golden | peter parker

twenty eight

The next day Peter expected Penny to take her ignoring to a whole new level. He was expecting her to wear some sort of hat and have an expert level of planning her route around the school just so she wouldn't bump into him. He had expected to not even see her in any of his classes because she would come up with an excuse to get out of them.

This was not the case. At all. Penny Collins was going out of her way to run into him, making it look like a coincidence of course, just so he could look at her and she could stare back with a vacant expression, no emotion detectable. She had been drained of everything, and she wanted Peter to see that.

It terrified him. He had never messed up so bad in his life, and the toll it had on him was quite significant. Peter didn't know what to do. He always made the call to be Spiderman in the moment, but always wound up regretting it. Penny was making him question his life choices, and he had no idea why.

Gym was the last period of the day, and he didn't know if he had it in him to endure an entire period of her lifeless appearance. Knowing he had been the one to cause her to be like that ate away at him.

When he changed into his gym clothes, the burn mark from the alien tech he got last night was visible on his right forearm. He sighed, not bothering to put on a sweatshirt. He met Ned in the gym and offered him a weak smile. Coach Wilson wouldn't officially start class for another ten minutes.

Ned looked at Peter with sympathy. He had been with Michelle when Penny came inside, tears streaming down her face. It took both of them to calm her down, which when he found out made Peter feel even worse.

Penny and Michelle were only 15 feet away from them, and Peter could hear Michelle trying to cheer Penny up. That only made him feel worse about himself, not even her best friend could make Penny happy because of his actions.

Peter was still looking at Penny when she turned slightly and glanced at him. There was a fragile glassy look in her eye that sent chills down his spine. Her eyes focused in on his arm, and then grew wider.

For the first time all day emotion was present on Penny's face, and Peter would have been happy, except the emotion she was expressing was pure unbridled rage. She stomped over to him and grabbed his arm forcefully.

"What the fuck is this?" She hissed out, cutting straight to the chase.

Peter stuttered out an excuse, "W-Would you believe that it was, um, that it was a, uh, burn from a pot?"

Penny's eyes narrowed and her grip tightened, "No."

"Well, that's uh, that's what it was," Peter said avoiding eye contact.

Penny had finally had enough of his lying. She had finally had enough of him reducing her to nothing because he cared about his secrets more than her mental health. He knew that he was hurting her and continued to do so.

"You know what Peter? I'm done. I'm so unbelievably done with you. When people look at you, I'm sure their first impression is boy next door. You look so innocent when in reality you're vicious. You don't even realize it either!" Penny exploded, she was attracting a crowd, but she didn't care. She needed to let out her anger.

"You're so caught up in whatever the fuck that you do, you don't even realize that the ones closest to you are getting hurt. You think it doesn't hurt to see you covered in cuts and bruises every day? You think it doesn't hurt to be lied to constantly? You think it doesn't hurt to have one of your best friends not give a shit how you're doing, and continues to lie anyway? It kills a person inside. Because you, Peter Parker, reeled me in with your dorky science puns and kind attitude. And you let me lower my guard. And you fucking stabbed me, repeatedly! When my mother died it taught me a valuable lesson, how to treat people and how not to treat people. And the more people you let in, the higher chance it is for you to get hurt. And that's exactly what fucking happened. You came into my life, destroying as much of it as you could, not even bothering to think for one second how your actions impacted other people. And I'm officially over it. I'm done caring about you, and letting you ruin my life because I care too much. So, sincerely from the bottom of my heart. Fuck you, Peter Parker." Penny spat viciously, not letting him speak at all. She turned and stormed out of the gym, shoving through the ring of classmates that had gathered to watch.

Peter stood there in shock. Everything hit him at once. He finally understood, but all too late. Michelle was watching as well, and she finally stepped forward and shoved Peter in the chest. She angrily barked at him, "You stay away from her, you understand me Parker?" Michelle then pushed through the crowd of people going to search for Penny.

Flash then took this opportunity to finally get his revenge. He stepped forward and pushed Peter's shoulder, Peter glaring at him.

"So... Who wants to bet that Penny Collins blew up on him because they were dating but he started to like Liz? I'm willing to put twenty bucks on it because Peter is obsessed with Liz. It's the only logical thing. The only explanation. All because Peter has a massive crush on Liz," He said smugly.

"Flash, that's enough," Liz said pulling him back, looking at Peter with sympathy.

Peter was still frozen in shock. How the hell could he get out of this one? There was no going back. Penny hated him, no, she loathed him. And he was too stunned to even register that Flash had told everyone about his crush on Liz.

Ned stepped up and patted him on the back, trying to help Peter in his time of need. Peter was still staring at the place where Penny was once standing, trying to piece together what the everloving fuck just happened.

Coach Wilson walked in and saw the ring of students, "Wack."