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Peter stood, fidgeting against the hard cement wall. Only him and Eugene left, and it was clear he wasn't the first pick for kickball.
"Eugene!" Claire shouted excitedly, waving him over to her team. Eugene smirked, smug and mean, and pushed Peter out of his way.
"Haha loser," he whispered, making sure not to let the teachers hear him saying a bad word. "Looks like you were last again."
"Y—you were last t—too," Peter insisted quietly, looking down at his toes and wringing his hands together.
"Yeah but at least I was wanted on a team, Joey's team is stuck with you," Eugene gloated, pointing over to Joey who definitely didn't seem all too thrilled that he got the weird quiet kid this time.
"Peter, I guess that means you're on my team," Joey murmured, waving him over.
Peter turned away from Eugene dejectedly, head hung in sadness. Before he could even get over to the small group of first graders, they huddled up and started thinking of their "game plan". Peter sighed, listening as best he could so he knew what to do when it was inevitably his turn.
About half way through, when it became very clear that no one wanted him on either team, he left the field and went to sit in the dugout, waiting for their PE teacher to call it quits for the day and go back inside. Instead, she went over to Peter and immediately asked why he wasn't participating.
"The other's are being mean," he whined quietly, tucking his knees under his chin. He didn't like Mrs. Lucy much, she always thought he was lying about how mean the kids were being.
"Well that's no excuse to not join in on the activity, Peter. Exercise is important for the body, and you should be active at least 60 minutes a day. This is a good time to knock off some of that time!" Mrs. Lucy encouraged, helping Peter out of the dugout quite forcefully. "Now go over there with your team and tell them that it's your turn. You haven't gone yet, have you?"
It wasn't a question that Peter was meant to answer, because surely Mrs. Lucy already knew that. Peter sighed, sad once more, and went to go join his team, who pushed him around until he was successfully in the back of the line and not allowed to kick at all.
Peter hated PE.
...
"Sorry man," Ned said, showing real remorse behind his sentiment, but it all felt so fake to Peter.
"But," Peter didn't really have a good reason, besides the obvious, "I mean, c'mon man, no one else is off on my birthday and it would be pretty cool if we could hang out. We almost always hang out," Peter said, smiling as he tried to convince himself that that was true. He was turning 16!
It had been years since they had consistently hung out for his birthday, Ned was sick one year, and the next his mama's cousin's funeral was that day so he couldn't make it. But those were reasonable excuses, Peter could understand why he wouldn't make it to his house for his birthday.
But this year, Ned just wanted to hang out with friends. That had never really been a problem before, Ned and Peter were each other's only friends since fifth grade. But recently, Ned had been making some new friends. And that was ok, Peter knew that to be in a good friendship, you had to make sacrifices. It was just that recently, Peter had been making a lot of sacrifices.
He'd been spending money on Ned's new friends because Ned had promised to pay for the tickets but forgot his wallet. He had spent nights out partying with Ned's new friends instead of inside, building things from Legos. He'd been acting "cooler" because Ned's new friends didn't like nerds. He'd been spending nights patrolling alone because Ned couldn't be his guy in the chair when his friends wanted to go clubbing (illegally, might he add).
All Peter wanted was a nice, chill birthday with his best bud. Things had been getting out of hand recently and all he wanted was to have fun with the guy who had been on his side since grade school. But it seems he can't even do that without Ned's friends getting in the way on the very night of his birthday.
"Sorry man, but my friends really want to try that new bar," Ned said, wincing slightly.
Peter huffed a breath, eyebrows raising slightly. "You mean the one that you are illegally entering because you are 16 years old? You know I am morally obligated to catch you guys and bring you into detainment for the cops to further investigate you guys, right? You could go to juvie for this."
"Dude, c'mon," Ned said, throwing his hands in the air. Peter's eyebrows scrunched at the audacity Ned had to be the angry one in this scenario. "These are the first cool friends I've ever had. In case you're forgetting, I'm the fat weirdo, remember? No one wants to be friends with the fat weirdo. Just let me have this!"
Peter laughed, running a hand over his face. "I want to be friends with you!" He had always wanted to be friends with Ned, lately he just wanted Ned to be friends with him too. "Whatever happened to that, huh? Us being friends? Am I just not cool enough for you anymore?"
Ned rolled his eyes, taking a step toward the door. "No, Peter. Don't make this about you. You could have been just as cool as them. You're a skinny white boy at a school that majors in tech. You could have been the most popular boy in the whole school. You chose to be a loser wannabe with no friends," Ned spat. "I didn't."
Peter physically recoiled because that wasn't true. That wasn't fucking true, and Ned knew that. He was just looking for anything to say to kick him while he's down. "That's not fucking true, you jerk," Peter murmured tearfully.
"Yes, it is! You chose this. I was never going to be that, I knew I wasn't. But now I have this chance to be someone I never thought I could, and you want to ruin that for me!" Ned shouted, panting at the end of his yelling as he stared Peter dead in the eye.
Peter stared back, stunned into silence. He didn't know what to say back, and when Ned finally understood that he wasn't going to answer him with anything, he spoke once more.
"Well thanks a lot, Peter. Sorry I can't make it for your fucking birthday. See ya around."
Peter watched as Ned slammed the door shut, the picture of Uncle Ben next to the door coming down to the floor with a shattering bang. Numbly, Peter cleaned up the broken glass, nicking his fingers.
He was crying now, as he picked up the picture of his late caretaker in his bloodied hands. Crying, because he knew that when Ned came back to his door crying because his new friends ditched him (and Ned did indeed do just that, about two weeks later), Peter would take him in with open arms because he couldn't say no to Ned. And he knew it would forever hurt around the boy who meant so much to him after such words had been spoken.
Things would never be the same, but Peter would take the boy back again and again no matter what he said and they would both accept that fact and move on.
...
"H-hey, Michelle," Peter murmured, sheepishly walking up to her with a small wave. "Er— MJ, sorry," Peter quickly said before Michelle even looked up at him.
"Hey Parker," Michelle said, looking up from her book with a vaguely confused look on her face.
"H-hey," he said again, smiling giddily.
Michelle have him a weird look, setting down her book fully. "Hello," she said, "again," she added afterward to subtly let Peter know he was acting weird. "What's up? Do you have questions about our next field trip?"
"No, no I was just- I mean, honestly it's ok if you don't want to, but I was just wondering about—" Peter cut himself off, face palming. "Homecoming, you know? We're juniors now, it's one of the last ones we'll ever go to?"
Peter hoped that was enough context to know that he wanted to go with Michelle, because he really didn't want to keep talking in case he messed it all up.
"Are you... asking if I'm going?" Michelle asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No no no," Peter groaned at his own stupidity. "Just, like. You know?"
There was a pregnant pause, one where Peter couldn't meet Michelle's gaze, before she finally answered. "I really don't, Peter." Michelle was smiling. At least she thought this was funny. Peter was struggling.
Just spit it out, it isn't that hard! "Do you, want to go to the dance with... me?" Peter said, all in one breath.
He knew the answer immediately from the look on Michelle's face.
"I'm sorry, Peter," she prefaced, and wasn't that a bad sign already? "I'm— well, Eugene asked me and he's just progressed so much throughout the years that I thought I might as well try and help him become even better. But, well, if that doesn't work out we can go together? As friends?"
Peter's face dropped, but he quickly schooled his expression into a smile and nodded, grimacing a bit.
"Yeah, as friends," Peter said with an awkward laugh.
Michelle stopped talking to Peter as much after that.
...
When Harley and Peter first started dating, Peter had his reservations. Not to sound ungrateful or anything (he was so grateful for everything he had) but sometimes he just expected too much, and it was his own fault he got let down time and time again. Harley was just so good; Peter didn't want to get his hopes up and ruin what they had.
It was odd to think about, the fact that Harley asked him out, of all people. Harley, the new kid who was smart, and cute, and kind, chose him of all people and Peter felt honored. Of course, he wasn't the only one to notice how odd this was, Flash immediately pointed it out. Peter just didn't say anything to Harley because, what was the point? What was the point in reminding him he was dating Peter, of all people? If he was going to break up with him, he would prefer Harley did it on his own terms, not because of Flash.
So, until Harley broke up with Peter, Peter decided he wanted to make their relationship perfect. He didn't ask Harley on too many dates because Michelle said that was a little annoying in passing. He didn't cling to him because Ned said that was uncool. He didn't always have him around the tower because his dad said it interfered with quality family time, but he had Harley around enough so he could make a good impression on everyone. Peter was quiet, and kind, and he always took the bill and he laughed politely, and he didn't mess around too much, and he was always as mature as possible.
He thought he was doing great. No, scratch that, he was doing great. Because after all that, Harley started asking to do things with him. Like, one afternoon, out of the blue when they were playing video games in Peter's room, he's said, "Do you want to go to the Formal this weekend?"
Peter's mind immediately switched back to the last person he'd asked to a dance, Michelle, and how he could answer in the perfect way for Harley. He thought for a second, too in his head to notice the 'Winner' flash across the screen, indicating Harley's win.
"I—if you'd like," Peter said, smiling shyly. Truth be told, he didn't really want to go. He didn't like the dances anymore, not since Ned ditched him at the last one and he was left alone until Tony picked him up. It was raining too, for god's sake.
But he would go if Harley wanted to. He would do anything Harley wanted him to because, God, when was the last time someone had asked Peter to do something? It felt so nice. He basked in the warmth he felt, his cheeks flushing.
"Perfect," Harley murmured with a smile, bumping shoulders with Peter playfully. "We can make the plans tomorrow," Harley promised, "for now, I'm going to beat you in yet another round of Super Smash Bros and you can't tell me otherwise," Harley said confidently, picking his character.
"Well don't pick my character," Peter complained, throwing his hands in the air. He felt a genuine smile coming on. He turned to his right, where Harley was sitting, and snatched his controller, making him reselect his character before quickly selecting his own.
"Oh-ho-ho," Harley said with a laugh, taking his controller back. "It is so on."
And it was always just little things like that, things that made his stomach warm and tingly, and his heart beat a little more erratically. Harley knew his favorite drink order by memory. Harley read the articles Peter sent him and actually talked to him about it. Harley made dumb videos with Peter because 'memories are everything'. Harley always pulled him aside whenever he felt the situation was too much for Peter, always noticed the signs of his anxiety getting the better of him. And even if Peter lied and said he was fine (which was only all the time) Harley was stubborn enough to make Peter take a break. They would do something else, Harley always insisted. Him and his mental health always came first.
It felt nice, knowing that might actually be true.
And Harley continued to show it. On Peter's 18th birthday, Tony was working. It wasn't on purpose, of course. Just a bunch of stupid meetings with too many important people to cancel them all. So, Tony left the majority of his late evening and early morning open so they could have a very early breakfast and then a late dinner and movie night for his birthday. Peter was ecstatic either way, he was so excited to be spending bits of the day with his dad. Especially when Ned confirmed that he couldn't come over again (not a surprise) and Michelle said she had some things to do.
Peter didn't actually tell Harley about his birthday, but he knew somehow, because after his dad left for work, Harley showed up after convincing Friday to keep it a secret and not announce his arrival. In his hands was a box of chocolates and a small, gift wrapped box. "We can do anything you want," he'd said. "I spent all month working extra so I would have money for whatever fancy restaurant you might want to go to. Or an amusement park. Or, I don't know, the movies? It doesn't have to be big. Hell, we could go shopping. Just whatever you want-"
Peter had kissed him, without even thinking about it. He didn't ever really initiate physical contact, he felt like he would be too needy and clingy if he did, but he couldn't stop himself. Harley was just so considerate, and kind, and Peter didn't even want to do anything for his birthday. "I like you so much," Peter whispered after he'd pulled away, grabbing Harley in a big hug. He pushed himself against Harley as much as he could before it became weird.
Harley didn't question it, he just hugged Peter back, smiling against his neck. "I got chocolates because they were out of cakes at the bakery. Can you believe that? What kind of bakery doesn't have any cake?"
Peter liked Harley so much. And Peter made that clear, in hopes that Harley wouldn't feel like he had to keep doing extravagant things like that, but he kept going. On Halloween, Harley sat around and ate candy with Peter and watched a scary movie with him, even though most of the time was past with Peter's head against Harley's chest with his eyes squeezed shut. On Christmas, he got Peter some Vibranium with the help of Tony and told him he could do anything with it (he'd ended up adding small attachments on his web shooters to make them more stable). On a day that was no specific, special day, Harley had taken Peter on a picnic/star gazing date and told him he loved him for the first time. On their one year anniversary, Harley got Peter a promise ring. A simple, gold band, with words etched around the front and two little stars on each side of the sentence.
You are my first priority.
And, even after years of them being together, even after years of amazing memories that Harley gave the two of them, one specific late—night conversation still stuck out to him. Harley had been spending the night at the tower, one of the first times, and he'd been honest with Peter because he felt there was no other way to bring it up.
"I asked you out because I like you," Harley had said gently, squeezing Peter's hand. "And I want to keep going on adventures with you to get to know you," he said honestly. "Y'know, I barely know anything about you," he'd said, and Peter stared back at him, surprised. "I know you're cute, and you're good at science, and you suck at video games, but that's about it. I want to get to know you, and I like you, and I just want to know what it is that's holding you back."
Peter remembered himself, so young and vulnerable and so utterly sad, broke into tears, falling into Harley. He remembered himself apologizing over and over again, explaining in tears that no one had ever been like Harley and that he really liked Harley too.
In the end, it worked out. Peter didn't hide himself, they ended up loving each other, actually. And really, Peter was just glad Harley was there to show his what real companionship was.