Angel sat up from his bed and looked at his window, seeing a pebble hitting on the glass. Knowing if he ignored it this would continue all night. So, he decided to get off his bed and walked to the window, opening it and seeing Jessie behind her bedroom's window ready to throw a rock into his window, but she noticed Angel behind his window so she slowly hid the rock back inside her bedroom.
Jessie smiled at Angel, "Oh hey, you're still up."
Angel just glared at Jessie with a tired frown.
Jessie put her hands on the window's stool and started lightly tapping on it since there was a discomforting silence, she looked back at Angel, "I heard shouting."
Angel rested his arms on the stool, slightly nodding his head, "I suppose doing something good is considered bad now."
"They got mad at you because you protected that girl?" Jessie asked Angel if this was the reason for all the shouting.
Angel nodded again, "Yeah."
"I didn't really listen in to the shoutings, had my own fair share of shoutings at the same time." Jessie admitted.
"From your mom?" Angel supposed.
Jessie nodded, "Yep."
"What did she say?" Angel asked Jessie, wondering why her mother would be angry at her, since Jessie didn't take part in the fight.
Jessie put her hand in the back of her head, fiddling in with her long black hair as she scratched the back of her head, wondering if she should reveal it to Angel, after thinking for a bit, she decided to tell him, after all he did tell her some massive secrets tons of times, "She asked me if you ever hit me."
Angel didn't expect that, it's true that he and Jessie's mother never had a profound relationship considering they just knew of each other's existence from him being Jessie's friend, but still, he wouldn't expect this lack of trust, "Jeez, talk about trust."
"You know how she is, over-protective. Just don't see any ill-feelings in it, she really likes you, it's just, well, logically she likes me even more." Jessie explained, wanting to make sure Angel doesn't take what her mother told about him too badly.
Angel understood her point, "Sure. It's just...I would never hurt you."
"Normally I would say you couldn't even beat me, but considering you just kicked Flash's ass I can't make that joke anymore." Jessie said, trying to lighten the mood.
"As of right now I don't really hate my powers as much." Angel admitted.
Hearing about Angel's abilities, Jessie remembered what she wanted to talk with Angel, "Speaking of those powers, that fight of yours gave me an idea. One that will make us lots of money."
"I'm listening." Angel was curious about Jessie's idea to get lots of money.
Jessie started going around her bedroom, seemingly looking for something that she wanted to show Angel, after finding it she went back to the window and showed it to Angel, "You see this?" She showed to Angel a ripped page of a newspaper, it was an advertisement for amateur wrestlers to participate in a match in NYWF.
Angel raised a brow on Jessie's offer, "You want me to be a wrestler?"
Jessie quickly nodded, "Yeah!"
"You do know that's fake, right?" Angel asked Jessie.
Jessie tapped the side of her head with her hand, physically telling him his question was stupid to ask, "Well yeah of course. But I mean, look, it's NYWF, New York Wrestling Federation, they're known for their no-scripted matches."
"So you want me to beat a guy up for those $1000?" Angel asked if the match was what Jessie was offering.
Jessie nodded, "Yep." She then explained there was more, "But it's not all, there's a betting booth too, you know, bet on the winner. I bet my savings on you and we both become rich."
Angel didn't need much time to think about it, easy money? Oh hell yeah, "Alright, I'm in. I've got the whole month off anyway." Angel was quick to accept the offer.
Jessie was happy that Angel accepted her idea, then she thought back to the part in the ad that says the wrestler would need a clear character to participate in the match, "But first, we need a character for you."
And so they went on to work on Angel's wrestling character. Since they would be working together, they thought it would be better if they worked close to each other, so from his window Angel jumped off to Jessie's bedroom with ease and they started working on the character.
Angel gave Jessie his ideas of what the character could be as Jessie drew it on paper, obviously the whole theme of the character would be based around spiders and Angel wanted to be masked so he wouldn't be recognized and after nearly a hour of working on the character, Jessie had pretty much a completed version of what it could look like. A full-suited gear with gray embossed patterns around the suit looking like a web, the suit was mostly red apart from the arms and legs that were blue. While Angel did like the suit, he wasn't so sure about the color choice by Jessie, he found it to be too colorful for a wrestling character.
He told his doubts to Jessie, "Are you sure about the bright red and blue? I mean, wrestling right now is all about being dark and broody now."
Jessie looked back at Angel, "Well yeah, that's the thing. It's all about one thing, but if you are different from that then you will stand out."
Angel understood Jessie's point, with this suit he would stand out for sure, but standing out didn't mean success, "Then let's hope I stand out in a positive way."
Jessie waved her hand, "You'll be great, don't worry about it."
So they spent the whole week working on the suit, except when they found out on the first day how much it would cost to make the suit so they opted to make a much simpler suit, and by making it, it means buying cheap clothes. A red shirt with a red spider symbol in the center, a red mask, bright blue pants, and Nuke shoes, it's like Nike but the cheaper version. For the budget they had, it was good enough.
Then it was the day of the wrestling show, Angel and Jessie got out of their houses without raising any suspicion from their parents considering it was just like the occasional day where they would both hang out together. They took the bus where the wrestling show was held, after some minutes of travel the bus stopped as they looked out of the window, seeing the outside of the stadium, even though the show didn't start the parking lot was nearly packed already.
They got off the bus and went to the entrance of the stadium which had two lines, one for entering the stadium and the other was for the betting booth, Jessie tapped on Angel's back as a sign of good luck as they took their separate ways, while Jessie waited in the line to bet, Angel entered the stadium following the directions to get signed on the show, after some time he found a bored lady sitting in a chair behind a table with a sign to get signed up for the match. He did notice there wasn't anyone else around, the stadium was packed with people, but this side was completely empty, he imagined people would kill for an opportunity like this one.
The lady noticed Angel, who just looked like a masked guy that got completely lost, she spoke up to him, "The show is on the other side, small fry."
"Actually, I wanted to sign up for a match." Angel told the lady he wasn't here by mistake.
The lady looked up at him, wondering if he was serious, "You do know there's no featherweight division?"
Angel nodded, "Yeah."
The lady sighed as she looked down at the contract on her table, she grabbed her pen about to sign up Angel to the match, not like she cared about his safety, "You understand the NYWF is not responsible for any injury you may and probably will sustain in said event? And you're participating under your own free will?"
Angel nodded again, "Yes. But, er, why is there no one here to sign up for a match?"
"Haven't you read the advertisement?" The lady asked Angel, but she didn't give him time to answer the question, "The match is against Kurt Angular, you've got no chance of beating him, let alone walking out of there, dude's gonna break your legs."
"I'll take my chances." Angel was confident he wouldn't have trouble fighting against Kurt.
The lady was impressed by Angel's courage, or death wish, "Your funeral."
After signing up for the match against Kurt Angular, he just had to wait for the one in question to start the match. After the show started and we've got a few enhancement matches to hype up the crowd, Kurt Angular showed up to the ramp, his theme blared in the speakers for the whole crowd to hear as they booed his entrance, Kurt smiled at the crowd, taking his sweet time to get into the ring as he waved his arms up and down asking for the crowd to increase in volume, which they did, their boos became louder just as Kurt wanted.
He got into the ring, once again taking in the boos of the crowd as he then went to the middle of the ring and took the microphone that was laying there, the boos got lower as he got the mic close to his mouth, wanting to hear what he had to say.
"Ladies and gentleman, it's safe to say I've been on a roll these past few weeks, you could even say I'm on a streak, what number of consecutive wins is it again?" He paused, as the crowd started booing him again, he hit the top of his head as if he suddenly remembered that detail, "Oh yeah, right. 9! Nearly a perfect 10. Damn! so close. And I'm sure, damn sure that after this tenth consecutive win I'll prove to all of you that I deserve to be the number 1 contender for Bonesaw's title."
The crowd booed louder once Kurt had the audacity to pronounce the name of Bonesaw as if he could ever beat him.
Kurt continued even with the swarm of boos, "But you know what? This week I'm in a giving mood, because I'm issuing a challenge to anyone in the locker room that I've never wrestled before to come here and face me!" He shot his arm forward to the ramp, as he waited for someone to come out of the backstage and go into the ramp and challenge him, but nobody came, "Come on guys, there's gotta be someone out there that wanna seize this moment." He paused again, but once again no one came out, "Now listen up, there are a lot of young guys that wanna climb the ladder of success, well, now is your chance to become a sensation just like me." He waited again for someone, anyone to come, but he got frustrated that there was still no one that came, "Come on there's gotta be someone that 20 years from now-"
Then a music faded in the speakers, a generic rock music played as Angel came out, showing himself to Kurt and the crowd, while the crowd didn't know who he was, and some did find his attire weird they still cheered for him, anything to get Kurt mad, even know they knew this rookie would soon get destroyed by him. Angel was clearly not used to get this sort of reaction and attention towards him, he still tried to stayed focused on just the confrontation against Kurt, so he didn't take long to walk in the ramp and go inside the ring as he put himself right in front of Kurt, they was a clear height difference between them as Angel had to look up at Kurt, but they also had 15 years of difference.
They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, while Kurt couldn't see Angel's whole face, from his eyes clearly he didn't feel too threatened by him, Kurt was impressed, he actually didn't expect for an amateur to actually come and challenge him.
Kurt spoke up to the microphone, but addressing Angel, "Who in the hell are you?"
Kurt put the mic close to Angel's face so that the crowd could hear his answer, he spoke clearly into the mic, ready to take the crowd's breath out from the cool name he came out with, "I'm the Human Spider!"
The crowd stayed dead silent as even silent films were more audible than this completely silent stadium. He should have listened to Jessie when she told him that name sucked.
"That sucks!" Kurt said out loud what everyone else thought, "Listen, you're new, it's alright we all make mistakes in the beginning. Except me. So why don't I give you a better name..." He looked up and down at Angel as he thought of a name for him, then an idea struck, "What about Spider-man?"
The crowd had to admit Kurt had a good name, way better than Angel's choice, so they clapped agreeing with Kurt on this one, just this once.
Kurt looked around, seeing the crowd clapping for him for once, "They seem to like it." He looked back at Angel, "Now...Spider-man, will you tell me, what is the one quality that you possess that makes you think that you can walk out here and face the very best in the business?"
Kurt put once again the mic close to Angel's face. Angel knew he had to come off with a better promo this time, his priority was to win the match, but he also wanted to not be humiliated in the talking match, so he glared at Kurt, with a smirk behind his mask as he said with determination, "Ruthless aggression!"
Then without a second to waste, Angel punched Kurt right in the side of his face, the crowd pogged loudly, not expecting this powerful strike from the rookie. Kurt stumbled back, grabbing into the ring's ropes as the bell rung starting the match and a referee scurried to the ring, Angel went back to the attack, Kurt bent down and dodged his arm strike that would totally brought him off the ring, he went to Angel's back and his left leg and brought it up as it shoved Angel down to the ring's mat.
Kurt was mad from the early strike from Angel and he definitely wouldn't let him take that lucky shot as a win, he would end this match quickly, Kurt started twisting Angel's shoe to the side, doing his signature move, the angular lock, he was just waiting for Angel to tape out and finish the match, as usual. But Angel didn't give up easily, he grabbed the ropes and shot his free leg up, repeatedly kicking Kurt's face until he let go of his leg.
As Kurt was backing away holding his face with his hand, Angel jumped up being on top of the ropes, then he jumped up and forward at Kurt as he took out his hand from his face as he turned his head looking at Angel falling towards him as he didn't have time to even counter it, Angel slammed his body down at Kurt bringing him down to the mat, he held Kurt's leg up and brought his shoulders down as the referee slid down to his knees and started tapping his hand to the mat, counting from 1 to 3, then he stopped and got up from his kneeling position as the bell rang from the match ending.
The crowd erupted in cheers as they couldn't believe a rookie just squatched Kurt Angular, Angel let go of Kurt's leg and got up, the referee went to his side grabbing his arm and bringing it up, showing to the crowd the winner of the match as Kurt rolled out of the ring.
The announcer was heard, speaking through the speakers, "Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the winner of this match, Spider-man!"
Angel's generic rock theme played as the crowd continued to cheer from him, chanting his in-ring name, he looked around the crowd with a satisfied grin hidden under his mask, the attention, the glory, he never wanted this, but goddamn did it feel good.
After the match, Angel was asked to meet with the ceo of NYWF at his office so that he could get his pay. After walking a bit backstage, he finally found the door that led to the CEO's office. Angel did need a few seconds to calm himself, after all he wasn't meeting anybody, it was Vinny McKenny!
He knocked on the door and waited for an answer, he got one pretty quickly, "Come on in." He opened the door and went into the office, seeing Vinny sitting on his leather chair behind his desk, he seemed focused on writing on his pile of papers, he looked up and noticed the one that came into his office wasn't the average complaining worker or wrestler, but it was Spider-man, the one that got the crowd electrified. He excitedly got up from his chair, clapping his hands together, "Here's my rising superstar!"
"Vinny McKenny, right?" Angel asked Vinny, he didn't know what to say, not expecting Vinny to be so excited to see him.
Vinny nodded, "Damn right, pal." He extended his arm towards Angel for a handshake.
Angel took Vinny's hand for a handshake, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
Vinny groaned as he waved his hand, "Ah stop it with that humble bullshit, you had a great match tonight."
"Really?" Angel asked Vinny if he was serious.
Vinny quickly nodded as if Angel's question was stupid to ask, "Yeah! Didn't you hear the crowd?"
"I did, I just thought you wouldn't like that I beat one of your top wrestlers." Angel explained why he didn't believe Vinny's praise at first.
"You did me a favor, that guy was way over his head for a few months now, asking for more money and threatening to go to our rivals, and now that you put him back in his place, I'm sure he won't ask for a raise anymore." Vinny explained why he was glad Angel buried Kurt, "But I'm rambling here, you must be a busy man, so take the money and get the hell out of my office." Vinny told Angel as he handed a stash of bills attached to a rubber band.
Angel took the money, "Yes, thank you." Then he started walking out of the office.
"No problem, pal." Then Vinny declared one last thing, "And by the way, the door is open for you to come back next week, same pay."
Angel nodded as he was out of the office, "I'll keep that in mind."
"You better. Now close the damn door." Vinny ordered Angel as he waved his head towards the door.
Angel nodded again and closed the damn door.
A while later Angel and Jessie met outside the stadium, they walked on to the nearest bus stop as they conversed about their experience in this wrestling show.
"So he gave you the money?" Jessie asked Angel.
Angel showed the stash of money to Jessie, "Yep. What about you?" He asked Jessie as he put the money back in his pant's pocket.
"Got some good winnings right here." She showed off a stash of money, without a rubber band, "We're rich!"
Angel nodded in agreement, "Yes, we are."
They chuckled a bit together before the conversation died down as they reached the bus stop, now they just had to wait for the next bus to come.
Then Jessie spoke up, "So what are we gonna spend this on?"
Angel turned to Jessie, "Hold on, we may have a lot of money but we gotta use it responsibly."
"Sure..." Jessie agreed with Angel, but not at 100%, "But we can spend just a bit."
Angel agreed with Jessie, they gained a lot of money today, it was alright to celebrate and spend a bit, "Just a bit."
The next day, they were both at Angel's bedroom sitting by the side of his bed as they were surrounded by useless junk and a 45 inch sheep plush. And all of their money earned the other day was gone, so they just sat there in complete silence as they wondered if all of this money wasted was a good thing.
Angel spoke up with his empty stare towards the door to his bedroom, "Jessie?"
"Yeah?" Jessie asked back, with the same dead look towards the entrance.
"Why did we buy a $700 plush?" Angel asked his question to Jessie.
Jessie slowly turned her head to the big sheep plush as she took some time before answering Angel, "Because we could."
Angel nodded, that answer didn't satisfy him, but still, it was the right answer.
Time moved on, as the rest of the school year went rather smoothly for Angel and Jessie, while they were never above average when it came to their grades, but they weren't failing them either.
As for the wrestling shows, they continued to participate in them, Angel would fight in the matches as Jessie would bet on his guaranteed win, whoever it was, Bulk Bogan, Joe Seena, Jean Michelle, he could beat them with ease, which is why he started taking his matches less seriously, taking his time to beat his opponents and preferring to give the crowd a good-looking match with his enhanced attributes, some would even say that in Angel's mind, his matches were scripted.
And like everything else, Jessie loved to share her own ideas to Angel, they were discussing of a trick to do in his match as they walked on the hallway for their next class, Jessie thought about him using his webs against his opponents, but Angel wasn't too fond of that idea, sure, his physical abilities weren't normal either but they were believable, but webs coming out of his wrists? Not a good idea to show it off to a crowd of people, but that didn't matter much at the moment as a group of guys close to them shared a quick look with Angel and Jessie, they heard the one with the red backpack call Jessie a bitch to his friends as they just walked off to the other direction right after like nothing happened.
For what reason would they call Jessie that? It didn't matter, right? Just a bunch of bullies that took the crown that Flash and his buddies left on the school's floor, they continued to walk acting like nothing happened, but with the clear silence between both of them it was clear that simple insult affected them, Angel stopped at the door of the classroom as Jessie noticed him stopping so she stopped too and turned back to Angel. He smiled at her as he told Jessie he had forgotten something in his locker and he had to get it, Jessie nodded not seeing past his lie as she turned back to the classroom and entered it, Angel turned back too as he lost his smile, following the trail of the new bullies with a look of burning rage.
He found them hanging out close, the one with the red backpack having his back turned to him, Angel grabbed the backpack's handle and slammed the guy's back to the lockers, he then put his arm right in front of his neck, pressing just enough so that it wouldn't hurt him too much but would also stop him from moving away, everyone in proximity was surprise by the sudden aggressiveness, the friends of the red backpack guy didn't do anything just standing there shocked and a bit scared of what Angel would do, while the pinned one was looking back at Angel with fear as he saw him glaring him with a stone cold look.
Angel spoke up in a threatening tone as he pressed his arm a bit more while he talked, "You might wanna think your words very carefully before you talk, because if you say some similar shit like that to my friend, believe me, I'm not scared to repeat what I did to Flash. You get me?"
On the back of his mind, the red backpack guy wanted to fight back, completely beat the crap out of Angel, teach him a lesson to not mess with him, but seeing how easily Flash got beat up by him and the grip on his neck was starting to get tighter, he had no other choice but to comply, he nodded, "I get you."
Hearing the guy's compliance, Angel backed away as he let go of him, he could see him and his friends staring at him with anger, but he also saw fear which might be why they didn't strike even thought they were 4 against 1, so they just walked off, hoping to never see Angel's face again.
Angel walked away in the opposite direction as if nothing happened, as the other students went back to their preoccupations a bit disappointed that the violence didn't escalate more. In the back of Angel's mind, he was thinking if what he did was right, physically threatening someone for respect, it was a strategy he was familiar with, since he was always at the wrong end of it. Bullying? A satisfied grin faded in his face, no. Protecting his friend, that was what he did.
And he thought he did good since after that no one in the school had ever bothered them again, so they could enjoy the last days of school, well, not enjoy since they had the final exams to study and work for. But after weeks of studying and the week of the exams that felt like an eternity, they were soon out of it and he and Jessie thought that they aced those exams, and by aced it meant they achieved their best, an average grade.
But since the exams were not over they could finally relax a bit before finding out the results. And once again, Jessie had an idea, one day at night they went to a secluded place in central park where no one would see them, as she asked Angel to make a huge web that would be surrounded by the trees, he would need a bit of convincing before he made the web, he just hoped nobody would see them, but still maybe this could be an interesting experience, so he followed Jessie's idea.
After making the web, Angel helped Jessie climb a tree and go to the web. It was a bit sticky for her, but she had to just force it out a bit before she could move in the web, soon enough they were both laying their backs in the web, looking up at the dark night sky. The moon was shining lightly, the stars were present all around the sky, a pleasant sight.
"What do you think?" Jessie asked Angel if he liked the view.
"I thought this would be a cool concept, but now that I did it, it's kind of boring." Angel admitted, it wasn't as great as he thought.
"Seriously?" Jessie asked Angel, turning her head over to Angel.
Angel nodded, "Yeah. Laying on a giant web looks cool, but it's kind of the same as laying in grass."
Jessie was disappointed that Angel was...well disappointed, "Well, if you rationalize everything, everything becomes a waste of time."
Angel shrugged, "Maybe everything is just a waste of time."
Jessie groaned as she turned her head away, "You're such a downer."
Angel waved his finger up, "Nah. A realist." He corrected Jessie.
"Whatever." Jessie looked back at Angel, asking a more serious question she had in her mind for a while, "So when you go out for the wrestling show, do your parents tell you anything?"
"Well yeah, I just tell them I'm hanging out with you." Angel revealed.
"I see." Jessie said, understanding Angel's parents acted differently than her mother.
"I imagine your mother asked you why you go out at night?" Angel supposed.
"Yep." Jessie nodded, "I had to tell her. But I just told her we went on betting together and also that it was your idea."
"So putting the blame on me." Angel summarized Jessie's words.
Jessie avoided eye contact with Angel, feeling a bit ashamed, "I'm sorry."
Angel sat up, wanting to tell Jessie he didn't mind about what she said to her mother, "It's fine, just know you got rich because of me."
Jessie agreed with Angel, "Yeah, I did." Then she asked him, "So are you planning on continuing to wrestle?"
Angel laid back on the web as he thought about it for a bit, then he told her, "Yeah, maybe I will make a job out of it."
Jessie knew Angel was enjoying wrestling, but she didn't think he would want to make it a full-time job, "I thought you would follow a career in photography."
Angel was quick to dismiss Jessie's supposition, "Oh no way I'm doing that. Photography is my hobby, if it becomes a job it will become tedious and when I want to rest and do something I like, well, I would have nothing because I've lost that hobby."
Jessie chuckled, "Spoken like an artist."
"I wouldn't go that far." Angel didn't agree with Jessie, once again photography was a hobby, not a way to boost his ego.
Jessie lightly tapped on Angel's elbow, "Oh c'mon, be ambitious a bit."
"I already told you I'm a realist." Angel reminded Jessie.
Jessie thought of a great opportunity to flirt a bit, just a bit, and if it didn't work she could act it like a joke, "Realistically you're great." Jessie complimentated Angel.
Angel turned his head at Jessie, smiling at her, "You're great too."
Well, she didn't expect that answer, but she didn't mind it at all. She looked back up at the sky, just needing a moment to calm herself down, was he flirting back? No way, he doesn't flirt, he must be thinking it was just a friendly compliment, nothing more.
After calming herself, Jessie spoke up again, "I was thinking after graduating I could get out of the house, I have the money I'm sure I could find a place."
"I was planning on going too." Angel looked at Jessie, "We could leave together."
"And live together." Jessie offered.
"Oh good one." Angel didn't expect the wordplay, it might have been accidental but still a good accident.
"But would you like to do that?" Jessie asked Angel if he wanted to live with her.
"Sure, let's do that. Roommates." Angel accepted Jessie's offer to live together once they left home for good.
Jessie nodded, "Cool."
Roommates? Things were advancing well for Jessie, but still she knew Angel only treated this as friendship, knowing him he would never dare to make the first step if he ever would have romantic feelings for her, she had to be the one to do it, but would today work? She wasn't sure the setting was nice, but she needed more.
Jessie started speaking up, "Hey, uh..." But she was hesitating on proposing.
"Yeah?" Angel asked Jessie what she was trying to say.
Well, he was curious to what she was going to say, so it was now or never, "Tomorrow we're both free so would you want to go to a restaurant with me?"
Angel turned his head over to Jessie, a bit surprised by this offer, "Just you?"
Jessie slightly nodded, "Just me."
Angel smiled as he narrowed his eyes a bit, "Like a date?"
Yes! Like a date! No, she couldn't say that out loud, she tried to act as chill as possible, "You can call it whatever you want, I just wanna eat in a restaurant with you."
"Sure, I've got nothing to do tomorrow." Angel accepted the offer, "You've got any ideas?"
She had been planning this for weeks, but once again she didn't feel it would be right to tell that detail to Angel, "We'll see that tomorrow."
Angel nodded, not questioning it further, "Alright."
Then he looked back up at the sky as their conversation died down, staring at the night sky for minutes, which was strange for Angel, no sound at all, just the usual ambience of the night, he looked at Jessie and saw she was asleep. He sat up in surprise, did she really fall asleep? That quickly? It seemed like it, he never knew she was such a fast sleeper.
Now what? They wouldn't stay here for the whole night, he thought that maybe it was time to go, but it might not be a good idea to wake her up, so he went down to the grass with the help of a web-string with Jessie in his arms, his shoes made contact with the grass as he let go of the web string and took Jessie with both of his arms, web-swinging with her would be a bad idea, cool, but bad. So he just walked back home with Jessie in his arms.
The next day came as it was supposed to be a calm day where nothing of importance would happen, but it wasn't that type of day, as Angel and Jessie did agree they would go on a date, as friends, so a bit into the afternoon they started preparing for the friendly date. Angel didn't take too long, after all he didn't think too much into this date, not knowing Jessie's real intentions, not to say he didn't take care of himself, he just made himself acceptable, nice casual clothes, his hair wasn't a mess,
Unlike Jessie, who her hair was a frizzled mess and her clothes were scattered around the bed, she sat down at the end of the bed as she looked at the golden necklace she had on her hands, the necklace's locket was heart shaped and it was opened to reveal pictures of Angel and her in each side, seeing the pictures she quickly closed the locket, she couldn't look straight at that locket and those pictures without embarrassment at how cheesy it was, would Angel even like it? He was never the accessory guy, but still it's the thought that counts right? What else could she give him to prove to him her love other than words. Why was she overthinking this? She was supposed to be the chill one. Jessie just hoped she wouldn't make a fool of herself with this.
Back at Angel's house, he heard his father call for him, he got out of his bedroom and went downstairs as his father gave him the home phone, saying it was for him, Angel took the phone and put it close to his ear.
"Hello?" Angel asked who was calling him.
He heard Vinny's excited voice on the other side, "Spider-man! How are you doing?"
Angel let out a sudden smile, the Vinny McKenny was calling him! "Good. What is this about?"
"We just had a problem a few minutes ago, the opponent for Bonesaw in today's match has been injured in today's training, so we will need to find a replacement." Vinny explained.
"Are you saying that...I'm the replacement?" Angel supposed.
"You got it, pal! Normally, I refuse to put in amateur wrestlers in a PPV match, but you're an exception, the fans love you and I love you too!" Vinny offered for Angel to have a match against Bonesaw.
"That's good to know." Angel said.
"But that's not all, if you beat Bonesaw, you will get his championship and also I will give you a full-time contract."
Angel couldn't believe the deal Vinny was making, "For real?" He asked Vinny to be sure.
"I might be the owner of a wrestling biz, but I ain't no liar." Vinny assured Angel his offer was real, "So what do you say, are you in, brother?"
Angel didn't waste time to accept this opportunity, "That works for me!"
"Great! Well, prepare yourself quickly then, I want you here in two hours." Vinny told Angel.
Angel nodded even though Vinny couldn't see him, "Okay. I'll be there. Thank you."
The call ended, as Angel still couldn't believe what just happened, a match against Bonesaw at a ppv and when he wins he would get a full-time contract. Today's match will be legendary!
Hold on.
His smile and excitement faded when he remembered, the match was for today but he also had his date with Jessie for today, fuck. The wrestling show would take the rest of the day so no time for the date, it was selfish for sure, but thinking about it for a few minutes the wrestling show was more important to him than the date. The problem would be to announce that to Jessie, he knew she wouldn't like this last minute change at all.
He went to the entrance of her house and knocked on the door, after a few seconds of waiting the door was opened by Jessie.
"Angel? What are you doing here?" Jessie asked Angel, surprised to see him so soon.
"I...well..." Angel tried to get his words out, but he couldn't, already dreading Jessie's upcoming disappointment.
"It's just kind of soon to go out, I'm still not ready." Jessie told Angel as he was struggling to get his words out.
Angel scratched the back of his head, "About that..."
Seeing Angel having difficulty saying what was on his mind, Jessie started putting the pieces together and thought that this was about the date, "Angel..."
Well, no going back now, Angel decided to spill the truth, "I know we had plans today, but I just had something else come in."
"What is it?" Jessie asked Angel why he would miss out on their date.
"Vinny called in and told me I can have a match with freaking Bonesaw and if I win I will get a full-time contract, you know, a job, I couldn't refuse." Angel explained then he stopped talking, letting his words sink in to Jessie, who obviously couldn't hide her disappointment, "I know you were looking forward to this, but I can't miss this."
"You sure you can't just wait for another opportunity?" Jessie asked Angel if he could postpone the match, she understood it was important to him, but she also had been planning this date for weeks, she just didn't want it to be cancelled at the last moment.
"Jessie. You're my best friend, and I'm ready to do anything with you, but we see each other every day, but this match...it's an opportunity of a lifetime, I can't miss it. I'm sorry, I really am, but we can do this another day." Angel explained he felt guilty for doing this to Jessie, but he thought he was right in doing so, they could do this date another day.
Jessie slowly nodded, "I understand." Silence came in between the two, it wasn't the natural silence that came in when they told each other everything they wanted to talk about, no, this silence hurt them, Jessie couldn't bear it, "Can I at least come with you?"
Angel accepted Jessie coming with him, it's the least he could offer her, "Of course, of course you can."
"When do we have to go?" Jessie asked Angel, now being the one to follow him.
"One hour from now, we should arrive on time." Angel replied.
Jessie nodded, "Okay, I'll get ready."
Then she closed the door without saying anything more, was it the first time they got this distant? Maybe, but it was just for today, then tomorrow, everything would come back to normal.
On their way to the stadium it was clear the discomfort that had grown between them, since they didn't talk throughout the whole trip to the stadium, only when they were close to the entrance that Jessie was the first to speak up, it wasn't a whole speech a simple "good luck" with a honest smile, just to tell him she understood his choice, she didn't disliked it but she understood why this was his priority. Angel nodded back at her, before they went their separate ways, Angel went backstage of the stadium and Jessie bet on his victory, at least she would get some money from this.
She leaned against the wall, thinking that she didn't care about this money, she just wanted to tell her feelings to Angel, which reminded her of the locket, she brought it out from her pocket and looked at it, a bit ironic to think she didn't need money to impress, yet she wanted to take him to a restaurant and give him a still pricey locket. Did she really need to do that much?
"Excuse me." Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a man talking to her, she looked up at him, "Do you have a lighter?"
Jessie shook her head, "No, I don't."
"Oh okay." The man nodded. Then he leaned against the wall to the side of Jessie, he looked down at the locket on Jessie's hands, he tilted his head at it as he spoke to Jessie, "That locket is it a gift of your boyfriend?"
"Nah, I was planning on giving him, sort of like proposing but just to start our relationship." Jessie explained to the man.
The man nodded, "Oh I see. You could just tell him you want to become his girlfriend."
Why was she talking about this personal stuff to this stranger? Her thoughts just became a mess filled with frustration, she needed to get those out somehow, "I can't believe I'm getting this sappy, but it's gotta be special, I have to show him that my feelings aren't just because we've been friends for a long time but because I really want more than friendship with him."
The man nodded again, looking down as he smiled. Jessie's dilemma did bring him back some memories of when he was younger, "I get it, young love, you wanna impress your other half and all that. But it's not just about money and gifts, love is simple, you tell him, "I love you." and he will tell you back, no matter what." He looked back at Jessie, "That's true love."
Jessie did think this guy was kind of right, she was hesitating for weeks whether or not she needed to impress Angel to show him how strong her feelings for him were, but maybe it wasn't necessary, if he were to reject her these gifts of her wouldn't change anything, maybe she just needed to tell him her feelings and hope it was mutual, maybe she could even do it today after his match. But still she wouldn't throw out this locket, it cost a lot. "Maybe I'm overthinking it."
"You shouldn't. If you want it, just do it. Don't think about it." The man advised, avoiding eye contact with Jessie.
Then he pulled out a pack of cigarettes, he took one and put it between his lips then he took his lighter from his pocket and lighted it up and approached the fire close to the tip of the cigarette, lighting it up as he closed the lighter and took a puff out of the cigarette, his hands started trembling a bit. Jessie looked at the man with a raised brow, she thought he didn't have a lighter.
Inside the stadium, the main event had started Bonesaw versus Spider-man, they were both hanging around the edges of the ring staring at each other, as the crowd clearly picked Bonesaw as their favorites, cheering loudly for him.
The cage that was on top of the ring started going down to the ground, surrounding the ring with its metal bars, a cage match? Angel turned back as he saw the cage being set up around the ring, he wasn't aware this would be a cage match.
Bonesaw smirked seeing Spider-man being uneasy about the cage match, he couldn't wait to put this amateur wrestler back to the obscurity of the indies.
"Hey freak show! You're going nowhere." Bonesaw spoke up to Angel, he turned back at Bonesaw, "Now, Let's see how a high flyer like yourself does in a cage match."
The bell rang as Bonesaw wasted no time to sprint towards Angel, he jumped up way above Bonesaw's head avoiding his charge. Bonesaw collided himself with the cage's metal bars, he fell down and got up as he looked around the ring not finding Angel in it, he looked up and saw him hanging to the cage's side as he looked down at Bonesaw. The crowd booed Angel for avoiding fighting Bonesaw, even though none of them asked the real question of how did he jump that high? But that didn't matter to Bonesaw, how dared he avoid Bonesaw?
Bonesaw pointed up at Angel, "What are you doing up there?"
"Staying away from you." Angel replied with the obvious.
"Yo, freak show! You better come down before I make you." Bonesaw threatened Angel to come back down to the ring.
Angel chuckled, "Oh c'mon, you really think a high flyer like myself would do this for no reason?"
Bonesaw backed away a bit as he understood Angel's next move, jumping down form the side of the cage, Bonesaw didn't have time to dodge the attack as Angel slammed himself down to Bonesaw as they were both brought down to the mat, and they both quickly went back up on their feet, they stared at each other for a bit, Bonesaw was glaring at Angel with anger, not seeing the fear he would usually see with his opponents, he would show him he was way out of his league.
Bonesaw started throwing punches and kicks at quick succession towards Angel, which he would dodge them all with ease, completely frustrating Bonesaw starting to attack quicker and with much less coordination. Then Angel threw his arm towards Bonesaw, hitting his chest with his backhand, the chop was heard throughout the whole stadium, the crowd chanted "Woooo!" as Bonesaw backed away, leaning against the ropes.
Then music started playing all around the stadium's speakers, the music was Kurt Angular's theme, Angel turned back to look at the entrance ramp, curious as to why Kurt's theme was playing. He wasn't doing a run-in, and even if he did try and sabotage the match how would he do it? There was a cage that had no entrance. Then his spider-sense tingled, there was danger behind him, he turned back and was met with the back of a chair to his head, he fell back to the mat as he held his head, looking up, seeing Kurt Angular with a chair in his hands.
He had hidden himself inside the ring since before the beginning of the show, waiting hours for the main event to get revenge from Spider-man, which he would get right now. He looked back at Bonesaw, who usually wouldn't accept this kind of heel help, but for Spider-man? He nodded at Kurt accepting his help, with Bonesaw's approval Kurt turned his head back to Angel and started slamming down the chair at him as Bonesaw got himself on the top rope.
"Move out of the way!" Bonesaw shouted to Kurt.
Kurt brought the chair down once more and moved to the side leaving space for Bonesaw. He jumped from the top rope as he placed himself sideways with his elbow down, on his fall he brought his elbow down on Angel as he fell on top of him. He grabbed Angel's leg and brought it up as he kept Angel's shoulders down, as the referee outside the cage starting counting from 1, 2 and-
Angel pushed Bonesaw's off of him, stopping the referee's count. Angel rolled to the side to distance himself from Bonesaw and then he got up, his spider-senses tingled again, he wouldn't get caught a second time, he reacted faster this time and turned to Kurt and grabbed the chair before he impacted into Angel's head and took the chair out of Kurt's hand. Having the chair in his possession now, Angel brought it back, ready to hit Kurt with it. He took the safe route and put his arms in front of his head, protecting his face, but Angel didn't want to attack him with the chair.
Angel kicked Kurt hard to the gut, from the unexpected pain he hunched forward as Angel turned back and grabbed Kurt's back of the neck with his arms before falling down to a seated position forcing Kurt to hunch down, Angel let go of him as Kurt jumped back falling to the mat.
Angel got up and saw Bonesaw sprinting towards him, he crouched down avoiding his arm extended to the side to hit him as Bonesaw turned back and instantly went back on the attack following Angel as he jumped up to the cage's wall and started climbing them up, until Bonesaw grabbed his shoe and forced his leg down towards him, but Angel used his free leg to kick Bonesaw in the face with his back heel, Bonesaw was forced to let go of his shoe as he backed away.
Angel went over to the top of the cage, looking down at his legs dangling down and Bonesaw jumping up trying to catch him, if that's what he wanted he would give it to him. Angel let go of the metal bars and fell down, putting himself sideways with his elbow down just like Bonesaw's elbow drop, Bonesaw stopped jumping as he saw Angel coming down to him, he opened his mouth ready to gasp but he had no time to do it nor even dodge, he took the elbow drop pretty badly instantly falling down to his back on the mat, Angel pinned his shoulders down as the referee started the count from 1, 2 and 3.
The crowd erupted in complete surprise as the bell rang. Some people in the crowd started cheering on Spider-man for his accomplishment as others booed him for beating the legend that was Bonesaw.
The cage was brought up as the announcer spoke to the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the new champion of NYWF, Spider-man!"
The crowd erupted once more with still mixed reactions, but Angel didn't care, after all, it was reactions nonetheless. The referee went into the ring, giving the title belt to Angel as he then brought his arm up for his victory in this match.
After the match, Angel was walking backstage going to Vinny's office.
Until he stopped when he heard Bonesaw calling him out, "Hey, Spider-man!" Angel turned back as Bonesaw approached him, he stopped in front of him as he stared him down, then he brought his hand forward, "...Welcome to NYWF."
Angel looked down at Bonesaw's hand, surprised at Bonesaw's nice gesture, he took his hand into a handshake nodding his head at him, thanking Bonesaw for the welcome. After the handshake Bonesaw walked off as Angel went back to walking towards Vinny's office. Soon enough, he saw the door leading to his office, he approached it then it suddenly got opened by Vinny followed by a staff member right behind him, he seemed pissed.
"You take me to him!" Vinny shouted to the staff worker, "Take me to that son of a bitch!"
The worker pointed to where Vinny should go as he sprinted to that direction followed by the worker as he continued shouting, Angel was surprised at how quickly that old man could run, but also what was going on for him to get out this way? He decided to follow them, since it would be the best way to get his answers.
He followed them to the outside of the stadium near the betting booth with a large crowd of people circling in interest around something, the police was there too as some officers were trying to keep the crowd away from what they were circling around, someone must have got hurt. Curious, he went into the crowd to see what had happened here.
"Sir, you gotta get back." He heard an officer say to a person in the crowd.
Angel tried his best to go inside the crowd of people, hearing someone in the back ask, "I can't see, what happened?"
Angel was able to get himself in the middle of the crowd and see what they were circling around, and once he saw it his eyes shot wide open as he felt a massive wave of uneasiness nearly making his body go limp and fall down to the ground, but he resisted it as he pushed himself forward in the crowd, "Excuse me."
An officer put her hand in his chest, stopping him from going further, "Sir, stay back." But Angel didn't listen to her as he tried to move past her, to which the officer responded by grabbing his shirt, "Stay back!"
"That's my friend!" Angel shouted to the officer.
The officer wasn't expecting this sudden breakdown, leaving her distracted for a second as she let go of his shirt, which was enough time for him to go past her and looked down at Jessie laying her back on the ground, a deep wound was present on her waist as she was barely hanging on to life.
Angel's knees fell to the ground as he got close to Jessie, "Jessie..." He removed the lower part of his mask, putting it down in his chin, "Jessie, Jessie. It's me."
Jessie slowly turned her to Angel, "Angel." She said weakly, as even forming one word that she used to constantly say seemed like a strenuous effort.
Angel nodded, starting to tear up from seeing his friend suffering, "Yeah, yeah, it's me. I'm here." Angel turned his head back to the officer, asking her, "You called an ambulance, right?"
"They're on their way." The officer replied to him.
Angel turned back to Jessie, talking to her, trying to ease her up and also himself, "Just hang on for a bit, okay? I'm here."
Jessie tried to nod, but she couldn't. She closed her watery eyes, fearing that she would not make it, her hand was bloodied from being up on the wound in her waist, she tried her best efforts to move her hand away, making it fall to the ground alongside Angel's hand, she tried to hold it.
Angel felt the contact of her fingers barely grasping onto his, he took her hand and held it tight, "I'm not letting you go, I will be staying with you so just hang on, jessie, just..."
He didn't have time to finish his phrase as he saw her head slowly falling to the side, feeling the tiny grip of her hand loosen.
His mind was getting overwhelmed, not wanting to believe what was happening, "Jessie?" Tears started to flood down on his face realizing the hurtful truth that Jessie, his best friend for over ten years, just died. He hunched his head down to Jessie, letting his emotions take over to him, "Jessie...no, I-I'm so sorry. Just please...god...Jessie..."
The officers were still trying to keep the crowd away, leaving Angel to mourn, Vinny looked down at him as he asked his staff, "What the hell happened?"
"A man shot her and stole her belongings, it happened too quick for us to do anything." The worker explained how Jessie got killed, ashamed that he let someone die.
An officer was walking in, with a talkie-walkie in his hands, relaying the information he just got to the other officers, "They got the shooter. He's headed south on Fifth Avenue." Angel was starting to slow his sobbing as he heard what the officer was saying, "We got three cars in pursuit." The officer turned back to the crowd, "All right, folks. Come on, move back."
Angel's body slightly shook as the thought of the killer still being out there, breathing and living, he put his hand over his face starting to clean off his tears, his sadness starting to turn into anger as he could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins, no, he wouldn't let them live for long, he put the lower part of his mask back to covering his mouth as he got up and sprinted out of the large crowd and stadium.
He ran in the streets, not caring at the weird looks people were giving, the world didn't matter to him anymore, only to do what was right, an eye for an eye. He got himself into a dark alleyway, not bothering to check if anyone was there as he leaped off to the wall, starting to climb on it with great speed to the top of the building, normally his spider-sense always tingled for danger, but in that moment it wasn't for detecting danger, it was for hunting.
Following his spider-sense and the directions he heard from the officer, he leaped off the building's wall to a pole, he grabbed it and turned around until he had enough momentum to jump off of it and into another's building, starting to run and jump from rooftops to rooftops, until he landed hand and shoes to the top of a dome. He looked at police cars with their red and blue lights flashing with the blasting sound of police sirens as they chased a speeding car, that was the killer, no doubt about it.
He shot a web up to the edge of a building and wasted no time in leaping off the dome as he started swinging in air, following the chase, from each swing he would get himself closer to the ground, he swung above the police cars as the car that got pursuited over crashed throught the streets, barely avoiding from running over people and other cars in the road.
And then he was close enough to the killer's car, letting go of his web string and going to the car's roof on his fours, the man that Jessie had met in the betting booth was inside the car, driving it as he looked up at his car's roof, confused as to what was the sound he heard up there, Angel punched his way down on the car, easily breaking the roof of the car, holding his hand down at the man's face. The man shook his face as he had to act quickly and not question the person that somehow got on top of his car's roof, he took out his pistol and started pulling the trigger like a madman up in the car's roof, the bullets started tearing up holes into the roof as Angel dodged it by removing his arm from inside the car and jumping off the a truck's roof, he looked on as the car started distancing itself from the truck.
Not letting him go that easily, Angel jumped off the truck's roof, shooting a web string to a stoplight, using it to throw himself forward, catching up to the car and even going further from the car. He turned himself back and shot web strings from both of his wrists down to the car's hood as he pushed himself down to it and landed his shoes on top of the hood, the man screamed not expecting to see him again and right in front of him. Angel punched threw the windshield, breaking the glass, slightly missing the man's face as he closed his eyes in anticipation from the punch and also to avoid getting shards into his eyes.
Angel looked back and saw the car was speeding to a metal gate, and the driver was too distracted to drift off it, so Angel jumped up, hanging his hands on top of the building's walls before the car crashed into the gates, breaking the gates and leaving the way open to the warehouse. The man got himself out, breathing rapidly from the near-death experience, he held his pistol and a bag with both of his hands as he looked back and saw the police cars parking right behind his car, seeing the officers starting to get off the cars, he ran inside the warehouse, hoping to find a way to escape them and that supernatural man that tried to kill him.
The man was walking inside the building, he reloaded his pistol and then aimed it forward ready to shot at anything that came into his way, he looked around himself, noticing this building that was still in construction, equipement laying everywhere around the building, unfinished walls, open spaces for doors and windows, and not any artificial light source, just the light reflection of the moon.
The man was sweating tremendously, cursing himself for the decision he made, but it was too late to turn back, he needed to get out here safely, no matter the cost. Behind him he heard wood cracking he quickly spinned back and aimed his pistol forward, shouting, "Who's there?" But he saw no one.
Could it be that guy that was following him around? Who the hell was he? He heard wook cracking again, this time from above, "No, no, no." He thought to himself repeatly, "Fuck that." He started sprinting to the closest door, finding two doors, he thrust his shoulder at the doors, only to find out they were locked as he backed away from the pain he caused to his shoulder.
Then he felt the back of his vest getting grabbed by someone, it was Angel, he pushed the man forward, hitting the man's face to the door's small window, breaking glass as some shards fell to his face, Angel dragged the man to the other door's window and repeated his push, the man shouted from the pain caused by the window shattering right at his face, then he pushed the man back as he hit his back into a column.
The man's survival instincts came through, pushing through the pain, he held onto his pistol and brought it forward ready to shoot at Angel, but he didn't have time to pull the trigger as Angel shot a web string to his pistol and pushed it to the side, the man was forced to let go of his pistol as he looked in horror a man shooting out web from his wrist, he backed himself to the column as the man became an easier prey for Angel, he shot web at the man, sticking to him and the column, making him stuck to it even with his best efforts to get off the web.
Angel slowly crept out of the shadows taking his time to walk close to the man, like a spider crawling to its prey stuck on its web, the hunt had ended, it was time to feast.
"Don't hurt me. Give me a chance. Just give me a chance!" The man begged for mercy, fearing what Angel would do to him once he got close.
Angel wanted to tear his head off right there and then, this waste of air, begging to get his life spared? He wouldn't allow it, and he would make sure that man understood why he would die tonight, "What about that girl you killed? Did you give her a chance? Did you?"
The man felt that he couldn't move his hands, so he frantically waved his head to the side, showing to Angel his pistol and a bag lying on the dusty floor, "Listen, just listen, it's all there. The money, everything I stole from her is right there, take it, please, just take it."
Angel got his face close to the man, as he held his head back in fear as best as he could, "You really think that is all I care about?"
The man was getting more and more desperate, even starting to tear up a bit, "Please...Just don't hurt me..."
"Hurt you?" Angel asked the man, not letting him answer his question as he shook his head, "No. I'm gonna kill you."
Then Angel moved back a bit and started punching the man in the face. Drops of blood flew right out of his mouth from one punch, but he wouldn't stop there, he would punch him again and again.
The man tried to speak through the punches, "Stop-" But his begging fell to deaf ears as Angel just wanted to see him suffer until he would finally give up and die.
The man begged once more, he was desperate in wanting the punches to stop, "Man, Just stop! Please stop!" To the man's surprise, Angel actually stopped punching him holding his hand back as he shook it to rest up a bit, this gave enough time for the man to try and persuade Angel to stop, "I swear I didn't mean to kill her, I didn't want to. She's half my age for fuck's sake! but she forced me, she didn't want to let go of the locket, and the guards were coming over to me, it was me or her, I'm sorry! So so sorry! But please just stop, I'm begging you."
Was this all the man had for an excuse? That clearly didn't change Angel's mind at all, as he still continued to glare at him with rage, "See you in Hell."
The man saw Angel holding his fist back as he tried to persuade him to stop one last time, "She loved you!" The man closed his eyes, awaiting for the next punch, but it didn't come. He slowly opened one eye and saw Angel looking at him with a raised brow, he got him to stop, he swallowed his saliva, hoping the torture would stop, "You know, like the real kind of love."
Angel held the man by the collar, showing the man holding his free fist back, "What the hell are you talking about?"
The man whimpered as he waved his head to the side again, "See that heart-shaped locket?" Angel turned his head and saw a locket out of the bag, "She wanted to give it to you."
Angel let go of the man and walked to the bag, he crouched down one knee down to the floor and took the locket to his hands, he never saw Jessie with this locket, he thought that the man may be lying to him, but why would he keep this locket with stolen money? This was Jessie's locket, or at least the locket that she wanted to give to him, because...
"She loved me." He started putting the pieces together, this locket, she wanted to give it to him when they would go on their date, telling her feelings to him, she had that planned out a night that she may have been looking forward for days even weeks, Angel focused his vision on his hands, his bloodied hands, all of that planning just to get ruined by the one she loved and end dying at the day she thought her life would change forever.
Angel got up as the man breathing accelerated, praying that he wouldn't come back for more, Angel put his arms down to each side as he walked forward as if he was in a trance, stopping right in front of a huge glass window. After a few seconds of standing there, he brought his leg up and kicked the window, shattering it into pieces leaving a huge hole to the outside, the wind flowing inside the building.
Then officers burst through a door, aiming their pistols and flashlights forward, "Stop right there!" They looked around and saw the man hanging on a column stuck on a web, and Angel's back as he faced the window, since the man seemed to be stuck on the web, the police focused their attention on Angel, "Turn away from the window and put your hands up!"
Angel didn't comply with the orders as he jumped down from the window, escaping the officers' sights.
"No!" They all shouted.
The officers ran towards the window, once close to it they aimed their flashlights down, expecting to see Angel's body down on the ground, but their expectations weren't met as they saw Angel appearing out of the window, alive and unhurt as he was swinging away with the help of web, the officers looked at him with complete shock, they turned to each other, wondering who was he and if they should do something about him.
After getting far enough from the warehouse, Angel just rested on a building's rooftop, he didn't know where he was, but that didn't matter to him. He was sitting down, his elbows resting on his knees as he looked at the locket in his hands, moving the tip of his thumb's nail around the locket's opening, he repeated the same back and forth movement without much care until he finally got the tip of the nail in between the locket's opening as he separated the two sides. He looked to the inside of the locket as he saw the two pictures of him and Jessie on each side, his face was flooded with tears and his eyes were moist, but he didn't cry anymore, he had cried enough, he finally accepted it. He would never see Jessie ever again.
Summer made its presence known as the sun shined brightly, giving off a wave of heat, with a bit of artificial cooling it wouldn't be that bad. Some would say this could be a good day, but not all, Jessie's family were attending her funeral at the local church, a difficult day for them. They were all hanging inside the church silently mourning Jessie's passing.
Until the sound of a slap echoed through the church, everyone looked back at the entrance and saw Jessie's mother with tears flowing down from her eyes glaring down at Angel who had his head to the side from the slap.
"How dare you?!" Jessie's mother shouted at Angel, "After what you've done to my daughter, you dare to come here?! You gave her the idea to go to these stupid bets, just so you could get some more money, and now...now she's dead! Are you happy? Of course you are, now you've got more money, who cares about the rest?" She shut her mouth, waiting for Angel to say something, but he stayed locked on looking to the side, staying silent, "You killed her."
Once again, Angel stayed silent. There was no need to fight back, he deserved this. And after being forced out of the funeral, he walked back home. Having some time to think things through on his own, he understood her anger, why she would despise him, but still, he was frustrated beyond belief to not get the right to attend the funeral of his best friend, it wasn't fair.
Things didn't get better back at home as his parents did get the word that he went to the funeral, while he was explicitly told he wasn't allowed to go. They were in the living room, Angel was standing up in front of the entrance as his parents were in front of him.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" His father was quick to ask him.
This time, Angel didn't back down from the debate like he usually would, he went face-first, as aggressive as his father, "Nothing! I was thinking nothing, because I thought it was common sense that I could go to my best friend's funeral."
"Well, you can't." His father reminded Angel he wasn't allowed in the funeral.
"Why not?" Angel asked his father, still thinking it was unfair for him to not be allowed to attend the funeral.
Then his father explained, "Because her mother blames you for Jessie's death, do you really think she's going to be okay with you going there?"
"So you're saying it's my fault for Jessie's death?" Angel asked his father if he thought Jessie's death was on him.
His father sighed, turning his head to the side. He felt in Angel's tone, how broke he was, it was already hard to see his best friend die, but now Angel was blaming himself for her death. His father knew he was being too harsh on his own son. He turned his head back to Angel, speaking in a much calmer tone, "Damn it, Angel. You know I didn't mean it like that."
"I know. I'm asking you if you think it's my fault?" Angel asked again.
His father shook his head, "It's not your fault."
Angel stayed silent, not convinced by his father's words. The conversation died down, so Angel decided to just leave upstairs and go to his bedroom, his father and mother just looked at each other, guilt written all over their faces.
By night, Angel didn't do much else during the day, how could he? Every step he took, he couldn't get Jessie out of his mind. He just sat by the side of his bed as he looked out from his window to Jessie's window, looking at her bedroom that had no lights on. He couldn't cry anymore, he couldn't be sad anymore, he was just in an endless loop of mental pain.
He turned his head to the right as he noticed something hanging on his wall, he got up and approached it giving it a closer look, then he remembered what that was, it was the drawing Jessie made for the design of his suit, the one they didn't have the money or skills to make. But now, he had the money to make it, he started thinking about it, he couldn't come back to wrestling, he didn't want to do it anymore, but he did gain a lot of money from it, he wondered with that amount of money how long would he survive with it?
The next morning, Angel woke up quite early. He got out of his bedroom and went down the stairs. His parents were a bit surprised to see him down in the living room early, they looked at him, noticing he had his backpack on his pack, why did he have it?
"Angel, where are you going?" His mother asked him.
Angel turned to his parents, choosing to be direct with them, "I'm leaving."
His parents looked at each other, leaving? Like for good? They looked back at Angel as his mother asked, "Where to?"
Angel shrugged, seemingly choosing a place at random, "L.A."
His father waved his hand up as he turned his head down, shaking it slightly trying to think about Angel's words, "Hold on, you're leaving for good?" He asked him to be sure that he meant it.
Angel nodded nonchalantly, "Yeah."
"Why?" His father asked for the reason he wanted to leave the house.
Angel looked to the side, he didn't know how to explain to them or maybe he just didn't want to, they should stop caring about his problems, he looked back at them, "I can't stay here, that's as much of an answer I can give you right now."
"Well, it's not enough, son." His father approached him, trying to make him see reason, "You're not thinking straight here, moving out is not something you do in a day, I mean, you know where specifically you're going to? you've got a place to stay? If you have that, do you have money to pay the rent and everything else? And a job, you've got one?"
"I've got enough money to last a while, it will give me time to figure things out." Angel told his father he had everything under control.
"Angel, you can't just leave like that." His mother also tried to appeal for him to stay.
"I can. That's what I want to do." But Angel was determined to stand by his choice to leave, "Being alone, so no one has to worry about me anymore."
His father thought back about why he would want to go, he knew Angel felt guilty of Jessie's death, that could be the reason, "We've already told you, it's not your fault."
"Stop that. It's my fault." Angel broke down, sick of seeing his parents trying to defend him, "If I had kept my mouth shut none of this would have happened, I may not have not killed her but I could have stopped it. And I can't bear to stay here anymore, it's better this way, a way where I'm just a nobody that focuses only on his job." He turned back and went to the entrance, before looking back at his parents, seeing the worry on their faces, he sighed as he looked back at the door, holding the knob in his hand, "Mom. Dad. Goodbye."
Angel opened the door and closed it behind him, his parents were never the ones to be too strict on him, but this, this was going too far, he was making a decision based on his emotions rather than being rational. They hurried themselves to the entrance, opening the door and following Angel outside, but once out of the house, they looked around the neighborhood and to their surprise, Angel wasn't there anymore. He was gone for good.
Some time later, he was able to find Jessie's grave, a bit relieved to finally be able to pay respects accordingly, he took out the locket from his pocket and put it on top of the tombstone, in his mind he could tell himself that he never thought of Jessie as more of a friend or that he would love her until death takes them apart, but he will never know the answer if Jessie stood in front of him, gave him the locket and told him, "I love you." He couldn't know what would have been his answer, and he will never know.
So why bother trying? If in the end, it ends in a heartbreak.
Then Angel was sitting on a seat inside of a bus that would take him to L.A, why L.A? He still didn't know why that city specifically, but all he knew was that it was far enough from New York and that was enough for him, but that also meant the trip would be long. He took out his mp3 player and put the earphones into his ears, he played In the End by Linkin Park on the mp3 player. Listening to the beginning of the song, it wasn't the same listening to it all alone, he put his head to the window, it wasn't the same to be the one to choose the song and not be forced to listen to it. The bus started going forward, but in the end, Angel dropped a hint of a smile, after all, the song wasn't so bad.
Well, this was definitely something else. Not sure how I'm supposed to transition into a cheerful author's note after this, but I'll try.
This chapter was really fun to make, I can't speak for the overall quality of it, that's your choice to make, but at the moment, I like it, the characters that appeared in this two-part chapter were fun to write, this chapter was definitely an experimental one for me, trying out different writing techniques, once again not sure about their quality, but I'm glad I gave it a shot.
Like trying to give this early 2000's vibe was interesting, I made a sort of homage to the early 2000 superhero movies that all needed to be dark but in the end they were just edgy and the irony is I tried to give an edgy side to a story adapted from the Spider-man movies that showed you didn't need to be dark and broody to take super-heroes seriously.
For the next chapter we'll come back to the present and also it will be the last chapter of this story, so yeah, it will be time to finish up with all the storylines that are still unfinished in this story. I cannot say when I will upload the next chapter, but let's just hope it will soon enough, eh?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and we'll see each other in the next chapter.
See ya!