Chapter Text
“Alright, I’m heading out. I’ll call you later when I get there!”
You look up from your laptop screen, to see Ned heading out the door. He grips his suitcase in one hand by his side. He told you yesterday about his plans with some of his friends from class to visit Boston for the weekend.
“Oh,” you respond, “Ok, I’ll just, you know, be here!”
You laugh to yourself in self pity, mostly about the fact that you have absolutely no plans while he’s gone for his “boy’s trip”.
“You know you can still come with me right? The guys would be cool with it.”
You consider it for a second. It would be nice to get out of the apartment for a bit.
“No! No, don’t worry about me Ned, I have plans with Paul,” you reassure him. You’re lying, though.
Recently Paul has been getting on your last nerve. You know deep down that he isn’t quite the right person for you. He can be sweet at times, but when it comes to serious things he just doesn’t quite understand you.
Ned gives you a puzzled look. You immediately know that he can sense your lie. It’s not that you necessarily want to lie to Ned, you just don’t want him to worry.
“I thought you two were fighting? Remember, you told me that he called you… what did he say? Withholding??”
“Ned seriously. Don’t worry about me. Go have fun… doing whatever you guys do,” you offer him a soft smile.
“Alright, but seriously call me if you get lonely,” he smiles back.
“Ok, have fun!” you holler back to him as he’s struggling with his suitcase down the stairs outside of your apartment. As soon as the front door clicks shut, you immediately regret not going with him.
Ever since graduating from MIT in the spring, you’ve been left alone with too much empty time on your hands. You’ve applied for job after job.
The thing is, you’ve been accepted to a number of these positions. For some reason you can’t get yourself to commit to one. It almost feels as if you are waiting for something more.
You consider asking a few friends from MIT if they’d be interested in catching up over dinner, but ultimately end up standing up from your desk, and retreating to your room to rewatch Star Wars.
****
Hours pass as you mindlessly watch movie after movie. Before you realize it, the sun has set and the sky grew dark. You look at the time in the top corner of your screen. 10:37. You scowl with embarrassment for yourself. The concept of this being how you spend your free time in your twenties is a little disheartening.
You sit up from bed, rolling your shoulders back, before reaching for your phone. Text on your phone that writes “0 new notifications” lights up your face. You raise your eyebrows, “Wow, thanks for the reminder,” you mutter sarcastically. You force yourself out of bed and make your way out of your room and towards your desk.
“Couldn’t hurt to apply for more jobs,” you say jokingly, to yourself, obviously. You pull your desk chair out from under the desk. You lower yourself onto your seat and open up your laptop once again.
Before the link to the job application opens, you hear a loud thud against the window. You turn your head to the right. Out of the corner of your eye you see a body in a red suit.
“AHH!” You shriek. You are startled out of your chair. The window slowly opens from the other side.
“N-no, please! I’m- I’m trying to help you. You need to come with me! Now!” Spider Man says, one foot climbing over the window into your apartment.
“What!? No, I’m not doing that! I- how do I even know you’re the real Spider Man?” you question.
“We don’t have time for this! Please! I- I promised I’d keep you safe and- just please, please come on!”
I promised I’d keep you safe. What the hell does that mean? You give it some consideration before realizing the urgency of the situation Spider Man is describing to you, and eventually comply.
“Ok ok! Fine!” You follow him out the window before he wraps his arms around your waist.
“Hold on!” Before you can comprehend what he’s doing, you are launched into the air being swung forward building by building.
You tuck your face into the crook between his chin and shoulder. The warmth of his body is oddly soothing. You can’t even bear to look up without feeling sick. He must be able to sense your fear, because without telling him anything he leans towards your ear and soothingly whispers,
“Hey, don’t worry, ok? I’ve got you.” You nod into his shoulder before taking a deep breath in an attempt to reset your nervous system.
After about 5 minutes of swinging through the city on Spider-Man’s hip, as crazy as that sounds, you finally land in a location unbeknownst to you.
“Um… Spider Man? Where are we? And what on earth is happening?”
“Uhhh I- I can’t really explain it that well. It’s um, well, basically there’s thi-“
For some reason he doesn’t finish speaking. In the blink of an eye he grabs your shoulder and quickly pulls you towards him. A loud crash erupts behind you.
He takes a deep breath before grabbing you once again and dragging you down with him onto the floor. You land on top of him just as something swings above your head.
“Traps? Really frank?” he whispers to himself under his breath. You slowly climb up from the floor, and he follows. He dusts himself off before continuing,
“Sorry, uhm, anyways what I was saying was that I needed to take you somewhere safe,” he explains
“And this is the place you chose?” you ask, still stunned and trying to recover from the near death experiences you just witnessed in the past minute.
“Well it was either her or.. ok well I didn’t have any other ideas”.