Just Steve

T W E N T Y - F I V E

Peter watched the taxi drive away in what felt like slow-motion. Things had gone south faster than his brain could even think. Just moments ago they had been smiling and laughing, getting ready for their graduation party. Now his best friend was in a cab to who knows where, and he wasn't sure if or when he'd ever see her again.

What had he done? He had been so sure (Y/n) had no idea he had been following her around. He couldn't believe she had known this whole time and hadn't said anything to him. Their friendship had seemingly grown so strong so quickly but now he realized that this whole time these invasive seeds had been growing at the back of her mind. To this day she doubted the integrity of Peter's offer of friendship and then when she gave him the chance to come clean and prove himself, he lied. He didn't want to lie, it had just come out so quickly, the instinct to protect her from further harm taking over. In the end he had only hurt her more.

What a mess. None of it felt real, and yet the image of (Y/n) moments before she left was burned into his brain. She looked so broken and so hurt. And nothing he said could fix it. In fact everything he said just made it worse because it was all his fault. He had made his best friend cry. He had made his best friend feel like their friendship meant nothing more to him than a way to keep his identity a secret. He had sworn to himself he would be different from all of the people that had let her down but he had been even worse. He was the reason she was falling apart. He was the reason she was breaking.

Well... part of the reason. He couldn't shoulder all that blame himself. No... that belonged to the man upstairs, who was too busy screaming at his psycho ex-girlfriend to even realize his current girlfriend was leaving. Spinning on his heel he marched back into the tower, storming his way into the nearest open elevator. He tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator climbed to the penthouse, his anger with the man he was looking for rising with every floor the elevator passed. By the time the elevator came to a stop he was downright furious, racing back over to the office.

"I fucking told you this was going to happen!" he shouted, slamming the office door open so fast that little cracks started to appear in the glass.

Steve, who had been hunched over the table with his head buried in his hands, jumped in surprise.

"Where's (Y/n)?" he asked, seeing that Peter had returned to the office alone.

"I told you to tell her! I told you to tell her so many times and you wouldn't fucking listen to me! What the hell are we supposed to do now?" Peter continued to yell, pacing back and forth in the small space, his arms waving in the air.

"Where is she Peter?" Steve repeated, ignoring Peter's yelling, fear trickling in.

"She's gone. She packed her bag, got in a cab and left."

"Well why didn't you stop her!" Steve shouted back, jumping up from his seat.

"Don't you think I tried? She wouldn't listen to me! Where were you this whole time? Why didn't you go after her? Maybe if you hadn't been so caught up screaming at Sharon and focused on the person who actually does matter she'd still be here right now!"

Peter was breathing heavily by the time he had finished yelling and after a few moments he seemed to lose any ounce of anger that was left. He sat in the chair across from Steve's dejectedly, his own eyes beginning to water slightly.

Steve stared at the boy across from him in shock. Gone? She couldn't be gone...

Everything had happened so quickly. He didn't think (Y/n) would actually leave, and he had been too caught up with being angry at Sharon for what she had done. It was easier to be mad at her than to think about the aftermath of the destruction she had left her in wake.