It's Not A Problem

3

3rd POV

By lunchtime Peter was completely sober and miserable. He had a splitting headache and just wanted to go home so he can do more drugs. This is my fuckin life now, isn't it? He thinks to himself as he walks into the cafeteria.

"Pete! Here!" Someone calls out to him and he looks up to see Ned and MJ already at a table, waving over to him. He forces a smile and makes his way to them.

"Hey guys, what's up?" He says and takes a seat next to MJ.

"We had an annoying lab in chemistry today, you'll probably like it though." Ned says. His second hour is the same as Peter's fifth hour so he always gives him the details of the day before he goes in.

"Oh nice." Peter says and looks down at the table, zoning out. MJ and Ned share a look before MJ hands her bag of chips to Pete.

"Hey, I don't like this flavor, ya want?" She asks casually. He nods and takes it from her and opens it. They fall into casual conversation that Peter only half listens to until they mention smoking.

"You guys wanna smoke after school?" He pipes up and they both look confused.

"Don't you have the Stark Internship on Tuesdays and Thursdays?" Ned asks. Peter looks confused too for a moment before laughing.

"Oh yea, I guess I forgot it's only Thursday, I thought it was Friday already!" He lied. The internship was actually supposed to be everyday after school but he really wanted to skip the internship and just get high with his friends but he's been blowing it off a lot lately and Tony's gonna start getting suspicious of him soon. It'll be a good idea to go today.

The two friends chuckle too at his forgetfulness. "Well maybe tomorrow then?" MJ suggests and they all nod in agreement. The bell rings, signaling lunch is over and the three say their goodbyes and head off to their individual classes.

-time skip-

On the walk home all Peter can think about is crawling into his bed and falling asleep forever. But he knows that's not possible since he has the internship at 3:30. Right now it's 2:45. He'll have time to get home and change into his suit before heading over to the tower.

On some days his internship is just being SpiderMan but on other days he's an actual intern. Tony can tell Peters a smart kid and wants him to be able to expand on his projects. So, he gives him full access to his labs on the days he's not being SpiderMan.

Peter finally gets to his apartment and takes off his backpack and throws it on his bed. He grabs another pill bottle and pulls out 2 capsule pills and pops them. I'm gonna need all the help I can get today. He thinks as he swallows the Adderall.

The teenager quickly changed out of his school clothes and into his SpiderMan suit, then opens his window and sets off for the Avengers Tower.

As he swings through the city he sees people staring, pointing, cheering, and taking pictures. His confidence always increases when he sees for his own eyes how much the public loves their local Spiderman.

When he gets to the tower he climbs up the side of it to the opening that all the Avengers usually fly into that was originally built just for Tony being IronMan. Peter enters the building and walks into the lounge area of the penthouse, not seeing anyone around him.

God, I'm still so exhausted when is this fuckin addy gonna kick in? He thinks to himself and walks into the elevator to go down to Tony's lab. He's not exactly excited to see Tony, knowing he'll have questions about where he's been and why he doesn't answer his messages as much. The elevator doors open and he walks out to see Tony in the lab working on something, but he can't tell yet just what it is.

"Hey Tony." Peter says and walks over to the older man. Tony looks up from what he's working on and where Peter was expecting a smile he was met with a frown.

"Where have you been?" Tony asks and sets down the project in his hands. Peter freezes his movements and sighs.

"It's been really crazy at school lately, I've been getting a ton of homework and haven't had time to come everyday." He says, sounding defeated. Tony's face softens and he gestures to the couch and Peter takes a seat.

"I understand that school can be hard but that doesn't mean you can ghost me completely. You gotta keep me in the loop, kid. Do we need to put a pause on the internship?" Tony asks and Peter quickly shakes his head.

"No, I need to be SpiderMan. New York needs SpiderMan." Peter says quickly then sighs, "it's just getting harder to balance everything going on in my life, ya know?" He finishes.

Tony nods and placed a comforting hand on Peter shoulder. "I'm here if you ever need help with anything, Pete." He says and walks back over to his desk.

I want to tell him. Tell him that I feel myself spiraling into an addiction that's completely out of my hands. Tell him that all I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of my life. Tell him that I fucking hate being sober and the only times I'm truly happy is when I'm on some substance.

Peter falls into a hole in his own mind of these thoughts. How would Tony react to Peter telling him this? Would he make him give the suit back and never speak to him again? Would he give him a hug and tell him everything will be okay? Would he just ship him off to some rehabilitation facility in hopes that Peter will come back the same person he was before drugs?

He tries to shake himself out of it and blinks while looking over at what Tony's doing. The billionaire is working on something but there was obviously something bothering him as he kept dropping things and making careless mistakes. Peter decided to walk up to him as he starts feeling the effects of the Adderall kicking in.

"Do you need help with anything, Mr Stark?" He asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

"Kid, I thought we dropped the 'Mr Stark' thing a while ago. It's not funny anymore, you know my name." Tony says with a chuckle and the continues, "and I want this to do a full 360 rotation before ejecting but it's not being consistent, it's always a few degrees off. Any thoughts?" He asks.

Peter immediately realizes Tony's mistake in his formula and helps him fix it. It feels good to be back in the lab. He thinks to himself and smiles.

Okay this one took a bit longer to upload than the first two, what are your guys' thoughts so far?