Lana Condor as Riley Condor

***

"I'm Mayra," she replied shaking the brunette's hair and giving a small smile to Riley.

"You're the one who was stuck in the explosion right? With that guy?" Riley eagerly asked, concern tracing her face as she glanced at the scars on Mayra's face. MJ nudged her ribs, her amber eyes giving a warning glare.

The freshly changed bandages on her arms and legs had been obscured by her maroon sweater and blue jeans. But the burns on her cheekbones were minor, requiring little to no attention, however leaving scars that were on their journey of a speedy recovery.

The question took Mayra by surprise, she didn't know she'd made headlines three days ago. But then again, how could she? She was unconscious for two days, slept the entirety of the third day, and ate every three hours.

"Uh, yeah...how do you know that?" Mayra asked, brushing down the stray strands of her hair. MJ fished out her phone from her green coat pocket, browsed for a moment, and flashed the screen in front of her eyes. The blog detailing the experiences of survivors and the names of the ones who were stuck in the explosion.

Mayra's eyes darted across the article that was filled with praises for Spider-Man and skeptical questions regarding Oscorp.

Mayra had known that the one to pull them out was Spider-Man but she never got that chance to thank him. "Oh," came out a small voice from Mayra.

"How are you now?" Riley asked, her obsidian eyes reflecting genuine care.

"I'm pretty great," Mayra replied, getting very uncomfortable since she was the topic of the conversation. The elevator door slid open and Mayra thanked god for this awkward interaction to be finally over. It wasn't as if she didn't like them, they seemed sweet and nice, she just didn't want to talk to anyone today.

"You healed pretty fast? Most victims are still bedridden," MJ inquired, raising her brow in question. Her caramel eyes boring deep into Mayra's soul as she walked with her outside of the apartment building.

"I-uh, yeah-yeah I did," Mayra stuttered, trying not to raise suspicions even though she, herself, didn't have an answer to MJ's question.

"You were bitten by a radioactive spider in Oscorp?" MJ interrogated further, the two girls now walking with her to the subway station. Mayra by now had assumed they were taking the same subway as her so she decided, she might as well welcome their company.

"Uh, no? Why do you ask?" It was Mayra's turn to raise her eyebrow skeptically. Her hands rubbing against the straps of her bag, and her mind trying to come up with theories of why MJ had asked the question.

"No reason," MJ shrugged, following Riley and Mayra down the stairs to the subway station. "We're from NYU, actually," Riley said out of nowhere. Trying to rapidly steer the conversation away from the topic.

"I'm majoring in biochem and MJ is majoring in Literature," she continued as her face gleamed. She wrapped her arm around MJ's neck, standing in her tiptoes and pulling her closer. MJ's body stiffened, giving her a small and shy smile making sure she walked at her pace.

"Criminology from Colombia," Mayra said, scanning her subway ticket and waiting for the two girls as they did theirs.

"My boyfriend goes there," MJ stated, taking Mayra aback because she had detected some hardcore sexual tension between her and Riley.

"Peter Parker, you may know him, or may not, he's an idiot and is also running late. Should've been here by now," MJ said, stealing a look at her vintage watch, a sigh leaving from her light-tinted lips. The three girls waited for the subway to arrive, striking up small conversations from time to time. One question still roamed the hallways of her mind palace, revisiting different theories that would justify the question.

"You were bitten by a radioactive spider in Oscorp?"

"Hey guys!" a guy yelled, shaking Mayra out of her thoughts. And into her view came a brown mop of curls, bouncing wildly in all directions as the guy dashed and dodged various people on the station. The voice was familiar, so fucking familiar that it physically pained Mayra for not being able to recognize it.

"You're late," Riley said as she watched the guy come to a stop before them. He slightly panted and bent down to tie his shoelaces. His brown curls were a mess, the bags under his eyes were evident and his blue faded jeans were half cuffed. His grey bag pack was open, assignment, papers sprawling out of it. MJ walked over, zipped up his bag back brushed her fingers through his curls, all while Mayra realizing she'd already had an encounter with the cute brunet standing in front of her. Maybe that's why she recognized the voice. But it still wasn't very convincing, she was fixated over the fact that she had heard it somewhere else.

"I know you, don't I? You were the guy who asked me where 22B was a few days back," Mayra recalled. Peter Parker locked his eyes with her, finally taking notice of her presence.

"Uh-yeah, yeah, I'm Peter. Peter Parker," he replied sheepishly while MJ and Riley stood there, dumbfounded at Peter's antics and glaring at him in disappointment.

"Mayra Knott."

"Why'd you ask our apartment number? You already know where we live," MJ retorted, her eyebrows twisting into a frown while both Riley and she exchanged weird looks. The realization of MJ and Riley living right above Mayra's apartment hit her. Somewhere, at the back of Mayra's head, something itched, a puzzle piece urging her to place it with the others. But she was exhausted, nauseated, and didn't want to do any puzzle-solving.

"I-uh, I kinda forgot," Peter responded sheepishly as he tugged at the strings o his black hoody. Mayra snorted, a small smile danced across her lips as she shook her head lightly, "You forgot where your girlfriend lives?"

"Shut up," he grumbled as the subway arrived. The squad got in, standing among the crowd of other tired New Yorkers. Their hands latching onto the poles as the train moved through tunnels.

Random conversations kept coming up. Talks about assignments, talk about friends, talks about some dickhead called Flash, talks about Oscorp, and talks about Spider-Man. The last two heavily involved Mayra, her head feeling already dizzy as she shared random snippets of her death trip to Oscorp. Peter, however, even though he was present at Oscorp seemed hesitant to recount his experience, saying he'd rather forget all the screaming people and swayed away from the topic.

"So you uh like the spider guy?" Peter asked, a somewhat proud look shrouding his face. MJ rolled her hazel eyes, resting her forehead against the cold pole.

"No, I fucking hate him with all my soul," Mayra replied sarcastically. And immediately the proud face was traded with an offended one. MJ snickered, her head still rested on the pole while Riley's dusky eyes went wide, also missing Mayra's sarcasm.

"Um, why?" Peter asked, his voice was laced with displeasure and annoyance. Mayra wondered why it mattered to him so much, his talks about Spider-Man were stuffed with passion, and even during the past thirty minutes, Spider-Man had to be brought up at least once in every conversation. Maybe he was just infatuated.

"He broke my damn window!" Mayra said distaste screamed through her words as she observed Peter's face. "He fixed it too," Peter whispered. And Mayra had heard it, her eyes widened at his statement.

"How'd you know that?" She asked, her raven eyes boring into his honey brown ones.

"I, um, I know Spider-Man, he's a friend from work, so yeah," Peter said. He was a stuttering mess. Riley avoided eye contact and MJ lightly banged her forehead against the pole, a sigh leaving from her lips.

"Oh, that explains a lot. Is that why you were hanging around my apartment, Spider-Man sent you?"

"Uh yeah."

"That's better than you forgetting your girlfriend's place," Mayra's lips curved into a smirk. Peter shook his head, the tip of his ears tinting pink in embarrassment.

"Tell him thanks. For saving my fucking life, and for fixing my windows, and for yeah...everything." Peter looked up at her, giving her a gentle smile, his features softening as he nodded.

The chatters quietened down as MJ and Riley got off their stop. Peter had his earphones plugged in, pen held in between his fingers as he completed an assignment. Mayra's back turned to him as she supported the quantum physics papers with the hard surface of her bag. Scrolling endlessly through Instagram, texting her three friends who lived on campus, and listening to Harry Styles until their stop arrived.

Peter and Mayra parted ways, jogging off to their separate departments. But both had taken an unspoken oath to always take the subway together.

***

Mayra sat on the soft bed of green grass, her notes laid out in front of her, pen held between her fingertips, as she racked her head for an answer to her homework question. The golden rays of sun filtered through the autumn leaves of the trees, the cold wind blowing through her loose locks of hair. The sounds of traffic colliding with the commotion of people resting in Morningside Park. The smell of freshly baked bread, roamed the park, eliciting a grumble from Mayra's stomach.

Beside her, sat her friends- Eddie, Crystal, and Ethan. Their lunches spread out in front of them, sharing sandwiches, fruits, and orange juice. Eddie sat under the shade of the tree, munching on his strawberries while telling about some girl who he was smitten by. His brown hair, ruffling under the blows of the breezy wind. His forehead was scarred red from the burn, but his healing was also exponential.

Ethan complained about the guy who ghosted him, his hands flying everywhere to express his disappointment and anger, his newly manicured nails, glistened as the light fell on them.

Crystal talked about her new play, making certain improvements in her script, nibbling the pencil's end. Her mind was also half invested in the conversations while her coffee eyes darted around the park to get inspiration. Her cornrows were tucked back into a ponytail, keeping the hair out of her face and letting her skin bask under the sun.

"Saw you step out with some cute guy today, Mayra," smirked Crystal. Mayra rolled dark eyes, she rolled them hard and let a disgruntled sigh fall from her chapped lips. She tucked her papers in her bag and picked the cold orange juice that sat in front of her, untouched.

"Fuck you, Crystal, were you stalking me?" Mayra asked, taking a sip from her juice and letting it refresh her exhausted brain.

"I have eyes everywhere bitch," Crystal let out an evil laugh.

"You have a boyfriend, and you decided not to tell us?! What the fuck bitch? I need to know who he is," Ethan whined, his shimmering blue eyes expressing disbelief.

"Exactly bro, I need to meet him, run an assessment," Eddie said with a smirk. Mayra let out a tired sigh, not wanting to explain, but she did anyway.

"Ok, first of all, you fuckers, his name's Peter Parker, second, he isn't my boyfriend, third, Ed even if I ever got a boyfriend, you're not my dad to run an assessment, alright?" Mayra said, in between the sips of her orange juice.

"Whatcha doing, hanging around with a cute guy?" Crystal asked, raising her perfectly shaped eyebrow. Mayra explained the morning incident, running her fingers against smooth blades of grass.

"Oh, so he's taken," Ethan said after Mayra finished, his joyful expression now replaced by a distasteful one. "You're sad for me or yourself?" Mayra questioned, a playful smile forming on her face.

"Well, mostly me, but also a little bit for you too," he replied with an apologetic smile. And Mayra, being her usual self flipped him off.

"Mayra's too busy for a guy anyway," Eddie said, shrugging off the conversation and standing up. He swung his bag across his shoulder and waited for the rest of the group. It was getting late, and since all her friends lived on campus, Mayra had to take the subway alone, which is why she preferred getting home before five.

They walked her to the subway station, making sure she got in safely, waved her bye, and were off to their dormitories. But Mayra had planned an investigation. She had to stop by Mr. Fuller's office, gather a file, and head to Buzzfeed. Her aching head would have to suck up and bear with her stubborn ass

a/n: i cannot fucking believe it took nine chapters for the two of them to finally meet.