Re: osborn estate: gwen & pete
I draw the lines at hanging out on corners waiting for Spider-Man to rescue me, though. [Which happened. She was teasing, and her smile was a little brighter. She knew that was youth and conditioning, the ability to smile and bounce back more quickly with each subsequent bad thing that happened. First events were life shattering and, after that, she mind just began to insulate itself. It was easier when the brain was young, but it was a common phenomenon, and she tried not to feel guilty about the smile she flashed him in the kitchen. It had taken months for her to smile after he dad died, but here she was, smiling, when she had no idea if they'd ever be able to fix what Harry had done to himself.
She waited until he hopped on the counter, ice tray beside him and a few cubes wrapped in a paper town acquired from under the cabinet at his back, and then she looked at him as she twisted the paper around the edge of the ice. Fingers tight against the white, she held the barely-cold-yet ice and paper to the worst bruise along his cheekbone.] It doesn't matter, Pete. I managed to help no one. Mary Jane is dead, and Harry won't ever forgive me for betraying him, no matter why I did it. [She shook her head.] I'm not a very good friend. I kept a pretty huge secret from him.
[She didn't say anything about getting to know this Mary Jane. It was no secret that she and this Mary Jane weren't friends, and she felt wrong trying to claim that friendship now.] Mary Jane and I stopped being friends really shortly after I got here. We weren't close. We didn't even like each other, but I know how much she meant to you and Harry and Flash. [Her smile was sad, and she moved the ice down further, to his jaw.] He didn't kill me. I still don't think he would. [A little chuckle.] Stupid, huh?
[Her cornflower eyes met his.] What did he say when you found him? Does he know? [About Mary Jane, and she didn't ask the obvious question that should follow - did he do it?] When I saw him, he was talking about her like she was alive, like she was his only real ally.