Chapter 1

Peter jumped off the couch and headed to the door after hearing someone knock, while MJ and Ned were laughing at Adam West fighting off a shark. He opened the door and saw you standing before him.

“Luka! Hey, hey I didn’t know you were coming over!” He said with a smile. “I don’t think he’s in yet?”

“I know, sorry, hope it’s okay?” You said with a dramatic pout.

“Of course! Of course, come on in.” He stepped to the side and you offered him a grateful smile as you stepped over the threshold, shrugging your coat off and hanging it up on the hooks before untying your boots. “Whoa, you look…”

His words trailed off as he looked you up and down, in a dark purple dress that was tight at the top and flared out towards the bottom, ending in the middle of your thigh and lacy detail over your chest.

“Yeah, me and Adam are heading out to that new Korean BBQ place down by Delmar’s. He’s already told me he’s just running a little late so figured I’d stop in and see you.”

“Right, well, you’re always welcome, you know that.” He said as he gestured to the sofas. “Me and the guys were just watching the old Batmans.”

“Ugh I love Adam West as Batman!” You squealed as you rushed over and sat down next to MJ, grabbing some of her popcorn.

An hour and a half later, you had become so immersed into watching Batman, and talking to the others about the hierarchy of the best Batman actors, that the sound of your phone buzzing on the table made you jump.

“Sorry guys!” You said as you reached forward to pick it up, feeling excited when you saw Adam’s name lighting up the screen. As you swiped onto the message, that excitement quickly dwindled as you read his words. Your change in mood was clearly obvious to the group, because they were now looking between you and the phone.

“Is everything okay?” Ned asked.

“Uh,” You locked your phone and nodded unconvincingly as you ran your hand through your hair. “Yeah, yeah sorry. Adam can’t make it anymore.”

“To your date?” Peter asked in shock. “After making you wait for over an hour?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, it happens. He’s trying to get the supervisor role so he’s been working a lot of overtime recently.”

“Still could have let you know before now.” Peter scoffed.

“I’ll see if Ruby can make it instead, seeing as I’m already dressed up.” You laughed a little, but you knew it didn’t come across as genuine. You focused on texting your best friend instead.

“Your reservation was like an hour ago, will they still let you go?” MJ queried. You shrugged back, just wanting to head out now.

Adam had been doing this for weeks. It was true that he’s trying to get a supervisor role, but you had to admit, it was starting to annoy you that he kept blowing off your dates. How reasonable is it for an employer to make you work 60 hours a week?

Peter watched as you texted Ruby, and thought that you didn’t deserve it. True, he had enjoyed the fact that you always popped over to his place before these dates, as if you knew that Adam was going to cancel, but he hated how disheartened you got every time.

“Ya, Ruby’s on her way!” You said suddenly, jumping up from the couch and pulling your dress down. “Sorry for bombarding your film night,” You headed over to pull your boots on, desperate to head out before you started ranting or crying to these guys. “I’ll see you soon Peter!” You called as you grabbed your coat and headed out the door, closing it behind you before letting out a huge breath, glancing at the door next to Peter’s, then walking towards the stairs.

Inside Peter’s flat, MJ and Ned immediately started interrogating Peter as he went to his kitchen to grab another drink.

“Isn’t this like the fifth time he’s cancelled on her?” MJ asked him. He sighed as he unbottled a beer.

“Sixth.” He answered. “It’s getting later and later each time as well.”

“I just don’t get it.” Ned shook his head. “Why does she keep booking dates if he always leaves her hanging?”

“I mean they are together.” Peter rolled his eyes. “Plus I’m not exactly complaining. The first couple times she waited at his place, then knocked on when he was taking too long, and now it’s a little…routine that she just comes here first until she hears from him.”

“Guess that’s the perk of him living next door to you.”

“One of the very few perks.” Peter muttered back before having a sip.

“So we’re what,” MJ said, putting her hands behind her head dramatically. “Waiting for her to dump him, then you’ll swoop in?”

“It’s not the worst idea. He seems like an awful boyfriend so it’s not like it’s gonna take long.” Ned laughed, making Peter smile a little as he headed back over to the sofa and fell onto it.

“Just sucks that he doesn’t get it. She’s awesome and he takes her for granted, blowing her off all the time. Even when he is here and she’s over in the flat they’re either silent or talking about nothing interesting or…doing…things. There doesn’t seem to be any fun there anymore.” Peter explains.

“You listen to them through the walls?” MJ frowned.

“The walls are thin. Plus, I kind of don’t have a choice, do I?” He looked at her as if to say ‘duh’. “Being Spiderman doesn’t exactly give you the option to not hear everything around you.”

“Maybe you should tell her."

“Tell her what?”

“That her boyfriend is crap and she should dump him.” MJ shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Yeah, sure. Let me get right on that.” Peter scoffed. “Let’s just watch the film.” He said, trying to divert the conversation.

Okay yes, Peter liked you. He had for a while. 10 months ago when he first bumped into you as you and Adam were leaving his flat, he instantly thought you were gorgeous. And the more times he bumped into you, and the more times you popped over before each date night, he started liking you more. But he’d told himself that he’d never even try anything while you were with Adam. He wasn’t going to lie though, the recent issues you’d been having with Adam gave him a small hope that you wouldn’t be together for much longer.

At the Korean BBQ place, you were busy pounding back shots of Soju with Ruby and ranting about your life, just like you should do with your best friend.

“I just, I don’t understand why he even tries to arrange date nights if he knows he’ll be working!” You whined.

“He doesn’t know how late he’ll be working though..” Ruby tried to reason.

“No, he just knows he’s working. So at least be like ‘Hey babe, I gotta work and don’t know what time I’ll be back so maybe just grab your own dinner and I’ll call you when I’m home’. Rather than me dressing up and waiting around all the time!”

“I agree with you on that. Maybe just stop planning them?”

“I just said that.”

“No like, you stop suggesting going on dates. Not that I don’t mind accompanying you at the last minute to each one,” Ruby said as she poured you both another shot. “But girl, he can’t keep doing this. I mean, when was the last time you and him actually spent proper time together?”

You racked your brain, and you were coming up empty. Other than heading to his flat in the late evening, you waking up to him already gone to work, the occasional takeaway at his, you couldn’t think of any time recently that you and Adam had actually sat down for an extended period of time and connected properly.

“He’s just trying so hard to impress his boss for this supervisor role.” You said, shaking away the feeling of anxiety in your stomach. “He always texts me, whenever he does get home, and he’s apologetic and stuff. Just wish there were more hours in the day so we can still do couple stuff while he’s working extra.” You sighed and had your Soju shot before putting some more beef on the BBQ. “Feel like I see Peter more than I see Adam and that shouldn’t be the case.”

“Do I have to be worried that my best friend status is in trouble?” Ruby queried, pointing her chopsticks at you before flipping the beef over.

“No, definitely not.” You laughed. “Peter’s no competition to you darling.”

“Because he’s…different?” She smirked at you.

“He’s just Peter, come on Rubes.” You scoffed, not noticing her knowing look as you reached forward for some beef.

“Hmm but you did just say you see him more than Adam?”

“Because he lives next door, I’m not sitting in an empty apartment if I can hang out with Peter.” You shoved some beef in your mouth and chewed it quietly before continuing. “It’s just until he gets the supervisor role, then it’ll all calm down and we can go back to being Luka and Adam again.”

Ruby nodded, but she wasn’t smiling. She’d told you a few times that Adam wasn’t being fair to you, ignoring your relationship for his job, but she knew you would wave it off every time, so she kept quiet. She knew you would inevitably break up, so she just had to make sure she was there for you when it happened.