I'm Fine

Surprise!

"No no no! We saw you both making out on the couch and you're telling us there are no feelings between the two of you?" Flash said with a mischievous smile.

The three best friends were in the living room at Ned's apartment eating sandwiches from Peter's favorite bodega.

"We were fucking high dude!" Ned said with a smile.

Flash started laughing. "That explains the skunk smell that was in the trash bin outside! My dad spent all night looking for it!"

"Ned! I told you not to put that shit in the trash!" MJ said rolling her eyes. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyways. Are you feeling better Pete?" MJ asked.

"Yeah, I'm just... tired." He responded. Flash looked at him, asking a question with his eyes: "Are you sure you're ok?" Peter nodded his head. "Yes, I'm sure."

"We're not here to talk about me, we're here to have our annual Harry Potter marathon so let's turn on the first movie." Peter said.

"Ok ok I'll go get the DVD. Ooo guys look! It's snowing!" Ned said.
~~~
Two weeks later Peter was sitting on the floor against the wall recovering from another bad panic attack. He passed out again but didn't call for help.
Everyone was probably tired of him anyway.

Today felt significant for some reason but he couldn't figure out why. Tony knocked on the teen's door. "Hey kid, you ok in there?"

Peter quickly got up, wiped the tears from his face and opened the laptop that was on his desk. "Uh, yeah! I'm just working on an essay," he said.

"That's boring for a Saturday. How about you and I go take a walk in the snow outside?" Tony asked.

"M-maybe later."

"I'm not taking no for an answer, you've been holed up in your room all morning."

"Ok ok, I'll come out," Peter said. He put some cold weather gear on and opened his door. Tony studied the sight that was before him.

The poor kid looked drained. There was no light in his baggy eyes. He was extremely pale and looked so... frail.

Tony led him to the backyard. Peter looked up at the gray clouds and felt the chill sting of snowflakes hitting his cheek. He smiled for the first time that day. The coldness repeatedly hitting his face grounded him.

"See! I knew you needed to come outside," Tony said with a warm smile, happy that Peter seemed to perk up.

Right when Peter was about to respond, a snowball hit him square in the face.

"What the-" He started to say.

MJ, Flash, and Ned walked out from behind the tool shed. "Happy birthday loser," MJ yelled with a smirk.

With everything going on, Peter forgot that his birthday was that day. His friends had snowballs in their gloved hands and he finally understood what was happening.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Ned yelled.

The birthday boy reached down, made a couple of snowballs quickly and threw them at his friends.

Tony smiled watching Peter enjoy himself for the first time in awhile.

~~~
After the snowball fight, they all went inside for some of Steve's famous hot chocolate. The rest of the Avengers were there too. Peter had forgotten they lived there because they had just come back from a long mission.

While he and his friends were outside, the Avengers decorated the downstairs portion of the tower. It was Law & Order: SVU themed. A big sign displayed "Happy 16th Birthday Peter!" in the font of the show. There were balloons everywhere, a 3 foot gavel cake, pizza, and all the episodes were playing on repeat on the enormous TV.

Peter smiled and turned to his friends. "Was this you all's idea?" He asked.

They shook their heads. "It was all Mr. Stark's idea," Flash said.

Peter's eyes watered with happy tears and he swept Tony into a hug. "Happy birthday kid," he whispered. "Thank you," he replied.
~~~
"This is so awesome! The fucking Avengers are here dude!" Ned said as he and Peter were sitting, eating pizza together. He nodded back at his excited friend.

Peter always admired how excited Ned got at everything. He wondered how that felt, being so carefree. The familiar heavy feeling came over him. He hated how he could just get depressed at any time for no reason.

"You ok bro?" Ned asked noticing that his friend was getting quiet. "Yeah, I'm fine. Go ahead and talk to Thor. I know you've been wanting to talk to him this whole time."

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Peter nodded. Ned ran off to find Thor.
When the Avengers come home, things are always chaotic so no one noticed  when Peter slipped away to his room. He sat on the end of his bed and focused on getting his breathing under control. No one needed to find him passed out on the floor.

"I'm so pathetic. Who gets depressed at their own birthday party? They did all of this for me and I decide to be this way. I don't deserve this. I can't do it. May isn't here and it's my fault." Peter thought to himself.

Someone sat on the bed next to him. "Taking a breather kid?" Peter looked over and saw Wanda sitting there. Yeah... I guess." He responded.

"Birthdays were hard for me at first when my parents died. " She said with a sad smile.

"Same here. I got over it eventually but now I'm going through it again and-" Peter got choked up.

"And it fucking sucks," Wanda said.

He chuckled through his tears. "Yeah, it does. Thanks for being real. Everyone's been treating me like I'm gonna break and it's so frustrating. People keep saying "You're so strong!" and "It's going to be ok" but I'm not ok right now and that's fine you know?" He said.

"Yeah, that's understandable." She responded.

"Wanda?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm so tired," he said as he started to cry.

"I know kid. I know." She said pulling him into a hug.

Once he stopped crying he pulled away. "Thanks. Sorry for being a party pooper."

"You're not a party pooper Peter. It's ok to mourn your loved ones. Never apologize for that ok?" She said.

He nodded. "Let's go back down to the party. I'm ready."
~~~
A/N
Hey! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know what you think about it.
Until next time,
-RR