Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019
Gwen knocked on the door of the Parker residence, and waited for Peter to answer the door. Instead, she was met by May, who smiled.
"Hi Gwen, Peter is just finishing up, he'll be out any second. Come in and sit while you wait."
Gwen nodded her head, and walked into the house. Gwen had been in the house before, but this time, she noticed a change. On the wall, a frame held a newspaper from The Daily Bugle. The cover had a clear image of Spider-Man swinging through the air, and a headline that read an off putting title.
Spider-Man: Hero or Menace?
Gwen studied the paper, along with its other headlines, one of which was the Russian truckjacking, until she noticed a familiar name at the bottom. The line read Photo Courtesy of Peter Parker, and everything clicked.
"Hey!" Peter ran down the stairs, fixing his hair with his hands. He stopped when he noticed Gwen's questioning look, which just confused him even more than he already was.
"What's this?" Gwen, still pointing at the framed photo.
"Uh, nothing."
Gwen crossed her arms, and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Fine! Just please stop giving me that look it freaks me out! I needed some money, so I started taking pictures and selling them to the bugle."
"Pictures of yourself." Gwen said like it was a matter of fact, which technically it was.
"Well yes but, well actually there's no but, so let's just stop talking about it before my Aunt hears I'm taking pictures of myself and takes it the wrong way, okay?"
Gwen chuckled, and looked over to see Aunt May walking towards them. Maybe Peter's spider-sense worked better than she thought.
"What are you guys up to?"
"I was just looking at the newspaper. It's cool that Spider-Man let you take his picture, isn't it May?" Gwen turned to Peter and gave him a knowing look, and smiled.
"Yep, totally." Peter grabbed Gwen's hand quickly and started walking towards the door, trying to leave before May picked up on what Gwen was saying. "Look at the time, we have to get to the parade, bye May!" Peter grabbed his camera on the way out, and Gwen waved, before the door began to close.
"Oh, okay, be safe!" The door closed, and May stood there for a second, staring at the door. A thought popped into her head relating to her nephew, but she ignored it. It was too hard to process, and the thought of him being the guy in the newspaper? She was going to try and forget it.
...
Times Square was completely filled up. It was hard to get around, and Peter and Gwen found out the hard way. Harry and Liz were at the center near the stairs, and the couple were on the complete other side. It took some pushing and shoving, but the two eventually got there, and met up with the other two. Harry and Liz had been dating since the night of the fight at Coney Island, where the Vulture was finally taken down. Peter still found it weird that the two were dating, especially since Liz used to be with Flash, but all that mattered was that they were happy.
The two girls went ahead to the food stands, waiting for the parade to start, as Peter talked to his friend.
"So, how's your dad?" Peter held a bottle of water in his hands and tossed it between the two.
"Not good Pete, he's really stressed. Haven't seen him like this in a while. This might actually be the worst I've seen him."
"Do you know why?" Peter asked, genuinely concerned for the man.
