"I can be your hero, baby.
I can kiss away the pain.
I will stand by you forever.
You can take my breath away."
~ Enrique Iglesias
3rd Person's POV
Mila stands frantically knocking on the door hoping someone answers. She freezes when she hears the lock click and the door slowly open.
"Oh hello Mila. How are you sweetheart?"
Mila thinks back to the last time she saw May. That was back when Peter ditched her and she came to drop off his food. May had sat with her while she cried her eyes out then gave her a big hug and talked to her about how Peter really did care about her and was just not himself lately.
Shaking her head she wakes up from her daydreaming, "I'm good Aunt May I j-just um is Peter here?"
May smiles, "Yes for once he is. Go on up."
Mila smiles and nods, "Thanks."
Mila quickly makes her way up the stairs and to Peter's door. She takes a deep breath then knocks.
"Come in."
Opening the door slowly, Mila notices how messy Peter's room had gotten. He had papers literally everywhere. The room looked a mess. Even worse he looked a mess.
Mila stares at Peter through the mirror his back is to her. He had bruises on his arms and a few scratches on his face.
"Aunt May I already told you, Mila can't come over for dinner..."
Peter turns in his chair and freezes staring at Mila with wide eyes.
Mila smiles sheepishly, "Um hi..."
Peter quickly tosses a shirt over his computer. Ever since the two had stopped talking, he missed her more than he believed was possible. So being his nerdy self he decided it was a good idea to put his favorite picture of the two up as his screensaver.
Mila frowns looking at him confusion as he nervously ruffles his hair. Why the heck is he so fidgety?
"Um what are- what are y-you doing here Mila?"
"I'll make this quick don't worry. Peter, I think Dr Connors is doing something bad."
Peter frowns and stands up, "What?"
Mila sighs and cracks her knuckles, "Peter whatever it is you're helping him with at Oscorp. It's something really bad. I don't know how to explain it. But I overheard him talking to that guy we ran into with the folder with the symbols and they were talking about Norman Osborne and about cross species genetics and human trials-"
"Hold on hold on... how do you know that? How did you overhear?"
Mila shrugs, "I kind of may possibly be an intern..."
Peter's eyes widen, "You're an intern? Wait so why do you always ask me to tutor yo-"
"Ha ha that is not important at the moment. Look Peter I'm serious. You need to stop whatever it is you and Connors are doing."
Peter shakes his head laughing uneasily, "Mila you know how important this is to me. You know this is the only way I can remain close to my dad. I'm- I have to figure this out."
Mila takes a step forward, "I understand that Peter I really do. It's just-"
"No I can't Mila. Nothing I've seen has been bad. Connors is a good guy. Maybe you're just overreacting... maybe you just need some rest. You have been in the hospital two times now."
"No I'm not crazy Parker. Are you serious? You're just not going to listen and you're going to pretend like you don't think anything weird is going on?"
Peter frowns but doesn't say anything. Mila shakes her head and laughs in annoyance.
"Yeah whatever. You know if I was Gwen I bet you would investigate the shit out of Connors."
"What does that mean Mila?"
"I-I don't know... I mean I don't know... it's just annoying."
Mila turns to leave but Peter grabs her arm and spins her back around. Mila's heart stops as she realizes how close they are.
"What's annoying? Please Mila I don't want to fight. I just want you to be my friend again."
Mila bites her lip as tears form in her eyes, "I can't be friends with a liar Peter."
Peter frowns.
"I can't be friends with someone who isn't there for me. I can't be the only one in the friendship who is giving 100%. That's not how friendships work Parker. It's not. You just act like I don't excise anymore. And it sucks."
"Mila of course I know you exist. What are you talking about?"
"When you asked me to go see that play... were you distracted by Gwen that night?"
Peter sighs and looks away making Mila nod and laugh painfully.
"What's my favorite food Peter?"
"Branzino?"
Mila chuckles, "Close... that's Gwen's. Don't ask me why we can't be friends."
Without another word, Mila leaves the room. Peter sighs as he hears the front door close. Aunt May peeks into the room and looks at Peter.
"Life is about balance Peter. You can balance your friends and your love life. It's just up to you."
Peter groans as May disappears. He pulls the shirt off the computer and stares at the picture of him and Mila. He curses throwing a book across his room.
...
At school the next day, Peter shows Gwen the spider that bit him.
"It's so beautiful."
"But it's got a bite though!"
"Who else knows about this?"
Gwen had to ask. If Mila knew there was no way Peter would like her. It wasn't a competition but Gwen just needed to be sure.
Peter looks out at the field seeing Mila and frowns, "Just..."
"Me?"
Peter nods his head making Gwen smile
"You don't... you don't believe what the police are saying, do you?"
Gwen shakes her head, "Of course not. Does it scare you, what you can do?"
"No. No."
"What did that thing on the bridge look like? Mila told me it was really scary."
Peter nods thinking back to the night on the bridge, "Real big. Too big to be human."
"You gotta lay low."
"No, can't do that."
"But you've got to. I mean, why?"
"Cause of that night. Those people on the bridge, whatever is attacking them, I gotta... I gotta go after it."
Mila frowns as she watches Peter and Gwen from across the field. Sighing, she shakes her head and turns back to the other cheerleaders.
"You've really lost your touch if you can't get Peter Parker to see that you like him."
Mila glares as Harley smirks.
Blair shoulder bumps Harley while giving her the finger, "Oh shut up Harley."
Cora smiles sadly at Mila before patting her back.
"I'm fine..."
They both nod before going over to the rest of the team. Mila claps her hands together as she walks forward.
"Alright lets make a pyramid."
Gwen shakes her head holding Peter's hand, "But that's not your job."
She really didn't want him to get hurt.
"Maybe it is..." Peter shrugs with a sweet smile.
Gwen laughs shyly. The two of them had been very awkward and shy but she figured they just really liked each other and needed to spend more time together. Peter definitely wasn't what she believed to be her type but he was super sweet and caring, so she wanted to give it a try.
Gwen frowns as Peter looks off into the distance, "Are you okay Peter? I mean really. Not Spiderman but Peter..."
"Yeah?"
Gwen shakes her head and pats his knee, "Mmhmm. It just doesn't seem like you are."
Peter smiles, "I promise I'm okay."
Just as Gwen leans in to kiss Peter, he quickly catches the football that's headed towards them and throws it back into the field hitting the football post and everyone on the field watches in amazement. But what Peter and Gwen don't see is that the football bounces off the post and flies towards the crowd of cheerleaders making them all scream and disperse.
...
"Whatcha doing up here?"
Mila glances over her shoulder to see Spider-Man standing behind her. She smiles sadly then turns back to look at the city down below.
"Just sitting..."
Spider-Man walks over and sits beside her on the platform. He looks down at their feet and sees how far up they are. They were sitting on the 30 story building roof, on the edge just sitting.
"I see that... my question is why. Aren't you terrified of heights?"
Mila frowns and looks over at Spider-Man's masked face, "How did you know I'm scared of heights?"
Spider-Man laughs uneasily, "Isn't everybody? Plus you fell out of building and over a bridge in just a month. I'd say if you were it's definitely okay."
Mila shrugs and looks back at the city lights. Spider-Man sighs as he stares at Mila's blank stone cold expression.
"Seriously what's wrong?"
Mila sighs and moves her jacket that she had covering her body to reveal her left arm in black sling. Peter gasps looking at her arm before trying to think of the last time he saw her and when this would have even happened. He did notice she hadn't been at school for a few days. He asked Gwen and she said Mila didn't want to talk to anyone so she never came out her room. Gwen asked her dad and he said to give Mila time.
"I'm cursed..."
"W-what? When did this happen?"
Mila chuckles humorlessly, "Two days ago. I was at cheer practice at school, we were fixing up our pyramids. Someone threw a football and it hit the field goal post then bounced right off of it and flew towards all the cheerleaders. Since I was the top of the pyramid when the ball flew over, it hit me and made me lose my balance... so I fell, fracturing my arm."
Peter grimaces as he thinks back to him throwing the ball, "Do you know who threw it?"
Mila chuckles, "Yeah actually I do... it was Peter. My uh... actually I don't know what we are anymore."
"What do you mean?"
Mila just shrugs.
Peter feels terrible on the inside. He wanted to throw himself off a building for hurting Mila. He never thought the ball would wind up hitting her. And he never wanted to hurt her feelings. Mila was his best friend but he was losing her with each day that went on.
"Well have you talked to him. Maybe he didn't know what he did. He's probably really sorry... really sorry..."
Mila shakes her head looking at her nails, "Nah we don't really talk anymore. And I'm sure he doesn't... he wouldn't care. He doesn't care about me anymore."
Peter shakes his head hastily, "No! I'm sure that's not... t-that's not true."
Mila laughs painfully as a tear slides down her face, "Gosh I don't even know why I'm telling you this. You don't care either. You have other things to worry about... like saving the world, not listening to a teen girls high school drama."
"Mila I would sit and listen to you all day long..."
Mila's head flies up to stare at Spider-Man with wide eyes, "You would? Why?"
"Why not?"
"Because I'm a sad annoying teen girl who has nothing better to do than cry and moan over everything going wrong in her life."
"I don't see a sad annoying teen girl. I see a beautiful hurt teen girl who just needs someone to listen to her spill out her painful secrets."
Mila's eyes fill with tears again as she looks at Spider-Man then back at the city.
"So why can't Peter see that?"
Spider-Man stays silent as he tries to think of anything to say.
"If you see that I'm hurt and need someone to talk to and you don't even know me... You would think my best friend of over eight years would see that too. Maybe he doesn't want to be friends anymore. I get it. I hung out with his bully, I kept so many secrets from him, even my family... now he has Gwen. Someone who will tell him everything about herself. Someone who is so similar to him. Someone who is literally insanely gorgeous, smart... She's perfect."
Peter goes to say something, anything but no words leave his mouth. He can't think of a single thing to say to her. He knew she was hurt and he didn't think about how much him and Gwen being together affected her. He didn't mean to hurt her, that was never his intention.
"No ones perfect Mila. But maybe you should talk to him. I mean I would want to know why my best friend was hanging out with my bully."
Mila giggles, "Like you would be bullied..."
"You have no idea..."
Mila shrugs, "Flash loves messing with Peter. He got joy out of ruining Peter's life. When I found out Flash had a crush on me I thought maybe I could get him to leave Peter alone. It worked for a little bit but then he actually really liked me and I didn't want to use him like that. So I took the opportunity and broke up with him after his big fight with Peter. Well we weren't officially together but I just let him know that we would never be. Peter's my best friend... was... anybody messed with him they gotta go through me. Or at least that was my mentality... He's my best friend but I'm not his. I don't think he really knows anything about me. I mean the real me... granted it's probably my fault that I hid my real self away but he doesn't even know my favorite food."
Mila chuckles painfully shaking her head.
"It's lasagne."
Mila's head snaps up as she looks at Spiderman with wide eyes and a small smile, "How did you know that?"
"I-I just..." Peter scratches his head trying to think of a lie.
"Have you been keeping tabs on me?"
He shrugs making her giggle.
He actually had been following her around before her incident. He just knew she wouldn't talk to himself as Peter so he wanted to make sure she was okay. He had followed her down the street to what he knew was her favorite restaurant and saw her with her friends. She had lasagne and he immediately felt like a complete ass.
He remembered why that was her favorite food... one night at Peter's house when they were in middle school, they were starving and Aunt May and Uncle Ben ran to the store. They decided they were grown up enough to make their own food, so they took a frozen lasagne out the freezer and sat in front of the stove watching it cook while telling each other their likes and dislikes. This was the first time they had hung out and Mila said it was the best day ever. This was the day they became best friends.
"For some reason I feel like I kno-" Mila sighs looking out to the city.
"Never mind."
Peter opens his mouth to ask her what she was going to say, but freezes when Mila stands up and backs away to the door.
"Sorry Spidey it's getting late. My dad will blow a gasket if I'm not in my room in the next five minutes."
Spider-Man nods making Mila smile and turn around to grasp the door handle. She freezes and looks back at him.
"Thanks for the talk. I really needed it."
"Anytime."
Mila nods.
"Really Mila... anytime at all."
Mila smiles again then disappears into the building. Peter pulls off his Spider-Man mask and throws it beside him. He rubs his face and groans.
"I'm an idiot."
...
"Mila can I please come in."
Mila lays in her bed staring at her wall. A tear threatens to leave her eyes as she looks at the pictures of her and Peter. She slaps herself and lets out a deep breath.
"Get a hold of yourself Mila. What are you doing? You have so much to worry about. If Peter wants to keep secrets and not listen to you let him."
Knock knock.
Mila freezes forgetting that Gwen was at her door. She sighs then fixes her slinged arm on her pillow.
"Fine come in."
Gwen opens the door and gasps as she sees Mila on her bed. She hurries over and sits beside her while being extra careful of her arm.
"What the hell Mila? When did this happen and why the heck are you ignoring me? No not even ignoring you're just plain out avoiding me. At school even at home. You got mom and dad in on it too. They wouldn't even let me near your door for two days now. I had to sneak your bodyguard Simon a ten dollar bill just now."
Mila smiles slightly knowing she did good choosing her baby brother Simon to be her bodyguard. The kid knew how to blackmail for sure.
Gwen frowns making Mila sigh, "Look Gwen I just need space. I can't be around you right now."
Gwen's eyebrows furrow, "You can't be around me or Peter?"
Mila rolls her eye and looks out her window.
"Mila... I don't know what happened to you two. But I miss you. You're my sister, we used to hang out all the time and joke around about Ms Devine and her twenty cats upstairs."
Mila chuckles to herself then frowns as she sees a tear fall down Gwen's cheek.
"I'm sorry. Look I just need to get my head together. Doesn't have to do with you and sure as heck doesn't have to do with Peter."
Gwen crosses her arms and tilts her head, "Is it that guy? The one you like?"
"No screw him."
"Damn who broke your heart?"
Mila frowns, "Him. I don't even want to talk about him anymore."
Gwen thinks about who the person Mila liked could possibly be. She was drawing a blank. Mila had said it felt like she knew him her whole life, he was sweet, funny... if she didn't know any better she would think Mila liked Peter. But there was no way.
"Mila you don't like Peter do you?"
Mila's whole body clenches up as her heart stops, "What? Why would you think that?"
"I mean I don't know. I just thats the only guy I could think of. I mean you hang out with Peter and Flash. That's it. But you said you don't like Flash more than a friend. And I mean Peter is your best friend and you guys have been really weird recently-"
"No it's not Peter, Gwen. What the heck? He's literally just a friend. Well... was. Peter's not my type."
Gwen chuckles lightly, "That's what I was thinking. Phew okay."
As Gwen starts to blab on and on about how Mila shouldn't let this guy whoever it was effect her this way, Mila tunes her out.
Mila was in love with Peter Parker. But she was started to have a crush on the neighborhood superhero too. Her life was a mess.
𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑦𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟? 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑢𝑝𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑃𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟?
𝑊ℎ𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝?