As days went by, your meeting with Spider-Man - and the fact that you were nearly killed - felt less and less real. But Sunday rolled around and you kept glancing at the window, knowing that you were moments away from seeing him again...
if it was real.
And it was, because at exactly six o'clock, there was a knock on the glass. You hurried to your window and opened it, leaning out to see Spider-Man perched on the ledge, leaning against the wall of the apartment.
"What's up?" he said cooly, making you snicker.
"Hi," you said. "You're right on time."
"I am?" he asked nervously, which made you think that he probably was watching the clock. "Hm. Well, hey - you ready?"
"Ready?" you asked.
"To go, uh, out," he said. He jerked his thumb behind his shoulder. "Believe it or not, Queens looks great from several hundred feet off the ground."
You laughed and grabbed your coat off the back of your desk chair. You already had a pair of old sneakers on, so after shrugging on the coat, you were ready to go.
He stepped back, his feet on the edge, heels hanging off, one hand stuck to the side of the window. His other reached out for you, helping pull you up into the ledge. You swallowed nervously.
"O-Okay," you said, "this is terrifying."
"Yeah, it's scary the first time," he said. "Don't worry, I got you."
"I swear, Spider-Man, if you drop me-"
"I won't," he said. "It's not so bad once we get up on the roof."
You ducked out of your window and held onto his shoulders, feeling blushy and weird as he snaked an arm tight around your waist.
"It's cold," you said, trying to distract yourself from the feeling of his hand on your back. For the second time in a week, Spider-Man was holding you.
"It'll only get colder as we go up, miss," he said, and he flicked his wrist. You gasped as your feet left the safety of the ledge and you swung over the street, towards a scattering group of buildings. "I got you!" he called out, sounding too confident for a guy swinging across a busy street on a thin web.
"Holy crap," you found yourself saying, eyes squeezing shut against the cold, fingers gripping his suit so tight you just knew you were pinching his skin too. "Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap-"
And then you were on the ground again, only when you opened your eyes, it wasn't the ground, but the dirty surface of a rooftop. Spider-Man dropped you and watched your face.
You dropped your arms off his shoulder and looked out at the city of Queens. In the end of November, with the sun setting early and the Christmas decorations up for the season, the city looked ten times brighter with artificial light. Christmas trees twinkled in the windows of homes, houses were covered in colorful bulbs.
It was beautiful.
"Are you gonna puke?" he asked.
"No," you said. "I-I don't think so." You took in a deep breath. "It's just... really pretty. All the lights."
"Oh. Yeah," he said. "It's nice." He walked to the ledge and sat down, swinging his legs over. He patted the space next to him. "C'mon."
You walked over and sat next to him, keeping several inches between you both. You drew your coat tight around your shoulders and smiled, content despite the bitter cold.
"It's nice," you said.
...
"In my opinion, the best Christmas song is All I Want For Christmas," you said. "None of that Frosty the Snowman crap... that stuff is overplayed."
"No way," he said, mouth moving beneath the mask. "How could you say that it's overplayed? Oh my gosh, I can't even look at you right now!" He placed his hand flat against your face and turned away from you.
You giggled and swatted at him, trying to brush him off. "Stop, Spidey!" you exclaimed. "I'm sorry, but I'm really picky about my Christmas!"
He dropped his hand, laughing with you. "At least tell me you like The Grinch."
"Yes, of course I like The Grinch," you said.
"Good." He nodded. "Wait. Live action or animated?"
"Both," you said, "like a human being should."
He pointed at you. "Yes! Thank you. So many people only like one of them!"
"Those are monsters," you said, shaking your head. He laughed again.
You smiled, watching the way his breath got sucked in between his covered lips. You had never seen his face, not once in the weeks you had known him.
Spider-Man had come to your window almost every day since the first time, and he even walked you home from school, after he found out you went to Midtown.
You would wait for him inside of the building, avoiding the cold, and at exactly three o'clock, he would drop from somewhere and you would leave, walk out the empty school, and he would ask you how your day was.
It had gotten to the point where whenever you saw him, you developed this warm feeling in your chest. You thought about him constantly. There was no hope of thinking of anything different.
He had somehow become your best friend and crush, all in a matter of weeks. And with Christmas around the corner, love was in the air.
At least, that's what you felt, especially when you were standing on the corner of a street, late at night, with the sound of Peggy Lee's version of Christmas Waltz playing on the static-y speakers of the nearby mall.
It's that time of year
When the world falls in love
Every song you hear seems to say
Merry Christmas...
Your heartbeat was in your throat at that silent, cold, twinkling moment, and you wondered: was it ridiculous that you were falling hard for a boy you didn't know?
But you did know him. You knew him the moment the saved you, the moment after you realized he wasn't trying to kidnap you, the moment he told you everything was going to be okay.
He was a hero, and didn't most girls fall for the hero of their story?