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Ch 8
Gwen rolled over, stretched, and found the spot next to her in bed empty. She raised herself to her elbows, and looked around her empty room with sleepy eyes. "Peter?" She called. The room was so bare that a small echo greeted her. She got up and out of bed and padded to her living room that connected her bedroom. Also empty. She frowned. Guess the fun time was over and he had went back home. She noticed her cell phone sitting on her couch and saw that the little indicator light was flashing , telling her that she had a voicemail message. She held the phone to her ear, and sure enough it was Peter's voice.
"Gwen, hey..." There was a pause. "I left before you got up, I needed to get back to my Aunt May, she's cooking this big dinner for me tonight since you know, we're graduating tomorrow." There was another pause and the sound of a scuffling, and Gwen could imagine him swinging through the city with a phone pressed to his ear. "But I want to thank you. I want to thank you for everything. If you want... you could come to my place for dinner. I don't know your plans... but I... thought... maybe it would be nice, something normal?"Gwen smiled as his voice went up a little on the last word, showing his nervousness. "Well, I hope you slept well and... hopefully I'll see you tonight. Bye."
She smiled again and replayed the voicemail. She'd save that and listen to it when she got lonely, or the world became to much for her to bare. She'd always have this little piece of Peter Parker hidden safely in her pocket.
Her phone rang again, and expecting it to be Peter, she answered without checking the screen. "Hey."
"Hi, Beautiful." Flash's voice greeted her ears, and Gwen was momentarily disappointed until she remembered that she was dating him. Flash was a nice guy when it came down to it, and he deserved her attention.
"Hey," She said again.
"Happy day before Graduation."
"You too!" She exclaimed. It was so weird how different the conversations she had between Flash and Peter. With Peter, everything was so personal, like he hung on her every word. With Flash, everything was so light and airy.
"What are you doing for dinner?"
She thought for a moment. Peter could really use her right now, and she wanted to make sure he was healing okay. "I have plans for dinner, I'm sorry."
"Have lunch with me. I have a meet with some scouts, but then I'm all yours."
She giggled. She actually giggled. It had been far too long since she had laughed. "I have to finish up some things at OsCorp, so that sounds great." She had been meaning to stop into the lab yesterday, but everything happened with Peter, and she had gotten sidetracked. This would also be a good oppurtunity to try and get some more information on those cartridges.
"Awesome. Oh, and do you know what today is?" Flash asked her.
"Friday?" Gwen guessed.
"Babe, it's our one month anniversary."
Gwen felt her jaw drop. She didn't even know that Flash had been paying attention. Every pretty young girl that walked by them tried to catch his eye. She felt a stab of guilt in her gut. She didn't know it was she and Flash's anniversary, yet she could remember the exact date and time Peter Parker had first asked her out. If she was going to be with Flash, she needed to be with Flash and give him her attention. Apparently, he took care of his girlfriends. "You passed the test." Gwen said with a chuckle.
"Cool. I gotta run, I'll see you around two?"
"See ya then." Gwen ended the call and ran her hands through her hair. This was already starting to be an exhausting day.
…...
Gwen really only had to finish up a few things at OsCorp. She planned on staying an hour, tops. She had to go into Dr. Connor's old lab, which was now Dr. Octavius's, grab her research on Tritium, clean out her locker, and be on her way. But she wanted one more look at it under the microscope, to make sure she didn't miss anything. She sat her belongings down on a chair and let herself into the lab where they were holding the Tritium. It glowed a beautiful yellow, and beckoned her forward. Gwen removed it from its case along with a trace amount and prepared to make a slide. She didn't notice that anyone else was in the room until they spoke.
"Burning the midnight oil?"
Gwen turned, and found Norman Osbourne of all people, standing right behind her. She had only met him once, four years ago when she started working at OsCorp. Since then he had been a name on the wind, wrapped up in board meetings and traveling the world. "Good morning, Mr. Osbourne." She said.
Osbourne picked up her slide and examined it againt the florescents. "Tritium is one of the rarest elements on this planet. We have under one pound of it."
"I know. I'm being extremely careful."
"You were Dr. Connors' student, were you not?"
Gwen gave a small nod, "That's right."
He handed her back the slide, and Gwen suddenly noticed how close he was to her. She could feel his body heat, the smell of his aftershave. She took a step back, and he took a step closer to her. Gwen then noticed that the two of them were alone.
"Well, I better get going. I have graduation tomorrow."
"I'm not rushing you out." Norman said, "Please." He gestured to the slide.
Gwen swallowed the lump in her throat and placed the slide under the microscope. She hated taking her eyes off of him for even a second. She felt like she was a small farm mouse, and he was a hungry snake. She took a look through the microscope, and jumped when she felt his hand encase hers. The palm of his rough and calloused, and Gwen immediately thought of the Lizard. Not Dr. Connors, but the giant maniacal monster that had taken over him. Gwen wasn't sure what exactly was going on here, she just knew that she wanted no parts of it.
"See anything you like?" He asked.
A shiver ran down her spine. She looked up at him, and his eyes were locked on hers. It was beyond creepy, this man had barely talked to her for a moment when she started working her over four years ago, and now he was here, his body inches from hers.
"I know you've had it rough these past few months." He said, "I just want you to know that I'm here for you."
"Thank you," she said, "That's very kind of you."
"Do you have a boyfriend, Miss Stacy?" He asked, his hand traveling up her arm, his dry fingertips centimeters from her skin. The hairs on her her arm stood at attention, a warning sign to back away. "Or do you just think you do?"
Gwen was frightened, but she was getting angry. Who the hell did this guy think he was? What was he saying to her? She was about to turn and tell him exactly where to go, but then she thought of all of her work she had done in this lab over the years. It would all have been for nothing. He had the power and resources to make that happen, and she hadn't come this far to fail. Not now. She decided to just excuse herself as quickly as possible. His body was blocking her clear shot to the door. She'd have to back away slowly and run full around the table. "I uhm... really better be going. Excuse me." She pulled her hand away quickly, and walked as fast as she could out of the lab, his eyes never once leaving hers.
…...
Peter rounded the corner, a fresh stack of Spider-man pictures under his arm. He walked into the Daily Bugle, and headed toward the receptionist's desk, fully prepared to see Felicia sitting there. When he walked through the door however, he was greeted by a brunette with bright red lipstick sitting at the desk. She was busy filing her nails when he walked up, and she looked positively bored. She didn't even acknowledge him until he spoke..
"Excuse me," Peter said.
The woman looked up at him, and went back to filing her nails. "How can I help you?"
"I'm here to sell these photos. The last time I was here, the other woman said to come back and talk to Mr. Jameson."
"She's on her lunch break."
"Should I wait until she comes back?" Peter asked.
Just then, the door to an office burst open and a small man fell onto his back, but not before bumping into Peter and scattering his photographs. Another man, a big, angrier man with a cigar hanging out of his mouth was hovering over him. "I can't believe you'd suggest something so brain-dead and stupid! Get out of my sight!"
The smaller man got to his feet and scampered away.
The man with the cigar saw Peter standing there and rounded on him, "What are you looking at? What is that you got there?" He demanded, noticing the pictures Peter was picking up.
Peter stood up straight and extended his hand, "I'm Peter Parker, sir. My Aunt told me about the job here, and I've been told to see Mr. Jameson."
"I'm Mr. Jameson!" The man yelled. He turned to the receptionist, "Betty, after Potluck here picks up his pictures, send him in!" And with that, he walked back into his office and slammed the door.
"You're up," She told Peter calmly.
Peter took a deep breath. "Is he always like that?"
"Yup." She said.
Well, there were worse things, Peter decided and entered the office. Jameson sat in a large brown chair behind a cherry wood desk littered with newspapers and clippings and notes. His back was to Peter when he entered. The only way Peter knew someone sat in the chair was the ring of cigar smoke that encircled him overhead.
"Excuse me, Mr. Jameson?" Peter asked.
Jameson spun around in his chair and eyed Peter while puffing consistently on his cigar with each breath. "What do you want?"
"I'm Peter Parker, sir, we just met?"
"Huh?" Jameson barked.
Peter held up the photos and Jameson snatched them away, rifling through them like an expert black jack dealer. He plopped three of Peter's photos down on his desk. "I'll give you fifty bucks for these."
Peter's brows knitted. Fifty bucks? What the hell was this guy talking about? What about the job? "Actually, sir, I'm here about the job."
"What job?"
"The photography job?"
Jameson shook his head, "A kid your age? You're funny. I'll hire you as freelance. You get me more shots of this masked menace, and I'll pay you one hundred... no seventy-five bucks for each one I use."
"Seventy five bucks?" Peter asked, "I could get more off of Ebay."
"Alright!" Jameson yelled. "Three hundred for each one I use and that's my final offer!"
…...
Flash walked along the empty halls of his high school, heading to the gym where he was going to be having a meeting with a few scouts and his basketball coach. He was all set up at Penn State to start in the Fall, but since the scandal had happened, there were other recruiters beating down his door for a second chance. And why shouldn't Flash give them a second look? It wouldn't hurt anything, and maybe he'd get an even better deal. He pushed the doors to the gym open only to find it empty. He frowned and called out, "Hello? Coach Mike?"
"Flash Thompson?"
A voice rang out behind him, and Flash turned, staring into the face of a man in a dark navy designer suit, Donald Trump hair, and a Cheshire cat grin. He stood in the doorway of the gym, leaning leisurely against the door jamb as if he had all of the time in the world.
"Yeah, and you are?"
"You don't know me?" The man said, stepping forward. He brought his hands together in modesty.
Suddenly Flash realized him. This was the guy that owned half of Times Square. He had seen his face in lights more times than he could count. He was head honcho at that Osbourne Tower."Yeah... yeah, I do know you... you're that Osbourne guy."
"Norman Osbourne." He said, extending his hand.
Flash shook it. "What do you want with me?"
"I set up the meeting today. Coach Mike won't be joining us, I wanted to make it more private."
"I'm not into science." Flash said.
"No, I know that, son. But you are into enhancing your abilities, are you not?" He put his arm around Flash's shoulders. "What if I could offer you the chance to be amazing?"
Flash eyed the man oddly, "You mean roids?"
"No, no my dear boy, something much better, something much more permanent than a quick fix. I could make you unstoppable on this court. They call you Flash now, what if I could turn you into a machine? You'd be hitting three pointers from across the room."
Flash pondered this a moment. He had heard about the crazy experiments that went on at OsCorp. He didn't want any parts of that."No thank you, sir. My talent got me to where I am today. It'll get me to where I need to be." He pulled away from Norman, and started walking out toward the door.
"How humble." Norman said, "I like what you said there. Relying on yourself is great, son, it is great. But there's limitations to what the normal human body can do."
"I already told you that I'm not into your freaky science shit." Flash said, his jaw set in a straight line.
"You could be greater than Spider-man." Norman said to him.
Flash turned on his heel. Was this dude for real?
"They'd be cheering your name in the streets. Your picture would be in the paper. You could get the girl."
"I do have a girl."
"Do you? Do you know where she goes at night? Do you know who's bed she sleeps in?"
Flash felt the muscles in his arm flexing. He was starting to not care who this guy was. How dare he talk to him like this? "What are you saying?"
"All I'm saying is that you shouldn't be so quick to turn me away. Hear me out."
"I don't need any help getting girls."
"But you need help keeping them."
"I don't need that help, either." Flash shook his head, cracked his knuckles, and tried to relax his body. He didn't need to hit a billionaire the day before graduation, even an asshole like this douchebag.
"How would you feel if you lost a girlfriend to someone such as Peter Parker?"
"Parker?" Flash asked.
"That's who Gwen's been spending her free time with. That's who she's sharing her bed with instead of you. Nerdy, dorky, Peter Parker who isn't 1/8 of the man you are. And you know who Parker really is? Parker is Spider-man."
Flash nearly choked on his laughter. This man was certifiable. Parker of all people to be Spider-man?
"Follow your girlfriend tonight. See where she goes. Watch who goes swinging from his window. Come see me tomorrow." Norman said. He reached into his pocket and produced a card. "We'll talk then."
Flash glanced down at the card, prepared to throw it in the trash when a disturbing thought occurred to him, "Hey, how do you know about Gwen?" He asked. He looked up and found that the gym was as empty as it had been before, the only remnant of Norman Osbourne was the business card that Flash held in his hand.