HOPELESS ☾Peter Parker - 1

TWO

Due to Aspen Blue's complete inexperience at being social, she didn't know how long to wait before it would make sense that she "happened to end up exactly where Peter Parker is". She knew not to follow him the next day, but she was growing bored in her motel room. All she had been doing was making sure that her program on the flash drive was still absolutely perfect, going over the layout of Avengers Tower, and working out.

The girl was in excellent shape, and still loved gymnastics and karate as much as she did as a child, but she wanted to make sure that she was the best. One of Aspen Blue's more dominant characteristics was her competitiveness. It didn't matter if the challenge was "I dare you to eat seven pieces of pizza" or "I dare you to jump of that bridge," she would do it without hesitation just to simply prove the point that she would do anything. The girl hated to lose, and hated the feeling of failure, so everything she did was to the best of her ability. The only thing that she can recall ever truly losing to is cancer, and she absolutely despised that; therefore, she chose to completely ignore that that ever happened and move on with her life.

After a bit of thought, Aspen decided that one day was enough time between her and Peter's encounters, so she quickly tracked his location on her phone (which she also stole). She pulled on her blue sneakers and a black sweater over her jeans and prepared to exit room 93. Her phone let out a beep, signaling that it had pinned the Parker boys location and she quickly read it over. He was currently at a place called "Joe's Pizza" over in Queen's. Aspen smiled softly--she could always go for a slice of pizza.

☾

After an incredibly boring ride on the subway, Aspen finally made it to Queens. She looked down at her chipped black nail polish and sighed. Picking at her polish had always been a bad habit that she had, and she had nearly taken off the entirety of her thumbs coat.

She pulled out her phone and followed the directions towards the pinned location, and once the small restaurant came into view she stuffed the device into her back pocket and attempted to look as casual as possible as she walked into the pizzeria.

Her brown eyes discreetly scanned the small dining space until they landed on a table that held Peter Parker and a boy she didn't know.

Great, more people to be social with.

She saw a table close to theirs and walked towards it leisurely. Aspen knew that her presence would gain the boys attention, for the restaurant had minimal tables and most of them were empty, so she didn't bother saying anything to them.

Just like she thought, she saw Peter glance towards her then look back down, then right back up at her again with wide eyes.

"Aspen?" He asked with a shocked expression on his face.

She looked up, brown eyes meeting brown, and gave him an award winning smile, "Peter Parker!" She said with a laugh as if she was actually glad to see him.

"W-What are you doing here?" He asked her, gesturing around him.

"I was really craving some pizza and heard that Joe's is the best," she made up on the spot.

"Well, you would be correct," the boy sitting across from Peter said, smiling up at Aspen. "I'm Ned."

"Aspen Blue," she said in return. "Do you mind if I-" she started, pointing down at the empty chair next to Ned.

"All yours!"

"So, Aspen, are you new to this area?" Peter asked her, genuinely curious about the beautiful girl that had been so kind to him two days prior.

"Yeah, I actually moved from Tennessee a few weeks ago."

She wasn't technically lying, she was from Tennessee, but she really moved to New York back when she was 12 and the Tennessee doctors needed to send her to a better facility. Now was the first time that she had come back to the Big Apple, but she knew that she couldn't tell Peter or Ned any of that.

The three teens made small talk for a while and Aspen ordered herself a small pizza, not even afraid to eat like a gigantic pig in front of the boys. They talked about school, and Aspen learned that the two went to Midtown School of Science and Technology, the school she was planing on going to if she had beat cancer. They asked her about where she went to school and she was quick to explain that she was homeschooled, which was a total lie. She already pretty much knew everything that they were learning anyways so it wasn't like she was missing anything, but they didn't know that. She told them she lived with her mother and father, another lie, and that they lived in apartment in Midtown Manhattan. The lies rolled off of her tongue with ease and the boys accepted them without hesitance--Aspen knew she was good but she didn't know she was that good. As it started getting later, she decided it was time to make her move.

"Hey, Peter, what were you doing at the Avengers Tower the other day?" She asked, wiping the corner of her mouth with a napkin.

The boy went wide eyed for a second before coughing and looking up at the girl, "well, I-I have an internship with Mr. Stark right now, we meet just about everyday."

Peter wanted nothing more than to impress the beauty in front of him, and he so badly wanted to say 'oh yeah, by the way, I'm that Spiderman that's been saving people every night, and Mr. Stark is currently training me to help him fight in Germany' but he knew he couldn't. Besides, she was new to town and probably didn't even know about Spiderman or the things he had done, so the news would probably scare or surprise the girl.

"Really? That's so cool! I've always wanted to meet Tony Stark, he's like my hero!" Aspen said with fake happiness.

The girl actually hated Tony Starks guts and found his arrogance to be irritating, but in order to hopefully convince the naive kid in front of her to take her to the tower, she needed to act as convincing as possible--even if that meant sucking up to Tony Stark.

"You know," Ned started glancing at Peter, "I bet Pete could take you in to meet him."

"Really? That would be incredible!" Aspen had an actual smile on her face when she said that, for her plan was working better than she thought it would.

"I, well, uh, I-" Peter was interrupted when Ned not-so-subtly kicked Peter's leg, "Yes! Yes, I can take you to meet Mr. Stark." He hung his head down a little at the end of his sentence.

Tony Stark was going to kill him.

"Thank you so much, Peter!" Aspen exclaimed, grabbing his hand from across the table.

Ned winked at his friend and mouthed a 'you're welcome' and Peter simply glared back.

"Well, I should be going," she said, standing up and brushing her jeans off. "Here," she picked up the pen she used to sign her check and grabbed Peter's hand once more, scribbling her number down on his skin. "Text me and tell me what time I should meet you at the tower."

She stood up straight and gave them a bright smile, "It was nice to meet you Ned, and Peter, thank you so much for this, I can't wait!"

The girl then turned and walked away from the table with a genuine smile on her face.

"Dude, you got her number!" Ned exclaimed once he thought Aspen was out of earshot; however, she wasn't, and she let out a small chuckle at the nerds behind her.

As Aspen exited Joe's, she felt warm. This was the first time in a long time that she was actually smiling, and it wasn't because of the two childish boys she left behind, but because she was one step closer to completing her personal mission. It felt like a little bit of tension had risen from her shoulders, and she felt herself continuing to smile and she walked towards the subway.

Aspen did feel a little guilty about totally using Peter Parker the way she was, but if it meant that she could finally get the answers she wanted, she was willing to use anyone and anything. He was a nice guy, a complete nerd like herself, but nice nonetheless, and she could tell that he had good intentions, but she wasn't here to make friends. All she needed was a way to get into the Stark tower undetected, and she finally had that.

After working towards it for about one and a half years, Aspen was finally about to get exactly what she wanted.