One Dance 3: Illusions

14.

"I think I'm gonna wear my pink dress tonight," Sam commented while trying to put lipgloss on.

"You want to match? I've got a pink t-shirt, too, if you don't feel like matching-matching. Like a half-match."

"It's up to you," she laughed before rubbing her lips together and smacking them. "But the carnival is tonight, and Peter's gonna be there...might want to impress him with something cute."

"Sam, I already told you, it's not like that. Plus he was just messing around with that woman a few hours ago," you lied.

"I thought you two sorted that out."

"Not entirely, look...you know I still like him...a little, but I don't want to get my hopes up and end up hurting worse than before."

"I'm sorry y/n, I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't upset me," you laughed. "But I want the rest of this vacation to be mostly boy free, unless Peter desperately needs something."

"He seems to be awful needy lately."

"Sam!" you laughed, playfully punching her shoulder.

You put on a cute outfit for the weather; not too hot for the day but warm enough that you wouldn't freeze when the sun went down.

"You ready? Betty just texted me that they're waiting on us and Flash."

"Yeah, you got everything?"

"Mhm," she nodded, and the two of you rejoined the group in the hotel lobby.

"Okay, students! On to the Cathedral, and then the Carnival," yelled Mr. Harrington.

"I'm so excited!" Mr. Dell whispered, and you could help but laugh at him.

***

"Come on y/n, pick up..."

"Peter? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah it's...we have a plan, so...um, listen, I'm really sorry about this, it wasn't my idea—"

"Just spit it out Parker."

"Fury's working with the company to change our plans from the carnival to the opera tonight instead of later on. So you won't have the carnival...I'm sorry. I know everyone was looking forward to it, but we need to keep everyone safe."

You nodded silently. "Y-yeah, okay. It's fine, no worries."

"Okay," he responded awkwardly. He was silent for a few seconds before joking, "If things go well I might make it back in time to catch the end of it."

You gave him a quick laugh, unsure what to say next. You decided to go with your usual.

"Please be careful Peter."

"I know, y/n. I'm doing my best, I'm...sorry, this is all just really hard..."

He went silent on the other side and you wished he was here in person. You wished you could hold onto him and tell him everything would be fine; you'd fight by his side and the elementals would leave plenty of time for Peter to enjoy his vacation.

"I'm—I—I know it's hard, Pete...r..." you sighed, closing your eyes. "If there's anything I can do, tell me. You call and I'm here, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Peter! We don't have all day! Tell y/n to stay inside and keep everyone with her!" you heard Fury yell over the phone.

"Okay, gotta go, I'll communicate with you through Karen—"