some not so sane. Despite our many differences, we all had a genuine love for acting and sometimes it was like a whirlwind, sweeping us up and forcing us to think of nothing but the masks we put on. That's what I loved about acting: moreso than anything else I've found, acting has a way of making you forget who you are and with it, you forget your troubles as well. You become a different person.
Anthony, a cast mate not much older than me, offered to walk me to the subway station but I insisted that I was alright to walk alone. The subway station was only two blocks from the theater and despite it being nighttime in a seedy part of town, I wasn't afraid; I was still high on the fumes of a successful rehearsal.
The subway was empty, minus one bum who sat huddled and sleeping under a blanket of newspapers in the far corner of the subway car. I reviewed my lines, all twenty of them, as the subway car traveled closer to my part of town.
I got off the subway at my stop, only a few blocks from my apartment. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that the bum had shaken off the newspapers and was also getting off at my stop. I sped up my step to put distance between us and when he veered to the left while I went right, I slowed my step back down.
The walk to my apartment was a quiet one and again, I began to question whether the incident with Kingpin's men had been just a nightmare.
"Honey," I swung open the front door of my apartment, "I'm home!" I shrugged my bookbag from my shoulder and let it drop to the hardwood floor. I looked up, slapping my hands against my mouth. "Oh, sorry, Gwen! I totally forgot about your study date."
My skin began to prickle into gooseflesh as my Spider-senses went haywire far before I even heard the sound of someone's key slipping into the lock of Gwen's front door. I tried my best to ignore the jolt of electricity running up and down my spine so I could follow Gwen's words as she reviewed some of Professor Connors notes. I knew it was unwise to ignore the tingling that urged my body to action but I was unsure of why they were sounding off the alarm. There was nothing out of the ordinary going on here.
I heard the key slip into the lock at Gwen's front door and I glanced up at her, the look of confusion upon my face prompting her explanation.
"Oh, don't worry." She smiled before looking back down at the notes splayed across the coffee table between us, "It's just my roommate."
I heard a familiar voice call from behind us, "Honey, I'm home!" and then the sound of something heavy thudding against the apartment floor. The girl apologized for interrupting our "study date" and I saw Gwen grimace. I felt the corner of my mouth curl up into a smirk. I didn't turn around, still trying to place the melodious voice I felt that I knew so well.
"Mary Jane," Gwen spoke as she gestured to the woman behind me. I felt my blood freeze within my veins. "This is my lab partner, Peter."
Of all the apartments in the entire city... of all the girls in the entire city...
I steeled my nerves, preparing myself for the worst. I inhaled one more time before turning around and looking at the woman I knew would be standing there.
Sure enough, standing there in all of her surprised and angry glory was the red-haired woman I had loved since before I even knew what love was.
"Mary Jane Watson," I tried my best to smile but undoubtedly, I failed. "Nice to meet you again."
I stared at the back of Gwen's date's head; brown hair, broad shoulders, fairly tall. I pointed to him, mouthing the words, "Is that him?"
"Mary Jane," Gwen ignored my game of charades and gestured to me. I dropped my hand to my hip, smirking, "This is my lab partner, Peter."
Slowly, the color began to drain from my face.
No way. It couldn't be that Peter.
The brown-haired man slowly turned in his seat to face me. My eyes opened wide and it took every fiber of my being to keep myself from gasping out loud. Instead, I bit down on my lip and inhaled sharply.
"Mary Jane Watson," His voice was cold but his face was colder. "Nice to meet you again."
Was he being sarcastic? Was this some sort of hilarious joke to him? I glared at him for only a moment, not long enough for Gwen to sense the animosity oozing from my pores.
"Peter Parker," I nodded in his direction, the smirk still glued to my face. I had a quick and vicious retort poised on the tip of my tongue but before I could speak, the intercom behind me began to buzz. Gwen jumped from her seat calling out cheerfully something about pizza. I kept my eyes on Peter, unable to tear my gaze from his.
"I'll be right down!" Gwen spoke into the intercom then turned back to us, none the wiser to the tense interaction transpiring before her. "You two will have to explain how you guys know each other but first, I'm going to grab the pizza. I'll be back in a second."
And with that, Gwen rushed out of the apartment.
Peter was the first to speak, standing from the sofa and facing me. "Why were you out in the dark by yourself?"
I nearly choked on the laugh that bubbled from my throat. "Excuse me?" I laughed again, my incredulous laughter dangerously treading the line of insane cackles. "That's funny, last I checked you didn't give two shits about me."
"That's not true." He spoke plainly, his voice completely void of emotion.
I stalked towards him, my footsteps heavy against the wood floor.
"Look here, Peter Parker," I spat my words at him, wagging my index finger in his face, "You got lucky this time. For whatever reason, I'm fairly certain that you make Gwen happy. You're the first guy I've heard her talk about since-... since I don't even know when!" I rolled my eyes in disgust, "And because she's my best friend, I want her to continue to be happy. I'm not going to tell her how big of a coward you are but if some mutant super-villain attacks the city, you better not leave her behind or so help me God-"
"Simmer down, Watson," Peter visibly bristled at my words, "I wouldn't leave Gwen anywhere."
Now it was my turn to bristle. I rocked back onto my heels, mouth slammed shut.
But you would leave me? It was immature and selfish, I know, but his words stung. It was then that I decided I truly did not like Peter Parker.
"Goodnight, Peter." I turned on my heels and more theatrically than I would have liked, slammed my bedroom door behind me.
I watched as Mary Jane turned on her heels, the tips of her long crimson hair whipping my face. She crossed the living room and retreated into another room, slamming the door behind her.
It's a good thing you aren't a betting man, Parker.
Author's Note: Sorry this was so long, guys! Yikes! O.O Almost 3,000 words in one chapter! Let me know if this chapter worked okay for you. Was switching from third person to first person too confusing? How do you like first-person for Peter? Let me know what you like/don't like :)