Chapter Text
You had been living in the same crappy apartment for three years because it was all you could afford after college. It was one of the nicer ones in the building but definitely not the best. It was small, one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen/living room ordeal. It was fine. Life was fine. It wasn't the best and you weren’t exactly living the New York dream or anything like you were hoping but it was better than being stuck where you were from. You had friends, well at least a couple but they were some of the best people you had met and they had also recently moved back to New York, but they were from here so they were a little more, well, they fit in a bit better. You were hoping to be able to room with them eventually but you had grown a bit attached to your apartment over the years even if it was crappy, you had made it your home.
During your time living in this complex you had seen plenty of people come and go, some were friendly and others not so much. But there were a couple of people who had been there as long as you had and one of them you had been warned about multiple times, Peter. He basically lived in the attic of the apartment complex. Which you found completely weird, because it was a total wreck up there. One of your neighbors had told you they believed he was stealing their clothes and another said he straight up moved upstairs when they had tried to start a conversation with him. In general you had just heard some..interesting stories about his lifestyle but who were you to judge? But still he kinda freaked you out.
So he definitely wasn’t someone you wanted to come in contact with anytime soon.
. . .
Today you were doing absolutely nothing. Yep, that was it, nothing. You were going to stay in bed watching TV on your laptop. It was Saturday. What else were you supposed to do? It was about ten in the morning when you woke up and as you were checking your phone, you heard a knock on the door. Considering this is the normal ‘mail’ time for your building, you went to get whatever packages or letters from your mom or other family had come.
After gathering your mail and looking at it, you noticed something extremely annoying. One of the packages wasn’t even meant for you. Great, you thought. Now you had to go bring this to whoever it belonged to. As you looked at the name you froze. Shit. It belonged to the one and only Peter. The neighbor everyone and their mother had warned you about. Now you really, really did not want to go to his door. You some what imagined him as some crazy, messy, loser who probably stayed in his room all day playing video games and eating pizza. So you decided on the bright idea to text him rather than go straight to his door because that seemed terrifying this way you can minimize contact you thought. After going to multiple other neighbors to get said number you finally got it from some random guy downstairs who told you “be careful I’ve heard odd things about him, apparently he’s always out til like midnight or something”. What a shocker, another person who thinks he’s weird.
It took you about an hour to actually text him because you really did not want to have to interact with him, but you eventually press send and shoot him a message.
”hey, this is your downstairs neighbor Y/N. Is this Peter? Your package accidentally came to my door! Do you want to come get it or should I bring it to you?”
Three hours later and surprise, surprise he didn’t even respond. You were kinda pissed considering now you just have his package and he didn’t even bother to respond? What kind of guy does that? It’s not like he’s out saving the world. You decided it's better to just ignore it and you go to make some food and head to your bed to watch TV.
. . .
Eventually you wake up to a ding on your phone, and you realized you fell asleep. You check your phone to see a message from Peter.
”Hi. Yes, it's Peter. I’m so sorry for not responding to you earlier! If you could just run it up to my apartment that would be awesome!! Sorry again!! Like super sorry!”
You got the memo that he was sorry. You were a little confused on why he was this distraught but you responded anyway.
”Yeah, don’t be sorry lol. I'll bring it up but I need to eat dinner first.” After waking up to the text you had realized most of the day had passed and it around eight PM. To your surprise he responded immediately.
”Is it possible you could bring it RN!! It’s kinda really important. I ordered pizza for dinner if u want, it can be like a trade haha! :)”
You were a little nervous to go eat dinner with him, and at the fact that you might be right about him being a video game loser who only eats takeout pizza. But you were also starving and did not want to make anything for dinner tonight. So you decide on the only reasonable answer, you go eat his pizza. As you arrive at his door you are actually terrified. It looks like a genuine mess for the outside. There are cobwebs in the doorframe as if it’s decorated for Halloween. As you knock, you stand there awkwardly in pj pants and an old t-shirt with some random dad joke on the front, holding this package. You didn’t really realize it before but it looks like it's got some weird heavy science-y thing in it. The word fragile is written all over it and it smells like chemicals, it feels like there’s some weird liquid or something inside. Eventually you hear Peter shuffle to the door and as he opens it you are extremely surprised.
The inside of his apartment isn’t remotely as bad as you thought it would be. I mean it looks old and not very homey you could say, but it was clean and pretty open. In fact Peter looks a lot cleaner than you imagined. And a lot more jacked. And you know what, just a lot more attractive than you imagined. You realized you have never actually seen him before other than maybe in very quick passings where you couldn’t even see his face. In that moment you felt a lot more awkward in your clothes, you didn’t really think it would matter what you showed up in but also you didn’t really expect what you ended up showing up to. On the other hand Peter was wearing straight legged jeans with a t-shirt that kind of looked like it was probably from his High-school years.
“Uhhh hi!” You said in the most normal tone you could muster.
”Hi..you wanted pizza right? And thanks for bringing my package up! It is really important” Peter said carefully taking the package from your hands and placing it on the counter as he walked inside.
As you walked inside you could see the layout of his apartment much better. It was very empty with just a simple couch and kitchen, as you looked to the side you noticed a huge computer setup, but it didn’t necessarily look like it was meant for gaming, more like a computer lab sort of deal. You turned to face that side of the room before Peter spoke,
”That’s just… uh like for my job. I work from home.”
”What do you do for work?” You asked, surprised.
”ah, thats not really important. I do like uh top secret stuff kinda??” He said, he seemed like he couldn’t really decide what to say which made you hope he wasn’t like a drug dealer or something crazy.
”Ha, okay Peter. Now where’s the pizza” You decided you wouldn’t pester him about it considering well, he seemed extremely nervous. You were also extremely hungry.
“Oh here you go Y/N. Also I like your shirt, I have a lot of fun t-shirts that are similar!” He said. Great so he was paying attention to what you were wearing.
You laughed a little before responding. “Thanks, I’ve had it for a while.” You weren’t really sure what to say now considering you really did not know this guy what-so-ever, but he definitely wasn’t as bad as everyone else kept saying and he was crazy attractive so you decided not to attempt to book it immediately.
. . .
You and Peter had talked for a while as you ate your pizza and yes it was crazy awkward but it was also pretty fun. He was a fun guy, He was definitely a little lonely but oh well. You eventually left because his computer started literally speaking as if it were human (who knew computers could do that) and he seemed somewhat frantic so you suggested you should head out now. He agreed but before you left, he told you to text him sometime before he realized what he said and sheepishly backtracked. You were shocked he actually seemed to enjoy your company but you were indeed glad.
As you walked out he yelled “BYE Y/N!!”
As you walked back to your room, you were in awe. How had everyone gotten this negative impression of him. He seemed a little weird, and nerdy but definitely not rude. When you got in bed you could not stop thinking of him, should you text him? Did he really want that or did he just not know what to say to you. You had no clue.
You one hundred percent stayed up in bed thinking about it.