(A/N: I do not own Spiderman. That right belongs to Sony.
Also, just to let you guys know, the next chapter may not come out for a bit because I have to do some Graduate school work and I'm taking a bit of classes this semester alongside my job. I promise I'm not going to disappear. It's just more work than I had anticipated. I'll be back after the semester ends in early May.
Just wanted to let you guys know).
As it turned out, Gwen coming to the realization that Peter was maybe Spiderman after all was more effective to her than Peter had originally thought.
It was the fifth day in a row where Gwen had not shown up to School. Gwen Stacy, the school's biggest nerdette. Her missing school was akin to a bird deciding to walk instead of fly or a fish trying to learn how to breathe air instead of water. It was unheard of. He was also not the only one who noticed.
One Mary Jane Watson noticed full well that her best friend was missing school and she was worried. She had not texted or called her once in those three days so she knew something was up and she had a feeling who was responsible for this, whether or not it was intentional.
As the school bell rang, Peter walked outside the school with Liz wrapping her arm around his with Felicia following close behind, pretending to be on her phone to avoid suspicion. Mary Jane followed closely behind and called out after him.
All 3 of them turned to see the redhead chasing after them. Peter was shocked as MJ didn't usually look worried but whenever she did, he knew it was because of something serious…and he had a feeling he knew what it was about.
"H…hey, MJ" Peter said meekly.
"What's been going on with Gwen? Last I heard from her, she said something about going with you to see Eddie Brock but I haven't heard from her since. Did that asshole hurt her? I swear to god, he's such a creep. I don't know what I was thinking, agreeing to go out on a date with him" Mary Jane said, slightly cursing at herself.
"Well…it's…it's a bit more complicated than that, MJ" Peter said, his voice not really toughening up as he said it.
"Well come on. You can tell me on the way to Gwen's then" Mary Jane said, pushing through Felicia and grabbing Peter away from Liz.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Liz asked, angrily as she put out a glare towards the gorgeous redhead.
"Look, I get you're jealous but me and Peter are just friends, I swear" Mary Jane said, trying to reason.
"Oh, really? I'm sure. Just like you and Mark were in an 'un-relationship' or an 'un-date' on Valentine's day?" Liz asked, raising an eyebrow. She and MJ's relationship was still in recovery from when Peter broke up with her, knowing full well she had an influence in him doing so.
"Listen…I'll fully admit that it's not like I hadn't thought about it once or twice…but it's in the past I swear. Me and Peter are Gwen's best friends right now and she needs us. Plus, I know Peter. He learns from his mistakes and he would never intentionally hurt either of you…and I've seen the way he looks at both of you. He…he really does care about the both of you and would never do anything to hurt you" Mary Jane tried to reason with the both of them.
Liz and Felicia looked at each other. As much as they hated to admit it, she did have a point. Peter did reject Gwen at the Silver Spoon a few weeks back and he certainly proved to be a loyal boyfriend that would never do anything behind their backs. After a few moments of talking through facial expressions, they conceded.
"...Fine" Liz said, slightly pouting, which Peter secretly found adorable.
"Just don't get any ideas, girly. I can do lots more than give you a bad grade" Felicia said in a bit of a sultry and dangerous manner which Peter had to admit both excited and scared him a bit. Though it seemed to have little effect on MJ, although that's what it looked like at least from Peter's perspective.
"Thank you…now come on, Tiger. We have a blonde girl that needs us" Mary Jane said, practically dragging Peter away from the 2 women who just looked, to put it mildly, rather unhappy at the scene.
Mary-Jane and Peter were walking towards the Stacy household. They hardly had said a word to each other, each with a growing worry over the , the redheaded socialite couldn't bear the silence anymore.
"So Peter, tell me…what happened when you visited Brock? What exactly did he say? Did he hurt her?" Mary Jane inquired. Peter wasn't exactly sure how to respond.
"Well…I think it may have something more to do with me" Peter said as he looked down at the concrete sidewalk beneath him.
"You? What do you mean yo-...Ooooooh" Mary Jane said, coming to a realization mid question (Or at least that's what she believed).
Peter raised an eyebrow at this. "What?"
"She's upset about you with your girlfriends, isn't she? She's told me how much she regrets staying with Harry over you and how much she loves you, you little player" Mary Jane said, smirking and playfully shoving him.
"Uh…I'm not sure-" Peter tried to say before he was interrupted.
"Uh uh, Tiger. No need to say anything. I got it. You don't have to worry. She probably just needs a bit of female help on this. Just let me do all the talking, alright?" Mary Jane asked.
"Uh….ooook" Peter said, deciding not to press this any further.
They then approached the modest looking house. The both of them went to the door as Mary Jane knocked on the door. They then just sat there in a bit of awkward silence before Captain George Stacy opened the door. He looked down at the two teens, surprised. He wasn't expecting either of them today.
"Oh…Peter, Mary Jane. It's good to see you both" George said, smiling at the both of them. However, it wasn't a particularly happy smile. It was a little forced.
"Uh…hi Captain Stacy. We…we were just wanting to see how Gwen was. She…she hasn't really been at school recently and she's missing a lot of classes" Peter stated.
"Oh no, it's alright. She's not missing anything. I just had an agreement with her teachers last week. She's just not in the mood for school right now. She's having her homework assignments and lesson plans being sent to her email. She's also going to take any tests she misses at school an hour after the bell rings so she's fine academically. She's just a little down is all. You and hers' visit to Eddie really made her down. I get the sense he's still not well" George said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Well…it could be better with him to say the least" Peter said, imitating George with his rubbing the back of his head as well.
"We were just hoping we could see her. I think she may need some friendly company" Mary Jane suggested.
"Well…sure. Just so you know, she may be emotional so if she snaps or anything, don't take it the wrong way. It's happened to me a few times over the past few days. It's almost to the point where I miss getting just the look" George said, shivering.
Peter and Mary Jane entered the household and went to Gwen's bedroom door. Mary Jane slowly knocked on the door.
"Hey…girlfriend…it's MJ…Peter's here too. We were just wondering if you felt up to chatting for a bit?" Mary Jane asked.
At first there was silence but a few moments into the waiting, the door slightly opened and they saw a strain of blonde hair and the slight corner of a blue eye. If Peter looked closely, he could see that she had been crying a bit.
"H…hey guys. This…really isn't a good time. Can we speak later…please?" Gwen asked. Though she really appreciated them coming down to see her, she just needed to be alone with her thoughts right now.
"Hey come on, girlfriend. I know it's pretty hard now that Peter's with Liz and Felicia but…you know, there's plenty of fish in the sea. How about you and I go out to the mall and scoop up a few guys for ourselves, huh?" Mary Jane asked.
She kinda meant that too. She hadn't been speaking to Mark ever since he came back to school. It was pretty awkward between the two seeing how things had fallen out between them the previous months back. She deep down wanted to make things work with him but she felt it was probably better for the both of them to just distance themselves from each other for now.
"It's…it's not that. Or…I mean it's mainly something else right now….h…Hey, MJ? Could you maybe give me and Peter some privacy for a second and maybe wait in the living room right now? We need to talk about something, actually" Gwen said to her best friend.
"Oh. Oh, ok. Sure. I can do that" Mary Jane said then turned to Peter to whisper "good luck"
Mary Jane then turned and left the scene, leaving Gwen to fully open her door and non-verbally invite Peter inside. The boy in question walked into the room. It was a pretty typical teenage girls room, he thought. She had a few stuffed animals and some band posters. Though she had a lot more academic awards and science books laying around more than anything.
Gwen sat on her bed while Peter just stood in the middle of the room. He could kind of guess where this conversation was going to go and he was not exactly looking forward to it. After a few moments of silence, Gwen just sighed.
"...Look, Peter. I'm not going to beat around the bush here. What Eddie said a few days ago got me thinking and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that you are indeed who I think you are. You're never around when Spiderman is, even when we're at school, I've never seen you take a picture of him ever and neither has anyone else we know" Gwen said, looking up at him from her bed.
"...Yeah" Peter said, rubbing the back of his head. He didn't exactly have a response for that.
"So…I've been thinking for the past few days and…at this point, it's the only conclusion that makes sense to me, especially since Venom made his little announcement and he probably knows him a bit better than the Bugle" Gwen said, definitively. Peter tried to open his mouth and give some sort of valid explanation but Gwen held up her hand in response.
"No, Peter. No….look, I'm not mad at you or anything. I understand why you have to keep it a secret so don't worry. I'm not going to tell anyone, not even MJ but I just need to know something:…why…why could you never tell me at least? We've been best friends since the 7th grade. We…we could tell each other anything" Gwen asked, confused and a bit hurt.
Peter stuttered for a bit but cleared his head and started to form a rational explanation.
"I…I'm sorry, Gwen. I…I just figured it would be good if I didn't tell anyone. If anyone found out, the more chance it has of getting out to the public and if the public knows…well…you know. Aunt May…not even she knows" Peter rationalized.
Gwen just looked down at her lap.
"...Do they know? Liz and Felicia?" Gwen asked after a minute.
Peter's heart sank when she asked that question, knowing the answer was yes. He didn't respond but his silence was more than enough of an answer for Gwen.
Gwen just sighed in response. "It's ok if they know, Peter. I guess you have to tell your girlfriend…or girlfriends in your case I guess and we…we never were…"
She couldn't finish. Something about the very fact she was about to utter out made her sick to her stomach. Peter could sense it and opened his mouth.
"Gwen…I…" Peter tried to say but Gwen interrupted him.
"It's fine, Peter. Really. It's ok. I made a mistake. I realize that and I have to face the consequences of them. I really am happy you have such loving girls looking after you. You couldn't have made better choices than them" Gwen said, smiling sadly up at Peter.
Peter just looked down at her sitting on her bed, feeling extremely guilty. He kneeled down and gave her a hug. She returned it a moment after she realized what he was doing.
The hug felt nice for both of them. In a way, they both really needed it, especially from each other.
After around 2-3 minutes, they finally parted and just smiled at each other.
"Don't worry about me, Pete. I'll be okay. I think I just need a bit more time in getting this through my head" Gwen said, reassuringly.
Peter just continued to smile but he couldn't really tell if he was happy or not. While he did believe Gwen was being sincere in that she would be ok, he felt like the fact that she found out may put an eventual strain on their relationship. However, it seemed like that was for time to decide more than anybody else.
"I'm good with bringing MJ in if you want to just talk…just the three of us, you know. We haven't done that in a bit" Gwen suggested.
Peter let out a smile. "Sure…just don't get into girl talk. Stuff like that isn't exactly my expertise"
They both let out a little laugh. At first, Peter didn't know what to think about Gwen possibly knowing about his secret identity but…maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all. He would prefer if she didn't know but at the very least, Harry didn't know…at least not yet (And hopefully not ever).
The both of them went outside and greeted MJ who was just sitting on the couch. She looked up to see the both of them walking with each other and she let out a small smile. Peter and Gwen sat on the couch with her and they then began to just talk. Not even on anything in particular, just talk like friends like they were supposed to.
Captain Stacy looked at the scene and let out a smile of his own, especially after seeing the smile on his daughter's face. He went to get a few cans of soda from the fridge. He noted to call May and Anna just in case they decided to stay for as long as he thought they were going to.
*Meanwhile, Ravencroft Institute*
"I have to say, Eddie. You have made tremendous progress. It seems having visitors was just the thing you needed" Kafka said after evaluating Eddie in his room. Eddie was wearing a black shirt with jeans, showing off his strong muscles.
"Thanks, doc. Yeah, it's been a wild few months but I think I'm starting to feel actually well again" Eddie said, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head.
"Well I'm proud of you, Eddie. Truly. As a matter of fact, I'm so impressed, I'm going to recommend you for release this Monday. I think you're ready to get back out in the world" Kafka said with a big smile.
Eddie smiled. He had hit the jackpot. "R-really? T-thanks, doc. That means so much to me. I can finally get my life back on track, again"
"You deserve it, Eddie. I really mean that. I'll get in touch with Empire State University to get you reinstated and talk to your old employer, Dr. Curt Connors to see if you can get your old lab assistant job back. I've no doubt you'll be welcomed back with open arms. Now just relax and get your things in order. I have to get to work on your release forms" Dr. Kafka said as she left Eddie's room.
Eddie's 'genuine' smile disappeared and instead formed an evil grin.
"Finally" Eddie thought. The symbiote disguised as a black shirt on Eddie started to bubble, giddy with joy. "We're getting out without having a criminal record on Brock's name. Soon we'll have our revenge on Peter Parker and reclaim our hold on the city. Nothing will stop Venom this time! No one!"