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“Miles, don’t look now, but - man, I said don’t look!”
Miles’ head immediately snapped to the wall opposite him where he was typing out a response to one of his discussion posts. Jude sighed and plugged his ears in preparation for the blood-curdling, slasher film-worthy scream that followed.
Miles had seen spiders in his house before; ones no larger than an ant that could easily be mistaken for a different kind of bug until it began to crawl and convulse in that way that only spiders do. He had made it a point to bring in boxes upon boxes of EcoVenger on move-in day to make sure he never had to see any sign of the creatures in his vicinity.
The spider currently ambling up the wall across the room from him after he leapt backwards was the stuff of his worst nightmares.
“Who the fuck brought a tarantula to school?!?”
Miles and Jude were both in the hallway now in their PJs after the former refused to go back inside until it was gone.
“That’s Alex’s pet. We all saw it at his party last weekend, you didn’t-?”
Miles crossed his arms and gave him a look.
“…Right. Of course you didn’t.”
The door to their right creaked open, half a face peeking out from behind it. Both men recognized the young woman’s sharp eyeliner before she even began to speak.
“Aye, Margo!”
“Hey,” she smiled as she fully emerged from her room in her usual green sweatshirt and shorts. “Whatchy'all yelling about? I don’t think I’ve ever heard your voice reach that octave.”
“Oh that wasn’t-”
“Yeah, Alex’s tarantula snuck into our room, right next to his head!” Miles interrupted, leaning casually on the wall with an easy grin as if he wasn’t just cussing out his roommate and about to do the same to Alex.
Jude gave him a nasty glare, but didn’t say anything.
“Oh my god, it got out?” Margo gasped, sounding more like a kid at the zoo than a concerned neighbor.
“Yeah, it’s really been botherin’ Jude,” Miles continued with great affect. “Care to lend a hand?”
“Lemme see - I mean, I can help!”
She clapped her hands together and strolled right past Jude towards their room.
“I’ll make sure it’s safe and put it in a jar to bring back to Alex, and you,” Miles yelped when she grabbed his wrist and tugged him behind her, “are gonna help me catch it.”
He hesitated and looked to Jude for help, but the other man shrugged with a self-satisfied smirk spreading across his face.
“Miles?”
“S-sure,” he smiled painfully, “I’m right behind you!”
By the time they made it to the shared bedroom, the spider was nowhere to be seen. Miles swore he felt his stomach drop. He swept the room with anxious eyes while Margo ventured into the kitchen in search of a proper container. It wasn’t on either of the desks or desk lamps, and after counting to three and pulling away their bed sheets, it did not seem to be hiding there, either.
He found her again while she rummaged through the cupboards to report his findings. She pulled out a mug with the faces of several ‘Bleach’ characters printed on the front and examined it.
Miles winked, “Don’t use that one, that’s my good mug.”
Margo snickered and handed it back to him.
“Y'all got any mason jars I can use, then? I didn’t see any around.”
“Sure, they’re just behind the…the… ”
Miles had made the grave mistake of looking up, and stopped dead in his tracks. There, just inches away from his forehead, was the tarantula. The dark mass was slowly climbing its way up the cupboard where the mason jars were supposed to be.
“Oh, sweet, it’s right there!”
He looked like someone had gotten out a remote and pressed 'pause’, his eyes the size of saucers.
Margo’s brows furrowed in concern.
“Miles? Aren’t you gonna get it?”
“I…um…”
His chest began to rise and fall more rapidly as the spider continued its ascent, and she quickly realized that he was a little more than just startled. She took back the mug, set it on the counter, and gently pushed him aside.
“Actually, I got it.”
Margo reached up to where the spider was and let it crawl onto her hand. Her other hand, she used to open the cupboard and grab a jar, which she turned to hand over to Miles.
“Open this for me?”
“Now that I can do,” he said, taking the jar carefully as if the tarantula would leap off of Margo’s hand at any moment. “There.”
She deposited the creature into the jar with such ease that Miles half-expected to be made fun of, but she didn’t say anything. Just observed with a little smile as it crawled aimlessly around the container and pushed its legs against the glass.
“Y'know, Alex actually let me hold this little guy once.”
Miles leaned back against the opposite counter.
“Do you, like, regularly pet bugs?”
She hummed before answering, “I like some bugs, but I’m not exactly diggin’ in the grass looking for 'em. Tarantulas are cool, though. They can shoot their hairs out at people to defend themselves. Wish I could do that.”
“It’d be a hell of a superpower,” he laughed. “You wanna take this guy across the hall?”
“I do, but are you gonna be able to handle it?”
“He’s trapped and he cannot hurt me,” Miles got off the counter and gestured for Margo to go ahead of him. “I’ll be fine.”