Spider-Gwen 2 || Hanging by a Thread

Reflections || Gwen Stacy

"Now in the morning I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own"

-Viva La Vida, Coldplay

I don't know why I expected this to work...

Lying on her face with her pillow over the back of her head wasn't Gwen Stacy's ideal sleeping position, but it was the only one that she had yet to try. The blonde's eyelids ached as they stayed shut, yet sleep continued to elude her as she released an uncomfortable groan.

Lack of sleep was something that she'd known was associated with college. Gwen had heard all the jokes, seen all the memes online... but her sleeplessness wasn't the same as that of other college students.

She tried squeezing her eyelids together as hard as she could, her fingers digging into the fluffy pillow that was pulled over her head. Gwen had tried everything... rotating the mattress, sleeping on her sides, sleeping on the ground, even. Sometimes a new position worked, but it never lasted forever. 

Because every time she shut her eyes, it wouldn't take long to see the faces of the ones she'd failed.

BZZT!! BZZT!! BZZT!! The blare of Gwen's alarm clock pierced the silence of her dorm room, and she finally lifted her head, allowing the pillow to flop harmlessly onto her back. "You..." She rasped, grabbing the clock and staring at the time that read '7:15' in pure annoyance. "...Have GOT to be joking."

But it was no joke. It was time for her to get up and get ready for class... on a Friday, no less.

She jammed the alarm button with her thumb, having half a mind to throw the alarm clock across her room. But on the other side of the wall was a fellow dorm resident who would file a complaint, which was the last thing she needed right now.

Gwen pushed herself up, wincing as the exhaustion of another night without a wink of sleep limited her movements-her frazzled hair settled around her shoulders, in severe need of combing. The blonde licked her dried lips, gathering the courage to sweep her feet out of the bed and walk towards her bathroom.

She flicked the light switch on as she walked in, then reached for the cabinet that held everything needed for Gwen to conduct her morning routine in peace-thank goodness that Columbia had given her a dorm to herself. It was amazing what being involved in an infamous traumatic event could get a school administration to do...

That, or the side effects of said traumatic event. Gwen thought to herself bitterly, opening the cabinet door to reveal a bottle of Effexor. She undid the cap before downing a pill dry, then grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste.

Her grey-blue eyes studied her appearance in the mirror, paying attention to the dark bags that continued to linger under her eyes. Already Gwen could hear the small jokes her professors would say-"Looks like you studied too hard again!"; "Did you finally go out and party, Miss Stacy?"; "You know that finals aren't until December, right?" She didn't want to hear them. She was sick of hearing them...

Gwen's eyes drifted, moving from the reflection of her face to the reflection of her right arm. The sleeveless tee that she still had on from her sleepless night made the scars from the Midtown Prom Incident plainly visible-four lines of pink tissue that ran across her bicep and onto her tricep. Three of them had been from the claw of a giant lizard. And the fourth gash was from an injury that she wanted to think about even less than the claw marks.

Thirty minutes later, Gwen was on her way out the door-clad in a navy blue shirt, dark denim shorts, and a grey flannel tied loosely around her waist. Her laptop bag thumped against her waist as she walked down the hall, heading down the path she'd walked almost a hundred times already. Hallway, bus stop, Chemistry Building. The routine of starting a day of classes had begun to feel like reciting a Dora the Explorer song-knowing exactly where you were headed and that it was going to be no more interesting than the last time you'd made the trip.