◤ chapter twelve: ❛ sending off ❜ ◢
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TONI WASN'T BORED, BUT SHE WAS SAD, AND WASN'T THAT CLOSE ENOUGH? No, she wasn't balling and sobbing and having herself a nice pity party, but she felt a somber mood when it was too early to have one. Really, seven a.m. was not the time to be feeling so down in the dumps especially because it was too early to even be awake or able to process any fucking emotion at all.
Yet, here she was, awake and functioning with a cup of coffee in her hands as she felt chill bumps on her skin because it was New York and that meant it was too fucking cold to even function sometimes. No, it wasn't as cold as it could be, she had seen lower temperatures, but she still hated it.
And Sabrina was biting her lip in front of her, her leg bouncing up and down nervously. She was the entire reason for Toni to be sad. Not because she was dying or had cancer or anything that tragic, but because she was leaving New York for a few days to go to D.C. for a stupid Decathlon competition. And it was so stupidly far, because why the fuck were they signed up for a competition in D.C. when the furthest they should go was New Jersey? But whatever, Toni wasn't in charge, so she was trying not to complain.
She knew it was only a few days, and Sabrina and her would still be Snapchatting through it all, but she still hated not having Sabrina in the same city as her to hang out with whenever. It was lonely even though she did have other people to hang out with. She just felt so dark without Sabrina and she hated it.
"Fuck, I'm too nervous for this," Sabrina swore, playing with her hair and knotting it up. Toni was quick to take her hands away from her hair and hold them.
She leaned in, her eyes baring into Sabrina's. "Listen to me, you've got this."
"I don't know about that," Sabrina shook her head, "I mean, of course we're gonna be practicing on the bus but I was too nervous to even look at anything last night and yesterday I had a Calc test so I was so busy studying for that that I didn't have for this the night before last and –"
"Sabrina," Toni said in a commanding tone, cutting the girl off, "Look at me: you've got this. I know you do. Who cares if you missed two nights of studying? You still had practice after school where you went over everything and, like you said, you're gonna be practicing on the bus. You'll be fine."
"But what if we aren't? Toni, I don't know if I can do this. You know I get stage fright," she whispered the last part, her voice low so that no one could hear her and begin to doubt her abilities. She always had a problem with people thinking she couldn't do something unless she was friends with you.
Toni sighed. God, why couldn't Sabrina see what she did? See that she was so fucking smart and had this in the bag – the other team wouldn't even know hit them! It was so easy for her to see this but Sabrina was completely blinded by her panic to see anything. It made her sad because her friend couldn't see how amazing and skilled she was.
"Trust me, I know that you're gonna fucking kill it. You've been getting rid for so long now and you're gonna absolutely rock it!" Toni assured her, a smile appearing on her face to comfort her friend further.
Sabrina slumped, a small pout forming on her lips. "I just really wanna win, you know?"
"I get it," Toni nodded, "And you will. I have complete faith in you. Obviously, you've gone above and beyond and so has Liz. And you've got some great nerds on your team who should be in their fucking element in this."
Sabrina snorted when she called the others nerds. But, like, was she wrong? She knew that Ned Leeds was there and he was a complete nerd. Really, he was working on a fucking Lego set during lunch with Peter Parker, who does that? Only nerds – or was the correct term geek for that kind of stuff? Whatever, who cares. Definitely not her.
And she could see Cindy Moon standing with Liz looking at the Allan girl like she was hanging stars right there in front of her. God, it was super annoying, if you ask her. And then her eyes went to flutter and see Mary Jane Watson and – oh, God – Harry.
She forgot that Sabrina said he was on the team. Apparently, Mary Jane convinced him to be on it – what a nerd. But she wasn't going to let him damper her already not-so good mood, so she looked away from him and back to Sabrina.
"You can't keep calling them nerds without also calling me a nerd," Sabrina cracked a small smile.
"And who says that I'm not also calling you that? I mean, you're on the Decathlon team! That's pretty nerdy, Brina," Toni joked with her, trying to lighten the girl's mood and relieve her nerves.
"Oh, shush," Sabrina rolled her eyes, but she was giggling which caused Toni to let out her own little giggle.
"I'm just saying..."
Sabrina shook her head, looking around at the others before turning her sly eyes back to her. "So you're calling Harry a nerd?"
Toni rolled her own eyes then. "What is it with you and bringing up Harry in conversations that have nothing to do with him?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you slept with him," Sabrina said in a light voice, carrying a wave of innocence.
Toni turned sharp eyes to her. "That was a mistake and you know it. I would've never slept with him if I was sober and coherent, but I wasn't, so it was just a bad choice on my part. Which means no bringing it up."
"I'm just saying..." Sabrina mocked her, a teasing smile covering her features.
"Don't start that with me. There's nothing going on between us and there never will, so stop trying to spin it that way," she said, even though when she looked at her and his messy hair, easy smile, and too-casual of an outfit she felt something erupt in her chest.
God, emotions. No – not emotions because the only emotion she felt towards him was hatred. He was her enemy and she absolutely hated him and there was other feeling – none. She was sure of it. Fuck feelings and fuck any other emotion besides hate because this was Harry and she hated him. Nothing else. Yep. That was her story and she was sticking to it.
And even if she did like him, let's just pretend that she did, why would she? He was an absolute jerk who called her a bitch and that was unforgivable. But she did she even care? She never cared when someone said something bad about her. Kennedy Conner had called her a slut a multitude of times and she didn't give a shit about that, so why did it even matter? God, he infuriated her.
"Not with that attitude," Sabrina muttered, "Come on, Toni, you've gotta admit that there's something between the two of you."
Toni shot her a look. "No, I don't, because there's not. I don't like him and I never have, I thought that I had may that super and obviously clear."
"You slept with him," Sabrina deadpanned.
"So? It doesn't mean anything – it was a one-time mistake I made when I was drunk so it doesn't count at all," Toni said decisively, a small frown playing at her lips.
"Keep telling yourself that," a small frown settled on Sabrina's face and for a moment there was a beat of a silence before the girl let out a whine, "Oh, come on, but you guys would be so cute together – why can't you just say that you like him and then smooch the hell out of him?"
Toni snorted at her. "Smooch the hell out of him? Um, the only person who says smooch is my grandmother. Get into the twenty-first century, Sabrina," she played off the girl's wish, crossing her arms.
The other girl sighed. "You're hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. How am I supposed to get you a boyfriend if the only candidate is someone you hate?"
"Maybe because I don't need a boyfriend? I'm perfectly happy as a single person. And, yeah, you're single too, aren't you?" Toni turned the question around to her.
Sabrina bit her lip. "I mean, yeah, but I'm hoping not to be soon."
"Ooh, who's the lucky lover boy?" Toni teased her, "Or – ooh – is it Liz? Do you have a lover girl instead?"
"Shut up," Sabrina hissed at her, cheeks aflame, "It's not – just, shut up."
Toni cackled at her. She knew that there was something happening between Sabrina and Liz and she was right! Ha! She was obviously the best for spotting this.
"It's too early to say anything, she probably doesn't even like me back," Sabrina lamented after a moment.
At that, Toni softened. She wrapped her arms around Sabrina, engulfing her in a hug and then pulled away, hands holding onto the other girl's shoulders and forcing Sabrina to look into her eyes. "Trust me, she likes you. It's obvious to everyone. So if you wanna shoot your shot, do it. You won't be rejected."
"Maybe..." Sabrina bit her lip, a bit of fear in her eyes at the possibility of being rejected if she did do that.
Sabrina tore herself away, causing Toni to look up right as Peter Parker came rushing towards the bus, making her frown. "I thought Parker quit Decathlon..."
"He did," Sabrina answered, a sour look on her face, obviously displeased that he was here and that Mr. Harrington quickly induced him back into the team, forcing Flash to give up his jacket.
"I'm gonna say something to him," Toni said, pushing past other people until she got to him, "Hey, Parker! What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Um, uh," Peter looked between him and Ned, before sighing, going into a whisper, "You can't say anything, but as the...other guy," Toni assumed that he meant Spider-Man, "I've been tracking this Vulture guy and the tracker I put on him is going towards D.C."
"Of course it is," Toni said in a low hiss, some weird dude who obviously was super bad if the proclaimed Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was going down to D.C. to track him. Then, she frowned, "Wait, why are you going? Shouldn't you be, like, telling someone else about this? I thought you just worked around Queens."
"I tried, but Happy didn't pick up," Peter's shoulders slumped.
"Who?" Toni raised an eyebrow, because who the fuck was Happy and why would anyone be called that?
Peter's eyes then lit up. "Hey, I'm gonna give you his number so can you call him later and just say that Peter needs to talk to him?"
"Um, who's number?"
"Happy's."
"Okay...no, I'm not getting involved in any of your shit," Toni shook her head, a little laugh leaving her mouth.
He slumped again. "Toni, please? I promise that I will never involve you in any of this ever again, but can you please do this one thing for me? I really don't think I can do this on my own."
And, okay, he looked really pathetic. That was her excuse. Because he had those large, round puppy-dog eyes and she was a bit of sucker for them because Sabrina had the same ones. And, okay, she felt kinda bad for the guy. He was just a high schooler and he was getting involved in some bad shit, so can you blame her for breaking and saying, "fine" and involving herself?
"I'll do it, what's his number?" she pulled out her phone, handing it Peter and letting him type in the number. She then saved the contact as random high up dude because honestly it wasn't like she was ever gonna use the number ever again after this.
"Alright! Time to load up!" Mr. Harrington called to everyone, causing Toni to jump because she was so out of it and she always hated yelling.
Peter shot her one last smile before getting onto the bus with Ned, leaving her behind. She saw Sabrina with Liz and she went up to her friend, giving her one last hug to say goodbye. "You go beat their fucking asses for me, alright?"
Sabrina smiled at her. "I'll try my best," a little bit of nervousness came from her, but other than that, she looked completely confident and relaxed. She guessed it was from Liz' presence next to her. She sent her own thumbs up to Liz.
Toni stepped away from the bus, watching the rest of the team pile on. The last ones on were Harry and Mary Jane, who he had his arm around and Toni frowned when she felt a twinge inside her heart at the sight. It was just two friends being pals and exchanging physical affection, Atlas did it to her all the time and she did it back to him. She chose not to think about it but instead suppress the feeling and watch them leave.
She stayed there until the bus started pull away, leaving her completely alone in the empty parking lot freezing her ass off. Then, she took out her phone and went to Happy's contact before pressing the call button.
Bringing her phone up to her ear, she listened to it ring until finally she heard a voice. "Hello?"
"Hey, is this Happy?" she asked back into the phone.
"Who is this?" the voice asked instead of answering.
"I'm a friend of Peter Parker's, he said that you need to call him. It's urgent," Toni relayed the message, feeling antsy because she was speaking to a random stranger over the phone.
"That kid, really? Well tell him that I don't care for another report about how he saved a grandma and not to bother me anymore – and not to give my number to strangers, alright?" Happy – or, she assumed it was Happy – said angrily back to her.
"Wait, he really," he hung up the phone, fuck, "needs to talk to you," Toni finished off her sentence even though it was no use.
She looked back at her phone. "Fuck," she muttered to herself, and she didn't even have Peter's number to let him know that Happy was a no-go.
Shit.
Well, she reasoned, at least she wasn't the one who needed him. Might as well just go home and sleep it all off.