Didn't Have To Be

7

It started out as an off day for Peter... He slept through his alarm, he slept through Friday's alarm, he didn't have time to eat breakfast, and even with Happy's driving, he missed the first five minutes of his calculus class. Not to mention the dull pain in his lower stomach that was growing stronger throughout the day, and his Spidey-Sense that was going off at every little thing.

"You don't look so good, dude..." Ned whispered to him during class.

"Thanks." Peter tried to ignore him and focus on the teacher, blocking out his pain that Ned kept pointing out.

"Are you sure you should be here today?"

"Ned, please... We'll talk about this at lunch, okay?"

His friend nodded as he sat back up in his chair and gave most of his attention to the teacher, but Peter could still feel his gaze now and then.

For the rest of their shared classes, Ned continued to watch Peter in worry, and it wasn't that Peter didn't appreciate his friend's care... he just couldn't deal with it now. The pain was giving him enough to think about without Ned's questions. So after AP History -one of the few classes they didn't share- instead of heading to the lunch room, Peter went to hide in the bathroom. He'd regret not eating later, probably when he was on the verge of crashing because of his metabolism, but he just needed a break now.

He went into a stall and sat on the closed lid of the toilet, just taking a deep breath to try and make the pain go away.

It didn't.

He must have lost track of time in there because Happy was suddenly texting him and asking where he was -as well as the twenty-plus messages from Ned. Was it two forty-five already? He sent back a short text as he stood up, noticing his right leg was stiff. He wrote it off as sitting in the same position for too long and that it would go away soon.

He tried walking it off, but now he was hurting more and adding to the new sensation of nausea that was hitting him. He couldn't wait until he was able to lay in bed and go to sleep...

"Peter, there you are!"

Peter looked up and saw Ned running towards him in the hall with a slightly panicked look. "Where have you been? You missed the rest of school! I was so worried about you, I thought something bad happened because you looked so sick before! Nothing much has changed now either!"

"Sorry, Ned..." Peter offered a small smile to calm him, "I went to the bathroom for some quiet time but I guess I didn't notice how much time passed."

"I kept texting you thinking that a thing came up but you never answered!"

"I'm sorry." He grunted as someone shoved into him and nearly sent him to his knees as the jarring movement made his side her even more. He looked up to see Flash's smirk as he walked down the hall. If only... if only...

"We should get you to Happy, I saw him waiting for you outside earlier."

Peter nodded slightly, his body hunching over as he started to slowly walk to the exit, avoiding as many people as possible -not an easy feat when there were so many teenagers trying to get out of the school at once.

Happy was leaning against his car, waiting for the late arrival of the kid. He took one look at Peter when he finally saw them coming out of the building and frowned. "You okay, kid?"

"I'll be fine once I get home." Peter barely looked at the driver as he opened the back door and crawled in. He didn't bother with his seatbelt as he laid down, hoping to ease some of the pain that was moving from his stomach to his side. It didn't do much, but it did help him calm the nausea, so that was a plus.