CHAPTER TWELVE | I LOVE MY FRIENDS
Oliver's Mom almost used physical force to keep him home the next day. Apparently his neck had a slight cut and when she saw the blood, the overprotective Mom switch was flipped. Oliver was berated for not being aware of his surroundings, then pulled into a hug that posed more danger than the cut.
The only reason why Oliver was at school was because he basically missed the whole week before.
When he showed up, Emma was the first to notice the band-aid, no matter the hoodie he wore, or the headphones around his neck. Emma babied him until lunch, then Leo came and started to do the same, and then Emma realized she was acting like Leo and stopped. Even Ned and Peter snapped out of their supor and noticed.
That was something new as well, Peter's very obvious crush on Liz Allen. It was so, so, painfully obvious that Oliver could feel the secondhand embarrassment they looked away quickly when they saw her looking at them.
Though, with the achievement of 'knife wound on the throat', Oliver managed to get the other boy's attention.
"Hey, are you sure you're okay? It must've been super scary?" Peter questioned softly. Oliver was slightly surprised by his concern. Oliver always thought that the other boy didn't like him that much.
"Oh, er, yeah," Oliver grinned, "Honestly I don't really remember it that much. The band-aid was just because my Mom was worrying a lot."
"Cool, I'm glad you're okay," Peter smiled at Oliver. At that moment, with Oliver probably still in shock (when was he not at this point), he realized how pretty the other boy was. Then Oliver grabbed those feelings and shoved them in a box because Peter very obviously had a crush on Liz Allen, and Olive didn't want to deal with that.
Oliver nodded and the conversation trailed off into sharing homework and food (mostly Emma stealing Neds food without him noticing). He fell into a daydream, not focusing on any of his friends, not really thinking about anything in particular. He was mindlessly shoving leftover pasta in his mouth until the bell rang.
Now that Oliver recognized that he was at the very beginning of catching feelings for Peter, he was hyper aware of everything. It was annoying. Normally Oliver dealt with his crushes by pining in secret. But with the shit that's happened to him in a month, his mental state was greatly unbalanced.
It made everything worse that there wasn't one thing he could put the blame on either. Maybe he could trace everything back to his goddamned obsession with rocks, but even then he can't really because that was a random event. He also couldn't exactly blame Nimue, since the only reason he was showing up was because Oliver had powers. Obviously he couldn't blame Tony either, because that was an amazing opportunity for him.
Throughout having an existential crisis, his english class was very much still happening. And it was just his luck that he got called out to read.
Snickers were heard as Oliver scrambled to find the page and paragraph in the book, his face quickly turning bright red. It was safe to say that he was never going to space out in class again.
"Psh," Emma laughed at the boy's pink cheeks, "You're so stupid,"
"Wow, way to reassure me, what a great friend, I feel so appreciated." He deadpanned back. Emma just laughed harder.
"Sorry, sorry, it's just that you're usually so well behaved and quiet in class, but now, hah," Oliver just grumbled to himself while Emma calmed herself down. "Anyway, do you really get to go on a trip for Yearbook?"
"Well, it's just for a couple days I think." Oliver paused to pull up the email, "I just need to take pictures of the Academic Decathlon, everything got approved while I was out last week." Oliver shuddered at the glares he got from a couple of the girls in the club.
"Don't worry, Peter and Ned are on the team, so you'll have people you know," Emma patted his back. Oliver slumped over, letting his backpack slide over his head.
"Ugh, everything sucks right now," He whined, "I should drop out of school."
"Okay, you're being dramatic, let's go get ice cream, you baby,"
Emma stood up and dusted off her skirt before grabbing Oliver's backpack and dragging him to his feet. Oliver, who stood a few inches taller than her, pouted.
"Fine," Emma smiled, at his reluctant answer.
"Great, cause you're paying." She ran off before he could argue.
"Fucking shit, seriously?" He complained while chasing after her.
Emma was a surprisingly fast runner. She got to the ice cream shop a few minutes before Oliver, who arrived out of breath.
"I hate you so much right now, you're paying for your own shit," He gasped out.
"Planned on that from the start, just wanted to give you some motivation," She slapped him on the back.
"You're in a mood today, it's weird." Oliver looked up at her, exasperated. Emma narrowed her eyes.
"I think I'll have chocolate and salted caramel, what about you?" She turned back to him, ignoring his previous statement.
"I'm gonna get mint chip." Emma stuck her tongue out, a grossed-out look passed over her face.
"What? It's good, so shut up." Oliver defended himself.
"Whatever you say, whatever you say."
By the time they ordered, Oliver had been bullied for his choice of ice cream and Emma had been called an 'old hag' more than once. The two's friendship seemed to develop that day.
The next day at school Emma was absent. Apparently she's lactose intolerant, and the ice cream did not settle well in her stomach. Oliver sent her a few texts calling her an idiot, littered with an overwhelming amount of sarcasm.
Leo had started to distance himself from the two, he had a lot of studying and extra classes that he had been ignoring, and his Mom called him out on it apparently. Now he wasn't allowed to do anything except volleyball after school (Oliver was thankful for his anxiety over letting too much work pile up at that moment).
That left Oliver sitting awkwardly across from Ned and Peter, who both were looking over his shoulder at Liz Allen putting up a Homecoming poster. He was just trying to eat his sandwich in peace, instead he got two hormonal boys making comments on skirts.
Oliver thanked the universe when the girl sitting down the table called them out on it.
"Too late. You guys are losers." She told them. Oliver admired that she just called them out.
"Well then why do you sit with us?" Ned asked. Peter looked at her baffled.
"Because I don't have any friends." She deadpanned. Oliver tried his best to hold in the grin, thankful for the bell that rang.
"I've got to get to class," He mumbled to the other two, nodding at the girl.
After school, he had Yearbook. Something that he didn't want to go to, but had to. It was only a month in and Oliver felt like drawing himself in the school bathroom (which says a lot honestly).
Apparently it was just to go over stuff for the Decathlon trip and what he was expected to do. He was just lucky that he didn't have to go to the football games.
Funny enough, the first day of the Decathlon was on his birthday. Normally he'd have a few friends over and they'd either hangout and watch movies or go to the renaissance faire, but now he didn't really care. His Mom might be upset, but they'd find time to celebrate together.
The girls sent him to the Academic Decathlon team so that he'd be able to introduce himself and make sure his hotel room was actually there.
When he got to the room, the first thing he heard was:
"-got a hot date with Black Widow coming up." Right away Oliver was confused.
He slowly made his way to the table where Peter sat with the only adult in the room.
"U-um, Mr. Harrington?" Oliver asked, drawing the teacher attention away from the bickering students.
"I'm from the Yearbook club, I'm supposed to talk to you about the trip?" Mr. Harrington nodded, and pulled out a packet.
"Yeah, here, it has everything; the schedule, rules, hotel," He trailed off, looking past Oliver.
"Oh, um, okay, thank you," Oliver turned to Peter and smiled, "See you later Peter,"
Oliver rushed out of the room, trying to get rid of the awkwardness of that encounter.
~
ah ha ha
wow I updated??? I'm surprised in myself
Now we're finally in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which means I get to re-watch it bc I haven't watched it in months. Lucky for me, 15 year-old me simped for Peter so much that I bought the movie (I say that like it wasn't only two years ago).
Anyway, Oliver discovered the beginnings of a crush, growing hate for his situation, and Emma's moody side (wonder what that could be about)
Merry Christmas if you celebrate, and I'm hoping to get another chapter up before New Years, but let's see if that'll actually happen lol.
Also I have a Pinterest board of Olivers ~ a e s t h e t i c ~ if any one's interested (my user is lillithkiwi)
Stay safe <3