not yours ━━P. PARKER

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ

"ᴡʜᴏ sᴀɪᴅ ᴍᴀʏ ʜᴀs ᴛᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡ?"

"Peter?! Are you listening to me?" Aunt May asked, snapping her fingers.
I looked up from my plate. "Huh? What, oh, yeah!"
"What did I just say?"
"You said that you, um..." I stuttered. May glared at me. "I'm really sorry, I'm just a little distracted."
"Is it school?"
"Uh... Yeah." I felt bad for lying, but how could I explain what just happened? Hey Aunt May, a girl neither of us know just appeared in my room, and told me to pretend that she wasn't there! She was wearing a superhero suit, too. It had the spider logo on it that my suit did. That suit had to have been made by Mr. Stark, right? But who even was this girl? I'd never heard of a Spider-Woman anywhere... It was as if she didn't even exist!
"Uh, May? Can I just finish in my room?
"Yeah, sure."
I took my half-finished plate into my room, making sure to shut my door behind me. The girl, whose name I didn't even know, was sitting on my bed.
She pulled off her mask and stared at me.
    I handed her the plate. "I, uh, didn't know if you were hung-" I was interrupted by some sort of energy, like I sensed something.
The girl seemed to feel it too, and she quietly said, "So you have it too... I'm not the only one."
"Can you please explain what's going on?"
She sighed. "Well, to make sure we both fully understand, I'm going to need to know some details about you. You're Peter?"
I nodded. "Peter Parker."
She slowly nodded. "Right... Now, you're probably Spider-Boy or something, right?"
I just stared back at her in shock. This girl, who knows nothing other than my name, just figured out my greatest secret, which took some of the people I'm closest to months to figure out, and she just appears in my room and acts like it's obvious?
"Oh, yeah, you're probably trying to keep that a secret... Sorry. But, for me to fully understand this, I need to know... Are you some kind of superhero? Specifically... Spider-themed?" She was so calm about all this, it was annoying. What if she was some kind of villain? But she had a suit made by Mr. Stark...
I tried to remain calm, but couldn't help asking questions. "Okay, what is your deal? You just... appear out of nowhere and accuse me of being Spider-Man!"
"Huh, so it's Spider-Man here..." She observed, ignoring my question.
"Can you just... Explain what's going on?"
"Okay. Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Y/N L/N, and I'm from an alternate dimension. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for a few months now, I've been the one and only Spider-Girl. Or, so I thought. The multiverse... Complicates things."
I paused, and decided I could trust her. "Well... I have the same story as you. I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and I've been Spider-Man ever since. And... Are you saying there's a multiverse? Because that changes the way we view-"
"Yeah, I know, it's groundbreaking, revolutionary stuff, I've heard all this before. Basically, Mr. Stark-"
"You know Mr. Stark!?"
She rolled her eyes. "Not your Mr. Stark, I know my version of Mr. Stark. Keep up, man."
How can she make me feel guilty for asking a simple question?
"Anyway, Mr. Stark was doing research about the multiverse, and he discovered that with an infinite amount of space, every possible event will occur an infinite number of times. However, the speed of light prevents us from being aware of these other identical areas. But, if you can manage to travel faster than the speed of light, hypothetically you can create a 'tear' in this system and travel to alternate universes."
I nodded along, thinking over every word she was saying.
"So, using that, he created a way to travel to alternate universes. I volunteered to travel to an alternate universe and report back. So far, your universe seems to mirror my own, the only difference so far being..." She pointed between herself and me. "This."
"Okay... Considering any of this is even remotely possible, why isn't my version of Mr. Stark making multiverse portals and all that?"
"The only reason Mr. Stark did research on alternate universes was because I pushed him to. I have been pushing him for, like, months. That's the only reason I know as much about this stuff as I do."
"Okay... If you have to travel faster than the speed of light to get from universe to universe, then how are you getting back? It's not like you have one of Mr. Stark's portals here."
She held up a phone-sized device with a small screen and many switches and buttons labeled with words I couldn't even comprehend. "Did you really think I'd come here with no way of getting back?"
"I don't know! I haven't exactly traveled through the multiverse before."
"Well, neither have I! But I never would've gone if there was no way to return."
"Sorry, I never really considered it..."
She rolled her eyes again. Why didn't she like me?
"Um..." I looked up, and her hand was... Glitching? Like some kind of computer screen, or TV when it stops working.
"What the hell?" I whispered.
"Yeah, I don't think my atoms are too jazzed about being in the wrong dimension."
"What are you gonna do?!"
She hit the back of her hand and it stopped glitching. "I need to talk to your version or Mr. Stark." She started muttering to herself. "Since my body traveled using a computer, I could be glitching because I didn't organically travel at the speed of light... The portal could've left excess rays or radiation that my body has yet to expel..."
"You can talk to him on Saturday at the Avengers Tower." There was a moment of silence, and I decided to ask her about her universe. "So... Are you a superhero?"
She raised her eyebrows at me. "No, I just wear the outfit for fun."
I ignored her sarcasm, and sat on the bed beside her. "What's your life like?"
"Well... I live with my dad..." She stared off into the distance. "I go to Midtown, I'm on Academic Decathlon. And, I'm Spider-Girl. But, other than that, my life's pretty boring."
There was a moment of silence. "So... When are you going back?"
"Mr. Stark wanted me to stay for at least a week. To see the effects it would have on me, that sort of stuff."
I had an idea. She was to stay here a week? I'd like to contribute to her research. It seemed really interesting, like something my version of Mr. Stark would want to hear about. But first, I needed her to like me, because so far, our relationship was not looking good. She seemed to despise me, and I had no idea why. We were both heroes, right? I only had a week to change her opinion, and then I'd probably never see her again.
"Where are you going to stay?"
"No clue. I don't even have any clothes other than this. I could probably try to get some cash, find a motel and just accept the weird looks I'll get-"
"Or, you could stay here!"
"Uh, May doesn't even know I exist. Are you seriously going to take that risk?"
I hesitated, then looked her in the eyes. "Who said May has to know?"