Hello! I hope you enjoy this story, which I fully intend to finish. Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter. I do not own spider-man nor do I won any of the characters, only my OC Emily. I'm new to the spider-man universe but I plan to follow the movies, post TASM2 of course. Thanks for reading, enjoy :)

"Em, get up!" The sound of my roommate's voice sent me toppling off my bed. "You have work."

I rolled my eyes, groaning as I did so. Work was something I definitely wasn't looking forward to... After starting school at NYU Tisch School of Arts last month, work completed the overwhelming bundle.

This day was going to be long... Excruciatingly long… To start it off I had recently been informed that my alarm clock wasn't working, and now I would have to invest in a new one. Not only that, I was currently running late for work. And after a long night out with my roommate Sam, I was in dying need of a shower, which I didn't have time for.

I sprung up from the dirty white carpets of my bedroom floor, dusting myself off, and ran to the washroom. After putting my hair up in a neat bun, letting a few curls fall in front of my face, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, and slipped into my work gear.

After yelling a quick goodbye to Sam I headed out the door, locking the apartment we shared on the way out.

After sprinting down a few flights of stairs I ran to the car Sam and I shared, deciding it would be quicker to take this. I had 10 minutes to get to work, and hopefully with my luck, I could make it there in time.

But of course, as soon as I turned off of our abandoned apartment street and on to the main road, I was caught in the busy traffic of New York. I groaned, slamming my fist against the steering while, which beeped to my surprise. I jumped, startling myself but then looked ahead.

The traffic seemed to go on forever, and I was too far ahead to turn back now and take the subway.

I couldn't help thinking about the last month, as I was stuck in this horrendous traffic. I had finally moved out of my parents house in queens and moved in with my best friend, Sam. My parents wanted to do a lot of traveling for the next few years, and I wanted to stay home. So it was the perfect opportunity for Sam and I to move in, which any teenage best friends could dream off.

It was a little stressful at first, but after finding our small, quant, 2000$ a month little apartment, we were settled. Since Sam and I were both studying at the same school, we were together a lot, which helped. And we both worked, which helped us afford the car and the apartment. We started school last month, and my parents left the same time. Since I was an only child, my parents thought it was the perfect opportunity to travel. My dad worked at Oscorp for a while, and my mom was a nurse, but they had taken a temporary leave and wouldn't be back for a while.

We were finally moving, after eight minutes of waiting. I literally had two minutes to get to work, which was near impossible. After driving as fast as I could, without irritating the driver in front of me, I parallel parked in front of the Bean's and Cream Bistro, putting my apron on before I stepped through the doors.

I ran as fast as I could, trying to get to the back to clock in without being seen by my manager, Katherine.

After clocking in at 11:08am, I did a little happy dance, then made my way to the front cash to help the barista's.

"EMILY!" I heard a yell from the back, followed by the ground shaking footsteps of my manager. "Tardy again, are we?"

"I'm sorry!" I exclaimed, "My alarm clock broke, and then there was traffic. It won't happen again, I promise!"

The forty-year old shook her head, her medium length red hair following with it. "Don't make promises you can't keep Ms. Taylor."

"Please," I put my hands together, intertwining them, "I need this job. It seriously won't happen again, I'm sorry!"

She rolled her eyes, placing a hand on her hip. "You're lucky I like you," She started to pivot, "And you're lucky I don't want to go through the work and training of hiring someone new." She walked away, sighing.

I grinned, turning to my coworker Clark, who gave me a small smirk.

After helping out my regular's, offering coffee top off's and making a few sandwiches, It was finally time for my break. This eleven till six shift was killing me. I ended up calling my parents, who were visiting some relatives in England. They told me about the recent postcard they sent, and that it would arrive in the mail soon. After hearing about their adventures I hung up.

I sipped my coffee, enjoying the last few minutes of my break, when something caught my eye. The Daily Bugle was placed on top of the break room table, with Spiderman on it. It wasn't a recent picture, probably from five months ago, when he was last seen.

It was titled,

STILL NO SPIDERMAN?

And the article underneath explained its justice for the title. Nobody was really sure what sparked the sudden disappearance of Spiderman, or why he wasn't saving people anymore.

The last time he was seen was when Electro came forward, an Oscorp experiment gone wrong. After he was defeated by the infamous Spiderman, he disappeared.

"EM!" I heard from the other room.

I rolled my eyes, that wa a signal my break was done. "Coming, Kat." I responded, dropping The Daily Bugle back on the table.

I quickly strided back to my workplace, taking place as the barista for the next few hours of my shift.

After Kat left at four, I instantly felt relaxed. That woman was fastidious, but she reeked of stress. All. The. Time.

After working as the barista for a while, I decided to do another coffee run, topping off some customer's cups. I made my way through half of the store, even helping all the customers that sat outside, when I noticed a familiar face.

The familiar face sat by the entrance of the store, gazing out the window, at, essentially, nothing. His bronze hair was messily brushed out of his face, and his heady was slung over his head, which made it hard to see him. He sat by himself, holding the white mug in his hand, while he clutched his skateboard with the other hand.

The way he held it made it seem like he was in a rush, urging to finish his coffee so he could skate out of here, but his posture spoke differently. He seemed quite content actually. Content, but also depressed. The way he stared out that window, with that glum expression, it made me feel sad inside.

What was this familiar boy's name again? My tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth and I dug deep into my brain.

I had graduated with this boy a few months ago.

It was Peter. Peter Parker.

Now I remembered everything. That was Gwen Stacy's boyfriend. That's why he was so seemingly depressed. Gwen had died a few months ago, supposedly getting into a mishap with Electro a few months back.

I felt bad for him, truly. The look of dismay on his face was heartbreaking. I remember when Gwen had given her graduation speech at our graduation, and Peter came in when he was called to receive his diploma, but instead of shaking hands with her he gave his girlfriend a passionate kiss, that sent the whole grad class howling and cheering for them.

I was never close with Gwen, I hardly ever spoke a word to her, but from what I heard she was an amazing young lady. I was never close with Peter either, he was in a few of my classes and I for sure had never spoken a single word to him.

Peter must have despised Spiderman, for not saving the one person that truly mattered to him, besides his Aunt.

"There you go," I said, topping off a young woman's coffee. Instead of circling around the store I made my way to him.

"Top off?" I offered, holding up the fresh pot.

"Hmm?" His dark brown eyes peered up at me, and he pulled a pair of headphones out of his ear. I finally got a good look at him, and his eyes were completely lonesome. The glint had revealed a whole world of darkness .

I bit my lip, feeling my heart wrench even more. "Top off?" I offered again.

He didn't respond, just stared at me. At first I had to check that he wasn't still wearing his headphones, but I was positive he was not now. I waited another few seconds but he still didn't respond. Not knowing what to say, I repeated the words, "Top off?"

It was like he was in some other world. He shook himself back to reality. "Oh, sorry, uh," He shook his head, "No thank you."

I gave him a small smile, too shy to say anything in case he didn't remember me from school, and made my way to the next table.

I couldn't help but feel the pair of brown eyes on my back.

The next few weeks flew by quickly. My classes were hectic and stressful, work was busy. I worked the same days, every week. Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, and occasionally Saturday's. I only went to school Monday Tuesday Thursday, and Wednesday I just had a morning class.

My schedule was pretty much the same, and Sam and I continued to have movie nights every Friday night, the only thing that had changed about my life was the new regular at Beans and Cream.

Every Friday morning, Peter Parker ordered a small coffee, double double, and sat in the same seat, beside the large windows. I never had the chance to talk to him, but I decided to now.

After doing a round of top off's I headed to him, leaving him for last. I always offered to top him off, but not once had he said yes. Until now.

"Top off?"

He pulled the headphones out of his ear, just like he did every time. "Uh," He licked his lips, "Sure."

I smiled, and pulled out two packets of sugar and two creams from my apron.

"Thanks." He mumbled, picking up the cream.

I smiled once more, then turned to walk back to cash. Something drew me back to him though. For the first time in a few weeks, I pivoted and opened my mouth to talk.

"You're Peter, right?"

He looked up at me, and pulled the hood off of his head. "Yeah." The corner of his lip quirked up and he almost smiled. Almost.

"I'm Emily," I held a hand out, introducing myself. "Emily Taylor."

He took it, shaking it lightly. "I know."

He knew my name? How did he know me? Peter wasn't the most popular kid in high school, but neither was I. I mostly hung around Sam and her boyfriend at the time.

"How are you today?" He asked politely.

I narrowed my eyes at him, "Isn't the worker supposed to ask the customer that?"

His shoulders shrugged slightly, "You seemed deep in thought."

I huffed a small laugh. "I'm fine thank you, just waiting for my shift to be over. Then I'm going to venture out on my wondrous quest of alarm clock shopping."

"Alarm clock shopping" He raised his bushy eyebrows.

I nodded, "Yep, alarm clock shopping."

"Interesting" He sipped his coffee, a smile hidden beneath his lips.

"Oh contraire, it is not that interesting."

He smirked, bringing the mug to his lips.

"How are you today?" I asked, before thinking. He was probably the same as any other day. Miserable. Depressed. Disheartened.

"Alright," He replied with, "Just enjoying my day off from school."

I nodded, "Nice—"

"EMILY BACK TO WORK."

I rolled my eyes, feeling Kat's venomous glare on my back.

Once again, Peter smirked.

"Well, duty calls." I gave him a small wave, which he returned, then trudged back to my place, dragging my feet as I did so.

The last hour of my shift went by agonizingly unhurried, as it always did.

I saw Peter Parker get up from his usual seat and return the mug to the front counter. He turned to exit, but then paused at the doors. I watched his moves as I helped a customer at cash.

His eyes locked with mine for a few seconds, and he smiled.

For the first time in the past few weeks, I saw Peter Parker smile.