A/N: I realize that people are arachnophobic (I'm not, weirdly enough), so this is kind of a warning to people with arachnophobia. This story will be about spiders, and so if you don't like spiders then please skip this story. But to make up for it, please enjoy this video and photo of this cute little spider named Lucas (his YouTube videos are adorable--check them out if you can)!! And also, I think I saw this as a prompt a long time ago, but I couldn't find the prompt itself. But anyway, to you spider lovers out there--enjoy!
"Why do we watch these movies, anyway?" My friend Jack groaned as we watched the screen intently. The film was about this spider that hitches a ride on a dead man's corpse, and it mates and has babies, and town citizens turn up dead, and it's up to this doctor and an exterminator to get rid of them. The name? Arachnophobia.
"Oh, God, I hate spiders!" My other friend, Kaya, squealed as she dug her face into the pillow. My best friend, Liam, rolled his eyes as he continued watching the movie.
"I dunno, they don't bother me," he shrugged. He was from Australia, and seeing spiders all over the place was the norm for him. He looked over at me.
"Spiders don't scare you one bit, don't they, Kayleigh?" I shook my head. I never believed spiders were scary at all. I begged my parents for a spider for my birthday when I was five. I got a toy spider and a real puppy instead, but I didn't complain. When I was in the fourth grade, we went to the zoo for a field trip. When we went to the reptile enclosure, there were spiders there. When one of the handlers brought out a tarantula and asked who wanted to hold him, all of the boys lined up eagerly, while all the girls shrunk back in fear. That is, all of them except for me. I marched right up to the front and asked to hold him. I was a strange kid when it came to that, but I got around. In high school, when I got a job, I saved up my money and wanted to buy a tarantula for me to own, but my parents were against it, as my mother was a huge arachnophobe. My brother wanted one as a bragging right for his friends. My best subject in school was science all the way up to college. And you thought that I could get a spider then, but you were mistaken. My roommate was terrified of spiders, just like almost everyone else I've met. But I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Zoology and became a beginner wildlife biologist. I ended up working with all kinds of animals, yet I haven't gotten one of my own yet.
"Eurgh---Your bathroom's around the corner, right?" Kaya asked. I nodded, and she got up and headed for the bathroom--right when a clutter of spiders scurried onscreen. She grimaced and hurried out of the room. But maybe ten seconds after she left, we all heard an ear-piercing scream--right from around the corner.
"Kaya!" We exclaimed as we paused the movie and ran for the bathroom. The lights were on, and there was Kaya, glued to a wall of the bathroom.
"What happened?" I asked. She was shaking so hard I thought she was going to have a seizure. But with a shaky hand, she pointed to the wall. There, resting by a decor picture, was a little brown spider. Jack and Liam were trying to hold in their laughter.
"Oh, that's just a common house spider," I said nonchalantly. Kaya looked at me as if I were insane.
"Don't worry, Kaya, I'll kill it," Jack volunteered as he started for the kitchen to get a magazine.
"No, wait!" I exclaimed. I never killed spiders in my apartment, I never thought it was necessary and humane. I always set them free, because if we killed spiders and they disappeared from the world, then our food would be consumed and devoured by insects. Besides, I never had a love for flies and mosquitoes, anyway.
I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic cup along with an ad card from a magazine. I went back to the bathroom, pushed past them all, and slowly approached the spider. Thinking quickly, I slid the ad card underneath the little guy while trapping it inside the cup at the same time. I moved past everybody and quickly made my way to the open-door balcony. It looked at me with its many wide eyes through the cup.
