You showed no signs of hurt when you walked into school that following Monday. You didn't tell anyone of your run-in with Spider-Man or why you didn't show up to Homecoming. The only one to ask was Ned and you just shrugged your shoulders at him. "I didn't want to go.", you had said, and he believed you. Peter would have too if he hadn't had that conversation with you. You were incredibly good at masking things, and he hated that he couldn't read you better. He hated that he didn't try harder to be able to read you better.

He especially hated that it would take Spider-Man for him to be able to understand you. Spider-Man wasn't close friends with you- Peter was, but he knew he messed that up. So Spider-Man had to help him out.

However, before he could do that, he had to take care of problems Peter had caused. He had to apologize to Liz for ditching her- though she didn't want to hear any of it. She told him that she hoped he'd get through whatever he was going through and left it at that. She walked out of those double doors and left him standing in the hallway- he guessed he deserved that.

He had to apologize to you- without letting you know that he knew he hurt you. He was still beating himself up over it. He adored you to no end- yet he was constantly hurting you. How fucking wonderful. This wasn't as easy as he hoped though- every time he went to approach you, his mind ran rampant with thoughts of how horribly he could mess up. He could easily slip up- and then oops! Now you know he's Spider-Man. Now you're mad at him because he told Ned but not you- because you told him something really personal and he didn't even try to stop you. So how could he do this? He wanted you to know how sorry he was and how bad he felt for hurting you- but you didn't know that he knew. Still- he had to say something. He wanted to be on proper speaking terms with you again..

"Hey, [Y/n]..", he greeted you at your locker after school.

"Oh my gosh- you're actually talking to me again. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He nodded, "Okay, I deserve that."

You raised an eyebrow at him. You were waiting on him to get to the point.

"Look- I'm really sorry."

"For what?"

For hurting you-, "For being so flaky and off these past months. I shouldn't have let the Internship take up that much of my time and.. I should've tried a little harder to make time with you since I made time with Ned."

"Coulda, shoulda, woulda.", you sighed, "What's brining this up? You were glad to just jump back into talking to me with no apology weeks before Homecoming. Now you want to apologize?"

"I know it's a late apology. A really late one. I was just stressed and I.. I missed talking to you.."

"...It didn't seem like it."

"Well I did. I missed you so much I just- I was really stressed out and.. I'm still so sorry- and I'm even more sorry for just ditching you the day before Homecoming. I asked you first and- I didn't even bother to ask you if you'd found a date-"

"Don't worry about that.", you dismissed it instantly with a wave of your hand, "I heard you ditched Liz as soon as you both got there. She deserves an apology more than anyone- I hope you apologized-"

"I did. I swear I did- I still feel so bad about all of it but-"

"The internship, right? Christ, Peter, if you don't learn to better balance your time- or tell Tony Stark to stop calling you in so damn much, you're gonna lose all your friends.", you told him as you shut your locker, "Anyways, I gotta go."

"I know, I know- oh. You're busy?"

You shook your head, "Nope, but I'm sure you are. Figured I'd leave before you told me you had to go. Our conversation ran a little long so..", you shrugged.

"But- I'm not busy right now. We can still-"

"Bye Peter.", you gave him a wave before turning on your heel and leaving.

He told himself that he deserved that too.

It took everything in you to just ditch him like that- to give him a taste of his own medicine. He looked like a hurt puppy as you were leaving and you couldn't lie, you had wanted to stay. You wanted to jump at the opportunity to talk to him like you used to- to walk home with him and make conversation until you had to go your separate ways. It just couldn't happen though- you had to let him go. It was clear as day to you that he only saw you as a friend- well, maybe not even that. He'd been so flaky and so off and Homecoming had been the last straw. You couldn't take the hurt anymore and now it was time to let go. It always went like this- you always had to push away or eagerly wait for summer break to come so your crush could easily forget you. You guessed that was one perk of being the way you were. You were easy to forget- it was both a blessing and a curse.

You sighed as you flopped back onto your bed. This was always the hard part of it all. Forcing yourself to stay away and creating distance when you didn't want to. Peter was good- he was wonderful- but it still hurt. He wasn't actively trying to, but he still was, and you just didn't want to-

A tap sounded at your window, making you get up. You stood still, staring at your curtains- another tap sounded, and then another- now someone was knocking. Who was knocking on your window? This late- who could even reach your window?

Furrowing your brows, you grabbed one of your big textbooks, holding it in one hand in case you needed to use it as a weapon. You yanked the curtains back and-

"Spider-Man?"