Chapter 23
“So.”
Amaya stood in the doorway, arms crossed, holding her phone like it was damning evidence in a trial.
Gwen froze mid-bite of a leftover kebab. “…Hi?”
Amaya’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t ‘hi’ me. Is this—” she thrust the screen toward Gwen, “is this real?”
Gwen blinked at her own blog post. “I mean, yeah?”
“You had dinner with Spider-Man. On a rooftop. At midnight. You posted a blurred picture. You said his heart is loud. Gwen. GWEN.”
Gwen tried not to smile. “It wasn’t dinner—it was more like a snack.”
Amaya dropped dramatically onto the bed, burying her face in a pillow. “You fell in love with Spider-Man. You lunatic.”
“I didn’t say love, I said—”
“You used italics, Gwen! That’s emotional nudity!”
Gwen groaned, collapsing beside her. “Okay, maybe I like-like him. But it’s not like he’s just some guy, Ama. He’s… I don’t know. It felt real. He felt real.”
Amaya peeked at her. “And he gave you his hot sauce preference?”
Gwen nodded. “He doesn’t like the green one. Says it messes with the webbing.”
“…I’m gonna scream into this pillow again.”
“Bro. BRO.”
Ganke practically kicked open the door, holding up his phone like he was presenting Simba to the Pride Lands.
Miles flinched. “What?”
“You. Rooftop. Kebabs. Blog post. Gwen.”
Miles tried to act casual. “...Could be any masked guy on a rooftop eating grilled meat.”
Ganke squinted at him. “Don’t play coy. I’ve seen that laugh. That’s your laugh. You do that exact wheeze when someone makes a dumb pun.”
Miles sat back, hiding a smile. “So maybe it was me. Doesn’t mean it was a date.”
“Did she call it a date?”
“…No. But like, the vibe was… vibing.”
Ganke flopped onto the floor, groaning. “Dude. You’re doomed.”
Miles glanced at the picture again. Her hand holding up a soda can. His laugh mid-bite. The city behind them.
Yeah. He was so doomed.
“But in a good way,” Ganke added after a beat. “Like, in the ‘meet me at the altar’ kind of way.”
Miles grinned into his pillow. “Shut up.”
The warm glow of last night had worn off. Gwen sat in the lounge, coffee untouched, scrolling through the blurry photo she’d taken of Spider-Man. He was mid-laugh. She looked happy—like really happy. Like she hadn’t been in… months.
The problem was, now that she was back in daylight—with textbooks and Miles Morales and real-life logic staring her in the face—it was all too much.
Because Spider-Man made her feel everything all at once: safety, thrill, being seen.
And Miles?
Sweet, steady Miles with his dumb physics jokes and secret smiles?
He made her feel that too.
Which was the problem. Because how could she be falling for both?
She shoved her phone away and sighed, muttering under her breath, “I’m either the luckiest or the dumbest girl alive.”
From across the room, Miles entered with a cautious “Hey.”
She flinched like she’d been caught. “Oh—hey.”
He paused, smile dipping when she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
"Everything okay?"
Gwen forced a nod. “Yeah. Just tired.”
It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the whole truth either.
“She was acting weird,” Miles said, flopping onto his bed. “I thought last night went great. I mean, we swung through the city. I made her laugh. She looked at me like…”
“Like she had feelings?” Ganke offered, typing something on his laptop.
Miles nodded. “Yeah. But now it’s like she’s avoiding me.”
Ganke turned around slowly. “You’re an idiot.”
“What?”
“She doesn’t know it was you, dude.”
Miles blinked.
“She thinks she fell for two different guys. One is you in tights, the other is you with gel in your hair and a physics textbook.”
Miles sat up. “You’re serious?”
Ganke pointed to the blog. “She literally said his heart is loud. She doesn’t even know it’s the same heart.”
“Oh my god,” Miles whispered. “She’s having a love triangle… with me and me.”
Ganke smirked. “Rom-com levels of chaos. I’m loving this.”
Miles groaned, burying his face in a pillow. “What do I even do?”
“Tell her?”
“…No.”
“Okay, then suffer. But I want front-row tickets to the meltdown.”