Chapter Text
You stumbled over your heels as you made your way home from another terrible party your best friend, Madelline, had forced you to go. You loved her, you really did, but it was impossible to say no to her, everything had to be exactly the way she wanted it. After many years of friendship, you learned that it was easier to agree to everything she said and avoid a fight. Even if that meant finding yourself in situations you’d rather not be in.
Still, the fact that you had chosen to go to the party out of free will, didn’t prevent you from cursing Madelline under your breath. You hated walking home alone late at night, and you hated wearing her high heels that were too big on you. She didn’t even bother to walk with you, even though you lived together, in a little apartment off campus. You always promised yourself this would be the last time you’d follow Madelline everywhere, but then you’d keep doing it, and then you’d keep feeling stupid.
Suddenly, you heard a hard noise in one of the alleys you had just walked by, like a thump. If there was anything you knew about safety, it was to never go into an empty alley at night while on your own. It was like, number one on Things not to do to prevent yourself from getting killed 101. Against all your good judgment, you did it anyway.
You walked slowly, making sure not to make much noise. Deep into the alley, you could make out a figure lying on the floor, near a trash can. Since it was dark, you couldn’t see their appearance, but they seemed unconscious. And judging by the way they were plopped down, and the noise you had heard, it seemed as if they had fallen.
You weren’t sure where you had gotten this sense of goodwill, but you approached the body.
“Hey” you started, trying to catch their attention. “Hey, man, get up” you lightly poked at the figure with your feet.
Still no answer. You looked around, it wasn’t safe to leave someone just lying there. Especially if they were hurt.
“Hello?” you repeated, louder this time. You leaned in and, thanks to a lamppost, managed to see a bit more.
You were expecting to meet with a person with ordinary clothes and ordinary skin, but instead, all you could see was a blue and red spandex suit, and a masked face.
“Oh my god” you mumbled, backing away, realizing that you had come across the one and only Spider-Man. Of course, exactly what you had expected to happen on your ordinary Wednesday night.
And just like that, the body was on its feet with a jump, as nothing had happened, making you startle.
“I’m alright, I’m alright” the man uttered, looking around to check his surroundings. “Just dealing with giant lizard things, it’s fine”
You were speechless. You had seen Spider-Man on the news every day for a while now. He had appeared out of nowhere, uncalled, but ever since, people wondered how the city had managed to survive without him all this time. How crazy that something people didn’t think they needed was something they now counted on, every day of their lives.
He finally took real notice of you, and studied you for a moment without saying anything.
“Uh, are you alright?” he asked hesitantly, probably because you were staring at him like an idiot.
“I’m fine, I’m good” you rambled on. “I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I, uh, I heard you fall, I think”
“Oh yeah” he gestured towards the wall he had seemingly fallen from. “Got my head pretty good, huh. Thanks though”
A few seconds passed with you staring at your shoes, somewhat astonished at being in the presence of someone as famous and honorable as Spider-Man. You were about to take off, when he interrupted your thoughts.
“Let me walk you home. It’s not very safe around here”
You stared at him perplexedly, finding it hard to believe that Spider-Man, the guy who fought crime and enforced justice, had nothing better to do than walk you home.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, yeah” he waved off, starting to walk. “Lead the way”
You had to admit being accompanied by none other than Spider-Man made the lonely New York City streets feel much safer. You allowed yourself to slow down your pace and take in the breezy, nice evening.
“Rough night?” Spider-Man asked, looking at the heels you held in your hand. You had given up on trying to walk with them.
“I went to a party” you nodded. “The music was shit, the people were shit, even the drinks were shit”
“Ouch” he chuckled. “How did you end up at such a place, then?”
You made a face.
“My friend wanted to go”
“I see”
Silence fell upon you once again. You weren’t sure what to talk to Spider-Man about. Small talk about the weather? About whether he had seen any good movies lately? About the best pizza place in town?
“You're fighting gigantic lizards?” you settled on the topic of conversation. Yep. That would do.
“Yeah. Well, a lizard”
“Right. And… where has it come from?”
“I’m not sure yet” he paused. “So, your friend wanted to go to the party, but you didn’t?”
You were taken aback by the change of topic. You stared at him incredulously, wondering why Spider-Man was this determined on asking about your mundane ordinary teenager things.
Something in your expression must have given you away, because Spider-Man stared back, and laughed.
“I give good advice. I promise”
You gazed at him, well, at what you could see. You had never talked about your issues with Madelline with anyone: but the night was quiet, you still felt tipsy, and honestly, talking about something that bothered you to a complete -masked- stranger didn’t seem bad. Opening up to a stranger was, perhaps, just the thing you needed.
“No one really says no to Madelline- my friend. It’s just a given, it’s always been like that. If she wants you to do something, you do it”
“But why should you have to do things you don’t want to do?”
“True...” you whispered, playing with your fingers. Damn, was Spider-Man some type of counselor, too?
“I mean, you could try standing up to her, it’s all I’m saying. If she’s your friend, she should understand. You gotta do your own thing, enjoy it”
“Do you enjoy fighting the lizard?” you joked.
“Definitely not. But I can’t just walk up to it and say ‘Hey man, can we not do this anymore?’” you both laughed, and he playfully nudged your shoulder. “You can”
You stayed quiet, mainly because Spider-Man’s words were sinking in, and because you noticed you had already arrived to your apartment building.
“This is me” you said quietly. “Thank you for walking me, and for the, uh, advice”
“Anytime”
You lingered in the door. You didn’t know why, but you didn’t want to say goodbye to Spider-Man. Talking to him felt easy, and you were mysteriously interested in him.
“I’ll see you around” you said, feeling a little bit silly afterwards. What were the chances of running into Spider-Man again and having another friendly chit chat? Of course you weren’t going to randomly see him around.
“Goodnight, I sure hope so” he said, and even though you couldn’t see it, you heard a smile on his voice.
And just like that, he vanished, swinging effortlessly from buildings. You stared at the hollow night sky for a while, and you sighed.
You really wanted to see him again.
The next day, you were heading towards your first class, when one of your friends walked up to you.
“Hey there”
“Hi, Peter” you smiled.
“How was the party?”
You rolled your eyes, and Peter laughed, grabbing the straps of his backpack.
Peter was friends with Madelline too. So he knew how complicated dealing with her was, yet neither of you ever acknowledged it.
Your friend group consisted of you both, Madelline, and Ava. You were all quite different from each other, really. You weren’t sure how the group came to be. But making friends in college is harder, and once you had to do a project together, all four of you, and since then, it kinda stuck.
Ava constantly lived in her own world, she always wore pastel colors and liked to match her makeup with her clothes, she loved to read, especially fantasy books, and always knew what the latest release was. Peter was shy, quiet, he was a little bit awkward, too, but you liked him. He always carried his skateboard and his camera along with him, and constantly took pictures of you when you weren’t looking. You’d usually accompany him on his ‘Inspiration outings’ as he called them, where he would look for things to take pictures of, and pretty much every time, it ended up with him using you as a model. If you were being honest, Peter was probably the one you were the closest to.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t go” he grimaced.
“You didn’t miss anything, I assure you. Where were you last night, though?”
“Oh, I had to help Aunt May with uh, something” he rubbed the back of his neck, you nodded.
“Right. I have to go to class but, we’ll have lunch?” you asked, already walking away. He nodded and smiled widely. “Next time Maddie wants to go out, I’m dragging you with me, no excuses” you glared at him, and he laughed, shaking his head.