Spider-Gwen || Caught in a Web

Preparation || Gwen Stacy

"When you're on a golden sea, you don't need no memory"

-Island in the Sun, Weezer

"Soooo, Gwen...?"

The knowing tone in MJ's voice made Gwen look up, her eyes meeting the gaze of her friend. 

"I'm sorry... what?" Gwen blinked, looking at Felicia, who had a smirk plastered all over her face. "Did she say something?" Gwen asked, and Felicia shrugged. "Hey, she said it, not me..."

Seems as if MJ had made a comment while Gwen was lost in her thoughts. The blonde brushed her side bang away from her eye, clearing her vision as she looked at MJ again. "I didn't hear it, what did you say?" Gwen's request for clarity made MJ and Felicia laugh, with the former giving Gwen a playful nudge against her arm. 

"You know... have you decided who you're asking to prom yet?"

Prom... as much as Gwen tried to play the 'indifference' card when it came to Midtown High School's dance, she couldn't help but feel that giddy anticipation in her stomach whenever she heard the word. But it had been pushed to the back burners with all that she had going on right now... so she couldn't quite say that she had a solid plan just yet.

"Oh... um... no, not yet." Gwen answered, earning a pair of disappointed groans from her friends. 

"Gwen, this is really important!!" MJ told her, slight frustration over Gwen's continued indecision evident in her voice. "You need to have a good plan ahead of time, or you'll end up going to prom alone!" As much as Gwen felt concerned about the possibility of going to prom alone, she had no desire to let her friends now she was concerned about it. 

She shrugged in response to MJ, saying, "What's so bad about that?"

"Cut the crap, Gwen." Felicia said abruptly, folding her arms over her chest as the three friends walked around a set of orange safety cones that surrounded a sewer grate that was being worked on. "The whole 'indifferent to love' schtick may have everyone else fooled, but we're your friends-your best friends. We know better." Felicia's comment made Gwen's head lower slightly, her gaze turning to the sidewalk as she adjusted her backpack on her shoulders. They did know better... the trio had been through thick and thin together the past three years, and it wasn't like they were going to let one of their own bottle everything up.

"Like that time when you got stood up freshman year?" MJ piped up, and Felicia nodded with a smile. "How many boxes of tissues did you go through that evening?" 

"Okay, okay, good point-" Gwen began to say, but was quickly cut off by Felicia. "Or when you went through the 'I can fix him' phase with Flash Thompson?" 

Yikes. Gwen cringed at that memory in particular, where her confidence and belief in her ability to solve a problem had gotten the best of her, and she'd tried to cozy up to Flash in an attempt to make him into anything other than a self-absorbed douche. There was nothing else in that brain of his, she knew that well now.

"Face it, Gwen..." MJ started, making Gwen look away from Felicia to meet her redhead friend's gaze. "...We all know you have the ability to be a strong, independent woman... but just because you're capable of making it on your own doesn't mean that you want to be alone forever." 

As MJ laid her hand on Gwen's arm, the blonde couldn't help but smile like a dork. Sure, MJ and Felicia had their quirks-MJ didn't know where she was or what she was doing half the time, and Felicia had an abrupt, unfiltered way of communicating that rubbed many people the wrong way-but they had been wonderful friends to her.