Co-workers: A Peter Parker fan fic

Chapter 29

Author's pov:

---------------------

Y/n stares at her phone an unknown number stares back at her, her face still red from the embarrassment of the party falling silent because of her and Peter. She wants to be respected above all and the thought of people overhearing her petty teenage arguments makes her slightly humiliated, but in truth she was happy to hear those words come out of Peter's mouth, she really wanted to hear him say that. However at this very moment she has forgotten it all, she's frozen staring at the screen the phone rings for a fourth time. Still no movement. She's forgotten everything, how to move, how to breathe, how to even think. The only thing she knows is that if she answers this call she could get told that she has cancer again and she has to relive all the excruciating pain that cancer brings both physical and emotional, she has to break everyone's hearts and watch as they all start walking on eggshells around her acting as though batting an eyelash could kill her, it rings for a sixth time, the air is tense with anticipation, everyone is afraid to even breath scared that one single movement will somehow end the call. 

Not everyone is afraid to move however, Steve who has been in extreme anguish for days since he found out, decides to step forward, he's not forgotten how to think. All he's been doing is thinking, overthinking really. He just keeping replaying the moment they all shared in the living not even 72 hours ago, when peter revealed the rogue nosebleed she experienced at school. The second he heard the word nosebleed he tuned everything else out, everything anyone said just became white noise, all he could focus on was y/n he looked at her and he finally saw it, the anxiety. God how had he missed this before? He's her best friend and he had no idea what she was going through, he has been punishing himself every minute since he found out, when they were all bombarding her with questions in the living room that day he was practically burning holes into her with his unbreakable gaze. He knew that no matter how hard she tried to deny it that if there was a single bruise on her then it was true. He couldn't stop thinking about how she looked when she first arrived at the compound, she was completely bald, her cheeks hollowed out and her eyes sunken in, her limbs where merely bone and skin she was so sickly looking that whenever he sees her now that's all that he can see. Another punishment of his, imagining her at her worst so that he can almost feel her pain, feel the pain that she was experiencing alone. He's not frozen at all, he's been chaotic for days "For god sake answer it!" He yelled across the room not being able to handle hearing that ringtone one more time. 

Y/n snaps out of whatever trance she was in and picks up the phone, placing it gently to her ear. The entire party is eerily silent as everyone tries desperately to listen in to the other side of the phone call, everyone absentmindedly leaning forward as though the extra two inches will suddenly grant them with super-hearing, even the people at the party who don't know what's going on are leaning in trying to figure out what's going on. 

"Hello?" y/n answers 

"yes this is she"  "mm hm"  "Okay" Everyone can only hear y/n's end of the conversation and it's impossible to figure out whether it's going well or not. 

"What's he saying?" Steve yells across the room to which y/n simply wafts a a hand in his direction signalling for him to shutup 

"Okay" "yes" "mm hmm" It's painful to wait this long steve looks like he's about to punch a wall 

"yes, no problem of course thankyou" y/n says as she hangs up staring speechless at her phone screen the air is thick with anticipation as though even breathing would would cause the earth to shift

"So?!" Tony asks finally chiming in 

"What did he say?" Steve yells 

"y/n what happened?" Peter asks calmly placing a gentle hand on her arm to which she flinched slightly 

"Well..."