20 Strange Encounters Part 2

-At the Cafe-

(September Saturday 12:32 am)

"I'm sorry about, well everything" 

There was no mistaking what he said. 

Gwen Stacy found herself at a loss for words, as if something took whatever she was planning to say and scrambled it with the image of Peter she used to know. 

"I'm sorry for what happened back then at the hospital, I know I can't take any of it back but I just wanted you to know, I didn't mean any of it. I was …I wasn't thinking straight, so when I saw you with them everything just boiled out of me." 

She heard that changes people, and she often wondered what would have happened to her if her dad really died that day. 

Now she had some ideas on how she would have turned out. 

"Pete please, you have nothing to apologize for, if anything I should be that one apo- ".

If anything she should be the one apologizing to him. Before she could finish Peter raised his hand, cutting her off. 

"Stop please, just let me finish" 

That look again like all his vitality was drained from him. She couldn't hold eye contact with him. 

"So I've been thinking about things" 

'What the hell happened to you Pete?'. 

She didn't know and she couldn't bring herself to ask without coming off as insensitive given his present situation with his family.

" Peter Parker thinking about life, is the world ending soon?" She joked to lighten the mood. 

Peter didn't laugh, no reaction apart from a simple raised eyebrow. That calm, impassive reaction was so unlike him.

"And here we go, a glass of water and Chocolate smoothie for the brooding boy, and a chocolate smoothie with extra chocolate shavings for the girl, on the house." Thankfully the waiter came with their order before things could get awkward. 

She made sure to wink at Gwen when she left. 

Gwen just let out an exasperated sigh before taking a sip of her smoothie.

"Hmm, this is actually really good", Peter mirrored her actions. 

'The old Peter world have laugh…' she stopped herself before she could complete that thought.

Old Peter? Where did that come from? She hadn't met him in two months and now she was already judging him. 

Maybe Peter was right back then, maybe she was a bitch. She remembered what was said at the hospital that day. 

'Seriously, who am I to judge him when I almost…' 

…..

" Oh, I don't know, I thought cause of Aunt…Actually, I don't know what I was thinking, I just thought maybe you came here to check on me, you know, Peter Parker the nerd, your best friend, who you forgot about, I mean Jesus Gwen a text once in while would have been nice, but nooo… after becoming little miss popular with your new entourage, your to good for the little people now. You know you can be such bitch some…" 

Harry punched him before he could finish.

…..

She should have done things differently that day. Maybe all of things would have been different now.

Maybe if the others weren't there things could have played out differently. 

When his uncle died no one knew until the funeral, and even then very few showed up from what she heard from her mom who attended, only twenty-something people showed up due to the lizard incident being as big as it was. She didn't find out about it until she finished the tour with her band. 

The parkers didn't have any other living relatives so Peter handled everything himself.

Everything up to the point of his uncle's burial.

It didn't help that while all of this was going on that incident at the hospital took place, where her father and his aunt were, but neither of them knew that at the time. 

'No matter how I think about it, from his perspective, it probably felt like he was alone in the world' 

Suddenly she felt like she could understand why he looked the way he did. 

' And me being me must have made things worse for him, no wonder he looks so off'

"So I've been thinking" Peter continued after finishing his smoothie. 

'Jeez someone has an appetite.' It took literal seconds.

" I don't think we can be friends anymore Gwen." 

Gwen nearly choked on her smoothie.

'Jesus, Pete take it down a notch, at this rate forget bullets, I could die from shock'

" Arrg..cough…cough…Peter, you can't be serious…cough..cough… we…we both said things we didn't mean that day, and I know we haven't talked to each other at all since, but not being friends? Aren't you being a bit much?" Gwen grabbed a napkin to wipe herself clean.

" Not really, I'm just being realistic." 

" What's that supposed to mean?" She hoped he wasn't about to bring the others into this again. 

" It means just that, I have things to do now, I can't keep wondering about how things would go on with us, you have better friends now too, an actual life, you can't afford to have someone like me dragging you down." 

'What?'

Peter glanced out the window.

"This was always going to happen the moment you joined Watson and her band. We've been drifting apart and now I think it's time to just move on. Besides nerds and jocks don't mix, wasn't that what you said when you joined them. You one of them now and that's not a bad thing, I think it's good for you."

Peter turned to face her with a wistful smile, it wasn't as wrong this time around."

"It's not like we wouldn't be seeing each other, we can hang every now and then, but aside from that we have our own lives to live. So I really am sorry for everything Gwen. This is actually the reason I called you here"

Peter reached a hand to scratch the back of his head, a habit of his he had since childhood.

" My point is, you've outgrown me as a friend. You have it all now, looks, rich friends, you are popular, and you have brains to boot, even the grades to prove it and I honestly resent you for it, I can't pretend that we'll ever work things out and as I am right now I honestly don't have the energy to even try." 

What the hell is he saying right now? Why does it feel like she's being dumped by someone she never asked out? Gwen tried to understand where this was coming from but she couldn't really.

"So we just leave each other as is, give each other some space to deal with our own issues, and if we ever get back to how we used to be then great, if don't then we deal with that our own way too"

Peter finished and then took a sip from his glass of water. 

"So you called your best friend out to a cafe to dump her over a chocolate smoothie and a glass of water, damn Pete, I never knew you had it in you"

Should she be angry or sad about this development? surprised? or was this how it was always going to be?

" I know right, sometimes I even surprise myself." He joked. 

It wasn't funny, she didn't laugh, and her throat felt dry. The smoothie didn't help. 

" I'm going to be dropping out of school soon, still haven't worked it out yet, thinking of moving too, but that's just a passing thought for now, and I won't be around all that much so this is probably the last time we'll see each other in a while." 

'Damn it Pete'

"I just need some time to pull myself together, that's all and that's my piece a guess" 

" So, Peter Parker nerd of Mid Town high dumps Gwen Stacy the Smartass drummer of the Marry Janes" she bantered back. 

This time he laughed, they both did. 

"Just like that, huh"

Maybe she did deserve this. 

"Just like that" Peter chuckled.

There were a lot of things she wanted to say and do, but from the look on Peter's face, it wouldn't change anything.

" I feel like there's nothing I can say to change how this is going" 

" There isn't"

"You really made up your mind about this huh" 

"I have" 

"You know you can always call me if something ever happens, I'll always be there for you"

" I know" 

"You've really changed your know" 

"You too Gwen, I'm not the only one"

Gwen knew that more than anything. Whatever she thought was wrong with Peter before suddenly made sense now. They were growing, and they were outgrowing each other. 

Yet she couldn't shake the feeling that she there was something else going on. She was getting too paranoid and her super-hero gig was getting to her head.

"Guess this is really it then" Gwen held it in, whatever she was feeling, she was sure Peter had it worse.

"Peter, listen, I'm really sorry about Uncle Ben and Aunt May, and I'm sorry that I wasn't there with you when it mattered most, and I'm sorry for being such a bitch over the last few months, so if you ever need me, I'll always be here for you" 

Peter gave her a look she couldn't quit place, it was almost apathetic. 

"I know, guess this is goodbye then" 

Peter stood up to leave but Gwen grabbed his arm. Mentioning his family was hard on him, she knew that but she needed him to know. 

"Please Peter, Don't forget you have people here that still care about you"

"I won't," He said before gently removing her hand and leaving. 

She didn't know when it started but soon after the waterworks came. Was this how friendships end? 

It hurts. It hurts a lot. 

Maybe this was how it was always gonna go after what she did to him.

Maybe this really was for the best, for both of their sakes.

Behind her, the TV was broadcasting the news of the recent manslaughter incident and the miraculous rescue of one Officer Watanabe and fifteen other women with a lot of dead bodies reported on site.

-Chapter End-

So for those still wondering why she isn't shocked to see Peter alive. I direct you to the comment below.

His previous ability granted by the shard when it brought Peter back to life was Plot manipulation- or the ability to rewrite a certain narrative in reality, from her perspective as much as she could remember. Peter survived and she almost killed him. She's completely unaware of the fact that she actually killed him

And for those wondering why Peter doesn't do anything after she nearly killed him.

remember to him she is simply Gwen Stacy his best friend who got popular and left him for the rich and famous and whose father he put in the hospital. He doesn't know she's a spider woman but

Gwen knows he's The Lizard, and although she's keeping an eye on him from time to time, she's unaware of his other life.

With that, hope you enjoyed the chapter. 

A/N: Showout to Knight_Riku for reminding me, Note this is an AU of Earth 65B where Peter never found out who Ghost Spider(Gwen) was but was inspired all the same to follow the same path as Peter Parker from Earth 65B i.e make a serum to be a superhero.