2 . Check it in, check it out.

"Ouch, you screwed the pooch with that one there, chief." said Christina, wincing at me. "You really upset your girlfriend for her to leave like that".

"Tell me about it." I slumped down ever further, wanting to hide from the world. Half processing what Christina said, it took me a bit to recognize her last remark. "And she is not my girlfriend. You know that."

"Tomato, tomato. You guys spend so much time together you might as well be a married couple." she said, coming back from the kitchen biting on a bar of chocolate. Without wasting much time, she sat with her legs crossed across the sofa, looking at me with mischievous yet concerned eyes. "And an old married couple, at that."

She wasn't wrong, we did spend a lot of time together. Working on Spider related stuff, of course. And it wasn't like I wasn't into her. I just think she wasn't into me, you know. One of these days I was gonna try asking her out. But would it ruin what we had going on? I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. Aaaargh, this "emotion" stuff is hard. Somebody kill me.

I finally realized Chris was staring me down, probably judging me for my sudden but typical zoning out. "What are you looking at? Take a picture, it lasts longer." I let out, trying to match her playfulness, but I think it felt more spiteful than anything. I was kind of peeved, and I was horrible at hiding my true feelings. Christina knew that.

"How can a person who has supernatural senses be so oblivious to what is happening around him?" it seemed as if Chris chose to ignore my last comment. She shook her head, which fell to her hands. "I swear, you boys are all the same."

I just let out an annoyed grunt. I wasn't having this conversation right now. Not again.. There was a lot going on already, girl problems were the last of my issues. One of our members just left abruptly. And she was pissed at me.

"How am I gonna fix this mess now…"

"Well, realizing you are an actual dumbass is a good start." Christina was still not treating it as seriously as I was, by the looks of it. Or maybe I spoke too soon. "Trying to understand the actual issue is a good second step."

"...what do you mean?"

"Okay, first things first. You do realize we are a team here, right?"

"...yeah, you even gave it a stupid name and all. So?"

"So, why do you still only think about yourself when it comes to Spider stuff, Sam? Why are we a group if you do not think about us as equals?"

"... I'm sorry, Chris. I don't think I'm following you." I corrected my posture, trying to understand what she was trying to convey.

"Don't get me wrong, dude. I couldn't give less of a crap about this "team" thing," I shot her a penetrating look, which Christina responded with a devious smile. She knew I knew she was lying, her being the one who came up with the team idea and everything. She kept going anyway. "but some of us might feel like you are kind of not giving us any importance."

"Alright, Chris, let's play this then. Name three things you do to help with Spider duty." I asked her, half jokingly.

She started counting on her fingers "Uhm… I do the dishes like you ask me to, that's one. I bought dinner last night, two for three. And… Oh, and I did wash the costume that one time. That makes it three." she looked up, hands on her hips, proud of herself.

"Dishes and dinner are not even connected to the Spider in any way." I responded, while shooting a web to grab the TV remote. I turned it on, browsing through channels. "You also ate half my dinner yesterday. That doesn't even barely count for good friend points."

"You know I love takeout from Granny's place, that's not fair!" Christina huffed, shifting from confident to annoyed. She realized I was giving up on the conversation, and quickly sprung up to stay between me and the television. Crossing her arms, she looked defiantly at me, putting on a more serious tone. "And this is not about me. This is about Christina."

"I know, I know. I concede." I responded, defeated and deflated. I just wanted this whole thing to be over so I could go to bed. "I fucked up. What more can I say?"

"No, you don't understand, Samuel. She is right. You don't need to feed us. We are working together here."

"I can't help but feel like a burden, though." I stood up, walking to the back of the room. I couldn't look Christina in the eyes. Was it shame? Was I scared to confront her? "You guys do so much for me. I am responsible for you all."

"You know that's not true." She walked towards me. I could feel her behind me.

"It is, though. You are just here because of me. If there wasn't any Spider, you wouldn't need to be here." I sighed. "If you didn't witness the bite and if Isla didn't find out who I was… If I was more careful. I wouldn't have roped you in this mess."

"It's not your fault, Sam." Her voice lost all playfulness, a tender side to my roommate that I barely interacted with. She placed her hand on my shoulder gently. "We do this because we care-"

"Care about me, I know." I interrupted Chrsitina. She sent out an "yeep", clearly scared of my abruptness. I took a deep breath. "Every day I feel horrible for having you guys do stuff for me. It 's just not fair. I hate limiting you like this. You are amazing, intelligent women. You deserve so much better."

"See, you still don't understand, Sam." She said under her breath, removing her hand from my shoulder. I could feel her walking away. "We don't do this because we care about you. Well, we do, but that's not all."

I looked back. Christina was leaning over our big window, looking towards the busy streets of New York city. She had a sad but proud smile on her lips. I walked slowly, joining her city-sighting.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" She said, bumping my arm.

"Y-Yeah. It is."

"You know the first thing I thought when we found out you, my best friend, had developed super powers?"

"How much money can I get if I sell this freak to the circus?" I asked, bumping her back.

She jokingly thinks for a second. "Well, second then." We laughed. "No, for real."

"Nope. I guess I never thought about it." I shrugged.

"Seeing all you could do, watching you go out for patrol… I couldn't help but wonder how cool it would be if I could help too. Help people, like you do."

She took a deep breath. Her eyes were shining, the city lights reflecting on the tears that were forming on them. Christina gulped, recovering from her moment of weakness. She continued.

"Then I thought about you, Sam. Not the Spider, you. You always helped people, even before the bite. Who would house a homeless stranger in their dorm, risking being kicked out, or worse? That's when I knew I could do something too."

She turned to me, looking straight into my eyes. She was crying now, smearing her make-up in the process. "You were always a hero, Sam. My hero. And if I, helping you, could be even half what you were to me but to someone else… I couldn't let this opportunity pass. I need this, Sam. I need to help people. I do it for them. We do it for them."

I was speechless. I never even suspected that's what she thought. We didn't speak much about Spider stuff out of comms or "official stuff", so her sense of duty and willingness to help people came out straight out of left field. Knowing Christina, she must have felt that she really needed to confide in me this information. Under normal circumstances, she would explode before being this sincere. I felt some tears forming. This really meant a lot to me.

Christina bursting into a full ugly cry axed the silence. She went towards me, enveloping me in a hug. I hugged her back, resting my head on the top of hers. I was crying a little bit, too. I didn't know this meant so much to her… to them. I… I need to talk to Isla. I need to understand her better. I need to say I am sorry.