XI
“Hey dad,” I said, wincing at the pain in my arm as I crossed my legs on the hospital bed. Gwen stood right by the foot of the bed, watching the news nervously on the small t.v. across the ER bay.
“Alina? Where are you?” I heard my dad on the other side of the line. I grunted as I tried to reposition myself to sit more upright.
“I'm at the hospital. The one by Oscorp,” I told him, waiting for him to freak out. The silence on the other end made me slowly start to think he was just confused.
“Why are you there?” He asked me slowly. “What are you doing? Did something happen at school? I got a call that you should've been home hours ago, Alina.”
“No, not at school. I was at Oscorp…” I told him, trying to ignore his annoyed tone.
“Why?” I listened for him to say something else, but he didn't. There was loud yelling and chatter wherever he was
“I cut my arm on this metal door. I just got stitched up-”
“Why were you at Oscorp? That area was cordoned off three hours ago,” He explained. It made sense. He was out there investigating. Even when he was fired from his job, he was trying to figure out what was happening. Helping people.
“Remember when you told me to use my resources to and ask questions-”
“Did you follow the fucking Lizard?” He cut me off angrily.
“Not the Lizard exactly…” I said, laughing nervously. “But, I mean, I went to try to stop it.”
“You're a dumbass, you know that,” His voice said with a sigh.
“Takes one to know one,” I mumbled, rolling my eyes. I smiled at Gwen when she turned around to look at me. She gave me a questioning thumbs up. I gave her one in return and diverted my eyes to the beige bed cover.
“Look, I have to go. But we will talk about this later,” He told me with finality.
I hummed, “Yeah, I know.”
“God, you're… I love you. Bye.”
“Bye…” I trailed off, hanging up. I looked up, looking at the TV that Gwen was watching intently. A shot of the city from overhead with a spotlight played. Then it zoomed in and a clearer image of Peter in his Spider-Man suit, scaling the side of a building.
The subtitles made me feel even more worried. ‘It looks like Spider-Man is wounded as he scales that building there.’
I huffed, grimacing as the news switched to a reporter on the ground. She was outside of Oscorp with police cars flashing blue and red behind her. I saw Gwen turn to look at me before she came over.
“What did your dad say?” She asked, coming to stand next to me.
“He asked all the usual questions. It's kinda annoying when he knows the right questions to ask,” I said, shrugging.
“Did you tell him about… Peter?” She asked, looking around.
“No, no,” I shook my head, looking back at the TV. “He knows we were at Oscorp, though.”
Gwen nodded, following my line of sight to the T.V. that switched to commercials. I pursed my lips when the silence between us got more palpable. Her and I have ever really talked before, and it was becoming more apparent as time went on.
I looked down at my arm wrapped in gauze. The anesthetic they used to numb the area had hurt more than the actual cut had. It took eighteen stitches to suture completely. It looked like a football before they wrapped it up. They had been surprised it didn’t cut deeper.
“Your dad doesn’t seem nearly as intense as mine,” Gwen said, breaking the silence. I looked at her and smiled.
“I mean, my dad can be ‘intense’ sometimes,” I disagreed using air quotes. “I think our dads just have differing points of view. So whatever your dad thinks is too dangerous for you might be completely different for mine.”
Gwen smiled, “Like riding a motorcycle?”
I smiled, remembering how my dad would take me to school on his bike whenever he had time. “It’s really not that bad,” I told her, shrugging. “It’s almost like you’re flying. When the wind is just blowing past you… you don’t even feel the danger. Just…free. Maybe one day I can show you if you can convince your dad.”
She laughed nervously, “I think I’d have to muster up the courage to even get on first.” I nodded before the television caught my attention again. It was back to the helicopter shot over the city, but now there were cranes stretched out over the main street heading to Oscorp.
The headline read, “Local crane operators help a wounded Spider-Man!”
Then, the camera panned up to the roof of the tallest skyscraper in New York. At the top of the antenna was the same large lizard I saw at the school. The helicopter kept its distance as the lizard set up the Ganali device on the antenna.
Gwen and I looked at each other nervously. I felt a rush of panic run through my body as I realized Peter was already making his way up the building. Seeing how the device began dispersing a powder into the air made it more real. The nurses and doctors all looked around at each other nervously when the shot cut to one on the ground.
People on the streets were getting covered with the powder and slowly developing scales on their skin. I saw a nurse look at his coworkers worried, then at the entrance of the ER. I could see him swallow hard before continuing on his path to wherever he was going before getting distracted.
“How long have you known about Pete’s… how long did you know?” I asked her, struggling to take my eyes off the screen. Gwen didn’t look at me until the news channel went back to commercials. I shook my head at the flashing letters and terrible acting.
“What?” She asked, distracted. And I didn't blame her for her divided attention. Peter was out there fighting a rampaging lizard while he was wounded, and we were in a hospital.
But I didn't want to think about that. The unwanted truth was that at any moment, people who were infected with the lizard serum were gonna be brought into the hospital. They don't know how to treat it, and those people will become aggressive. And sudden evacuation alert for everyone south of 54th street causing people to freak out all around the city.
“They’re not live, you know?”
I looked slightly past Gwen to a man in a wheelchair talking to a younger woman. He shook his head when another commercial showed up on the screen. I saw Gwen look at him, too.
“Wait, what do you mean that’s not live?” Gwen asked him desperately.
“Huh? Oh, I saw that crane stuff happening right before I got here,” He said as he dug around for something in his pocket. “Theres a real new sight that’s covering all of that in real time. Without all the commercials and stuff.”
“What’s it called?” Gwen asked as she searched her pocket for her phone. I unlocked my phone as he repeated the website to us.
When the site loaded I scrolled down and found a live feed of one of their news reporters on the ground, narrating what was going on.
I rewinded a bit and saw how blue particles fell from the sky. I turned up the volume and listened as the reporter started explaining how a blue beam shot into the air before blue started falling over New York.
“They're saying the antidote was used, Gwen,” I said, relaying the news. She looked up from her phone and came over to look onto my phone. I sighed in relief at the sight of the camera panning up to the large blue cloud above Oscorp.
“Oh my god, he did it,” She whispered excitedly. I nodded as I looked up at her. She looked at me as well, happy tears welling up in her eyes. Then she threw her arms around me in a hug.
I hissed in pain from the sudden pressure on my arm, but I still tried to reciprocate the hug. I let out a relieved laugh, knowing that it was finally over. When Gwen pulled away, she wiped the tears from her eyes.
I re-adjusted myself on the hospital bed and shook my head in disbelief. I opened my messages and went to text my father. I sent him a message saying that I would meet him at home.
I glanced up at Gwen when I heard her phone start ringing. She gave me a sympathetic look before stepping away to take the call. I heard her answer the call as I switched back to the news site.
When I heard Gwen get completely silent, I didn't think anything of it. Until I heard a sob come from her. I looked up and saw her start to breathe heavier. I got off the bed and made my way over to her quickly.
“Gwen, what-”
“My dad… he… he's-” She said let out another sob before she dropped her phone. Her knees gave out as I grabbed her and tried to walk her over to the bed I was just sitting at.
I sat next to her and pulled her into me, and hugged her tightly as she cried. She buried her face into my neck and clung to my shirt. I rubbed her back as I watched the other people in the ER stop to look at us. A nurse came by and picked up Gwen's phone.
The nurse placed the phone on the bed and looked at me concerned. She looked around nervously before closing the curtain around us before she left.
“He's dead,” She said when she took a breath. I felt my heart drop at the news as sobs began flowing out of her. “Why, Alina? Why him?!”
I shook my head and pulled her as close as I could, ignoring the pain in my arm, “I don't know, Gwen. I'm so sorry… I have no idea.”
I started to believe that nature just knows when something bad happens. The sky mourns and somehow sympathizes with us. And it cries when others are crying too.
Today, it started pouring. It seemed like it came out of nowhere. And it felt like the sky knew what was happening, like it felt the loss the city was feeling. I didn't know so many people cared for Gwen's dad. Captain Stacy.
Maybe it was just me, but I never liked law enforcement. Personal experiences always shape the way you see things. Mine made me think that police have their own personal agenda. That they don't really care for the greater good of the people.
Like when I was just six years old, walking with my mom down the street. I don't remember where we were going or why we were in that part of town, but she picked me up from ballet cause my dad couldn't. It was maybe late November cause it was getting colder, and it was getting darker earlier.
I'm not sure why, but a police officer drove up near us. He was a few feet behind us, sticking close behind. I didn't think anything of it, I was just cold and telling my mom about the new warm-ups we had to do.
But then the police officer drove right up next to us. He called out to my mom, and when I turned to look, she pulled me ahead.
“No le pongas atención,” I remember her telling me. Don't pay him any attention. So I tried not to. I kept walking with my mom, feeling the wind on my little tight-clad legs. My big pink puffy jacket had really only kept my upper body warm.
To make a long story short, the police officer jumped out of his car. He ripped me away from my mom and kept asking me if I knew who she was. I remember being so confused when he didn’t believe me. But looking back, to him, I was just some little white girl with a brown woman.
It really had looked like she plucked some random girl from her ballet class. I looked nothing like my mother. I still don't look anything like her. But my reference of what she looks like is about six years old.
The other prominent time law enforcement set a wonderful example for me was two years ago. I was walking to Peter's house after we went out to get pizza. He ran off ahead of me for some reason, I still haven't figured out.
A police officer approached me and asked me why I was in the area. I told him I was on my way to a friend's house and he didn't believe me. I got defensive and walked away from him. He followed behind me the whole time. Not even with any form of discretion, just a few feet behind me.
I was shitting bricks the whole time. I thought something was going to happen. I was praying Peter would come back and confirm that I was, in fact, just going to a friend's house. And thankfully, Peter did come back.
Aunt May had yelled at him for leaving me as it got darker. She made him come back to find me. And he wasn't as dumb as he acts, picking up on how uncomfortable I was and how the cop was tailing me.
The officer even had the nerve to tell Peter not to hang around ‘my folk’. I remember the way Peter’s face fell into confusion. Then it morphed into a glare. And I had to stop him from saying something. I didn't want to risk anything, I just wanted to get home.
And on top of that, the amount of passive aggressive ‘not’ interrogations I had been in because of my dad. So, it was safe to say I didn't like the police. And, the irony of my father and I being at this funeral was perfect.
But it truthfully wasn't about us. It was about Gwen and her family. She needed comfort, and I was able to give that to her. Everyone was there. Everyone but the infamous Spider-Man who saved the city and was there with Captain Stacy when he died.
It was even more unfortunate to think that Spider-Man not being there meant Peter wasn't there. Gwen cried more when she realized it was just me and my father there. She didn't say anything, but I could see the pain in her face. I could feel the disappointment in the way she hugged me. I wasn't Peter, but I was definitely the closest thing.
She clung to me the whole time, trying to suppress her tears. I didn't know what to do other than rub her back and hold the umbrella. The rain pouring down on us was relentless, just like the onslaught of pitying looks and reused condolences sent to Gwen the whole time.
I don’t know how she and her family held up so strong the whole time. It was admirable seeing how her mother greeted everyone with an elegant smile and held herself even as the speeches were given.
Everyone mourned for Captain Stacy that day. It was tragic but beautiful, and the world sympathized with the family. Even the sky cried for them. Everyone but a specific person in a red and blue suit.
I never thought of Peter as someone who would truly push people out. But then again, It was just my own wishful thinking. Peter had it set in him that he would stay out of people's way just to make their lives easier. That's how we got through high school. He was ‘selfless’ in that way. Ignorantly deciding what was good for others without truly taking their emotions into consideration.
That’s why he hid being Spider-Man from everyone. Not me or May. Not even Gwen at first. But obviously, he told her. He’s so in love with Gwen Stacy that he would tell her first again and again in every lifetime. Which is also why he’s been avoiding her. Or at least that’s my hypothesis. He doesn’t want her to get hurt like her dad did.
And as much as I love Peter, I can’t see their relationship fall apart before my eyes. It would be unfair to them if I could do something to help and did nothing out of my own jealousy.
“Alina!” May greeted me happily when she opened the door. She opened her arms for a hug that I welcomed happily. “I didn’t know you were going to come by. How’s your arm?”
“Oh, it’s fine! But I’m not really staying,” I told her we pulled away, and I stepped into the house. “I just wanted to talk to Peter about something.”
“Oh, well, he’s up in his room,” May said, eyeing my right arm, although it was covered by my hoodie. I nodded and made my way up the stairs.
I reached the top of the stairs and glanced at the small corridor of the house. It was so familiar but colder. Empty. I sighed and made my way over to Peter's room, realizing the door was slightly open.
“Hey,” I said awkwardly, pushing open the door. Peter was at his desk. He looked up at me, confused.
“What are you doing here?” He asked harshly. I furrowed my eyebrows and stepped into the room.
“You really don’t know how to greet people, do you?” I joked humourlessly as I walked to his bed. I felt his eyes trail me to the bed and watch me sit down. He didn’t say anything as I let my bag fall off my shoulder. “You didn’t go to the funeral.”
He sighed and ran a hand over his face. “That’s why you came here?”
I raised my eyebrows at him, “I’m sorry, is that not a good enough reason? You missed her girlfriends dads funeral.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend anymore,” He said, annoyance in his voice. I scoffed and stared at him before looking away in disbelief.
“You could’ve still come. Paid your respects,” I told him as he swiveled around in his chair to face his computer screen. “Jesus, Peter, what the fuck is going on with you? Even my dad went!”
Peter didn’t say anything in response. I took in a short breath and let it out slowly before I looked around his room again. It was messy like usual, but even the places he kept relatively clean were unkempt. It was sad.
“Look, fine, you didn’t go to the funeral, whatever. She can forgive you for that,” I sighed, “But she needs you. She is going through the hardest thing she can possibly go through right now. And you’re abandoning her.”
There was a silence after that. My words hung in the air and I replayed it over and over in my head. Then I heard Peter mumble something.
“What?” I asked, annoyed.
“Her father asked me to,” He said slightly louder. If it wasn’t already so quiet in his room, I might not have been able to catch it. “He asked me to leave Gwen out of this. All of this.”
I stared at the back of his head with wide eyes. “I don’t think he was referring to personal life.”
“Alina, she knows I’m-” He sighed and lowered his voice as he turned back around to look at me. “She knows who I am, and she’s so stubborn that it isn’t even an option anymore.”
“So you’re just gonna leave her? After you finally have the girl of your dreams or whatever, and she needs you.”
“How do you know what she needs, AJ?” He asked harshly.
“Cause unlike you, I’m going out of my way to be there for her!” I shouted at him. “She’s coming to me and asking me where you’ve been. And I can’t even tell her anything cause I haven’t seen you in weeks either!”
School had been closed while they fixed the damages caused by Conners. It wasn’t strange the first few days after that day to not see Peter. But then more days went by where he didn’t respond to my calls or texts. And then I found out Gwen was also getting radio silence. Now, he had a chance to talk to me, and I prayed he would say something.
But he didn’t say anything. He just adverted his gaze and slouched down in his chair. I rolled my eyes and got up from his bed. I took a deep breath and grabbed my bag, slinging it over my shoulder.
“Wait,” He said, stopping me before I left the room. I didn’t turn to look at him. I was afraid I would forget that I was angry at him. Or that I would say something I didn’t mean just by seeing the look on his face. “How did you find out.”
“Peter, you’re my best friend,” I said, stating the obvious while I shook my head. “Why did you think you could hide it from me?”