Work Text:
is it illegal to be this cute????
You texted your friend on the way home from school, hiding your face in your phone while sitting on the subway. Only a few steps away from you, a beautiful boy in a blue sweater grasped onto the pole as he listened to music. He stepped onto the train a few stops ago and now, you couldn’t stop staring.
istg im sweating n dying from the close proximity of his presence
hes not even that close
is htis normal?????
Slowly peeking up, you stole another glance at the boy. His attention drifted to his phone while your eyes danced over his sharp jawline and strong features, which contradicted against his overall sweet face.
Saying he was beautiful was an understatement. You were so drawn to him, like a moth to a flame.
Suddenly, he began to smile and laugh from whatever he was doing on his phone. Your heart burst then and there, causing you to hold your phone close to your chest in hopes it would contain the invisible chaos. Your friend texted you back:
-!!! send me a pic!!! let me see!!!
fine okay gimme a sec
Lifting your phone up a bit, you angled it enough to get a decent shot of the boy, but not too high to make it obvious. You attempted to take the picture as if you were taking a selfie. Although a bit difficult since the train rattled casually, you successfully took the photo and even had extra shots to send to your friend.
-okay he pretty cute
-u should say smth!!!
?? what would i say “hi i think ur cute lets go out sometime”??
-yea??? thats how meeting ppl works??
As you texted your friend back, the person sitting beside you stood up, ready to leave the train. Without moving your head, your eyes darted to the empty seat. Then, you glimpsed at the boy, who seemed to be making his way towards you. Your phone practically fell out of your hands when you replied:
omg the seat next to me is empty i think hes going to sitdown
-make ur movE OR ELSE U WILL NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN
-DONT BE A PUSSY!!
You tried your hardest to pretend you were preoccupied with your phone, but all you could do was wait for the handsome stranger to sit down. Without looking up, you heard the boy ask the lady standing in front of you if she would like to have the seat, but she politely declined. The pounding in your ears was too difficult to ignore, but you still tried your best to drown it out. It felt like forever before he sat down next to you.
You weren’t even sure which app you were scrolling on at this point and you really couldn’t care less either. All you could think about was your friend’s text.
Make your move. Make your move. Make your move or else-
“Hi.”
You froze, unsure if you heard a voice. You glanced around before your sight landed on the attractive figure next to you. The spotlight was all on you, with his earphones off and a smile plastered across his face as wide as a football field. Was he actually talking to you?
“Hi.”
Your eyes fluttered as fast as your heart in an attempt to look into his sparkling, brown eyes.
He leaned a little closer to you. If you weren’t sweating already, you definitely were sweating now. Did you remember to wear antiperspirant today? You clenched your hands in a fist, with your phone still in hand, fighting against the urge to check.
“Can I ask you something?” he whispered. Of course he had a sweet voice to match his face. You nodded.
“Do I have something on my face?”
Tilting your head in confusion, you shook your head in response. “No, I don’t see anything.”
The boy sighed a relief, relaxing into his seat a bit. “Phew, that’s good. Just wanted to make sure I look good for my picture.”
“Hm?”
The mysterious boy gestured towards your phone. He came in closer to whisper again—
“Rule #1 of the Selfie Rulebook: you should always try different angles to get the lighting right. You kinda just stuck your phone out in one direction and that was it.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. He knew.
“Well, what if I’m confident in my selfie angling? Maybe this is my best side.” You held your phone out, mocking yourself from moments earlier. You were already caught, may as well die with the lie as long as you can.
He chuckled.
It really was illegal to be this cute.
“Then I can’t really argue with you. Please take my most humble apologies, oh, Selfie Master.” The boy placed a hand on his chest, dipping his head as if bowing.
Almost instantaneously, defeat took over your body. You placed your palms against your face, covering yourself in shame. Maybe if you held still long enough, the embarrassment would fade and the cute boy would forget what happened.
“Was I that obvious?” you groaned behind your palms.
“Only to me.”
You peeked through the slit of your fingers to find him still smiling at you.
“Why’d you take photos of me? Art project on collecting photographs of beautiful things? I had to do that once.”
You wondered what (or who) he took photographs of for his art project. If this conversation didn’t end in flames, maybe you could ask him. Your hands drooped down, resting upon your thighs.
“To be honest,” you closed your eyes and inhaled deeply, ready to confess. “My friend was curious about this cute guy I noticed on the subway. I needed proof to validate my taste in men.”
After a moment to exhale, with your eyes still closed, you heard him reply:
“Well, let me say that your taste in men is impeccable.”
Opening your eyes, despite the warmth that radiated from your cheeks, you smiled shyly. Taking a chance, you introduced yourself and held your hand out.
“I’m Peter,” he took your hand in his and shook it. Both of you lingered on the shake longer than expected, causing you two to giggle.
“Which school do you go to?” you asked.
“Midtown Tech. You?”
“Same!”
“Really?” Peter wrinkled his eyebrows. “I haven’t seen you around before.”
“Just transferred,” you shrugged in response.
“Well, if you ever need help with anything, I’m always happy to help. Well, not anything, but, I mean,” he scrunched his nose while rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m always here. To help. With things. Most things.”
Laughter filled the air between you two. You opened your mouth, but stopped in your tracks when you noticed your stop was coming up soon. Just because you two went to the same school, it didn’t mean that you would ever bump into each other, especially in the sea of a few thousand other kids. It was now or never to make your move.
“I’d love to stay and chat, but my stop’s coming up soon. I don’t normally do this, but do you want to exchange numbers and maybe meet up for coffee or something?” The words spilled so quickly from you, you weren’t sure if Peter caught everything. He stared blankly at you for a moment and you almost repeated yourself when he said—
“Definitely.”
In a hurry, you practically dropped your phone into his hand. His fingers breezed over your phone as he typed in his info before handing it back to you. You were about to text him to ensure it was the correct number, but you saw that he already did so. The name Peter Parker was at the top of the conversation and a “Hi!” stared back at you.
“Got your text,” Peter held up his phone as confirmation. Unwillingly, you stood up, beaming down at him, and adjusted your backpack over your shoulder.
“Where do you have to get off?”
“Actually,” Startling you, he stood up too. “My stop passed already.”
With your mouth agape, you shook your head. “Wait, what? Why didn’t you-”
“I wanted to find out the name of the pretty girl who was taking my picture,” He mirrored you, adjusting the strap of his backpack over his shoulder as well. “but I’m glad I got more than I bargained for.”
Your mind couldn’t compute what Peter was saying; all you could do was blink incoherently. The train slowed down as you walked towards the doors with Peter trailing behind you. Both of you stepped off towards an empty side of the station near a rusty pillar.
“Well, I have to get to the other side,” Peter gestured towards the platform across from you. Still in awe, you smacked your lips together and nodded. “It was really nice meeting you. Hopefully, we can see each other soon. Get home safe.”
His cheeks puffed from his emerging soft smile. You died a little on the inside.
“You too, Peter. I’ll see you around.”
You rushed away down the stairs, bolting away from what felt like a dream. At the edge of the entrance of the station, you paused abruptly to check your phone.
-??? WHAT HAPPENED TELL Me
-dont leave me hanging like this!!!
According to the timestamps of the texts between you and your friend, the whole interaction with Peter lasted a mere ten minutes. You chuckled in disbelief as you answered your friend:
i have the number for one (1) peter parker!!
he goes to midtown too!!!
and he thinks i’m Pretty
-!!!!!!!!
-im so proud of u!!!!!!
In the middle of replying, you had a notification of a text from none other than Peter.
*Hi! Long time no talk.
*I don’t want to come off as impatient or weird, but is it too early to text you? Should I wait?
*(If so, we can pretend these texts never happened in the first place…)
He wasn’t even there anymore, but your cheeks tingled once again. With a grin, you said:
(((you can text me only if we pretend i didnt take pictures of you on the train)))
You placed your phone back into your pocket and walked home, still revelling in all the events that just occurred. Coming up to your house, you opened up Peter’s response—
*Deal :)