"That should be me, holding your hand. That should be me, making you laugh. That should be me, this is so sad...  That should be me, feeling your kiss. That should be me, buying you gifts. This is so wrong, I can't go on. Till you believe, That should be me."
~Justin Bieber

3rd Person's POV

Peter turns up late at home and finds his aunt waiting up for him.

"Where were you?"

Peter closes the door, "I was out."

Aunt May watches him frowning, "Did you get the eggs?"

Peter makes a tsk sound with his tongue and goes to turn around to walk out the door. "Nope. Forgot the eggs! I'm gonna get it now."

"No, you most certainly will not! Not at this hour."

Peter freezes and looks at the door in confusion. His Aunt has rarely ever yelled or been upset with him.

"Look at me, Peter? Take off the damn hood and look at me."

Peter sighs and takes off his hood then turns to face his aunt, his face looking beat up.

"Where do you go? Who does this to you?"

"Please go to sleep, Aunt May."

"Please tell me."

Peter looks away as he tries to shoo May upstairs, "Aunt May, please, please please go to sleep!"

"I can't sleep! Don't you understand? I can't sleep!"

There's a moment of silence before she speaks up again, "Peter, listen to me. Secrets have a cost, they're not for free. Not now, not ever."

She lets out a harsh breath before disappearing upstairs. Peter frowns as he hears her door slam closed. He rubs his hands down his face and sighs then skips up the stairs to his room.

He falls down on his bed staring up at the ceiling. After a minute of silence his phone rings. Digging into his pocket, he pulls out his phone and sees a picture of Mila on the front.

"Hello?"

"Hey Pete..."

"Hey... what's up Mila?"

He frowns as he hears her take a deep breath then sigh.

"Peter are you okay? Aunt May is worried about you..."

"Mila..."

"Pete I'm worried about you... You don't talk at school anymore. You're never home. What's going on Peter? You can tell me."

Peter sighs. Could he tell her? Sure Mila was his best friend but this... this was something dangerous. He was going after criminals. He was wanted by the police. If anyone knew Spider-Man was him... it would be game over. She had already been seen talking to Spiderman... that alone put her in danger. And how would he explain to her how he suddenly had powers. She would never believe him. She would think he was crazy.

"Rory I promise you I'm okay. I just needed to clear my head. See a different scenery."

The line is silent for a moment before Mila speaks again.

"Alright... Do you want to get lunch with me tomorrow?"

"What's tomorrow Tuesday?"

"Yeah..."

Peter is about to say yes until he looks over at his calendar and sees that he was supposed to go to Oscorp.

"Ahh Mila I'm so sorry. I really can't I'm-"

"No it's fine. I get it. You're busy. I understand."

Peter sits up and frowns as he hears the hurt in her voice, "Ror I'm not avoiding you... I promise."

"Mmkay. Listen it's really late Peter. I gotta go. Goodnight."

"Mila."

Peter groans throwing his head back as he hears the dial tone.

She hung up.

He tried called her back but she didn't answer which made him think that she was upset. He didn't want to hurt her feelings and he definitely didn't want her thinking that he was trying to stay away from her. He just needed to find his Uncle's killer and he needed to figure out what his dad and Doctor Conners were working on.

...

Gwen hurries to catch Peter in the school hallway. She taps his shoulder making him stop and look at her with a distracted smile.

"How's it going?"

"Where are you headed?"

Peter glances down at his watch, "Uh... Monday, B-track."

Gwen frowns, "It's Thursday."

Peter looks at her with wide eyes before looking through his notebook, "It's Thursday?"

Gwen's frown doesn't leave her face as she scans his face and sees a dark bruise, "What happened to your eye?"

"Where?" He tries to hide his face behind his notebook. He forgot he was sporting a huge black eye.

"You're eye, it looks bruised."

Mila is walking down the hall and goes to turn the corner but stops and freezes immediately as she sees Peter and Gwen. She curses inaudibly and backs up to hide from their sight. She watches Gwen raise a hand up to Peter's face and rub her thumb beside his black eye.

'When did he do that?'

Mila tried to think back to the last time she saw Peter and it's just a blur. She frowns as she thinks back to when they did hang out, then her frown deepens as she worries about how he could've gotten the black eye. There was no way that Flash did this. Honestly after Mila had went off on him and after Ben's death, Flash decided it was best to leave Peter alone.

As Mila watches Peter blush and smile she can't help but feel her heart skip a beat. He was adorable. She loved his smile, his laugh, his goofy composure... but apparently so did Gwen. Sighing, Mila shakes her head and turns the other way to go to the cafeteria, but remembers there is no other way to the cafeteria. Groaning, she hurries and turns the corner and speeds down the hallway passing the two, acting like she was busily on her phone.

Peter frowns as he watches Mila speed by. She had been on her phone but the two hadn't talked to each other in a while and he missed her.

"Peter!"

Peter shakes his head, looking away from Mila's retreating body to see Gwen looking at him worried, "Oh! Yeah, yeah! I don't know. Maybe I got a rash."

Gwen chuckles, "A rash? It's pretty bad. Have you gone to the nurse?"

"Mmhmm." He replies distracted as he still thinks about how to talk to Mila once again.

Gwen drops her hand from his face and wrings them together in front of her. She bites her lip in nervousness before opening her mouth.

"Do you like branzino?"

Peter looks at her blankly as his mind goes blank.

Gwen smiles lightly, "Like the fish?"

Peter nods quickly, "Mmhmm. No, I know. I know."

Gwen shrugs with a small smile while looking at the ground, "Well, if you want, you can come to this address at uh... at eight o'clock Sunday night."

She writes the address on a piece of paper and gives it to Peter.

"My mom's making Branzino, so."

Peter looks at the address in awe. He never thought a girl would ask him to come over for dinner. He never thought Gwen Stacy would ask him to come over for dinner.

"Oh, it's apartment twenty sixteen. I didn't... I didn't write that part down. I don't why I didn't."

She turns to walk away as she laughs awkwardly.

Peter nods smiling back, "I'll remember it."

"Twenty sixteen." Gwen repeats once more before she walks off to her class.

Peter watches her walk away before staring at the paper and fist pumping the air in victory.

"Branzino?"

...

"I just don't get it... what does he see in her and not me... not that's she's not great!! I love her... well obviously-"

Blair holds her hand over Mila's mouth, "Mila shut up."

Cora laughs as she watches Mila swat Blair's hand from her face. The two hold smiles as they playfully shove each other.

"Don't take this the wrong way Mila...."

Mila looks across the table at Cora with a frown. Oh geez what was she going to say.

"But as much as we love Peter... he's not... he's just... he-"

"He's a huge geek."

Cora glares at the blunt spoken Blair as she bites into her red apple. Blair grins letting out a slight chuckle as she chomps down the apple piece.

Mila smirks lightly glancing over at Blair then looks back at Cora. She shrugs and picks up her fork then starts to poke through her salad.

"Yeah I know this... why is that a problem?"

"Not a problem honey. Just a slight down side for you."

Mila furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "Why?"

Cora grimaces and looks over at Blair who seemed to be laughing at the uncomfortable look that she had been showing. She mouths the word 'help' to Blair who just shakes her head and continues to eat her apple. Cora frowns and groans lowly mouthing it again, but this time adding on the word please.

Blair rolls her eyes with a grin and pops an elbow up onto the table. Mila watches her friends weird exchange but chooses to keep quiet.

"Alright babe... you, Mila Rory Stacy, are what?"

Mila raises an eyebrow with a confused look, "Um I don't... am I supposed to say black?"

Cora chokes on her lemonade as she hears Mila. Blair laughs and pats Mila's arm.

"Mila! No! Damn you're hilarious sometimes... When we talk about cliques in high school, you Mila Rory are?..."

Mila makes an oh face while hitting her head playful, "Oh I'm dumb wow. Okay so I would probably be in the popular clique."

Cora scoffs, "Probably? You're cheer captain, you're a part time model, and you're in the theater-"

Blair nods, "You have had the lead role in the past two plays."

Mila shrugs slightly, "You're right but what does that have to do with Peter?"

Blair looks over at Cora who makes a go ahead sign, making them both look at Mila. They hold their hands together in front of them and take a deep breath in.

"You're popular. Peter's a nerd. We do love him don't get us wrong. He's cute and adorable..." Cora smiles.

Blair adds, "And he's funny. Whether he tries to be or not. Like when he tripped over Flash's book bag and spilled all his lunch over Harley! That was the best!"

Mila frowns, "Not for him... Flash gave him a black eye."

Cora swats Blair's arm, making her pause.

"Okay what we are trying to say is that Peter's a geek when it comes to cliques and Gwen is a somewhat nerd."

"Gwen's popular..."

Blair holds up her apple core staring at it intensely, "Yeah but she's a pretty blonde. Who's gonna make fun of her?"

Cora nods, "Exactly. Gwen is the class President and the Valedictorian. She's definitely a nerd but she's a gorgeous nerd. Which is right up Peter's alley."

Mila nods slowly as she starts to understand, "So you're saying because Gwen is a super smart nerd and Peter is too they are more compatible. So because that's what he's comfortable with... he's more likely to go after her than me."

Blair chucks her apple core into the air and watches as it flies through the cafeteria into the trash can.

"Bingo."

...

Mila walks through her front door and quickly goes to jog up the stairs until a voice stops her.

"Hey honey how was school?"

Mila freezes and turns around to see Helen Stacy sitting by the fireplace drinking a cup of what looked like to be tea. Mila sighs and walks over to her then sits on the chair arm.

"It was school. Same old same old."

Helen frowns and rubs Mila's back, "You okay honey?"

Mila shrugs holding her necklace, "I don't know."

"You know you can talk to me about anything and everything. I'm here for you. What's got you all gloomy looking?"

Mila chuckles before looking down at her hands as she wrings them together, "I j-just... I'm tired of being known for just my looks. I just... I mean I have depth. I don't show it all the time... but I do. I'm not just a pretty dumb popular girl."

Helen sits up straight and puts down her mug before holding both of Mila's hands, "Mila honey you are a bright girl. Anyone can see that. I don't know where this is coming from but honey, you can known for beauty and brains. But that's up to you. I remember when I was in high school... I thought being known and being popular was the most important thing. That was until graduation and I realized... nobody cares. After you graduate that all ends. The cliques... the popularity... it doesn't exist anymore. You're more than just a pretty girl, Mila. You know that. Maybe it's time to start showing everybody else who you really are."

Mila nods slowly and kisses Helen's cheek, "Thanks mom."

Helen nods and watches Mila run up the stairs. Mila quickly makes it to her room and throws her bag on her bed. She hurries over to her desk and looks through all the papers she had organized.

Finally picking up the one envelope she had hidden away, she takes her letter opener and opens it. Sighing, she reads through the letter and smiles lightly.

'To Miss Mila Stacy,

You have been accepted into the Oscorp internship... and we hope to work with you in the future.'

😭 𝑆𝑜 𝑃𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑎 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛'𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑎𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡?

𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝑖𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟?

𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑟?

𝐴𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜?