The Bet (Avenger's High School AU)

♡ Chapter Twenty ♡

Peter was good at keeping his head down and becoming practically invisible. He's done it his whole life whether it's for bullies or just so nobody's aware of his exhaustion and lack of food.

The first day he goes back to school after he found out about the bet, everyone tries to talk to him and apologize. But he's tired and doesn't want to think about.

Eventually, they give up trying to communicate with a brick wall.

He sticks to working on his schooling and picking up shifts at McDonald's and visiting May in the hospital more often. It's easier than dealing with all the drama that goes along with high school friendships.

He decides he doesn't care. He doesn't need friends. He doesn't need to go to prom. He doesn't need to date anyone. He doesn't need financial aid from rich friends. He doesn't need them. He doesn't care.

(He really does care. It hurts him in a way he's never been hurt before. Like betrayal and a bone-deep pain.)

*

He makes it through three weeks of this, of pretending to be invisible and keeping his head down and telling himself he doesn't care when it all comes to a stop.

It's Prom Night and he's planning on spending the night working on homework and pretending he isn't wishing he was there having a good time.

He's never been to a birthday party let alone been to a real party with friends and dancing except for when he went to Thor's party that one night at the beginning of the year. He can barely remember it though, he's not sure it really counts.

There's a loud knocking on his front door.

He sets down his pen and the notebook he'd been working through his Spanish conjugations in and opens the door to his apartment.

Wade, Steve, Natasha, and Tony are standing there.

Peter nearly closes the door on them, but his lock doesn't work anyway. There wouldn't really be a point to it.

They're all dressed up for Prom and Peter would be lying if he said he thought they didn't look nice.

Steve's wearing a white button-down with a pair of blue dress pants and a blue jacket, black dress shoes, and a pair of sunglasses hanging on the front of his shirt.

Wade's wearing black dress pants, a white button-down, a black bowtie, with a red floral jacket over top to match his sparkly red shoes.

Tony's wearing a creme suit with a maroon button-down, a matching tie, and matching sparkly red shoes like they're made of rubies. He's got matching fancy accessories as well.

Nat's wearing an emerald dress that's shorter in the front and flows longer int the back with a sweetheart neckline and black heels.

"If you're here to rub it my face that I'm not going to prom than that's really not helping your situation," Peter says. "You all look amazing though."

Natasha rolls her eyes and reveals the bag over her arm. "We were hoping we could convince you to come with us."

"Really?" Peter asks, pushing his glasses up nervously.

She rolls her eyes again, red curls bouncing as she pushes past Tony to hand the bag over to Peter.

"Tony and Thor are driving, so if you go get dressed, we can be there on time. Tickets are on us," she says. "We should even have time to stop and get some food first."

"You're about the same size as me, so hopefully it fits alright. If not, I've got some safety pins in the glove compartment of my car and we fix it up," Tony says, offering a nervous smile.