golden | peter parker

twenty five

A week had gone by since Penny got the news that her dad and Sara were getting married. It had also been a week since she had embarrassed herself in Spiderman, him basically rejecting and locking her in the friendzone.

Penny walked to the tree that she sat under for lunch and met up with Michelle. See, as they were best friends, Penny's problems also became Michelle's and vice versa. They spent their lunch periods and any free time that they got, online shopping for dresses and shoes.

Sara had given them a general style of what type of dress it should be, but she also said as long as they looked good it didn't matter. Since Michelle was practically a part of the Collins family, she was also one of the bridesmaids.

It was one of the few times that she actually wanted to dress up, but this is an occasion that Michelle would look forward to. She was scrolling through some websites when Penny came and sat down next to her.

"Find anything good yet?" Penny asked pulling out her lunch.

"Yeah actually, it's pretty simple but looks elegant. It's also a nice lavender color like Sara wanted. And get this, it's in our price range. Like, in our price range. Plus the reviews are saying that the quality is great and true to size. What do you think?" Michelle turned her computer so Penny could see.

Penny's eyes widened and she nodded her head rapidly, mouth full of sandwich. When she swallowed she spoke up, "MJ that's literally perfect, add them to the cart. We can order them when I get back to my house later today."

They continued to eat and chat, living in the moment of a fun time spent with each other. It wasn't rare that they spoke about deep philosophical things, in fact having any conversation with Michelle often turned nihilistic. But instead of talking about the flaws of humanity, Penny and Michelle focused on their future, or more accurately when they were 30 and if they would have families or not.

It was a nice change of pace, and they somehow found a way to solidify their friendship even more.

It wasn't until the lunch period was halfway over that Ned and Peter hesitantly made their way over towards them.

Penny locked eyes with Peter, just to look down at her lap, heart dropping at the sight of another black eye. She fiddled with her fingers, hyper aware of Peter staring at her.

"Uh, Liz said to give you your blazer Michelle," Ned said, shakily handing the yellow decathlon jacket over.

"This is for Nationals, right?" Michelle asked, while stuffing it in her backpack. Ned nodding, pursing his lips.

"Oh yeah, when do you leave again?" Penny asked, posing the question to anyone.

"We leave June 6th and get back on the 10th," Peter answered quickly. Penny rolled her eyes, but nodded anyway.

No one spoke after that, an awkward vibe lingering in the air. Penny cringed, she hated awkward situations. She just wanted them to leave, why were they standing there like stupid statues?

Michelle loudly closed her book, causing the three of them to jump. "Since you two losers aren't leaving, you might as well take a seat. Standing there like stalkers won't do you any good."

Penny's mouth hung open, did she just forget that they were avoiding the boys for a reason? Michelle gave her a glare that said get over yourself.

Ned and Peter were beaming as they plopped down in front of them, happy that they could maybe start eating lunch together again.

"So Pen, to save some money should we just do the hair and makeup ourselves? I feel like it'd be easier that way too," Michelle started up their conversation from when lunch started, paying no attention to the boys.

"Dude totally! You can do the hair cause you're way better and I can do the makeup since, well you despise makeup," Penny laughed, while Michelle cracked a smile.

"What do you need your hair and makeup done for?" Ned asked, scrolling on his phone.

"Uh, nothing. Just a thing me and Michelle are going to," Penny replied, glancing at Michelle in worry.

It's not that she wanted to keep the wedding a secret from them, it was more of the fact that things were still tense. It would be weird to talk about it.

Peter furrowed his eyebrows at her response. He obviously knew it was for Sara and William's wedding, but he only knew because he was Spiderman. He wondered why Penny was so reluctant to tell them, but withheld from making a comment.

Michelle and Ned started to talk about their English class, leaving Peter and Penny in silence.

Peter was trying to gather the courage to speak to her, but knowing some of the details of why she was mad was making it hard for him actually carry it out.

"Hey, uh, Penny," Peter started. Penny looked up, screaming in her head but said nothing. When she didn't stop him, he continued, "Look, I know that what I said was inexcusable. It was a dick move, and I lashed out on you for no reason. I was just stressed out, but that's not any reason to yell at you. So I know that you're still probably going to be really mad at me, as well as you should be, but I just wanted you to know how sorry I am. I will always be sorry, and even if you forgive me, I'll still apologize. I just want to make things right." Peter looked at her with big shiny eyes, talking low enough for only Penny to hear. He wanted his apology to be sincere, for her to really understand how much he regretted saying those stupid words. He wanted his Penny back.

She said nothing for a long time. She was eating her goldfish, and Peter wasn't sure if she had even heard him or not. Just as he was about to speak again Penny started to put her things in her backpack.

She sighed as she glanced at Michelle who looked happy talking to Ned. Penny grabbed her bag and stood up, biting the inside of her cheek. All eyes were on her. She searched Peter's face trying to find any single indication that he wasn't telling the truth, but instead saw the concern written across his face. But she also saw his black eye, and it screamed loudly at Penny. Telling her that even if he was sorry, he would always lie.

There was no winning with him, he clearly was never going to tell anyone what he did or how he really got hurt, and there was no way Penny could put herself through that. Watching the one person she let her walls down for, making herself vulnerable in a way that no one had ever managed to do before, and Peter walking all over her as if she meant nothing destroyed her inside. He lied to her constantly because he thought it was too important to share with someone who just wanted to be let in.

Because Penny had been so cruel to her mother in her final moments, she had developed an overly reserved personality. She never wanted to make the same mistake again, and letting more people in scared her, simply because it increased the chances of her doing exactly what she wanted to avoid. And letting more people in also increased the chances of it being done to her, which terrified her.

Over the course of their projects Penny had opened up to Peter without a second thought, she told him things that took her years to admit to herself. And while she never told him her biggest regrets, that she knew of at least, he knew almost every secret she had ever had. And while Peter didn't realize it, this scared Penny. She had put all her faith in him that he would be there forever, and him lying to her was too much for her to handle.

"Your apology has been noted," Penny said rather coldly, walking away, feeling like she had just stomped on the dreams of a toddler. Her thoughts were racing, finally connecting all the dots as to why Peter, this boy she just realized she started to like romantically, had such a big effect on her.

In Penny's eyes, Peter was unknowingly treating her the same way she treated her mother before she died. And this realization was enough to make the tears she'd been holding back, fall.