Just after Spider-Man rescued those people in the elevators, Cindy, Harry, Lily, Liz, Flash, and Gwen were all sitting inside Harry's living room, waiting for Eren to arrive. Eren told them all that he was going to pick up a friend to take to the beach with them since they planned on playing volleyball and needed an extra person. Outside of that, Eren wanted to actually grow closer to this person, as he felt that their friendship seemed one-sided. He only really spoke with them during times of hardship or when he needed advice, losing them in many timelines made him realize that he took them for granted.
It wasn't long before they could hear the door open and close before two pairs of footsteps began making their way into Harry's eccentric, grandiloquent-looking living room. Eren eventually peered around the corner and greeted his friends. "Hey! What's up, everyone!" Eren said excitedly before looking back and gesturing to the person behind him. "C'mon, don't tell me that you of all people is suddenly acting shy." Eren teased before this person stepped forward.
Everyone's jaws dropped upon seeing the gorgeous, silver-haired Felicia Hardy turning the corner wearing a bikini with a floral skirt covering her lower half, along with floral sleeves on her shoulders. Some of the girls began to feel a bit self-conscious upon seeing Felicia's mature, full body, especially after seeing how hard the guys were looking at her.
"This is my coworker, Felicia. Cindy, you've met her before, remember? When I was on my trip." as Eren said this, Cindy immediately realized that this was the Black Cat. Eren had asked her before if she'd be okay with meeting her face to face one day and she agreed, so he knew this would be okay to introduce them like that.
"Oh! Felicia, hey!" Cindy exclaimed, bringing a smile to Felicia's face before the two girls hugged each other. Of course, Felicia didn't recognize her immediately, but after what Eren said, it was obvious that Cindy was in fact Silk.
"That's Harry, Liz, Lily, Flash, and Gwen." Eren said, pointing to his friends on the couch.
"Hey, everyone." Felicia spoke with her alluring-sounding voice as always.
Everyone greeted her back, introducing themselves one by one. After a bit of conversation amongst each other, the eight of them headed to Harry's garage before getting into one of his SUVs that was able to perfectly fit all of them.
It wasn't long before the eight of them were riding through the streets of New York, though at a snail's pace due to the congested New York traffic. However, the seven college students were all having a blast, cracking jokes, singing along to songs, and making the entire vibe of the commute very lively. However, Felicia was struggling to fit in and Eren took notice.
Felicia was sitting to Eren's left and Cindy was sitting to his right. The three of them were all the way in the furthest seats in the back of the SUV. Eren looked over at her with a sort of worried expression before speaking to her quietly.
"You good, Felicia?" He asked her, seemingly awakening her from a trance.
"Yeah, of course." She told him, however, she wasn't entirely being truthful at the moment.
"You sure? You seem a bit quiet. Didn't take you for the shy type." Eren smiled as he said this in a somewhat teasing manner, though Felicia didn't really smile back.
"I just… isn't it weird? You guys are all college students and I graduated like five years ago. I feel like you wouldn't wanna hang around someone my age." She admitted. She felt a bit out of place being in a car full of young, energetic twenty-year-olds as a twenty-seven-year-old.
Eren smiled still, chuckling slightly before speaking once more. "We wouldn't care if you were thirty-six years old. Trust me, no one thinks it's weird. I'm very happy you decided to come, truly."
Knowing what could've been of the future, Eren really did want to become closer to everyone. It reminded him that time is never guaranteed, nor was the next day. He just really wanted to appreciate those he had in his life.
"Me too." Cindy added with a smile. She didn't say anything until then, but she was listening and felt the same way as Eren. "I'm glad you came."
Felicia, hearing the two spiders' words, was able to feel a little bit more comfortable in the situation. She still felt a little out of place, but she knew that she'd feel less so after getting to know everyone a bit more.
A few hours later, the group found themselves walking on foot, approaching the mildly populated sands of one of New York's beaches, feeling the warm summer sun hitting their skin. "There's a spot over there!" Harry told everyone, pointing to a place on the beach with just enough space for eight people to put down their towels and belongings.
Harry and Flash raced over to it, wanting to secure the spot, while everyone else followed behind them at a leisurely pace. Once everyone's belongings were down, the energetic ones, such as Harry, Flash, Gwen, and Cindy sprinted toward the water while the rest lounged around on the beach. Eren, Lily, Liz, and Felicia sat together and watched as the rest of the group splashed around in the ocean and swam to their hearts' content.
"I take it you guys aren't too into swimming?" Felicia asked the group, lounging with her arms behind her head with sunglasses on her face. She was sitting under the sun, letting herself tan as the others sat beneath one of the umbrellas.
"I don't want to mess up my hair." Lily answered, sitting with her knees to her chest with sunglasses also covering her eyes.
"The ocean... is kinda scary." Liz spoke shyly, rubbing her arm as she thought about the many horrifying mysteries inside of the water.
"I'm not a very strong swimmer, so..." Eren spoke quietly, thinking of the one single time he sort of swam to save someone as Spider-Man bu ultimately failed. "What about you, Felicia?"
"I don't really like water." the feline told him, fitting for her nickname.
"Makes sense, knowing you." Eren had a small grin on his face as he watched his friends continue to splash about in the ocean in front of them. He watched as Flash lifted Gwen in the air and body-slammed her into the water playfully. Harry started to sneak behind Cindy to do the same, however, her Silk-Sense wouldn't let him do anything more than think about it as she immediately grabbed his hand and flipped him into the water.
Lily, Felicia, and Eren all giggled at the display, though Liz was astonished. "How did she do that?" she asked breathlessly.
"She does Taekwondo." Eren told her, which was true but not the real reason she was able to flip Harry so easily.
"And hockey. And figure skating." Lily added more truths to throw her off Silk's trail.
"Maybe I should learn a sport or self-defense." Liz said, having a smile on her face as she watched her brother haphazardly try and get back on his feet.
"Yeah, you should. I learned a bit about self-defense in Africa. You never know when it'll come in handy too. You and Cindy should take Taekwondo together." Eren told her. As he said this, his Spider-Sense began to go crazy in his mind.
As if it were automatic, Eren's arm reached out and caught a frisbee right before it smacked Liz in the face, startling her. "Eep!" she squealed, falling backward as if she was actually hit by it.
"Holy shit, sorry!" a jock-looking dude approached the group, apologizing to Liz as she held onto her chest. "It slipped, my bad!"
"It's okay... it's fine." Liz was still visibly distraught, though the adrenaline was starting to fade. Eren handed the frisbee back to the jocks, looking over at Liz and checking up on her. "Are you good?"
"Yeah, yeah. I just was surprised is all. Thank you..." Liz moved the hair from her face, placing it behind her ear as she looked at Eren's hands. "How did you even do that?"
"Uh... good reflexes. How about we set up for volleyball? Looks like the court opened up." Eren said, changing the subject swiftly and getting up on his feet. The three girls followed him, grabbing the volleyball they brought as Eren called out to the rest of the group.
After a few more splashes, Harry, Gwen, Flash, and Cindy got out of the water and ran onto the sand, meeting Eren who was standing at the center of the court spinning the ball in his hand. "Alright, let's pick teams. Should we do random teams to make it fair?" he asked the group, getting a few nods in response.
"Yeah, we can't have you and Cindy teaming up." Harry admitted, knowing the two spiders on one team would mean that they would destroy everyone. "I can get a random team generator app or something." Harry pulled out his phone and messed with it for a bit until he found a website that could randomly make two separate teams. He inputted everyone's names and pressed random a few times until Eren and Cindy were on separate teams.
"Alright, got it." Harry said, holding up his phone. "It's Felicia, Eren, Flash, and Liz against me, Cindy, Gwen, and Lily."
"That seems pretty fair to me." Eren told him.
"Nah, this is a free win, Parker." Flash said confidently, underestimating Harry's abilities and being none the wiser to Cindy's.
"Yeah, for us." Gwen rebutted, crossing her arms confidently.
"Let's save the trash-talking for after we win." Cindy said to Gwen, grabbing her by the shoulder and looking at Eren with a confident grin. Eren smiled back, feeling the firey competitiveness within her, in turn, fueling him.
The two teams backed off to their respective sides and decided who was going to play what positions. They weren't playing with official rules and such, but they wanted to have some sort of teamwork going on.
"Okay, so who here has watched Haikyu?" Cindy asked her group, though she soon realized that none of them were into anime in the way that she was.
"Isn't that like a poem?" Harry asked.
"That's a Haiku, dummy." Lily teased.
"Isn't that the volleyball cartoon? I think my brother watches that." Gwen said with a serious look on her face.
"It's an anime, but yeah. Listen, just pass the ball to me and I'll score. I'll be the Hinata. Lily, I want you to be my setter, my Kageyama." Cindy saying this did nothing more than confuse everyone.
They weren't understanding any of her references.
On the other side, Eren also assumed the role of leader, glaring at his teammates with serious eyes. He wanted to destroy the other team. "I want everyone to give me a confidence rating. How confident are you guys in volleyball?"
"Ten." Flash answered, of course.
"Eh, maybe a seven or eight." Felicia said casually.
"I played in PE once... I served." Liz muttered shyly.
"That's okay, Liz. Would you say you're quick on your feet?" Eren asked her.
"Yes. I'd say so."
"Alright, here's the plan: Flash and I will be at the front, I want Felicia in the middle, and Liz, you be our last line of defense in the back. I also want you to serve, you can go underhanded it's easy."
"Sounds good to me." said Felicia, followed by Flash. "We got this, easy."
"Alright then. Let's win." Eren and his team got into their positions, as did Cindy's as the match was about to begin. At this very moment, Eren looked around at those around him, smiling at how absurd all of it felt to him.
For years, he was a loner who wanted nothing more than to go home and lock himself away in his room for all eternity.
He was afraid to make friends.
He was scared of relationships.
He was fearful of companionship.
However, just two years after graduating high school, Eren found himself surrounded by friends that he truly cared about, people he would die for. Even Flash Thompson of all people was seen as a friend by Eren at that very moment.
He had the memories of hundreds of Eren Parkers in his brain, the many Eren Parkers who had failed to protect them all no matter how hard they'd desired to do so. He was thankful that he was the Eren Parker that was able to create this new memory.
He was thankful to be the Eren Parker that would get to make dozens, hundreds more.
At this very moment, he truly understood what it meant to appreciate life, the gift he was given when he was born in this world and to appreciate his friends who had been there for him at his lowest.