𝐝𝐞𝐣𝐚 𝐯𝐮, peter parker

lvii. where you go, i go

chapter fifty-seven
where you go, i go

    AFTER THE COURT case, the public was split into two. It wasn't even much of an event, but the media had turned it into a spectacle. All Mr. Murdock did was speak with the opposing side, and just like he said, their charges were dropped. They were free to walk, innocent▬to continue their lives: go to high school, return to their jobs, try and live a normal life. But that normal life had been ripped away from them a long time ago. It was televised on the news, on YouTube▬on nearly every social media platform Nina could think of. There were 'experts' analysing their body language and trying to read their lips, coming up with sentences none of them had ever said▬they weren't even close. Petitions were set up online. Some were in favour of them, others were demanding that Peter was sent to jail. People held up signs outside on the street: We Believe Mysterio! And even though they weren't convicted of anything by the judge, the public had already convicted them of one thing or another. They already seemed to think they knew everything about them▬and had the right to act on it. 

    Nina was surprised when she received emails and messages on her Instagram from people asking her if she would like to be interviewed. News agencies, Youtube channels, podcasts▬some she has heard of, others she didn't know existed. All of them wanted to ask her questions not about herself, but about Peter▬or Spider-Man, as they all called him. She turned down each one. 

    Things were still on a moving momentum even afterwards. Peter and May had to move out of their apartment, for it got too dangerous from their neighbours and people trying to break in, vandalise and threw threatening things through their windows. They had moved in with Happy into his condominium all the way over in Long Island. A complex with multiple orders of security just to be able to get through the front door. Nina hadn't said anything▬how could she? It was the best choice ... but that didn't change the fact that he was no longer in Queens. It didn't change the fact that they could no longer just sit at the window table at Mr. Delmar's▬just meet up at the subway on the way to school or feel as though he was just a block away from her work. 

    If she wanted to see him, she would have to catch the train across the bridge. And then multiple cross overs towards Long Island▬face so many different people where half hated her, or loved her ... it seemed too dangerous, now. 

    Nina felt isolated from him, and she hated it because she felt so wrong to think like that. 

    They only got to see each other about once or twice a week. Peter tried to dip over to Queens when he donned his suit, but it was hard to fight crime as Spider-Man with the way the city was like now. He couldn't do anything without someone confronting him, an argument breaking out over him in the streets▬the other day, someone ran past and threw green slime onto his suit in Mysterio's name, and he still couldn't get it out. When she tried to go see him, she was always overwhelmed by the alarms that went off each time she stepped inside the door. Or the robots that swung their mechanic arms her way in greeting. Or Happy just ... being there ... all the time. He had given May his room, and Peter didn't have his own, so they both shared the lounge room. Which meant that neither of them could get even a breathe alone when she visited. 

    Something great that did happen as it neared August, was the sudden news that the whole time since they returned from London, MJ and Felicia had been seeing each other. They had both sat Nina down, like she was their own child, and explained to her in gentle detail what happened▬and perhaps they were right to, because immediately, Nina gasped and burst into a flurry of emotions. Happy, shocked, a little upset she didn't know until now, and then▬of course▬the: "I knew you two liked each other▬!" which she did (or at least, knew MJ had liked Felicia).