Despite Sparky's rampage in Times Square and dealing with Max Dillon's covered up disappearance and with her combative love and hatred for Peter Parker, life was still moving for Violet. Even though she would have loved to take a day off to just sleep and be lazy, Oxford would only have openings for so long, and so now she was rushing down the busy streets of New York City in some of the nicest clothes she had.

Her heart raced uncomfortably in her chest and all of her body felt clammy, which she found ironic, seeing as most people only had clammy hands. But, nope, her entire body felt sticky and damp and overall uncomfortable.

Cars roared past her as they sped as much as they could when there was no traffic or a break in the road, and people shoved past her like they were crazy. She was so in her head about what to say and how to act that the sound of someone slamming into a wall behind her made her almost jump out of her skin, and she sighed when she saw it was Peter. He was just... always there, wasn't he?

"Agh!" He grunted when his body slammed into the wall, the velocity of his swing now coming back to kiss him in the ass. Then, he straightened himself out like it hadn't happened, rushing to keep up with her quick pace. "Hey! Hi."

"Hi." She bluntly responded, turning towards him with a concerned look on her face.

m"Hi, I need to talk to you for a second." The words came out in one big spew of a sentence, and she wanted nothing more to hear what was plaguing his mind, but a glance down at her phone confirmed that she was running horribly late, and she didn't need that.

Violet held up a finger before turning and starting to walk away. "I'm... I'm running late right now." Finally, she made it in front of the building, throwing open the door and trying to scuttle in without the puppy that was Peter following. "I can't. I'm sorry, Peter."

Despite her obvious intention to not speak to him right now, he pressed, following her into the building. "It's just gonna take a second. Just give me one minute. I just wanna say one thing and then I'm gone."

Peter continued to follow her as she stepped farther into the room, closer to the lady at the desk that'd get her checked in and mark her as present, and irritation crawled up her arms like fire ants. He stepped in front of her, and she glared as she stopped. "Everything's a mess. Everything's insane." He hurriedly spoke.

Rolling her eyes, she shushed him. In response, he continued, his arms waving wildly as he explained. "My mom? My dad? Everything I thought about them? Lies. Lies, lies, lies. Nothing makes any sense anymore. So, here we are. I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do about Harry. Because, of course, I wanna save him. You know? I wanna save him, because he's my best pal. And what if my blood works? But what if it doesn't?"

As Peter continued to ramble about his existential crises and his problems, all she could do was stare at him with blank eyes, nodding every once in a while to act like she was really listening to what he was saying but, really, all she could think about was her Oxford interview, and how it was time, and how this motherfucker was doing nothing but making her late.

"I don't know! I got no idea!" The boy let out a chuckle that sounded horribly close to insane. "I got nothing. I got nothing." He took a deep breath, before looking back up at her. "The only thing I keep coming back to, Violet, is...."

"Ms. Flynn?" The woman called gently, and she glanced over Peter's shoulder to look at her with an eyebrow raised.

The woman continued speaking in her polite British accent, not even caring what conversation she had just interrupted. "Shall I take you upstairs?"

Violet nodded. "Yes. I'm so sorry." She glanced around before biting her lips. "I'm so sorry. I'm already late. Can I just have one more minute?" She asked. Peter obviously had something deep on his mind for him to be squirming like a caught fish next to her, and she'd rather him spit it out now than have him barge into the meeting with a sudden exclamation.

The woman nodded, although she looked terribly confused. "Okay."

"Thank you. I'm sorry." She apologized again, before turning back to Peter. "Okay, I have to be -"

"Where are we?" He interrupted, as if just realizing he was interrupting something very important.

Her eyes widened slightly at the pure audacity of the boy. Her sarcasm coming out to play, she shrugged. "No big deal, just my last fucking Oxford interview." She whispered through clenched teeth, giving him a pointed stare.

Immediately, guilt rushed Peter's face, and it turned a bit red with shame. "Oxford. I didn't know. Okay, well," he paused, before turning to the woman, "I'm sorry to bother you, my fair lady - Madam. But... who am I? I mean... who am I? I'm John Hopkins. I'm one of the young professors at Harvard and I've been trying to get her to be in my... be part of my team for a while now. And she's just the best person I know, and a genius. And I'm sorry. God save the queen." He continued babbling on as Violet stared at him with the most 'I'm going to kill you' look she could muster, before he turned to walk away.

"Peter, Peter!" She whispered as she followed after him, excusing herself from the lady. "What do you want to say to me?" She demanded, tired of the whole skipping around the subject thing. It was childish, really. "What's the one thing you were talking about?"

He took a deep breath, glancing down, and immediately she knew that he had been trying to close on the tough conversation they had been having for a week now. "I have to go to England, Peter. It's the most important thing to me right now. And, I don't know, maybe we're just on different paths right now. You know? I don't. But I've gotta go. I have to." The last words came out as more of a plea thans he intended it to, but she was just so tired. So tired of loving a boy she couldn't have, so tired of being caught in the middle of having him and not, so tired of arguing, for once in her life.

Violet didn't even let him respond before she turned away, blinking away the developing tears in her eyes that threatened to break free when she heard him whisper 'good luck' behind her back. She walked straight up to the lady at the desk, setting her shoulders in a way that made her stand as tall as she didn't feel, nodding. "I'm ready. I'm sorry."

━━━━

She did it.

Violet Flynn, who had developed a horrible addiction to shoplifting and had thrown away her life once upon a time, got into Oxford. She charmed her way through an interview, straight into the hearts of the people deciding her fate, and she had worked so hard all throughout high school, and finally she had something to show for it.

She was moving to England.

It was crazy to think about, and she felt like a zombie after she got the news. No, really. All she did was stare at the wall for a good ten minutes after she got the news. And then she cheered. And then she cried. And then she danced. And then she cried again.

She had to leave Peter.

The only boy she had ever loved, the first person she had let get close enough to know the real her, the boy she had put her life on the line for constantly because he meant absolutely everything to her. The person that had loved her despite all of her flaws, and had tried to own up to his mistakes despite not being able to quite put it into words.

Violet felt dizzy, she felt sick, and she felt lonesome. Every time she used to think of Peter, she felt happiness, a blossoming in her chest of feelings she couldn't exactly put into words either, something that made her want to run a six-mile marathon and then jump into his arms. She felt safe even thinking about him. And now all she saw was gray. No hope. A tunnel with no ending, no bright light. She didn't think she could ever get the boy she loved back, not in the way she had before. If they even went back to a seemingly normal pace, there would always be something. Always.

After she had been brought in and told she had gotten in, the advisors had told her about a summer class that she could take to get a headstart on her freshman year. At first, she hadn't been interested. But now, thinking about having to constantly run into Peter, and constantly have painful conversations that made her chest cave in more and more with each word, she couldn't help but sign up for it, and book a plane ticket for as soon as possible.

No time like now, right?

She stopped by his house. The place she had called home for a couple of weeks, where she had been nursed to health after a bullet graze, where she had fallen in love with Peter and everything about him and his family, who treated her like she was their own. Standing on the sidewalk, she admired the home-y exterior of the place, but her ribcage felt empty. It wasn't home anymore.

Neither was the teenage boy that lived there.

But she owed him an explanation.

So Violet marched her way up to the door, and she knocked, for the first time in forever. Usually, she'd just walk right in, and would be greeted happily by Aunt May and Uncle Ben, the former usually inviting her to eat some type of treat.

Aunt May answered the door, and her face immediately was illuminated in surprise. "Violet." She greeted, as if she couldn't believe the girl was actually there. "Hello, my dear. Did you want to come in?" Her tone was inviting as she stepped back to leave space in the doorway for Violet, a little bit of excitement lacing her tone as she assumed the best, but Violet shook back all the feelings of guilt as she shook her head.

"I don't have much time right now, Aunt May. Is Peter home?" She questioned, trying to keep her voice from wavering. It all felt so different, so wrong, so tense. She hated it more than anything.

The older woman's forehead creased in concern, and she shook her head slowly. "No, he's not. Are you guys okay?" The question was soft. All of the excitement that was there had immediately dissipated, and Violet hated how she had that effect on people.

The teenager took a deep breath before shaking her head. "No, Aunt May, I don't think we are." She admitted. "But it's okay. I got into Oxford," she smiled weakly, "and, um, I'm moving to England. I leave soon. I was coming to tell him that I was leaving, so that he wasn't blindsided by it. But I'll call him." And then she turned to make her leave, to make her way down the steps, her body suddenly feeling way heavier than it should have.

"Violet!" Aunt May's voice called behind her, and she immediately turned around. "I'm proud of you," she praised, a smile pulling at her lips, "and I really hope this is what's best for you. It was great having you around all the time, and I expect pictures!" Her finger wagged at her and she laughed. "And even though he may seem indifferent at times, and he's definitely stupid as well, Peter loves you. With his entire heart and soul. I hope you know that, and I hope he's told you. He could at least give you that."

Tears threatened to fall at her words, and before she knew it, she was stepping forward to wrap her arms around the shorter woman. "I love him, too, Aunt May. With my whole heart and soul."

The woman rubbed her back soothingly. "I know, honey. And where there's a will, there's a way." She pulled back, rubbing Violet's arms. "You guys will come back to each other. I know it."

Violet nodded, before looking at the taxi behind her and back at Aunt May. "I gotta go."

"I know." She replied, smiling as she took another step back.

"Thank you," was all she could say before turning and trotting down the steps, entering the taxi before she could let the tears fall completely in front of the old woman that only meant good in everything she did.

Finally, when the taxi got lodged in horrible traffic on the way to the airport, she pulled out her phone. She pressed Peter's contact, staring at his contact photo a bit longer than she intended. It was the picture Aunt May had taken of them at graduation, with her laughing with her eyes closed and Peter staring at her like she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. It had made her almost cry with joy when she had seen it, to see in a picture how much he had actually cared for it, but now it just made her heart ache.

Sighing, she pressed call.

The phone rung multiple times before finally cutting off, a robotic voice answering her. She took a deep breath before starting to speak.

"Hi, Peter. It's me. Uh, I got into Oxford. Beat that stinky kid all the way back to seventh grade where he belongs. Woohoo. It's, uh, very exciting. And a lot. I came by your house a bit ago, but you weren't there. And, uh, I'm on my way to the airport right now. There's this early summer class that they told me about and I thought that... it would somehow, I don't know, be easier this way. I guess."

"I think that maybe it's time to let this go. And that's not because I don't love you. To quote Aunt May, I love you with my whole heart and soul. But it's because I do."

"I have nothing much more to say. I don't know how to say goodbye. I guess part of me hopes this isn't, even if it's some fairytale fantasy I have in my head from watching too many romance movies when I was younger. But, uh.... Bye, I guess? For now?"

"Maybe even forever?"