TROUBLE! ━ TASM.

twenty-one.

Despite Sparky's rampage in Times Square and dealing with Max Dillon's covered up disappearance and with her combative love and hatred for Peter Parker, life was still moving for Violet. Even though she would have loved to take a day off to just sleep and be lazy, Oxford would only have openings for so long, and so now she was rushing down the busy streets of New York City in some of the nicest clothes she had.

Her heart raced uncomfortably in her chest and all of her body felt clammy, which she found ironic, seeing as most people only had clammy hands. But, nope, her entire body felt sticky and damp and overall uncomfortable.

Cars roared past her as they sped as much as they could when there was no traffic or a break in the road, and people shoved past her like they were crazy. She was so in her head about what to say and how to act that the sound of someone slamming into a wall behind her made her almost jump out of her skin, and she sighed when she saw it was Peter. He was just... always there, wasn't he?

"Agh!" He grunted when his body slammed into the wall, the velocity of his swing now coming back to kiss him in the ass. Then, he straightened himself out like it hadn't happened, rushing to keep up with her quick pace. "Hey! Hi."

"Hi." She bluntly responded, turning towards him with a concerned look on her face.

m"Hi, I need to talk to you for a second." The words came out in one big spew of a sentence, and she wanted nothing more to hear what was plaguing his mind, but a glance down at her phone confirmed that she was running horribly late, and she didn't need that.

Violet held up a finger before turning and starting to walk away. "I'm... I'm running late right now." Finally, she made it in front of the building, throwing open the door and trying to scuttle in without the puppy that was Peter following. "I can't. I'm sorry, Peter."

Despite her obvious intention to not speak to him right now, he pressed, following her into the building. "It's just gonna take a second. Just give me one minute. I just wanna say one thing and then I'm gone."

Peter continued to follow her as she stepped farther into the room, closer to the lady at the desk that'd get her checked in and mark her as present, and irritation crawled up her arms like fire ants. He stepped in front of her, and she glared as she stopped. "Everything's a mess. Everything's insane." He hurriedly spoke.

Rolling her eyes, she shushed him. In response, he continued, his arms waving wildly as he explained. "My mom? My dad? Everything I thought about them? Lies. Lies, lies, lies. Nothing makes any sense anymore. So, here we are. I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do about Harry. Because, of course, I wanna save him. You know? I wanna save him, because he's my best pal. And what if my blood works? But what if it doesn't?"

As Peter continued to ramble about his existential crises and his problems, all she could do was stare at him with blank eyes, nodding every once in a while to act like she was really listening to what he was saying but, really, all she could think about was her Oxford interview, and how it was time, and how this motherfucker was doing nothing but making her late.

"I don't know! I got no idea!" The boy let out a chuckle that sounded horribly close to insane. "I got nothing. I got nothing." He took a deep breath, before looking back up at her. "The only thing I keep coming back to, Violet, is...."

"Ms. Flynn?" The woman called gently, and she glanced over Peter's shoulder to look at her with an eyebrow raised.

The woman continued speaking in her polite British accent, not even caring what conversation she had just interrupted. "Shall I take you upstairs?"

Violet nodded. "Yes. I'm so sorry." She glanced around before biting her lips. "I'm so sorry. I'm already late. Can I just have one more minute?" She asked. Peter obviously had something deep on his mind for him to be squirming like a caught fish next to her, and she'd rather him spit it out now than have him barge into the meeting with a sudden exclamation.