Peter Parker and Meredith Stacy (A Spider Man Story)

Part 2: Peter's Photos

He has a way of walking that makes him seem perpetually in a hurry. His steps aren't long but they are rapid. Like a speed-walker without that odd twisting motion they make. Coming out of my local café, I have spotted him walking from across the streets and came to follow him. He blends in with his dark hoodie over his head but I recognize his brown hair peaking out at the front of his hood, and by the way his hands are stuffed inside the pockets of his jacket.

No one likes the alleyway. I follow Peter in and it smells strongly of stale urine as I carefully trod its length. The walls run with slime, which covers the now long forgotten graffiti brickwork. No one likes the alley, especially when it's in New York. No one used the ally except for the brave and the fool for you never know what lies in its depths. Peter walks on with a focused and curious expression. It isn't like he would ever need to be afraid in these places, but I wonder why he's here. I creepily sneak up on him, walking on my tiptoes and trying to catch up from a distance. I hide behind the huge, damn stinking bins but chuckle silently to myself as I realize what exactly I'm doing. I take out my phone to snap a photo of him, for later, I want to see the shock on his face when he see's that I spied on him without he realizing. Of course, like what always happens when I try sneakily taking secret photos of people, the noise from the phone goes off and sends a loud sound effect of a shutter. I curse at myself for not putting it on silent and look up.

He's gone. No doubt he heard the noise. I wonder if he would even appear on the image, then I hear a voice behind me and I crunch my face in shame.

"You're terrible at sneaking up on people, you know that?"

Not even surprised to hear his voice, I just look up from my crouching position and smile innocently. I decide to play dumb.

"What? What do you mean? I was just looking for a quarter. Oh, look!" I pick one up. "Found it." Standing up in front of him, he raises his eyebrow and a smirk starts to form on the corners of his mouth. But, as soon as the grin came, it is gone just as fast. "What did I tell you about coming into these places?" he voice is serious. "It's not safe."

"Yes, I kno—"

"I'm serious, Mere. There are still a lot of bad people in these places, I don't want to see you get hurt, again." I have never seen him this serious.

"Pete, calm down. It's not dangerous if you're here."

"I mean don't do it when I'm not around."

"Alright!" I take out my phone to show that I am done with this conversation. He is being way over-protective again. I press on the photo I last took and there he is, "Hey!" I say. "You're looking at the camera! How'd you know? I mean, besides the part where the noi—"

"Mere, I knew you were watching me from the beginning. I just chose to pretend not to know." He grins in that annoying, tease-y, Peter way. There, he's back to normal.

I snort and say, "Whatever." and begin to walk off. "Stupid spider sense." I mumble under my breath.

"I heard that!" I hear him shout out from behind, but when I turn he isn't there, again. And just by the time I turn back to face the front, I see the blur of a red and blue figure coming straight toward me and grabbing me before I can scream out, "No!"

And just like that, I'm in the air, holding on for my dear life onto Peter's—or should I say Spider Man's—red and blue shoulder. I hear his voice shouting "Wooo-hooo!" yeah, right. If I can say anything at all, it would be, "If I die from a heart attack, it's all on you!" but of course, I can't, since my face is buried in his chest.

Suddenly the air is still, and I take my time before lifting my head and taking a glance at where we are. Thank god I can't see the floor because we are on the roof of a building. He still has his backpack hung on his other shoulder and after I let go of him, he unzips it and takes out a camera. His camera, the same one he used to take photos for school, and now for his job. He hands the camera to me and I raise my eyebrows at him questioningly.

"You wanna take photos of me?" He grins, "Help me out, will you? A nice shot of Spider Man, mid air is due Tuesday."

"And you need me, how? I'm sure you can use the same method you do for all your other photos, you know, with the webs and... stuff."

"Too much hard work, and it's got to look different to everyone else's. This isn't just a mid air pose, it's gotta be from above, and besides, it doesn't need to be perfect. I mean, how could I be able to get the angle anyway? And all you gotta do is press the button and that's it—"

"Okay, alright, alright!" I shout, how hard can it be? I catch his mischievous smile again just before he takes me into the air again. I hold tightly onto his camera, hoping not to drop it even though I know for a fact that he can just catch it again without a problem, and I hear his voice in my ear saying, "You ready?"

I nod and he pushes me with a strength that sends me to an incredible length away from him and I'm in the air, with nothing to hold onto, and the only thing that's stopping me from freaking the heck out, is that I can see him there, knowing that if he's there, well, I wont die. I press as hard as I can onto where I think the shutter button is. The flash goes off, and then a secure body is around me again. Taking me back where I can feel the ground beneath me. I let go of him and sit on the floor. He sits with me.

"How was it?"

"That was the worst feeling I have ever felt."

"Really? Why?" he looks genuinely confused.

"The dropping part, it was like butterflies in my stomach, no, it was like killer bees in my stomach. Oh god."

"Guess it's safe to say that no one else could give you the butterflies as much as I can." He chuckles and I punch him in the arm.

"Peter? What were you doing? Back down there? It looked like you were up to something."

He nods, "Dr. Osborn."

"What about him?"

"I think he has something to do with the bombs, I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out."

"But why him?"

"There has been an accident in the security lab, did you know?"

I shake my head.

"And ever since, he's been in and out of his lab. I find him down there, sometimes, but whenever I get close he's just... gone. I think he's working with something... or someone."

My shoulders drop in shame. "And then, I show up."

"He would have disappeared like he always had, whether you showed up or not. But I need you to listen to me, stay out of there, alright?"

I've had enough of hearing these words come from my father, and now him... I can't help rolling my eyes, but I nod afterward anyway.

"So he just... bombs the place?" I ask, emphasizing my confusion with my hands flailing about.

"I guess." Peter says, deep in thought.

"Jerk!" I huff.

He unwraps my hand that is still tightly secured around his camera gently, and keeping one hand still holding mine and the other holding the camera, he shows me the results of my photography. He and I both burst into a fit of laughter. It is just a blur of the sky with a quarter of my face in the corner, screaming my lungs out.

"Err... if someone asks, just say I was on a roller coaster... A really, really intense roller coaster." I laugh.