"So... what exactly did you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked, leaning against the doorway of the penthouse he lived in.

"Well... I hate to sound like an asshole here but, well, I pissed off Mary-Jane a few days back, Twilight too, and I apologized to both of them, now I owe Twilight a favour she can ask me for sometime, that's fine with me, but M-J said that I had to take her out on a date to try and get her to be my friend again" Peter explained, his friend stuffing his hands into his pockets as he spoke.

"And the problem is?"

"I'm broke as fuck, Mary-Jane is a classy girl that isn't going to appreciate a hot dog and a bottle of flat coke Harry, so... I know you know how much I had to do this but... can I borrow-"

Peter was cut off by his friend pulling his hand out of his pocket, said hand being filled with a large amount of Franklins, before cocking his arm back and throwing the enormous wad of money into Peter's face, the thin paper creating a loud slapping noise before the bills fell to the floor in a spread pattern.

"Don't mention it" Harry said "Anything else?"

"No, that's it really" Peter said "Thanks bestie"

Harry gave a cheesy smile before closing the door, leaving Peter to scoop up roughly three grand's worth of hundred dollar bills, a startling realization hitting him.

"Harry was wearing jeans" he said furrowing his brow "Who the fuck carries three grand in hundreds in their jeans?"

Peter looked at his watch for the eighty-fifth time that minute, still being surprised that the minute had yet to change, still five to eight at night while he waited for a good time to knock on M-J's door.

"Shit man... when do I knock?" he asked, scratching his head "Do I do it now or will that look to eager? Do I wait till a few minutes past eight to knock... no, that'll just make me look like a jackass... I could knock at exactly eight o'clock but that's too precise a time, she'll think I've been waiting for her... which you are Parker... moron"

He stuffed his hands into his jacket pocket and began to kick the wooden floor with the top of his converses, checking his watch every few seconds nervously.

"Do I need to say something to her?" he asked "Do I need an opening line or smooth one-liner to show her I'm a cool guy? Then again, she already knows how much of a fucking loser I am... evidenced by the fact I'm stood here talking to myself"

"Yeah, it is really depressing to watch actually" he heard a familiar female voice call from the other side of the door, Peter tensing and screwing his eyes shut "You're kind of like a retarded puppy to be honest Tiger, you're not good for much and you're kind of stupid but I'll be damned if watching you make a fool of yourself isn't worth keeping you around"

"How long have you been listening?" Peter asked Mary-Jane.

"Since you started actually, y'know I never really realized how much men over-think this kind of thing" she chuckled.

"It's not overthinking anything, it's just the sheer terror that comes with trying to impress a girl" Peter said, turning to face the door "It's like walking on broken glass, you make one small mis-step and you're bleeding out by yourself"

"Fair enough" she shrugged "D'you wanna wait inside? I'm just finishing off my make-up"

"Actually, do you mind if I go do another shift at work?" Peter asked, pointing his thumb over his shoulder "I think a six hour one should be enough to keep me busy before you're done"

"Ha" Mary-Jane said in a dry tone "Just let yourself in, my Aunt's not home, I'll be a few minutes at most"

"Uh... sure" Peter said, opening the door and walking inside, looking around at the apartment with an impressed expression, his peripheral vision catching a towel-covered Mary-Jane ducking back inside her bedroom.

Peter was at this point horrendously unaware of where to put himself, Mary-Jane hadn't given him any directions of what to do or where to sit.

He wasn't sure if he was supposed to sit down on the couch or if she wanted him to go stand in the kitchen area.

So he just stayed in the entranceway, seeing several piles of shoes and a bookcase next to the doorway lined with books and several photos.

One that caught his eye was a picture of a much younger Mary-Jane standing with a very tall, very muscular man in a black T-Shirt with short, spiked brown hair and a rough beard.

He took a closer look at the picture and guessed it was her father, the two of them not having very many features in common besides their brow, which was a very stylized, though natural curving shape, not too thick but not too thin either.

He looked at several of the other pictures, seeing Mary-Jane fishing with her father, playing football and swimming in the sea in, judging from the white sand and the beautiful blue of the ocean, somewhere exotic.

Or California.

Peter swiftly became bored and took out his phone, opening up his browser and going to his favourite emulator site in an attempt to find out what all the fuss was about Earthbound.

His legs eventually became tired and he went over to the couch, sitting down but keeping his back straight as he unpacked the file and loaded it into the free SNES emulator he'd downloaded a few months ago.

After getting about ten minutes into the game his back became sore and he relaxed into the couch, sinking into the soft material while M-J performed whatever hexing rituals women did to get their hair to look nice.

He wandered around the town for a few minutes, trying to get used to the fact that the A button int he game wasn't an immediate 'talk-to' button before running into the mission objective.

After becoming stuck for several minutes he re-read through several sections of dialogue before deciding to give up and go back to where he'd started to see if there was something he'd missed.

And much to his surprise-slash-anger, that was what he was meant to do.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second?" he asked angrily "You're actually supposed to go back to bed and not try and sneak past the cops?"

He hit the save state button on the emulator before continuing his playthrough and rant.

"That's exactly the opposite of every game ever made, A Link to the Past started off with you being told to go back to bed and then you ignore it to try and find Zelda... this game just broke one of the quintessential rules of video games which is 'Never follow the orders you're given by adults or people in power'... that's bullshit!" Peter growled angrily, continuing to play the game despite his anger towards it.

Peter's eyes were so intensely focussed on the game that he wasn't willing to look at the new source of heat he felt by his ear, deciding that it was probably just a hot flush brought on by his anger.

Though this theory was quickly proven wrong when Mary-Jane spoke directly into his ear, the sudden volume increase causing the unaware teenager to throw himself away from the young woman.

Mary-Jane began to laugh after Peter's squeal destroyed any idea of masculinity she had about him before he picked himself up and put his phone away, making sure to save state before locking the device.

"Finally" Peter said, looking the redhead up and down, hiding his impressed feeling behind a mask of annoyance.

He wasn't going to lie. She looked beautiful. Her cherry red hair was styled and layered now, her green eyes were complimented by black eye shadow, only making them stand out more.

She wore a black turtle neck sweater and a pair of black skinny jeans topped off with a pair of high-heeled leather boots.

"Wow" Peter thought to himself.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked, hanging her purse on the bend of her elbow and standing with a hand on her hip "I've been waiting ages for you"

"Don't you even dare woman" Peter growled with an angry look "I might have to shave the beard I just grew from how long I was waiting"

"Well whatever, we're both ready now" Mary-Jane said "I'm really looking forward to tonight you know?"

"Really?" Peter asked "Why?"

"I... I don't wanna sound like a loser here but... this is the first date I've been on since I moved here" Mary-Jane said, tugging at her collar to straighten out a crease that wasn't there.

"It's not a date remember?" Peter asked "This is me apologizing for being an asshole"

"Oh... yeah" Mary-Jane sighed, her elated tone dropping slightly before she caught herself "Well, whatever"

"M-J?" Peter asked.

"Peter?" she responded.

"Do you want this to be a date?" Peter asked "Because it can be if you want it to be?"

"And what make you think I want it to be that?" she asked.

"Because you sounded upset that it wasn't that" Peter reinforced.

"That it wasn't what?"

"That it wasn't a date"

"Because it isn't"

"But do you want it to be?"

"Want it to be what?"

"It to be a date"

"Why would I want that?"

"I don't know, why would you?"

"I thought the question was do I?"

"And do you?"

"Do what?"

"Then who's on first?"

"What?"

"Nothing, let's just go" Peter sighed, placing a hand on Mary-Jane's back and guiding her out of the apartment. Next Chapter: Bump on the Road Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 52 Minutes