"Hey, I haven't seen you since the subway incident. You okay?"

Eliza snapped her head up and looked at Peter Parker, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere to her. Which, he probably hadn't. Her mind was too busy soaking in the information from the book she had been reading, eyes scanning over every word about the medieval years. She looked at the lanky boy in slight shock, stunned at herself for not even hearing him walk over. Because of that, and her mind still processing some information, she was slow to get Peter's words through her brain. Her lips parted as she just stared at Peter. Her mind was blank of replies, still not fully knowing what Peter had said after a few seconds.

"Uh..." She blinked a few times, shaking her head. "Sorry, I didn't... What did you say?"

Peter gave a short chuckle of amusement. To him, seeing the tough and bitchy girl of the school being so frazzle amused him. "I asked if you were okay. I haven't seen you since what happened in the subway."

Wrong, I saw you get your ass beaten by my evil ancestor, she thought. Though, she kept those words to herself as her eyes widened slightly. "Oh." The realization soon vanished, replaced with an expression that wasn't exactly readable. "I'm good. Thanks for taking me to Silvia."

He gave a one shoulder shrug, "No problem."

Eliza nodded. She lowered her head to start reading again, but when Peter continued to stand there she eyed him out of the corner of her eyes. "Is there a reason, Peter Parker that you're still standing here?"

"Yeah- actually, no. Just thought I could stand by a friend."

She stilled for a split second at hearing the last word. Eliza then lifted her head and stared at Peter with a cold gaze. He frowned at seeing the look he was given as Eliza shut the book, eyes narrowing slightly. "Listen, Peter," she started, "We're not friends, okay? One single fuck and you helping me doesn't make us anything but acquaintances. You might be friends with Jax and Josh, just like I am, but that doesn't make us two friends. Got it?"

"I just thought-."

"You're a good guy, Peter," Eliza interrupted him, "And I'm sorry if I lead you on by having sex with you – it was honestly just a drunken one night stand to me. But... We're just not friends."

The look on Peter's face oddly caused Eliza to feel a bit guilt and a bad tightness in her chest. He looked fine and happy a second ago, but now with the words she said floating in the air his expression was one of sorrow. Eliza almost wanted to take her words back, and say she was joking about the friend thing – key word: almost. They weren't friends, simple as that. Someone had to tell him. So, despite the small amount of guilt filling her, Eliza plastered a small smile that said sorry onto her face. The look was filled with pity, honestly.

"Hey, this could be worse," she tried to cheer him up. "Any other guy and it would've been bitchier."

"Like you aren't bitchy enough," Peter muttered.

The words caused the small smile to fade from Eliza's lips. "Peter-."

"Quit trying to be nice, Eliza Martin," Peter was the one to interrupt this time. "It doesn't suit you. See you at work."

Before he uttered another word, and before Eliza could say anything to him, he turned around swiftly and walked off to his class. Eliza watched him for a second; a shocked looked covered her features, but those were quickly changing into a hard and angered expression. She clutched the book in her arms tighter, jaw going slack as the words from Peter went around and around in her head. As he turned a corner, she muttered to herself, "Well if that's how you want it to be, then so be it."

The hours of the school day passed by at agonizingly slow pace. Eliza nearly feel asleep in two of her classes, actually passing out in one. The rest of the ones she had, she simply read the historical book she had been caught reading my Peter. Lunch came around, where Peter avoiding Eliza and sat with Mary Jane Watson – a pretty redhead that Eliza used to get confused with Jasmine when they first met. The pair continuously glared at one another throughout the hour, something that Jaz and Josh noticed after some time. Josh was the first one to notice, questioning where Peter was. All he got in reply was a death glare from the pissed off brunette. When Jasmine asked, she got the exact same thing.

Then lunch ended, and Eliza left the moment the bell rang. She threw her trash away and made the daily venture to her job. A place she would be seeing Peter once again in a few hours. A scowl stayed on her face all the way to the Stark Industries, where it continued to stay as she went to Silvia's office. She threw her bag and books on the nearest chair and grabbed he stack on the desk her boss was sitting at. Silvia glanced up at the angry teen, watching as she went over to the second desk and started working. The woman opened her mouth to ask what was wrong, but she stopped at how pissed off Eliza was at the moment.

Minutes went by like that – Silvia keeping her mouth shut and Eliza furiously working. Eventually, though, the dark skinned woman finally spoke up.

"Are you okay, Ellie?"

"Apparently I'm not nice." Eliza said loudly, letting the pen she was using drop from her grasp and eyes snapping over to Silvia. "I'm plenty nice! I might be a bitch, but I can be nice!"

Silvia frowned in confusion. "Why is this bothering you now?"

"So I'm not nice?"

"Vixen might be..."

"I am Vixen!"

The woman sighed and leaned forward in her seat, elbow resting on her desk and hands folding together. She licked her lips before saying a word. "Yes, but this Eliza Martin we're discussing. No vigilante involved. I'll say it, Ellie: you are a bitch. I don't know why, but you're rarely nice to others you don't know well. But you're nice to your family, and the few friends you have. You can be nice. Most you are mean. What's bringing this on all of a sudden? This didn't bother you before."

Eliza shrugged and picked the pen back up, getting back to work without saying anything. She didn't want to admit that it was a boy – a stupid, lanky, attractive, smart boy that she saved from her evil ancestor but then broke him a bit when saying they weren't friends. She gritted her teeth together. Just thinking about it made her angrier even more. And Silvia was right to ask why it was suddenly bothering. It never did before. The sudden thought of possibly liking Peter Parker made Eliza's nose scrunch up. She didn't get butterflies and her heart didn't start beating rapidly when she talked to him. So, again, why does she care? Eliza thought it can't possibly be because she actually cares for him in a friend way. She just can't. It's not possible. Is it?

The college student grumbled incoherent words under her breath to herself, causing Silvia to look questionably at the young girl. Silvia then shook her head and started to get back to work herself. She could see the girl was still too angry for her to get a coherent answer. So, she waited a short while longer until Eliza visibly relaxed. When her shoulders weren't so tense and her knuckles weren't so white from holding the pen with a tight grip, Silvia knew the girl had calmed down some.

"Care to tell me now?" Silvia asked softly.

Eliza bit her bottom lip, her hand stilling from writing. "It's embarrassing," she muttered back.

The woman chuckled. "It can't be that embarrassing, Ellie."

She lifted her gaze to her boss and friend slowly. She was still angry, but more embarrassed now that some boy caused her to get so pissed off. "I'd like to beg a differ."

Silvia raised an eyebrow. The corners of her lips turned upwards into a teasing smile, a knowing glint in her eyes. "It involves a boy, doesn't it?"

"How about we rewind back to when we first met where you were never questioning my personal life." Eliza suggested at hearing Silvia had guessed correctly. A hopeful smile formed on her lips, head nodding once, and then she went back to her work.

"I started questioning your personal life because you wouldn't let Pepper do it. You need a mother figure, Eliza, and I will gladly be that. Just don't push me away."

Eliza paused her movements once again. She knew Silvia was right – she needed an older woman to give her guidance; a mother figure considering her own mother was dead. The young brunette barely gave Pepper Potts the light of day when involving her personal life. All the redhead knew about the female twin was that she had a lot of Tony's personality, a bit stuck up in some regards, and closed off. Pepper knew absolutely nothing other than those things about Eliza. Which, honestly, made Eliza feel a bit guilty. Pepper was Tony's girlfriend after all.

"We've gotten...closer," Eliza shrugged, slowly lifting her gaze back to Silvia and tapping her pen on the files in front of her. What she said wasn't a lie, thankfully. She and Pepper talked more now, but not as much as Tony, or even Silvia, would like.

"I know," Silvia sighed. "So, just answer me this: does your anger problem right now involve a boy?"

"Well, it doesn't involve a girl," she said, "Thank God, because drama with them are the worst. I mean, back in high school was terrible. One fuck in and they think you're suddenly dating."

"Now- wait, what?"

Eliza's eyes widened a bit. She licked her lips as she thought of something to say. "Um, well, you see..."

"Are you trying to change the topic on me, or was that just rambling?" Silvia questioned, honestly confused.

"Rambling."

"So, you've dated girls?"

"No."

"Then..."

"There's a thing called one night stands – you know, those things-."

Silvia rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Kid, just...stop talking before you tell me something private, 'kay? I don't care if you're bi. Just... Get back to the boy who angered you, yeah?"

Eliza shut her mouth and slowly nodded. But minutes went by once again, and Eliza continued to refuse to tell Silvia exactly who and what was said that made her so pissed off. The woman got one answer, and that was all she was going to get from Eliza for a while. Eventually, Silvia gave up and the two went back to work. Eliza stayed at there for the next few hours, simply working on both school work and work-work, not exactly wanting to go home to an empty house. (Well, Pepper was there, so she wasn't exactly alone). At one point in time, Eliza left to go get a snack – only to run into the boy who pissed her off. Also known as the boy who she pissed off.

They stood in the small kitchen as they both searched for food in a tense and awkward silence between them. No words were spoken, but anyone who walked in could easily sense the tension – not the sexual kind, either. The one where you could just tell two people were mad at one another, and no one could really say or do anything about it without someone snapping. And other than that incident, Eliza's work hours were boring and tiresome. It wasn't until eight when she got home, took a shower, and went to bed without a care in the world.

+++

The air was chilly. Every time the evil sorceress exhaled, she saw her breath float around in the air in front of her. A wicked grin morphed onto her lips. Her knees bent down as she eyed he handsome college student, his blue eyes showing fear despite his features remaining hard with anger. Sweat lined his brows and forehead despite the cold. His nose was snarled up in disgust at seeing the evil woman in front of him; rather, crouched over him. The woman suddenly clasped a hand around his throat, the grin getting more and more wicked by the second. The action caused the student to move his hands from his wounded side and up to her wrist, trying to pull her hand away.

"I told you," she said slowly to him, "that you wouldn't stand the slightest chance against me, boy."

He reacted by spitting in her face, the saliva mixed with blood. She closed her eyes yet stayed completely still. She then wiped the spit from her face with her other hand as he started to speak, hoarse from the hand at his throat. "I might not. But Vixen will. She'll kill you."

A laugh escaped her lips then. One that told the boy she didn't find the vigilante scary. "I think I'll kill her. Just like I'll kill you – and your sister. Can't forget about precious Jazzy, now can we?"

"Don't touch her!"

"I regret to inform you, Joseph Meyers that you have utterly failed. Have fun in the afterlife, darling."

And with that, the evil witch removed her hand from grabbed the dagger at her hip. She lifted her arm and within a split second, the dagger was in Josh's side—.

Eliza snapped her eyes open, instantly sitting up and tumbling out of bed from the dream – no, nightmare – she had just had. Her breathing was heavy, sweat beads on her forehead. She pushed herself on her knees and fumbled around for her phone. Eliza had no idea what the nightmare was about, but she didn't have a good feeling about it. So, once her fingers were wrapping about the cellular device, she didn't hesitate to dial the number that belonged to one of her friends. It ringed. And ringed. And ringed. Up until that stupid voice said to leave a message at the beep.

So she called again, trying to level her breathing and not freak out. She couldn't get the image of Josh being cornered by her ancestor out of her mind. The scene kept repeating over and over again. She shook her head to try and get rid of the images. Eliza muttered under her breath for her friend to pick up. She wanted Josh to be okay. She wanted him to be alive and breathing. She cursed multiple times as the call went to voicemail again. So, in return, she tried the number again. This time, though, after a few short rings, a groggy, tired and pissed of male answered the phone.

"What the fuck do you want, Eliza?"

Eliza let a large smile take over her features as a wave of relief washed over her. "Nothing, sorry. I just- I just wanted to say sorry for being a bitch at lunch," she lied. Her breath was uneven still, but she didn't care.

"I don't really care? You were pissed off, what was I to expect, Ellie? Fucking hell, you're so weird! It's like, three in the morning, dingbat."

"Sorry, Josh, I'll go. Um, see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, unless I get murdered or something." At not getting a reply, Josh slowly said, "Dude, I'm joking. Go to bed. Or go get drunk. Who knows you do at night?"

Eliza let out a short laugh, "Ha, yeah... Bye, Meyers."

"Bye, Martin."

Eliza let out a breath of relief after Joshua hung up the phone. She leaned against her bed, pulling her knees up to her chest and throwing her phone onto the ground beside her. She didn't care how early it was. All she cared about was that her friend was okay.

Joshua Meyers was alive.

--------

[unedited

Wow this is shocking, I'm updating this two days in a row?? Wowza.

So you got to see the "softer" side of Eliza in this chapter, and the caring side of her as well. And Petza is back to the beginning where they didn't talk, but now they are both pissed at one another rather than just not knowing who the other was. You guys actually learn a few things in this chapter – i.e. El's sexuality and relationship with Pepper.

Thanks for reading!! ((there's 1k reads??? Amazing!))]