Chapter Text
Ditching
Michelle Jones does not care about what happened to Peter Parker.
Sure they are friends, he and Ned had let her into their little group even before she knew about Peter being Spiderman. They acted suspicious though. They constantly were speaking in hushed tones sometimes, even if they geeked out and usually didn’t care who heard. It was becoming increasingly obvious and when she finally confronted them about it, everything made sense.
Peter’s ditching was justified...but it still was annoying. It was okay at first, until it wasn’t. He was constantly missing practice and when he did show up MJ was too salty at him for missing the others she always gave him impossibly hard questions.
Sometimes she felt bad, because Peter was saving people and he had bags under his eyes, and she was starting to think sickly pale was just his skin tone, and that he’d always had that slouch. But then Peter would ditch again, and honestly if he could handle a Octopus robot monster, then he could handle advanced Trig in his head. And he did, with irritatingly quick ease. As if she was asking his what two plus two was instead of the cubed root of 8293.
He was still good, so everything was okay in decathlon. There was no reason for her to be mad if he was studying at home, which he clearly was, and she didn’t mind it as much as she usually would when she saw him cramming at lunch, even if she’s seen him on page 320 17 times before. He was reviewing. And that’s one of the things she likes about Peter, no matter how much he’s proven that he knows leagues above everyone else, he still works hard as if he didn’t. He never flaunted his smart like Flash would if he had any.
The thing she didn’t like about Peter Parker is that he was constantly flaking. Not just decathlon. Things like movies and hanging out with her and Ned, cause they were friends now and thats what friends do. He was unreliable.
“Sorry I can’t make it to the movies guys. Have fun.” 3 minutes before the movie started.
“You guys start studying without me, I got a few things to do.” And then never showing up.
“Sorry I didn’t show up the the cafe today, I slept late. Late night.” 15 minutes before classes started.
Excuse after excuse after excuse . It came to the point where she was expecting the excuse over him actually coming. When he does show up 50% of the time he has to leave in the middle of it. And he only shows up like 10% of the time. That’s 5 whole percentage points that he’s actually there and 50% of those times he’s paranoid, constantly checking his phone, the other 50% is he’s dead tired and barley living. But MJ knows for a certain fact:
Peter Parker is 100% unreliable.
He’s smart, funny, nice, innocent and sweet. He’s polite and had good intentions. Great studying partner, and modest. He was everything a good friend and/or human being could possibly be. But when it came to it, at the end of the day, no one could rely on Peter Parker.
No one could rely on Spiderman either, he was too much of a wild card to rely on. MJ scoffed it was so ironic and made so much sense. Why would someone’s alter ego be reliable, if they were never reliable to began with.
“Hey Parker.” Peter shot his head up from where it was resting on the lunch table. He was studying chemistry, which he didn’t need to, he practically could teach the course in his sleep. But he kept dozing off, and it was really pissing MJ off right about now, because he wasn’t supposed to know any of the stuff. And he’d missed homework assignments three times this passed week, even if they weren’t all in Chemistry. He had a 92% that could’ve been easily 100 if he just do his freaking sheets at home. But he was too busy. “You’d better not fail that test.” She said blandly.
“Hmm?” Peter looked at her with tired eyes, she had no sympathy. She also conveniently avoided looking at the dark circles.
“I don’t wanna have to kick you off the team, and deal with Flash.” she said blandly and he made a slightly amused noise and kept reading. “What you too good to talk to me now?” she snapped, it was a joke, but it didn’t come out as one. She winced internally. Oops.
Peter’s eyes widened and he croaked out “No, no sorry MJ. I just and t-tired. I won’t fail the test I promise-” his throat sounded dry and creaky after the entire day of disuse. MJ winced in a bit of sympathy.
“Okay, but you are gonna meet me and Ned at the cafe after school. We have to study.” she said and Peter nodded.
“Promise, I’ll be there.” she bit back a don’t keep promises you can’t keep. And nodded back.
OoOoO
Of course Peter hadn’t shown up for two hours . She and Ned were long done studying and now just talking about random things, but neither of them actually were actually invested in the conversation.
Why did she even expect him to show up?
She was packing up when she heard the bells of the cafe ring and labored breathing. She looked up to see Peter a sheen of sweat on his head, and his baggy jacket hanging off him. He heft his sagging sleeve onto his shoulder and wiped the sweat off his brow. He looked like he would collapse at any moment, but she didn’t care.
He freaking promised .
MJ knew it was stupid to hold onto a promise that she knew wouldn’t come true, but Peter always kept his promises. He promised that he would study. He did. He promised to protect the little guy. He did. He promised he was fine. He was and kept going. So why couldn’t he keep this, small little promise. MJ realized he never promised he’d be there , but that was a given when you have friends. To always be there for one another. It didn’t matter his reason, he wasn’t there so much could they even consider being friends . He always ditched them.
“If you didn’t want to hang out, you could’ve just said so Parker.” she snarled, avoiding the look of absolute guilt and sadness crushing down on him.
“I-I… MJ! No, wait I-m so-” Peter was cut off.
“Sorry? Heard that one before. You’re wearing it out.” MJ said, and honestly Peter’s apologies were said too much to be genuine at this point.
“No please…” he whimpered to himself, MJ couldn’t hear as she left, Ned following close behind. ”Shoot.”
OoOoO
Peter didn’t mean to miss yesterday’s cafe meeting.
It had been a total accident. He was working with Cooper on some assignments and then totally forgot about the time. He’d even texted he’d be a little late. But a little wasn’t the same as the whole thing, which he had most certainly missed.
And all the others before it. He felt so bad . He constantly had to leave his friends - it was even a plural now- to Spiderman, or science, or work or figure out his life in general. He was never good at keeping time, but if there was one thing he could do over it was that. Because having Ned look at him like he’d failed again was too much. Having MJ have her calm furious and disappointment shoved onto his shoulder along with the other million things he had to keep track of was too much. Cause having her shove passed him in anger was too much. It was all too much, he needed a breather. And he couldn’t find one. Not anymore. So he just suffocated in silence. He was good at being quiet and shutting up. Spiderman not so much. Maybe that was what he needed.
That’s why he’d sporting darker bags under his eyes and a hunched paled expression that made him smaller then he was in the middle of history. He hadn’t done history homework again and he didn’t dare ask Ned or MJ to copy theirs. Not after yesterday. He was in the back, with his blank piece of paper. He had to do a reading, but he didn’t.
“I think Parker knows the answer.” MJ said, she was standing up. She was called for an answer and Peter snapped his head up. What? He looked at MJ, she looked back unsympathetically.
“Mr.Parker?” the teacher said expectantly. But he couldn’t take his eyes off MJ. They had a knowing look in them, and she could clearly see his blank paper from where she was standing... and oh god she did that on purpose . Peter felt like he was gonna cry. Too much .
“I don’t know sorry, sir.” he croaked steadily and hunched more in on himself when Flash started to laugh at him and call him stupid. MJ sat down, and he missed her regretful expression.
“I suggest you do the homework and pay attention.” he said and the whole class snickered as he slouched into the fabric of his hoodie and never wanted to disappear as much as he did right then.
You’re such a screw-up!