Sitting on the seat she sat on the past few days, she looked around the cafeteria in search of Leon. No sign of him.
Francesca sat next to her and instead of eating, began to play with her new pet. Violetta noticed this, so she scooted a seat farther away from her.
"Don't make me touch that thing," Violetta said
"Why? It would never hurt you!" Francesca was speaking as softly as a mother would speak when holding their sleeping newborn.
"And plus, I noticed he has a big red mark right here—" Francesca was saying, but was interrupted by a tiny scream that escaped from Violetta's mouth. Vilu was so surprised she literally fell from her seat.
"Why on earth would you be holding a black widow, Fran?" Violetta managed to say as she got up, then made her way to three more seats away from Fran.
"Widow? I thought this was a guy spider. Huh. Maybe there are guy widows?"
Violetta, trying her best not to panic, said, "Well, if you get bitten and die, it is not my fault."
Francesca laughed. "Die. That's such a silly word!"
She continued laughing as Violetta turned away from her. Why was she even laughing? Silly? Dying is not silly.
She turned around again and almost fell out of her seat again when she saw who had suddenly appeared next to Francesca. "Leon! Man, you guys are gonna give me a heart attack if you keep on surprising me like that!"
Leon turned to her, smiling, showing his whiter than white teeth. "Vilu! Then I guess we should call an ambulance ahead of time before your surprise birthday party, huh?"
Violetta gave a look that made Leon say: "You know I'm just playing."
"No, actually, I don't know. I haven't known you for that long."
This made Leon's smile slowly fade away. "Right."
A few seconds later, he slightly shook his head, as if shaking his thoughts out of his mind, and looked at Francesca. "Ooh! May I?" he asked.
With one nod, Fran was about to give him the spider, but Violetta grabbed Leon before he touched it.
Horrified, Vilu said, "Leon, no, please. You'll get bitten! Don't touch it."
Leon's smile returned again. "And miss my chance to become Spiderman? I don't think so."
Violetta, of course, didn't take it as a joke. She watched in horror as Francesca gently placed the spider on Leon's hands.
Vilu was saying to herself, I can't watch, but she couldn't move a muscle either.
Just then, Leon and Violetta both jumped simultaneously—mainly because Violetta saw how the spider did a move she had never seen it do before.
Leon jumped for the same reason, but then he grabbed his hand and grimaced as if in pain.
He grunted as Violetta yelled, "See? What did I tell you?"
Leon kept on grabbing his hand, clutching it tight against his chest.
Violetta, scared out of her wits, got closer to him and turned to where Leon could see her. She placed her hand on Leon's—it was strangely cold—and saw how he slowly closed his eyes.
Vilu was too paralyzed to even react to what happened. They probably stayed there, as immobile as statues, for minutes. Until finally, a voice made Violetta come to her senses:
"Am I Spiderman now?" It was Leon. He opened his eyes right after he said this, and Violetta stared at him with wide, expressionless eyes.
She looked at Leon and saw him smiling.
"What is this, Leon?" Violetta said with a raised voice.
Leon, without a word, helped himself up from the seat, handed the spider back to Francesca, and gave Violetta a smile and walked away as if he wasn't just bitten by one of the most venemous spiders in the country.
He disappeared away into the hallway. Meanwhile, Violetta stayed in her seat for a while, then looked up to Francesca who was petting that arachnid. "Leon is a friend. You should never bite friends," she was saying to the spider.
Coming to her full senses, she looked off to where she saw Leon walk away.
She began to think clearly now: These spiders do not always let out their venom, right? Yeah, that's probably why he isn't acting spider-bitten right now.
She got up, walking to where Leon went. Wait, what if he wasn't even bitten? What if this was just a stupid trick to see if I would fall for it so he could laugh at me? Francesca sure seemed to be calm about this. Maybe she was in on this?
She stopped walking. Right in front of him, Leon was simply leaning against the wall.
He turned his head to Violetta, and smiled.
Violetta began walking toward him, but he began to walk away.
"Leon, wait," Vilu said, but he only turned his head to look at her and kept on walking.
Then he ran. Out the hallway, and out the door. Violetta didn't even think as she, too, ran out the door.
Why is he running? Violetta thought after a minute of running. Why am I running? Why am I following him?
Once she turned the corner following Leon, he suddenly seemed to disappear...
In his place, a note floated down to the ground...
