I Can't Make You Love Me || Peter Parker x OC

Chapter 3: Breakthrough

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what he was trying to imply. His voice was thick with hesitation and maybe even urgency; I couldn't quite tell. In my current sitting position, our eyes were roughly level, even though he was standing. Our faces couldn't have been more than a foot apart, and I could feel the burning gaze on my face as I tried desperately to look anywhere but him.

When he touched me, his hands were so warm, and I desperately wanted to feel that kind of warmth, but I couldn't just melt into his touch and become another damsel saved by the great Spider-man. His head cocked slightly to the side and he moved his hand a little, trying to entice me into accepting his offer. I'd be lying if I said I didn't consider it, but I wouldn't let myself cave.

"I'd rather not, thanks. You can go on and do whatever superhero duties you have to do. Save people, ya know? I promise you I don't need saving." I shook my head the tiniest bit that my now frozen muscles would allow and I could hear his resolve break within his deep sigh.

"No, you need to get down. I'm going to stay here with you until you do, alright? I don't wanna leave you alone, so how about we go find somewhere to warm up and we can talk a little. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you might like that."

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Peter's perspective

Tell me if you think I'm wrong, but finding someone sobbing their eyes out while they practically freeze to death on the edge of a building in the middle of the night is more than a little concerning. I knew literally nothing about this lady in front of me, but she looked no older than I was and she looked so horribly upset.

Out of instinct, I reached out to her and tried to brush her tears away, but her skin actually burnt me with how cold it was. That was definitely not good. The fact that she was sitting alone on the highest point on the street was also not good. I personally have never dealt with what looked like a suicide case, but Mr. Stark had trained me to deal with lost of things.

At first, I was just going through everything he had told me and was going to do that to the letter. Everything was going swimmingly, trying to get her away from the ledge and to a safe place where I could try to asses her and get her help, but the first time she brought her eyes up to mine, my brain went blank and I dropped the whole professionalism act faster than my grades at the end of the semester.

The look of pure hurt in her pale green eyes made my own brim with tears, and I was very thankful that my face was covered from her. But at the same time, I didn't want to stay shielded from her. She looked so vulnerable right now, and I wanted to look into her eyes while she saw mine and I wanted to tell her that everything was okay. I wanted to stop everything and stay here until she was happy, because I have never seen someone so distraught.

But I couldn't do any of that. Mr. Stark doesn't want me to reveal my identity to pretty much anyone. My huge problem with that is that too many people have been hurt because they were close to me without realizing it. I lost Uncle Ben, and I'm not going to let her die as well, because whether I know her name or not, I don't think I could live with the reality that I had the chance to save someone, but left them alone and let them jump. That wasn't going to happen.

" Charter Road, Complex 5, apartment number 218." The words that left her darkened lips were heavily slurred and barely audible. Her rasps of breath and paralyzed lips made it really hard to make out words, but I understood well enough.

"Is that where you live?" She couldn't move as she was so frozen, but she looked up at me with sincerity and then slowly blinked her dewey eyes. "Charter Road; that's nearby isn't it? Is it okay if I take you there? Here, I'll carry you over."