𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 || peter parker

𝟎𝟏. 𝐚𝐧 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

─ ❝ HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GERMANY? ❞

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[ QUEENS, NEW YORK — 2016 ]

"I'M IN THE BUSINESS OF MISERY, LET'S TAKE IT FROM THE TOP" FILLED Casey Moreno's earbuds as she stood at the deli counter, waiting for a worker to take notice to her.

There was only one worker, and she had seen him while she browsed the shelves for the items neatly written on the list her mother had given her before she left for work that morning. He'd vanished into the back room not five minutes into her shopping, likely on his phone or taking a short nap.

It wasn't like Casey entirely cared, though. Sure, she was exhausted from eight hours of classes, but the longer he took to service her, the longer she had away from her hefty pile of homework. It was a win-win situation, really.

Casey nodded along to the song playing in her earphones and rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet while she tried to find something in the shop that interested her. The clutter that was familiar in every Queens corner shop didn't quite catch her eye, but the rack of newspapers beside her certainly did.

THE SPIDER-MENACE STRIKES AGAIN! the front page of the paper read in thick black letters, perched atop a printed screen-cap of surveillance footage. It was fuzzy, but Casey could make out the figure of the viral vigilante who made himself known as Spider-Man.

In the photo, he was stopping a speeding car with his bare hands just before it T-boned a bus full of people in the middle of an intersection. Truthfully, he looked kind of silly.

The photo was almost poetic in itself, but the costume made the article title all the more understandable. He wore a botched red jacket with the sleeves cut off atop a blue long-sleeve, and matching blue sweats that were tucked into flashy red knee-high boots. His face was securely masked with both a red hood and a red mask fitted underneath a pair of goggles.

Casey hummed, starting to skim over the article absolutely berating the poor guy for the heroic act when she noticed a hand waving at her out of the corner of her eye.

The girl jumped up and tore an earbud out, finding the very irritated looking clerk standing at the register. "Is that all?" He pointed towards the basket hooked in her arm.

"Sorry, yeah." Casey set it in front of him, awkwardly waiting for him to calculate the total. Her curious gaze drifted back towards the newspaper, sifting through the lengthy piece. She raised an eyebrow at the Daily Bugle's choice of words, scoffing to herself.

"You want the paper, too?" The clerk asked, once again snapping her out of her focus.

"Nah." Casey shook her head. "Just curious. Spider-Man."

The clerk very obviously didn't want to spark a conversation with her, he just mumbled something about how freakish he was. Casey only nodded with indifference as she handed him all of the cash her mother had given her along with the note.

Once she had her change, she hauled the few bags she was given the rest of the way home. It had been a relatively nice day out. The sun was out and bright, beating down on Casey's jacketed back, but there was a breeze that laced through her black hair that sort of canceled it out.