It's Not A Problem

6

3rd POV

Peters face falls when he recognizes the familiar orange bottle with white cap. His eyes go wide and he feels chills waterfall down his body.

"What are you doing?" He asks, trying to keep his voice calm. MJ shakes the pill bottle in her hand and the pills rattle. Okay at least they didn't find the coke bottle. But which fuckin bottle is it?

"You know you can talk to us about anything, right?" MJ asks and Peter sighs in defeat and nods.

"Just everything with balancing school and being SpiderMan and being Mr Starks personal intern has just been getting so overwhelming lately." Peter says, not fully letting his guard down, but opening up a bit. They both nod and Ned picks up the bong and hands it to Peter who takes it hesitantly and confused.

"I'm sure it's a lot to juggle, but now it make sense why you've been acting different lately. Why didn't you tell us you got diagnosed with ADHD?" Ned asks and it takes everything within Peter to not visibly sigh with relief at his words. They found the Adderall.

"It's been weird to accept and adjust to." Peter starts, not knowing entirely what to say. That you faked ADHD symptoms to a psychiatrist just to get stimulants? He picks up the lighter from the floor and takes a rip from the bong to give himself more time to think.

As he exhales he continues, "like everything I thought I knew about myself was a lie. I just assumed everyone was dealing with all this shit too but I guess I was wrong." He says with a shrug and hand the bong to MJ who swaps his pill bottle with it.

It's not that Peter didn't have any traces of ADHD, that's what made him look everything up in the first place. That's also what made him realize that he could get Adderall from having an ADHD diagnosis. The more severe your symptoms were, the more likely they'd believe you when you keep asking for a higher dose.

That was Peters entire plan and he felt bad for making May go through 3 expensive appointments filled with intense testing. But all that guilt got washed away when he got that first bottle.

"Have you found that meds have helped with it at all?" MJ asks after passing the bong to Ned and Peter puts the bottle away and takes a seat next to them and nods.

"I mean, it's not a cure all but I can tell I feel different." They both look at him, silently asking for him to elaborate. "Like I have more confidence and there's less brain fog but I don't really know how to fully articulate it, ya know?" He says. You don't know how to articulate it cause you don't know how it's supposed to actually help you, you just abuse it every chance you get.

"I'm happy you're feeling better, but you should've told us cause I wanna make sure I'm doing everything I can to make you comfortable, I don't wanna say or do anything wrong." Ned says and passes the bong back to Peter and MJ nods in agreement.

"Thank you guys, really. It means a lot to me to know you care so much. I really appreciate you being sensitive to my needs but I don't want you to treat me any differently. You're my best friends for a reason and that's cause we all know each other so well and where our boundaries are. You're not going to do anything that would upset me and even if you did, you know I'd call you out on it." Peter says with a laugh at the end and Ned flips him off, laughing too.

Peter takes his rip of the bong and passes it to MJ who had a certain look on her face that he couldn't place. He gives her a questioning look and she sighs.

"Do you have any Tylenol? I'm having pretty bad cramps, that's actually how I found the bottle in the first place cause I was looking for some." MJ says and Peter nods and stands up.

"Yea, we keep it in the kitchen, I'll go grab it for you. Never hesitate to ask next time!" He says and he leaves the room again to grab the medicine.

When he comes back the conversation thankfully switches to something else. He hands MJ the Tylenol and settles back in his seat.

-time skip-

"Bye guys! Text me when you get home, okay?" Peter calls out to his friends as they leave his apartment, already halfway down the hall.

"Shhh!" They both shush him and he cringes, completely forgetting that it's after 4am and the entire apartment complex was asleep besides them. The three of them try to stifle their laughter and he shakes his head and shoos them away, watching them until they enter the elevator.

When he gets back into his apartment and closes the door, he lets out a breath he didn't even know he was holding and sags his shoulders.

"How the fuck did I get away with that?" He asks out loud to the empty room. Im getting sloppy with the hiding spaces, they could have easily found the coke or the opioids if they looked in a different drawer! I'm so fucking stupid. It's surprising I haven't gotten caught yet.

He walks back into his bedroom and goes around, grabbing everything from their separate hiding places. After 15 minutes there's a small pile on his bed of pill bottles, small bags, and his weed stuff.

"Well I don't need to really hide the weed stuff that much cause it's not a big deal so I'll do that last." Peter says out loud to himself and moves that over to the opposite side of his bed.

He looks at the clock again, 4:30, May gets off work at 6 so he has time to find the perfect hiding spot before she gets back home.

After looking around every corner of his room, he finally lands on a perfect hiding spots. He tapes the painkiller and the coke bottles to the inside of his air vent, the two that he'd get in most trouble with if anyone finds them. Then, he put the adderall bottle in his drawer, not remembering why he was trying to hide it in the first place. Finally he puts all his weed stuff back in his closet.

He sighs once's he's done and takes a seat back on his bed, running his hands through his hair as he looks down at the floor. What the fuck am I doing?

Peter shakes his head and he feels tears start to fill his eyes. Wow, of course I'm fucking crying. Boohoo, you're a drug addict and you feel your life falling apart around you while trying to keep it a secret, big deal. Suck it up, asshole, people are dying. Your little 'drug problem' is nothing. Nothing.

He doesn't let his tears fall and just shakes his head, mad that he let himself become so self obsessed and forget that people will always have it worse than him and he should just be happy that he's not homeless or starving or something worse.

Peter lays his head down on his pillow  just as the front door unlocks. Perfect timing.

Ayo just a lil disclaimer! Your problems are important even if someone is going through something 'worse' than you. Everyone has their own limits and what they can handle and something that Person A thinks is a breeze could be a really big issue for Person B. There will always be people that have it better and people that have it worse than you, but you are VALID!!! I love you guys