He looked at her, then him, and back to her before seemingly forming his sentence in his mind and replying to her.
"Hello Gwen, I'm well, thank you. And you, how are you?"
Before looking at him.
"Hello, you were with me in algebra, right? Arthur Lester, I think?"
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"That's right."
"Nice to meet you, my name is Peter Parker."
He seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, looking alternately at Gwen and Arthur before finally asking,
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you two meet?"
Gwen smiled at Arthur before looking at Peter and replying,
"I bumped into him while shopping, and while talking, I learned that we would be in the same university, so I stayed in touch with him."
Arthur interjected,
"And we went on a date."
Gwen whipped her head around to look at him, her eyes squinting. He looked at her.
"What, is it supposed to be a big secret or something?"
She replied through gritted teeth,
"No, but I would have liked to be the one to say it."
While they were whispering, Peter had gone still at the mention of a date, looking at them. They seemed to already be quite close.
He tried to smile at them, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. Still, he interrupted them.
"So, are you together now?"
Arthur looked at him strangely before shrugging.
"Of course not, we went on a single date. I'm not so easy."
"Oh really now?" Gwen replied, scoffing at the assumption.
Peter interrupted what was quickly looking like flirting, hoping to change the subject. He didn't feel comfortable talking about one of his two crushes going on dates with somebody else, not that he had told either of them that he had a crush on them.
"I'm sorry, I need to go study for the afternoon class."
He took his tray and quickly walked away from them, not waiting for an answer. They both looked at his back before Arthur muttered,
"Huh, that was weird, right? Like, it's not just me who saw it."
Gwen looked pained for a moment before answering in a low voice so only he could hear it.
"I think Peter has had a crush on me since 5th grade, but I thought he had let it go."
"Clearly not."
She looked annoyed at him for a second before reprimanding him.
"You shouldn't have said anything about our date. He already has few friends, and now he will avoid me."
Arthur turned to look at her for a moment before taking her hand in his and saying, as gently but firmly as he could,
"Gwen, I like you a lot. I enjoyed our date and I would love to go on another one with you, but I will never hide it. Neither you nor I have done anything to be ashamed of, and I refuse to live in secret."
She looked guilty as his words registered, before looking down, not taking her hand from his.
"I know, I'm sorry if I implied it. It's just that Peter was my first friend and I don't want to make him avoid me because he is uncomfortable."
"I understand that, and if you want to keep your lunch break to yourself to talk to Peter without me, so I don't make him uncomfortable, I could eat alone or try to make other friends."
She eyed him strangely for a few seconds before asking,
"Wouldn't that make you jealous? Every boy who tried to make me date them quickly became jealous of my closeness with Peter."
He smiled, looking at her like she had just said something very funny.
"Gwen, I trust you. I have self-confidence. I know who I am. If one day the trust I placed in the people closest to me is broken, it would be their mistake and loss, not mine."
He continued,
"So don't worry about me. Be friends with him. The only thing that I ask is that you do not hide our relationship if we have one in the future."
She looked surprised by his maturity before smiling at him.
"A relationship in the future, huh?"
He blushed a bit.
"Well, yeah, I know I like you a lot already and I think you do too, but let's go on some more dates before putting a label on it, if it's alright with you."
"Of course, I would like that as well."
Their sweet moment was interrupted by the bells ringing. They looked at each other one more time before hurrying, each on their own way to their next classes.
At the end of his next class, Arthur managed to catch Peter's eye, giving a nod directed outside. They both walked a bit before Arthur spoke.
"Listen, I know that me and Gwen are making you uncomfortable, but I won't stop seeing her until she doesn't want me to."
Peter looked at him in obvious disappointment.
"Why are you saying that? Is it the usual 'Stay away from my girl' spiel?"
Arthur laughed before replying,
"No, not at all. All I want to tell you is that you having a crush will not stop me from trying to be a friend to you. Even if I don't know you very well, I can tell that you are a great guy to have as a friend."
"I just wanted to tell you that, so that you can stop avoiding me whenever we have class together."
Peter looked somewhere between shocked and surprised by Arthur's declaration before replying, sounding as unsure of himself as possible,
"Right, okay, hum, I will go now. Bye."
Arthur watched him walking away, thinking,
'I will become friends with Spider-Man, and if I die, that's gonna be written on my grave.'
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At the end of the day, Arthur didn't manage to talk to Gwen again. Still, as he walked home, he couldn't help but be happy with how his day turned out.
'But my brain right now is really potent. Every calculation is ridiculously easy. I managed to memorise everything in one or two reads.'
While he opened his front door, looking pleased with himself, he heard a sound coming from inside his apartment. Activating his ability, he took a nearby crowbar that he had stolen some time ago.
He quickly approached his living room and stopped dead in his tracks. There was a cat, scratching his sofa with obvious ferocity.
He looked at the cat for a few minutes as it finished scratching his couch raw, before jumping on it and lying down. Looking around his apartment, in the cat's eyes, Arthur could see intelligence.
Slowly, a shiver was making its way through his body.
'How the fuck did she find me?'
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