Winning the Game

Chapter 15

Trigger warning: Brief mention of self-harm.

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Peter had seen a lot of unbelievable things in his time as a masked superhero, but finding out that Flash Thompson asked Michelle Jones to prom—and she said yes—was the most shocking of all.

"Since when does Flash Thompson even know who you are?" Ned asked at lunch, Flash's promposal from earlier still circulating around the school.

"Um, ouch," MJ replied. "Also, I've been tutoring him in English."

"And you enjoy that...?" Ned seemed skeptical.

"Do you think Flash is playing a game with her, too?" Peter chimed in accusingly.

"I'm just asking if she's happy with her new date! Why do you care anyway? You've barely spoken to us in weeks!"

MJ sighed. "No fighting during Taco Tuesday please."

"I'm not fighting," Peter said defensively. "I just don't get why Ned has to take his jealousy out on everyone else. I'm sorry no one is paying you attention, but that doesn't mean you have to sabotage me and MJ's new relationships!"

As soon as he said it, Peter regretted it. Ned's face went through a range of emotions in a second, ending on dejected.

Peter sighed. "I'm sorry, Ned. That was totally out of—"

"Forget it," Ned interrupted. "I'll see you guys later."

He got up and grabbed his tray of uneaten tacos to throw out before backtracking and facing Peter one last time.

"And by the way, I asked Betty to prom and she said yes, so no jealousy here. You'd know that if you took one second to talk to me instead of moping around school and fighting me all day."

With that, Ned turned around and stormed out of the cafeteria, dumping his tray in the nearest trash can on the way out.

MJ whistled. "You're really fucking up out here."

Peter hung his head. Suddenly, his tacos didn't look very appetizing and his stomach felt like he had eaten a brick. Why couldn't he just apologize and suck up his pride? Ned was his best friend, even before he knew Peter was an Avenger.

He already lost Tony Stark, he could not lose Ned, too.

--

Peter stumbled into Calculus with less than five seconds until the bell.

"Cutting it pretty close there, don't you think, Pete?" Y/N jokingly said when he sat down.

He sent her a brief smirk and went back to his silence. Class started and the calculus teacher droned on and on about tangents and equations. Peter didn't listen to a single word. Not like he needed to anyway. This was first grade stuff to him.

About halfway through the class period, during a particularly longwinded explanation of how to find cosine, Peter felt a nudge on his arm and a slip of paper appeared in front of him.

since u won't talk to me irl, will u at least write me back?

Peter looked at Y/N, who gave him a small smile while still looking straight ahead, pretending to be super interested in whatever calculus bullshit was spewing from the teacher's mouth.

Should he respond to her weird attempt at making him talk again? He didn't want her asking about his scars or his arms. He just wanted to go back to how things were before.