Flower Child (Peter Parker, MCU)

Moving Day

Dance, Dance - Fall Out Boy

"No, I'm not wearing it. It looks stupid."

"MJ, would you please just-?"

"No, Lila, I look ridiculous."

Lila huffed in frustration. "I already bought it. And you took off the tag! I don't get why you won't wear it."

"I don't even know why I agreed to go to this thing," MJ answered, struggling to reach the zipper at the nape of her neck. Lila had to stand on her tiptoes just to zip up the dress, and she took a slight pleasure in the fact that Michelle was struggling to take it off. The dress in question was something Lila had seen and immediately picked it out for her friend.

It consisted of a white sheer fabric at the top of the dress and the bottom of the skirt, with everything in between embroidered with yellow-ish gold flowers. Nothing about it particularly screamed MJ, but Lila bought it regardless. Her investment paid off, as her friend looked naturally effortless.

"You're going because the rest of the decathlon team is going to be there," Lila reminded her, sitting down on MJ's bed. "You told them you'd meet them, and I know how much you hate to lie."

"Yeah, well, the earlier I can get there, the earlier I can leave." Finally, Michelle gave up trying to take the dress off and proceeded to her closet, where she found her trusted combat boots, grumbling the entire time. The black completely clashed with the dress, but the longer Lila looked at her friend, the more the look seemed to fit her. 

Grabbing a hair tie, MJ began placing her hair back in a bun, leaving some of her hair to fall in her face. She turned to Lila, who watched her friend add finishing touches to get ready. "Remind me why you're not going again?"

"One of Sophie's friends from Denver is in town, and Sophie was going to take them out for the night." Lila picked at some lint that was on one of Michelle's blankets. "I think she wanted to add a little segment to Origin Story with them in it, too." She felt Michelle's stare before she saw it. Lila merely shrugged under her friend's intense gaze. "Besides, I'm not really looking to hang out with everyone I go to school with more than I have to."

MJ nodded. "Well that, and you don't want to have to run into Peter on his date with Liz."

"Yeah," Lila agreed, her fist gently hitting the bed space beside her. "That too."

She'd already told MJ the basics of what happened with Peter. It wasn't even like she could keep it a secret, for Lila had walked back into detention after her row with Peter wiping the tears off of her cheeks. Lila's reasoning for the fight was Peter placing his Stark internship as his top priority over school. When Lila tried to call him out on it, Peter shut her down and said a few hurtful things in the process.

It wasn't untrue, there was just a bit more detail to it. And Lila knew MJ knew that, but she wasn't going to push Lila. She was the one person Michelle could never beat down for the sake of learning the truth. So she directed her anger and frustration to Peter, giving him heated glares and snide remarks whenever possible that Friday. To Michelle, Peter asking Liz to the homecoming dance was rubbing salt in the wound, even though Peter would never know that.

But Saturday had proven to make a difference in Lila's attitude. Ever since she met Tony Stark (which she spilled some of the details to Michelle rather excitedly), she'd had this calm resolution about her. She knew she was in the right: Peter thought he could do everything while placing his education on the back burner, and she was right to tell him otherwise. Tony Stark telling her she was right was confirmation enough, and his encouragement to keep speaking out left her feeling at peace.