Into the Light | Peter Parker x OC

Chapter Eighteen

A/N: ngl, i forgot it was wednesday again

i can't post a gif up in the header cause i'm posting from my phone so please enjoy my well-timed pumpkin art that i drew the other day instead :)

hope you like this chapter bc it's spicy

and please, leave me lots of comments that i can use to fuel my procrastination, ty

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"And you don't care that

Peter is kissing someone else?"
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"Good morning, Peter."

"Hey Karen," Peter greeted as he swung himself onto a random roof in Queens with a grunt, "I kinda need your help today."

"What with?"

He squatted down the ledge of the roof, his masked eyes surveying the city underneath him. He frowned.

"Was anyone with a surname of Mason recently admitted to Riker's prison?" he asked. Karen paused.

"Do you think this is something that Mr. Stark should be aware of?" she asked. Peter rolled his eyes. He thought he turned off the training wheels protocol.

"Just answer the question, Karen," he said, "I'm kind of on a clock here." He still had to make it to school today and he couldn't be late or Ada would immediately know that he was going behind her back to investigate Phin.

"How recent do you want me to search?"

"Uh...I don't know...like within the past month?" he said.

"Searching the database...found.  Rick Mason was admitted to Riker's prison about three weeks ago," she said.

"Bingo," Peter said, "Karen, tell me everything in your directory about Rick Mason." He swung himself off of the ledge and began swinging in the direction of his apartment.

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Peter was almost back to his apartment when he saw something that nearly made him lose his balance mid-swing and fall face-first onto the pavement.

He quickly swung lower until he could jump onto the ground and ran towards the thing that had caught his eye. His spidey senses didn't even detect the bright yellow cab that almost hit him as he was crossing the street. He hardly even realized that he had almost been hit by a car or that the driver was yelling very angrily at him.

Because what Peter saw at the newspaper stand across the street was just that crazy.

He snatched a newspaper off the stand and held his breath as he read over the headline, the eyes of his mask big and wide.

'Spider-Man Caught In Steamy Makeout Sesh with Mystery Girl'

Oh, this was bad.

This was really, really bad.

"That's six dollars," the stand guy said before he realized that he was talking to Spider-Man and his face was right there, plastered on the front page, in the middle of kissing the "mystery girl". Peter looked up from the paper to the newspaper guy and back down to the paper. "Eight dollars if you're featured in the paper."

"Holy shit," Peter breathed. How was he ever, ever going to fix this?

"I know kid, newspaper prices scare me too," the guy muttered, "By the way, who's the brunette in the picture?"