Hell to my 4 favourtiers and 7 followers! Thanks for reading :) Please let me know what you think by reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you would like to see throughout this story! Thanks!

It was a simple, closed mouth smile, but for the rest of the day I couldn't help but think about it. It was the first time I had seen him remotely happy, and that was nice to see. This boy was living in a world of obscurity, and he had came out of it for a few seconds there.

When my shift was over at five o'clock, half an hour after Peter left, I changed back into my normal clothes in the back room then exited the bistro. I stepped into the busy sidewalk and merged into the traffic of people. The cold November air sent shivers throughout my body.

I didn't have the car today, because normally Sam needed it on Friday's.

My feet led me to a small corner store, which mostly sold tourist merchandise. The bell rung when I placed my feet through the door. I gave the store owner a quick hi, then travelled down the a particular isle.

There were a few clocks, some digital, and some analog. Most of them had "I 3 NY" on them. Typical.

I picked up an analog one, with I 3 NY in the middle.

"That one looks pretty good." Someone mumbled behind me. A head reached out to the shelf to pull out a smaller digital clock, with big red numbers displayed. My eyes trailed along the persons arm up to their face.

It was Peter.

I stared dumb founded, but a slow smile spread across my face. "Not bad." I responded.

"Hey," Peter retorted, "I'm an expert alarm clock shopper, trust me."

I rolled my eyes with a mile, "Oh I'm sure you are." I snatched the clock from his hands, got a good look at it, and shrugged. This would do. He trailed behind me as I made my way to the front cash, paying 4.95$ for it.

I watched him pick up a chocolate milk from one of the coolers and pay for it.

It was awkward, I didn't know whether to wait for him, as if we were going to chat more, or walk out without saying anything else. I pretended to fiddle with something in my jacket pocket, making it seem like I was trying to find something in case our conversation did come to an end.

To my surprise he stopped beside me, putting the change in his pocket.

We walked out together and turned left; luckily we were going the same way. We didn't say anything for a few seconds; just let our footsteps match up to the same step.

"So where are you headed to?" He asked, screwing the lid off of his chocolate milk.

"My apartment. My roommate and I are going to have a movie night, like we do every Friday." I stared at my feet as I walked; not wanting to look into this boy's lost eyes again.

"Oh that's cool, do you live in a dorm room, or—?"

I shook my head, looking ahead of me. "We rent an apartment together. I do go to school though."

"Interesting. Where at?"

"A branch off of NYU, Tisch School of arts. I'm studying film, media arts, acting, all that fun stuff."

I could feel his eyes burn into my side, but I continued to look ahead. "Are you going to school?"

I could see him nod in my peripheral, "I'm hoping to get a BS in Engineering Physics at ESU."

"That's awesome!" I replied with, not knowing what else to say.

He didn't reply but she assumed he was nodding.

Something popped into my mind at that moment. "I thought you were going to England or something though? I— I heard somewhere that you were going to school there." That was possibly the only thing I had ever heard about Peter Parker at Midtown, besides his mishaps with the school's bully Flash last year.

There was a long, awkward silence, before he replied with "Change of plans." His voice was careful, and monotone.

That was when I became aware of the boundary I had crossed over. Clearly it was a touchy subject that had some association with Gwen.

I fiddled with my hands in front of me, clasping and unclasping them together. We walked until I reached the entrance to a subway station. "Well, Peter, It was nice catching up with you. " I pointed to the entrance, "But I have to part ways."

Peter stopped walking and paused in front of me, putting his hands into his jacket's pockets. He gave me a small closed-mouth smile, and I finally looked into his disheartened brown eyes. "It was nice. See you soon Emily."

I laughed half-heartedly, and returned the small smile. "See ya, Parker."

After making a pizza and sitting down on our big L-shaped couch, wrapped in blankets, Sam and I reclined on the sofa and put in Marley and Me.

"I hate this movie…" Sam blurted out. "I've seen it at least ten times and I still cry."

"Hey it was your turn to pick the movie last week. I had to suffer through two hours of saw, so you're ging to have to suffer through this." I retorted.

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

"Maybe we should get a dog." I suggested.

"HA." She spat, "Yeah, like we can afford it."

"True." I agreed, nibbling on my pizza.

We watched the movie for a few minutes, until I brought up the topic of Parker. "Guess who I saw today?"

"Who?" She mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"Peter Parker."

She narrowed her eyes at me, her eyebrows knitting into a perfect line. "Peter Parker? Gwen Stacy's boy?"

I nodded.

"Hmm. How's he doing?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, really. He's came in quite a bit lately, and he always looks miserable, but today I talked with him for a bit. He seemed kind of happy. Emphasis on kind of."

"Well that's good, I suppose."

"Mhm." I said, attending back to my uneaten pizza.

As expected, we were in tears by the end of the movie. This movie was so heartbreaking that I literally couldn't even look at the DVD case anymore. It was so heart wrenching.

"Like I said," Sam sniffled, "I hate this movie." She pause, "A lot."

I grabbed a tissue and started to wipe my nose. After that, I proceeded to take the movie out of the dvd player, switching it back to TV.

Sam and I said our goodnights, and I was ready to switch the TV off, when I heard something tat caught my attention.

"… Is Spiderman really back for good? Or is this just a onetime thing?"

"What the…" Same murmured. She pivoted back to the TV, and turned the volume up on the remote.

We saw clips of a road being blocked off, crowds of people standing behind barricades. This street looked like a war zone. There were five to ten police cars, all lined up to use as shields, and behind them police officer shot at a menacing man in a metal suit.

This man stood fifteen feet tall in his suit. It wasn't something like iron man, either. The suit literally looked like a rhino, only its horn was ready to kill, and its armor was packed with lethal weapons.

"Oh my God."

The video was blurry, probably from someone's own handheld device, but you could still see the destruction that was taking place.

People in the background were chanting Spider-man. Like a prayer.

Astonishingly, a red and blue spandex suit came into view, and there he was saving the day again.

The clip ended and the news returned with a man talking about what this means for New York.

"Spider-man's back. And all of New York City is praying it's for good. This is Mark Smith, goodnight New York City."

"Wow." I breathed.

Sam clasped two hands together, holding them up to her face. She batted her eyelashes a few times, then with a sarcastic tone of voice she said. "Wow! Spider-man's back. We're all safe now." And then she rolled her eyes.

"Not a big fan?" I arched a brow.

Her nose crinkled up and he made a fake gagging noise. "Ugh." She clicked the TV off with the remote in her hand, dropping it on the L-Shaped couch. "No. I mean, yeah, he's good for NYC but he ditched us for six months and now he's back. I think we could do just fine without him."

"Maybe he wanted to take a break." I responded, pulling my blanket over my shoulders. "I mean, remember when that Doctor from Oscorp went insane and injected himself with lizard DNA? How could the cops have stopped him then?" I paused, licking my lips. "I like to think he gives people hope."

She shrugged. "I don't know. And I'm too tired to have a debate about it." She yawned.

I gave her a small smirk, and walked down the small hallway where our bedrooms were. "Goodnight Sam."

"Night Em!" She chimed, running into her room.

The worst thing about your birthday, is having people know its you're birthday.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!" Sam came sprinting in, and took a dive on my bed. I rubbed my eyes and groaned at the sudden awakening. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Emily, happy birthday to you!" She sang.

I sat up, and she took a spot beside me.

She held a small pink bag in her hands, paired with a pink enveloped card.

"Sam, you didn't have to do this…"

"Shut up. I did. So just open the damn card Emma!"

I smiled at her demanding-ness, and obeyed her commands. The card had a sweet heart-felt note that contained all the cute best friend stuff, talking about memories we shared, why I'm her best friend, etc.,

"Thanks Sam," I teared up a little. I put the card down and went in for a hug but she rejected it, pushing me away with her hands.

"Open it!" She squealed, "Open it! Open it!" I chuckled and obliged. I pulled out a very large bag of smarties and a gift certificate to get a manicure and pedicure.

"Don't you just love it? It's the little spa on 34th street that we always pass by!"

Once again, I went in for a hug. It was a long, hearty, hug. I clutched her tight in my arms. My best friend as so sweet. "Thank you so much" I grinned.

"No problem," She hopped off my bed then swatted me, "Now go get ready for work."

Scratch that, the worst thing about your birthday is working on your birthday.

After a minute or two of checking my phone, seeing all the update's about Spiderman being seen again throughout the last week, I dragged myself out of bed. I hated working on Saturday's, especially the morning. It was always so busy. I decided to take the time to make my hair look nice, since Sam had woke me up earlier than expected. I curled my long blonde hair, putting it into a neat ponytail, and then got my work gear on.

"You should have booked it off!" Sam scolded me as I walked out the door.

I had a lot of time before work, so I decided walking would be nice. Besides, Sam needed the car anyways.

After suffering through the cold November air, I finally arrived to work, five minutes ahead of time. I was surprised to see Peter Parker already in his assigned seat. It was early in the morning; he usually didn't come in until mid-afternoon. In fact, this was the third time this week he was here. He was making coffee runs more often.

I got my apron on, and immediately started my round of coffee top-off's, eager to talk to him.

When I finally reached him, he had already yanked the headphones out of his ear. Without asking, I poured some fresh coffee into his mug. "You like this seat, don't you?" I said, narrowing my eyes at him as I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my hair.

"You could say that, yes." He smirked.

"And how is Mr. Parker today?"

"Bored." He replied with.

"No plans to hang out with friends or anything?" I said, pulling two creams out of my pocket.

He shook his head, which caused his hood to fall to his shoulders.

It was pleasant to see his face. He was always so hidden, like he didn't want to be seen, or like he didn't want anyone to talk to him. But that wasn't the case because I talked to Peter quite a lot lately, whenever he came in that is. Unless he only enjoyed talking to me.

"No friends, really."

"And why's that? You're a perfectly pleasant human being."

"I have… trust issues, you could say."

"Hmm." I placed two sugars on the table in front of him. "No school work?"

"Ha!" He scoffed, "Tons. But do I feel like doing it? No."

I gave him a wide smile flashing my dimples.

He looked up at me and just stared, the left corner of his lips slightly quirking up.

"Emily, how many times do I have to tell you? Stop chatting up the customers. Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you can waste time." God dammit Kat.

"It's your birthday?"

"Sort of."

His bushy brow immediately arched up. "How is it sort of your birthday?"

I shrugged. "I'm just trying to keep it on the down low if you know what I—"

"Let's go out."

"Excuse me?" I asked, holding the hot coffee pot in the air.

"Let's do something!" He threw his hands in the air. It was the first time I had seen Peter Parker act joyful.

I laughed awkwardly. "No offence, Parker, but umm… I hardly know you."

"So you'll get to know me!"

I didn't know what to say. Part of me wanted to… the other part of me thought that hanging out with Peter Parker might think I'm giving him the wrong idea. I didn't want this to be more than just two friends hanging out…

"Just us two, hanging out?" I gnawed on my lip.

He had a slight closed-lipped smile with his chin tucked tightly underneath him. "It won't be so bad, come on. Just two acquaintances getting to know each other."

"I don't—"

"Ms. Taylor." Kat grumbled.

I rolled my eyes.

Peter chuckled at my reaction. "Meet me when this place closes at nine."

"Peter—"

"EMILY."

"Kat! Give me a few seconds." I threw back at her.

I looked back to Peter who had the funniest expression. His mouth was agape and his eyes darted between me and Katherine, a laugh erupting beneath his lips.

I just gave him a small smile. "So nine?"

"Nine, at the front."

I nodded, sluggishly pivoting back to Kat. The look on her face as priceless. She was fuming; I practically saw the steam escaping through her eyes. It was like a boiling kettle.

I gave her an apologetic smile, but all she said was, "Back to work."

When my shift was done at five, I headed to the little spa on 34th street, using the certificate Sam had gotten me. It was nice, and relaxing. Once I was done I made my way home to Sam, who was waiting with a small homemade cupcake. There was a giant candle on it that had the numbers 1 and 9 on it.

"Ugh! Don't remind me of how old I'm getting," I said, placing my purse on the counter.

"Oh you're getting so old." She rolled her eyes, moving towards me and taking a seat on one of the bar stools in front of the kitchen counter. She lifted a hand to my hair, picking at it. "Is that a grey hair?'

"Shut up!" I laughed, pushing her away.

She giggled with me.

I stuck my finger in the mound of vanilla frosting, tasting it. "Man I needed this. Work was sooooo boring."

"Well, you could say I am the best best friend." She replied, moving around the counter to the sink to wash some dishes.

"Okay, best best friend." I laughed, taking a bite of the cupcake.

"So movies tonight? I was hoping we could go to the theatre and see that new one with Ryan Gosling."

"Actually…" I mumbled, walking the bite in my mouth. "I may have plans…"

She dropped a spoon in the sink, resulting in a loud bang. Her mouth was agape as she leaned against the sink, staring at me with her hawk eyes.

"Plans? With who? Where? Since when did you have other friends!"

"Hey!" I cried, "I have other friends besides you."

She did a big eye roll, then skipped around the counter towards me, taking a seat on the counter in front of me. "You know what I mean. Where are you going?"

I shrugged.

"Who are you going with?"

"P-Peter." I stuttered.

Her mouth was even more agape now. "Parker? Really? Is this like a date or—"

"No, no. Jesus, no. Kat might have slipped that it was my birthday in front of him so he asked me if I wanted to hang out, completely just as friends. That boy is to broken to be more then friends with anyone, trust me."

She shrugged, hoping off the counter. "Well he's cute, in a geeky, dorky way, I guess."

"I guess," I agreed.

"So when are you meeting him?"

I looked down at my phone, "An hour."

"You better get dressed then."

I shoved the last few bites of my cupcake in my mouth, rushing into my room. I decided to wear something simple. Besides, it was just two acquaintances, hanging out, right? I took my hair out of the pony tail, letting my blonde curls fall to my shoulders. I applied light make up and put on some pink lipstick. I wore a simple black dress, paired with a beige cardigan, a burgundy scarf, and some long black socks. As I headed out the house I slipped on some simple black boots and an army green jacket, the one I usually wore.

I was rushing out the door, realizing I would be late now. Parker must have been wondering where I was. I ran out the apartment doors and headed towards work, jogging there.

By the time I made it there, it was 9:13pm. I wasn't too late. I didn't want Peter to think I stood him up though. I looked around between the crowds of people that continued to tour around New York. There was no sign of Parker though.

I sighed, sitting down on one of the chairs in front of the recently closed bistro. Either I had just missed him, or he was standing me up.

But he was the one who asked me to hang out… I was over thinking this.

"Hey." My head whipped around, to see Parker leaning against one of the cement pillar in front of the store. Had he been there the whole time?

"Hi." I said, standing up. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and took a few steps towards him. "Sorry I'm late."

"No problem," He smirked, "Shall we?" He gestured towards the sidewalk, motioning for us to walk.

I nodded, and stepped around him to start walking.

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and it wasn't awkward. It was rather peaceful. I heard a few sighs from Peter. I even saw him stare at the night sky every now and again. The moon beamed down on us like a big flashlight. It was stunning.

It was always so hard to see the night sky due to all the light pollution but the moon was still so beautiful to look at. It almost was too bright to look at.

"Nice, isn't it?"

"Nice is an understatement." I squelched.

"How would you describe it?"

"Look at thing!" I pointed, grinning at him. "It's a gift of nature. It's like a giant flashlight in the sky."

"You have a way with words." Peter chuckled.

I shrugged, smiling to myself. "So where are we headed to?"

"Ice cream."

"YESSS!" I rubbed my hands together, grinning.

Peter burst into a fit of laughter. His husky laughter caused me to giggle a little. I was just happy to see this boy genuinely laugh.

When we made it to the ice cream parlor, we took a seat outside. He ordered two vanilla cones, (after I fought over offering to pay for myself) and took a seat with me. I didn't want him to pay for me, mostly for the pure fact that I didn't want him or me to get the idea that this was more. I didn't have much of a choice though.

"So," Peter started, licking his ice cream, "You said you live in an apartment with your roommate right?"

"Right." I replied.

"With who?"

"Samantha Evans."

"Oh," he nodded, "I remember her."

"You do?" I asked, wiping my mouth with a napkin.

"Yeah she was the chick who always copied off of me during Physics."

I rolled my eyes, chortling out laughter. "Sounds like Sam."

He shrugged, "I didn't mind."

I narrowed my eyes at him, smirking coyly. "So do you live at home, or…"

"With my Aunt May, yeah."

"Cool. Got a job?"

"No," He huffed, shaking his bronze hair, "Way to busy for one."

I pursed my lips, narrowing my eyes at this complex boy. "You don't seem that busy. I mean you go for coffee a lot." I giggled.

He gave me a wide smile, looking up at me with his big brown doe eyes. "Trust me, I am. As of lately anyways."

I took a huge lick of my ice cream. "Mhm," I smiled.

He just shook his head like a puppy, laughing at my way of socializing.

"What?" I smiled.

"Nothing." He pursed his lips, trying to hide his grin as he looked to his feet.

Our laughs faded and I looked inside of the quiet ice cream parlor that looked like it was just closing up. There was a huge television in the corner of the room, and I watched it for a few seconds. Of course, like any other news channel lately, Spider-man was on it, swinging through the streets of New York City.

"Must be great, huh?" I said, nodding my head towards the television inside.

"Hmm? Oh yeah…" He laughed awkwardly, then turned his attention back to his ice cream, eager to finish it.

"Must be so thrilling, swinging through the streets of New York." I turned to Peter.

He continued to wolf down what was left of his ice cream, but then paused. "Do you think it was selfish, what he did?"

My brows furrowed together, "What do you mean? Save hundreds of lives? Hell no."

"No no no. I mean him taking a temporary leave of absence."

"Oh." I paused, "No, not necessarily. Frankly, he deserved a break."

"You think so?"

"Definitely. I mean look at him. He's literally saving someone at least once a day."

Peter smirked, folding his hands underneath his chin. "You seem to like Spider-man a lot."

I shook my head, eating the last bit of ice cream. "I mean I may have a shirt or two… but I just think he's a great person, putting his powers to good use. New York can hardly survive without him. I like to think he gives people hope." I exclaimed, repeating my words from a few nights ago.

His expression was somewhat shocking. He was completely frozen, mouth open, wide eyed.

"What? What did I say?"

He blinked profusely, and then avoided eye contact with me. "Nothing, I mean. Yeah, I agree with you."

"You do?"

"Yeah. But D-Do you think New York really needs him?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, clutching my jacket closer to me to protect myself from the cold autumn air. "You're a funny guy, Peter." Why was he so caught up about Spider-man? Who was the real super fan here?

He rolled his eyes jokingly. "Just answer the question."

I nodded, "Yeah I do think New York needs him. And I think New York always will. He's everyone's first and last hope in this city. He carries a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, though."

Peter sighed, "Yeah no kidding."

I smiled, not knowing what else to say.

Peter ran a hand through his messy hair.

I was just about to open my mouth, bringing up the subject of school, when the blaring sirens passing by interrupted me.

Peter jolted up, eyes following the blue and red lights down the road.

"Something wrong Parker?" I asked, slowly standing up, slinging my purse over my shoulder.

He looked to me, eyes wide, then turned back to the table He snatched his backpack up from his seat and then whipped back around to face me. "I just remembered my Aunt told me to pick up organic eggs before I got home and the organic place closes in ten minutes. I have to go."

"I'll walk with you," I offered.

He shook his head, "No no, it's too far. We should do this again sometime though!" He yelled, already running off in the other direction. "Happy Birthday!"

"Uhh… okay." I spoke to myself, throwing my hands up in the air. I sighed, then pivoted towards the street that lead to my apartment. It was a good half hour walk. Which I usually didn't mind, but it was late at night. I should have taken the car.

I dialed Sam's phone number, praying that she would answer and reluctantly pick me up, but as expected she didn't answer. I sighed and trudged along the quiet sidewalk street. It was just hitting 11:15pm. That was odd. If Peter was talking about the organic place I was thinking of, I knew it closed at 10:00pm.

Hmm.

I shook the thought off and continued to walk.

After fifteen minutes of walking, I heard a noise annunciate through one of the nearby alleys. I shivered, and started to fast walk. I needed to get home and get home fast.

There were loud, sluggish footsteps behind me. I peered over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a man, dressed in black, grungy clothes. He had a hood slung over his head and to be honest, he looked straight up sketchy. I walked even faster, trying to easy the alert feeling in my chest.

My heart started to pound. I tried to convince myself that it was nothing. That this man was not following me, until I made a random turn, and he followed. It wasn't until the next turn, which he also followed, that I glanced back nervously over my shoulder. The man continued to follow, getting closer and closer to me now.

My skin crawled as the fright in the pit of my stomach continued to rise. I scrunched my eyes shut and gulped.

I could've counted each hair that stood on my back.

The scariest part was when I started to run, and the man broke out in a simultaneous sprint.

I started sprinting as fast as I could, trying to avoid this man, but he ended up herding me down an alley. Like a wolf, and I was playing the role of the sheep.

"Get away from me!" I shrieked, but it was no use.

The man caught up to me and he grabbed me by my wrists. I tried to squeeze out of his grasp but his hands were like cuffs, holding me prisoner to him.

I screamed as loud as I could, hoping someone would hear me but I knew that these apartments were abandoned, no one in their right mind would be around here.

I kicked and thrashed at the man, trying to push him off of me. A fist was thrown to my right eye, and I felt the explosion of pain ripple through me.

When I finally writhed out of his grasp, I made a run for it, holding a hand to my swelling eye.

This man was faster than me, much faster. He grabbed me by my hair and yanked me back.

I screamed some more, but he covered my mouth with his hand. I bit into it, and he hissed in response. I had another chance to make a run for it but there was no use in trying. He grabbed me by the hair again and threw me towards a dumpster. My head hit the corner of it and I fell to the ground with a light thump.

It took a few seconds before I started to feel the warm liquid seep through my skin. I groaned in pain, feeling the fatigue take over. My vision was blurry, and everything seemed to be in slow motion.

"Get up, skank." The man clasped my wrist, trying to pull me up. I just collapsed on the floor again.

"Ahem." Someone cleared their throght. "Excuse me?" That was another voice, not his. I heard a few scuffs of the feet and I tried to look in front of me. Everything was just so blurry though… My whole world was spinning. I saw two colors in front of me. Red, and blue. "Didn't your mother ever teach you respect young ladies?"

"Get out of here, spidey." The man grumbled.

"Ha you wish! I'm your new worst nightmare." There was a series of groans and screams, and laughing from what I assumed was Spider-man, and then there was silence.

I groaned from the pain, presumptuous that everyone had left and I was just sitting here, waiting to die. There was no doubt my ribs were bruised, and if I didn't get up soon I would probably pass out from the loss of blood. I just couldn't be bothered to get up though.

The blood started to trickled down the side of my forehead, blocking my vision with red. I closed my eyes, succumbing to the oblivious state.

"No no, don't go to sleep. Stay awake, open your eyes." A felt a pair of hands lift me up, one hand underneath my shoulder, the other under my eyes. My eyes flashed open for a few seconds at the warm, spandex-y touch.

"You're okay. You're going to be okay."

I moaned in response to this man's words.

The last thing I saw before my vision clouded with darkness was the familiar face of Spider-man.