A Tale of Two Spiders [BEING REWRITTEN ELSEWHERE]

Part 17

Gwen's POV

I slowly opened my eyes.

I was lying down on my mattress, and the familiar, warm presence of Miles had dissipated, leaving me alone...

And cold.

I unstuck my face from my pillow and ruffled my hair, trying to flatten it back down. I passed my hand over my face and winced.

I'd forgotten I was injured.

My face was still pretty sore, but from what I could tell, I was mostly healed – much quicker than the average person.

Must be another perk of these Spider-Powers.

As soon as I thought of them, the memories of my previous fight came rushing back to me, and a hot flush of embarrassment and regret shot through my body.

Ugh...

Why did I even do that?

I leaned back and laid my head against the wall, trying my hardest not to reminisce about my past experience.

But, as it normally is with brains, they don't let you forget the things you want to the most.

I covered my face with my forearm and grimaced as I thought of how badly I had been beaten and how practically everyone had seen it.

Ugh, great-

The door creaked further open, and instinctively, I shot a web – which landed on a wall, mere millimetres away from one of Hobie's wicks. His eyes were wide with shock.

"I guess I have to get used to that, huh?" He gestured his head to the web next to him, a half-smile on his face.

"Why are you here, Hobie?" I asked bluntly.

"Damn, not even a hello for your favourite person?"

"You're far from my favourite."

He sat down next to me and let out a laugh...which sounded a bit...off.

"Fair enough, I suppose." He looked at me sideways and faced forward once more.

"You'd be surprised at how many people would agree with you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Like half the teaching staff?"

"They're just the surface of the iceberg."

I nudged him slightly. "Come on, that can't be true, right?"

"I'm a very easy person to hate, Gwen."

I creased my eyebrows. "Huh."

We paused for a moment.

"You never did tell me what you came here for."

He shrugged and shifted a little bit. "Just wanted to see how you were holding up after the whole Rhino thing."

I frowned. "You were there when it happened?"

He furrowed his eyebrows and faced me fully. "You haven't seen it?"

A cold feeling of dread started creeping in. "Seen what?"

Hobie's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh...I thought you would've known."

The dread began to settle in a pit in my stomach. "Known what?"

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He seemed to be searching for the right words to say.

"I- "He sighed and dug his hand into his pocket before bringing out his phone.

"I think it's for the best if I just show you." He tapped in a few things before opening an app and showing it to me.