The next couple of weeks were horrendous.

Violet forgot how to take care of herself. She only showered when her hair got so greasy it stayed slicked down to her head, and she forgot to eat a full meal until her head was sipping. It wasn't on purpose, though. She had been busy distracting herself. Working on college essays to apply to back-up schools in case Oxford with Gwen didn't work out, joining Gwen at work and shadowing her while everyone was distracted with the declining health of Norman Osborn, and helping her mother out around the house. Spending her free time brushing through different bodegas and small shops, shoving things in her pockets.

Anything she could do to not think of Peter, who seemed to slide into every thought she had, every memory she remembered, and every magazine and online article she read. Pictures of him, painted with words of both hero and villain, were everywhere, everybody holding different opinions about the red-and-blue vigilante that patrolled the streets at night. It pained her every time she read it, even more when she saw the negative connotations attached to his name.

Right now, she stood inside of the busy lab of Oscorp Industries, watching aimlessly with dark, tired eyes as Gwen worked on whatever she had been assigned. Violet usually stayed silent while Gwen worked, more so enjoying the company than wanting to participate in whatever boring thing the girl was up to. Her best friend only brought her here so she didn't weep in bed, anyways.

"Violet. Violet? Violet!"

She snapped out of her trance, blinking away her daze before looking at her best friend. "Huh? Sorry. Yeah?"

The blonde's eyes were wide, and a large grin pulled at her lips. Her face was a complete parallel to Violet's look, so much that it was comical if you looked at it from afar. "Your phone. Watch it. Watch your phone, Vi!"

Confusion painted it's way over Violet's face, and she pulled out her phone, the screen dim with no texts or calls. Suddenly, it let out a chime, and a funky tune followed as her phone lit up with a call. Nervously, she answered. "Hello?"

"Is this Violet Flynn?"

"Yes, this is her. Who's calling?"

"I'm calling from the Oxford Scholars Program. We have some exciting news!"

And then the lady, with a charming British accent, kept babbling on, but Violet only caught a few words, too in a daze. She just caught a few words about a set of interviews that determined whether or not she'd be accepted into Oxford. After she said 'thank you' probably eighty times and hung up, she turned to Gwen. And then proceeded to let out the girliest squeal she had ever mustered in her life.

"Oh my God, I got an interview with Oxford. How did you know? Are you a psychic or something?" Suddenly, she felt very chatty, holding onto Gwen's arms as if her life depended on it, her own face now a replica of her best friend's joyous one.

Gwen laughed. "Well, when you were in your dream state, I got a call, too. I just kept it under wraps so that you could feel your own pride and not just proud of me, you know?" She smiled, tilting her head ever-so-slightly as she chuckled again.

In a spurt of happiness, she threw her arms around the girl. "Oh, Gwen. You're my best friend, you know that? So good." She gave her a squeeze before pulling back, her face suddenly becoming a shadow of slight hurt. "Is it bad that the only thing I want to do is call Peter? Which is stupid, because he's the one that called off everything, I know, but he wanted nothing but me to even get a chance to get into Oxford."

The girl in front of her smiled at her sadly before grabbing Violet's phone out of her lap, holding it out to her. "Call him. Even if it has a bad outcome, call him. Get that little urge out of the way."

Violet nodded, giving her friend another smile before standing up and telling her she'd see her later. She rushed her way to the elevator, where she spoke loud and clear about her desired floor before making her way out of the building. Fuck it. Nothing could go wrong calling her ex-boyfriend, right?

The phone rang a few times before it was picked up. She heard the distant sound of birds, and the crashing of waves, and she was tempted to ask about it, but was frozen in her spot when his voice rang through. "Hey."

The way he said the single word in a breathless manner, as if it had been taking everything in him not to call her, as if he missed her as much as she missed him. Not wanting to think of the worst, she brushed that thought out of her head, shaking it. "Hello."

"How are you?" Peter answered, as if he was on call with his grandma. The pleasantries made her skin itch.

She cleared her throat. "I'm good. How are you? How's Aunt May and Uncle Ben?" A small smile pulled at her lips at the thought of the older couple. They had both tried to reach out in the time Violet and Peter had been broken up, but other than shallow answers, the former hadn't answered. It'd hurt too much to keep in contact with the people that had become like a second family to her.

"Um, good. We're good. So, what's up?" The words sounded strained, like he felt the awkward tension slowly stretching between her and wherever he was.

"Oh, yeah. Right. I'm sorry." Violet chuckled, scratching the back of her neck. "Um... I got a call from Oxford today. They want to interview me. Which will probably be a long line of interviews, and who knows if I will get through those, but I just wanted to tell you. You were my big supporter, you know."

Peter chuckled lowly on the other side of the line. "Were? I still am, Violet. I like seeing you succeed. I'm happy for you. And you and I both know you are too stubborn to not let yourself get through the interviews."

Her lips pulled up in a smile, and she chuckled, too, letting a soft silence follow. After a second, she let go of all self-restraint. "Say, do you want to meet up tonight? Nothing bad or nothing too good, I promise. I just feel like we need to talk." She knew the last statement seemed ominous, but she let it linger. Better leave him on his toes, after all.

The boy stayed quiet for a moment longer before responding. "Yeah, of course. You know where, right?"

This time, she couldn't help but laugh. It was somewhere in downtown New York, near where the dim sum place was. Beautiful lights lined the little alleyway, stringing together the entrances to multiple shops and restaurants. It had been one of their favorites. "Yes, I do. I'll see you there tonight? Near the subway?"

"You will."

━━━━

At around eight o'clock that night, Violet stood on the curb of a busy, multiple-lane street, one that led right into the alleyway. She pulled her coat tighter around her torso, taking a look around at the bustling people bumbling about. Couples held tight onto each other in the cold weather, families laughed as they spent quality time together. Love was everywhere.

Everywhere except for around Peter and Violet, she guessed.

He arrived a bit later than she expected, but seeing as he was skipping his way up the subway steps, she assumed it wasn't on purpose. His eyes caught hers from across the street, staring as he dangerously crossed it, sending cars to haltering stops and causing drivers to yell obscenities at him. She laughed as he came to stand in front of her, a grin pulling at his lips.

"Hey. Hi." He greeted, a small laugh following, as if he couldn't believe she was there.

"Hi." She answered.

"You look amazing." He complimented, his eyes giving her a once over, and she felt her body chill to the core, goosebumps running up and down her arms. He didn't know exactly how much the words affected her. Or maybe he did and just wanted to be a little shit, she didn't know.

In response, Violet shuffled on her feet, shoving her hands deep in her pocket so that she didn't reach out to touch him. "I'm sorry for the spontaneous outreach." She started, giving him a sheepish smile. "It was kind of..."

"No, I don't.... I... Spontaneous... is all right, you know?" He stuttered, trying to figure out the right words.

She swayed in her spot. "Well, I just figured it was time. You know?" She mocked, causing him to smile at her. "Time that we try to be friends."

Peter nodded, his eyes still boring straight into hers, making her heart thrum as hard as it could in her ribcage. "Yeah. Friends, yeah. That's... great." His words held ominous pauses in the middle, like there was more he wanted to say to feel the space between them. She jotted it down in her mental notes for later.

"I just don't want us to be complicated." The full truth. Something about being around Peter just made her spit out the entire truth.

He grinned, tilting his head a little. "I was just saying that to someone. I hate complicated."

At the idea of someone, an eyebrow raised. For all she knew, he didn't talk to a lot of people except for her, Gwen and his aunt and uncle. Who was someone?

The urge to ask him about it lay at the edge of her tongue, but she pushed it down. No reason to sound like a jealous girlfriend when she wasn't even the latter. "Keep it simple."

"Okay, great, great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right."

Peter turned to start walking beside her and she spun on her heel, fighting to keep pace with his longer strides. "Well, I mean," he began, bringing his hand up to chew on his nails before putting it down, letting out a strained chuckle, "if we're gonna be friends, I think we gotta establish some ground rules."

Violet's head raised from where she had been looking at her feet and she laughed, raising an eyebrow. "Some ground rules." She repeated.

"Yeah, some ground rules." He repeated, and the strictness in his voice made her laugh, shaking her head. "Like that."

Her eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion, slight disbelief. "Like what?"

The way he smiled at her made her heart stop beating, and he grinned even wider at her lost expression. "That laugh. That's off the table."

She fought the urge to laugh again, half in disbelief and half out of pure joy. Was he flirting with her? Like they had never dated and he had never called it off? "My laugh is off the table?"

"Off the table." He confirmed. "You gotta figure out a more annoying laugh."

She mustered up the ugliest laugh she could, scrunching up both her eyes and her nose, and his grin grew deeper, deep dimples appearing on both sides of his wide smile.

"That's still adorable." He laughed.

Violet laughed along with him, shaking her head. "Not adorable. Not adorable, at all." She let her laugh simmer down before nodding, her entire body now facing him while she walked. "Okay, I have a ground rule, then. Women are allowed to have those, too, are they not?"

Peter held up his hands in mock surrender, and she took it as a sign to go on.

"Don't tell me that I look amazing with your big, brown doe eyes. " She stopped walking, and he moved to face her as they stood still. "Okay? I'm really serious about that one."

All traces of a smile left his face and instead he gave her a deep look, one with a lot of thought behind it, his brow furrowed. He looked more handsome than she had ever seen him with the lights dancing in his eyes and enlightening his face, and she let out a deep breath.

"Oh, no." He spoke, and she raised an eyebrow in question. "I just figured out the next ground rule." He giggled.

"What?" She questioned, her giggle matching his.

"No more of this." He raised a hand to rub his nose, and immediately she pinpointed what he was talking about. "No more of this little nose rub that you do. Don't think I haven't - hey!" He interrupted himself when her hand moved self consciously to rub her nose.

Violet let out a mocking sniffle. "What am I supposed to do?" She raised her hand again, rubbing her nose. "It's allergy season!" She wanted to see how far she could push his adoration for her, how far she could get him back. She knew it was selfish, to win him over by purposefully being all the things he loved effortlessly, but she wasn't thinking about anything but the intense happiness bubble she felt.

"This is killing me." He lowered his head so he was glancing at her through the top of his eyes, shaking his head. "You're spitting in the face of my ground rules. I'm out." He jokingly turned to walk away.

She watched as he walked away a bit before laughing. "Oh, come on back here, Superman."

He smiled as he made his way back. "First, we get ice cream. And then, only then, am I out." He reasoned jokingly, turning to walk away again. This time, she followed, trying horribly to ignore the little skip in her step.