NWH spoilers. Enjoy! (This was meant to be for the start of summer but hahaha um)
The buzzing of his phone woke him up - not an alarm, but his friend Harry reminding him of the coffee meet-up. Peter sent a quick reply promising that he hadn't forgotten, then rolled out of bed to make sure he didn't go back to sleep. The floor was a lot less comfy than his bed.
Peter had never been more thankful for his smarts than when he'd gotten accepted into NYU with a full-ride scholarship, accommodation included. The student rooms were small but Peter was grateful anyway. University had been the fresh start he desperately needed, and it felt like he'd just continued his life instead of having to build a new one up from the ground as he'd feared. Lots of people left school and changed almost completely when they went to uni and met a whole new set of friends, and a new style of living.
His phone buzzed again, this time with a call. Peter peeled himself off the floor and started making coffee as he answered. "I swear I am out of bed."
"I believe you. I don't believe you have been for more than thirty seconds though," Harry teased over the speakers. They'd only been friends for a couple of months but Harry knew Peter's habits well. He didn't know why Peter stayed up so late to require such long lie-ins, though. That was a part of his life best kept a secret.
Peter had met Gwen first. They shared some classes and just got along really well. Eventually she'd invited him to hang out after lectures, and introduced him to Harry, who'd been her best friend through high school. Harry was at NYU too but doing completely different classes. Despite this the three got along like a house on fire and met up regularly. Peter had developed a bit of a reputation for forgetting/being late to things, hence Harry calling to check he was actually on his way.
"Okay, but I'm up now," Peter said, pulling on a shirt and quickly fixing his hair. "You're not already there, are you?"
"No, but I'm only about five minutes away."
Peter glanced at the clock. "Well, I won't be as late as usual, at least?"
"See you in a bit, Pete."
"See you."
He grabbed his coffee and poured it into a flask then jammed his feet into shoes and jogged out of the door. It was a ten minute walk to the cafe Gwen preferred, and Peter managed it in seven. He finished up his drink just as he arrived. Gwen and Harry were already there, and Gwen gaped at him, offended. "Did you drink a coffee on the way to our coffee morning?"
"Yes?"
"Heathen," she told him seriously. "How've you been?"
"Alright. Sorry I missed that party last week, I just-"
"Am Peter Parker? We get it, don't worry."
"We made some great new friends, though."
"Yeah? You'll have to introduce me sometime."
"Easier said than done, they're at MIT so they only come back to New York during the breaks."
"Well, I'll meet them then, I guess."
"Sounds good! I know you'd get along great with them. You'll never believe what Harry did, though-"
"You promised never to speak of that again!"
"Oh, right, I did." Gwen caught Peter's eye and smirked. "I'll just send you the photos without any context then."
"No, hang on-"
They laughed at Harry's horrified expression and drank their coffee together like friends do.
A few days later, Peter was added to a discord chat with Harry and Gwen's new friends. Their chat names were murderous-jewel and anakinpanakin. He and anakinpanakin hit it off instantly (Peter's username was a star wars reference too) until the others begged them to chat on private and stop spamming them with nerd talk. murderous-jewel seemed cool too, if a little cynical. The pair of them shared about life at MIT and in return Peter, Gwen and Harry regaled them with tales of all the crazy things they were missing in New York.
Eventually the summer rolled around, and Gwen walked with him out of the examination centre for the final time of the year. She didn't even make it down the stairs before drooping to lay dramatically across the concrete.
"Ew," Peter complained, nudging her with his foot. "You definitely don't want to sit on that."
"I don't care," Gwen mumbled into her arms. "It's over, Peter. We survived. It's finally over."
"You make it sounds like we made it through a war or something."
"We did," Gwen grumbled, sitting up again. Other students walked around them, unquestioning. The joys of NYC.
"Harry said he'd treat us to donuts."
"I'm not sure I can bear to be around him. He's so...cheerful."
"He did finish two weeks ago."
"Exactly!"
"But we're done now too! And there will be donuts."
Gwen squinted up at him, then heaved a sigh and threw out a hand. Peter hauled her to her feet.
"I don't know how you can be so lively," she told him in an almost offended tone. "Where'd you get your energy? They can deal me in."
"Ha! I don't have energy. I ran out of enthusiasm an hour before the first paper, I've just gotten better at pretending with every exam."
Gwen nodded. "Seems legit."
"Did you just say 'legit'?"
"Sue me, Parker."
They made it to the base of the steps. Harry was waiting for them with a smile and hands full of greasy paper bags. "Figured you might not want to wait."
Peter gratefully took a donut and Harry handed Gwen a paper cup. She sniffed. "Is this coffee?"
"The way you like it," Harry confirmed.
Gwen took a deep gulp. "Osborne, I think I'm in love with you."
"Hey! What happened to 'I hate Harry he's too happy because he finished before us?'" Peter protested.
"He brought me coffee," Gwen explained.
"I could have brought you coffee," Peter pouted.
"He's just bitter he got demoted back to second best friend," Harry teased. Peter munched his donut with mock anger. "Anyway, congratulations! You're free for the summer!" They whooped and shared high-fives, fake argument forgotten.
"So, what are we going to do? A whole two months of liberty..."
"Oh, you guys won't have seen yet, but the MIT nerds messaged to say they were coming home tomorrow. They want to maybe meet up at the weekend?"
"Yes! It's been so long since we saw them, we absolutely need to do that."
"I don't know..." Peter tapped his chin. "I might not be free. With revision and everything... oh wait!" He cracked a grin again. "The war is over!"
"Too right it is!" Gwen cheered. "We should go to that cute place on the corner by the florist, the one with the colourful smoothies."
"Sounds great," Harry was already messaging the group. Peter stole another donut while he was distracted.
That Saturday Peter set his alarm early to prove a point, so that by the time Harry phoned to make sure he was out of bed, he was already nearing the smoothie place.
"Wakey wakey, Pete, time to-"
"Look up, Harry."
"What?" Further down the street, Harry glanced up to see Peter walking towards him, the smoothie place roughly halfway between them. "Oh. Wait, you're early?"
Peter smirked. "Race you," he said into the phone, then hung up and bolted towards the shop. A moment later Harry was running too. They arrived in the doorway out of breath and grinning.
"I won," Peter declared.
"You cheated."
"Wh- how could I cheat in a running race?"
"You tripped me?"
"Um? Lies and slander? We were running in opposite directions. This is defamation of character."
"Ugh, I forgot you interned at that weird lawyer place."
"I think you mean the highly esteemed Nelson and Murdock-"
"I said what I said."
A laugh interrupted their conversation. "Hello to you too."
Peter and Harry looked up, mildly embarrassed at being caught off guard. Harry's face lit up. Peter froze. "Hi! It's been too long, welcome back to New York!"
"Hate to admit it but I actually missed this place," Harry's friend said with a wry smile. "It grows on you."
Harry nodded. "Oh! Right, this is Peter. He's the other one you've been chatting to." He waited for Peter to say something then prompted, "say hi, Pete!"
Peter just stood there. He didn't know what he'd expected from the people he'd been friends with online for so long, but it definitely was't running into his high school best friends - the ones who didn't remember him at all. MJ was staring at him expectantly with a polite smile, and he could see Ned ordering at the bar behind her. murderous-jewel. m-j. MJ. He should have guessed.
He didn't know what to do. He hadn't spoken to them since that night when he'd swung away from the Statue of Liberty, thinking his life was over. It hadn't been, it had just gone in a different direction. But now he'd somehow come full circle.
Harry was frowning. "He's not normally like this. It's probably because he actually had to wake up at a sensible time for once." He waved a hand in front of Peter's eyes. "Earth to Parker. You there?"
Peter forced himself to respond. "Right, yeah, sorry. Hi, I'm Peter." He smiled at MJ.
"Michelle Jones, or just MJ. Nice to finally meet you in person. Ned's just grabbing our drinks, he's the one you've been all nerdy with. He's been ridiculously excited to meet you."
She wasn't wearing the dahlia necklace, Peter noticed once the awkward moment had passed and they were finding a table. Instead a small silver pendant in a shape he didn't recognise hung from a cord around her neck. Somehow seeing it made him realise this wasn't full circle. Just into the next chapter with the same characters.
He was Peter Parker, who went to NYU and was friends with Gwen and Harry, and he was meeting some people he'd been friends with online for a while for the first time in person.
Ned and Gwen arrived at the table at about the same time. Ned made a beeline for Peter. "You must be padawanparker! This is so weird, I mean, I've known you for ages but we're only just meeting now. I mean, you have a face!"
"I do have a face," Peter nodded with a grin. "So do you. I'm Peter. It's great to meet you."
"Ned. And same."
"Sorry to interrupt but before this devolves into your usual fanboy chatter I'm heading up to order, what do you want Pete?"
Peter gave Harry his order then proceeded to fanboy with Ned about the latest star wars fandom discourse, as predicted. It was no different to when they would text until it was so late it was early, or spam each other with memes at random times of day, except now Peter knew it was Ned. Except that didn't actually make a difference.
Peter got to chat to MJ as well, and was unsurprised to hear that she was planning to start up a true crime podcast with some of her friends. "But where we actually try to solve them properly, not choose dramatic unsolved cases and end with an ominous 'we may never know...'" He wished her the best of luck and promised to listen to it if she managed to get it produced. Then he, Ned and Gwen talked about the courses they were doing and how the modules were taught differently at each uni.
All five of them voted on places to meet up over the summer before MJ and Ned had to head back to Massachusetts.
Ned and Peter exchanged phone numbers and agreed to see the new film together when it came out in two weeks.
MJ scribbled her number on a napkin, crumpled it up and threw it at the back of his head. "You're not so bad, nerd. Call me."
They took an awkward group selfie for the chat profile outside the store before heading their separate ways.
It was going to be a good summer.