Peter's POV
Aunt May dropped off some clothes and my book bag for me early this morning. It was a red and brown flannel with a tan sweater and some jeans. As I picked up my flannel, I heard a knock on the door. Knowing it was Dr.Cho, I told her to come in.
It wasn't Dr. Cho. It was Harley with two paper bags that smelled like glazed donuts. He immediately raised his eyebrow as he stared at my bare chest. I turned around and immediately started to fumble with the buttons as I buttoned up my shirt.
"I uh, I thought you were Dr. Cho." I blushed, luckily still not facing him as I threw the sweater over my head. I turned around, smoothing down the wrinkles of my sweater. I looked up and he was holding out one of the bags for me.
"It's a donut." He said plainly with no emotion.
I nodded reluctantly. I pursed my lips as I sat down on the bed and took out my donut. After a long minute of silenced awkwardness, Dr. Cho walked in with a smile.
"You are officially released, Peter. I recommend not jumping right into your spidey activities, and here is a doctor's note for you to skip out of Gym." She handed me a paper.
I nodded and plastered on a fake smile. But she knew that I would be back out there by tomorrow. But she thought it doesn't hurt to try.
I flung my book bag on my back and flashed Harley a smile, "You ready?"
He scoffed, "I should be asking you that."
When we got outside, he opened the passenger door for me, and I stuck out my tongue at him, but got in.
"Are you sure you are ready?" He asked me and I gave him a smile.
"Yes, it's high school. I've dealt with much worse." I explained and he shrugged as he started driving.
When we got there, I took a deep breath and got out of the car. My heart was beating pretty fast, although I have no idea why. But once Harley was right next to me, it slowed. We walked in together and as soon as we made it to our lockers, Ned ran at me and pulled me into a hug. I let out a little laugh and he caught on.
I was "sick" not dying. People would think it was weird that he was acting like I almost died.
I walked into my first period and I noticed that Harley hadn't left my side since we got out of the car.
"Peter! Glad you are back! So, since you are back, I am almost done with all the decorations, but it would be a big help if you and Harley would come to my house after school and help. It should take at max 30 minutes if we all work together." Betty said as soon as I walked in.
"O-okay." I replied with a smiled.
"You look much better for someone who had chicken pox... or was it strep throat?" Flash said from behind me.
I turned around with a smile, "Actually I had both. Yeah, it was quite the week." I turned back to Betty, "I'm sorry I couldn't help over the weekend, but my doctor wanted to make sure I wasn't contagious anymore."
She smiled and placed a hand on my arm, "It's okay, Peter. I would rather you stayed home than get me infected."
I glanced over at Harley who had his eyes on Betty's hand. I walked out of the touch and walked to my seat. As Harley sat down I asked him if he was okay.
"I'm fine." He said giving me a hesitant smile.
During gym, I gave the coach my doctors excuse and he motioned for me to go sit in the stands. On my way over, I had this itchy feeling. I looked over to the other side of the gym to see Flash looking at me suspiciously. I sat down and took out a book.
Every once in a while I could feel Flash's eyes on me. It was... really weird.
After school, Harley and I made our way to Betty's.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked me after a few minutes of silence.
"I'm fine." I lied.
"Come on, Peter." He glanced over my way, concern written all over his face.
"I-uh... I think Flash knows about... y'know." I told him truthfully.
"Hmm."
"What?" I asked a little harsh.
"Well, for someone who supposedly hates you, he sure pays a lot of attention to you." He said and I gave him a confused look. He continued, "The day I went to get you coffee, he was there and heard me ask for your order. He also knew that that place is your favorite coffee place."
"So? He's known me for a very long time. But I keep... seeing him watch my every move." I said. I knew what Harley was implying, but there was no way Flash liked me like that.
As Harley pulled into Betty's driveway, we dropped the conversation. I had been to her house before, but there seemed to have a bit of work done to it.
Harley knocked on the door and Betty answered. She smiled as soon as she saw us and welcomed us in.
"So everything is set up in my backyard. Would you guys like some water before hand?"
"No, we are good." Harley said as we followed Betty to her back door.
It was a really pretty backyard. In the left corner by the privacy fence, there was a little garden. She had paint buckets, mostly red and blue, and a few white structures that looked like they would be hung up in the gymnasium. But some things were just pieces of wooden planks. I looked over in one box, there was just a bunch of white yarn.
"I know you wanted the homecoming theme to be a secret, but what is the theme exactly?" I asked, already having an idea of what it was.
"Spider-Man." She said with a smile on her face.
"Oh, really?" I looked over at Harley who was trying to hide a smirk, but failing miserably.
"Yeah, after this summer, it's just... he deserves more recognition for everything he does. I mean, he has saved us so many times, Peter. The least we can do is show our appreciation." She looked so... amazed and happy.
"Yeah, I uh, guess so." I said. She gave me a look but then went over to the box of yarn and started to take it out.
"You guys can start painting. We are just doing random strokes of red and blue paint. Some can even just be splattered." Betty said and Harley opened up one of the cans of blue. I took a can of red and picked up the paintbrush. I watched him literally just splatter paint on the structure and I copied him on my structure.
"Betty!" Someone called from inside the house.
"I'll be back guys." She said as she ran inside.
I took a step back to look at my structure to see that even when just throwing paint on something, I have no artistic talent when it comes to painting. Harley looked at mine as I looked as his masterpiece.
"How do you do it?" I asked.
"You are thinking too much into it. It looks fine. You need to just..." I felt something wet hit my face. "Let loose." I could see the blue paint dripping down my face and sweater. I liked that sweater.
"Haha super funny." I said as I went back to my structure. As he looked back at his, I flung the paint that was on my paintbrush onto him. He turned slowly to face me with a look of betrayal on his face. I shrugged with a smug smile on my face.
"That's it." He said as he dipped his brush into the can and flung the paint at me. I screamed as I painted the front of his shirt red. He threw some red paint at me and he laughed. I threw some more at him and then he charged at me. I shrieked as we started to run in circles in Betty's yard. As soon as he caught up with me, he grabbed me by my waist and I tripped, which caused both of us to fall. He fell on top of me and we could not control our laughter. Well, that was until we locked eye contact. His breathing seemed to get heavier, as did mine.
We just sat there, enjoying each other's presence. Until we heard someone clear their throat. We looked in the direction of the voice and found Betty with a smirk plastered on her face.
We immediately untangled ourselves and got up.
"I was gone for 5 seconds." She shook her head in jokingly disappointment.
"Sorry. But we finished." Harley said, not skipping a beat. Did he seriously not feel anything?
"Thank you guys, it looks great!" Betty exclaimed.
"Yeah, anytime!" I smiled as she led us back inside and out the front door.
"I will make sure you guys get credit for the decorations." She said.
"No, it's fine." I insisted.
"Really? Okay." She gave me one weird look before closing her door.
"Wow." Harley scoffed.
"What?" I asked.
"How are you so selfless? You won't even take credit on something as trivial as homecoming decorations."
"I just don't see the point in taking credit for something like that. She is planning on going to Yale and every small thing helps. Doing everything for a homecoming dance by herself can show dedication and hard work." I said. I looked up to see him just staring at me. "What?"
"You never cease to amaze me Peter Parker."
A/n:i know I don't really do it a lot but the next chapter will be just a a/n. please read it. it's about other stories to post. even if your reading this far in the future still vote. it will let me know what stories you guys want to see.