I'll Love You from Afar...

An Unintentional Invitation

"I hate PE," I groaned as I discreetly changed in the girl's locker room, trying not to pay any mind to the odor or the number of brassieres around me.

"Don't we all." MJ rolled her eyes, trying to avoid flailing arms as people struggled to put on their Midtown T-shirts and sweaters. Then we heard a yell from outside the locker room.

"Alright, girls wrap it up in there!" Coach Wilson bellowed from the other side of the door. I quickly pulled my yellow shorts on, then walked out of the locker room with Michelle. Peter and Ned were waiting for us over by the monitor.

"Took you long enough." Ned groaned as we walked over to them.

"Please, you know how hard it is to get changed in a locker room full of girls? It's a nightmare. Not to mention most of the girls have the same cycle." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh and there's always that one girl who either just got dumped or refuses to move on from a breakup that happened months ago," MJ emphasized and glared at a girl named Jasmine who just won't get over a breakup that happened a year ago.

"Hey, don't be so mean, Jasmine really liked-" I just forgot his name... "um what's-his-face."

"Alex," Michelle finished.

"Right, him." I looked back to Jasmine who had started crying again. "Ok, no, yeah you're right that's annoying."

"Poor girl... her friends just comfort her saying 'It's gonna be ok' and 'there are other fish in the sea' all valid points but clearly not what she needs," Michelle sighed.

"Well, what does she need?" Peter added, making MJ and me's head turn back to him and Ned.

"Knowing her..." I paused, thinking back to the few conversations I had with her. She was a girl who preferred assertiveness, someone to give her the straight facts. She was a pretty major feminist, which is ironic considering she's wasting her spare time crying over this guy. "She needs a reality check."

"Most definitely," MJ agreed. We heard Jasmine wail from across the gym, her friends were around her trying to calm her down and shush her cries. "Ok, that's it. You have to go talk to her." Michelle said, turning to me and directing me towards her.

"What! Why me? I can't talk to her, I don't do," I twitched my fingers, "feelings..."

"I call BS," Peter corrected, "you're always the one I call when I'm sad."

"That's different, I know you better. I've talked to Jasmine like three times."

"You're a Stark, anything's possible when it comes to you," Ned reminded.

"Ok ok fine I'll talk to her." I started walking over to the wallowing girl. "H-Hey Jasmine..." I waved awkwardly and sat down next to her. Her friends looked at me questionably, she turned her head to me.

"Oh hey Y/N," She whimpered.

"What's going on today?" I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. She wailed really loudly and started sobbing again. She practically screamed in my ear.

"Alex, why did he leave me?" I honestly don't know, but she needs to pull herself together. "I mean how do you deal with your feelings for Parker? There must be some Stark secret." How'd she know about that? Ok, was not expecting that... oh shit did Peter hear that? I turned my head to see that Ned, Peter, and MJ, were giving me confused looks. Oh no... shitshitshitshitshit. I turned my head back and whacked Jasmine in the arm. "Ouch!"

"Look, you really want to know what I do? Why my family is famous for having a stone-cold face?" She nodded. "We push it down. We ignore it. My dad's Iron Man; he doesn't have time for emotions during a mission. And I don't have time to ruin my friendship with Peter over my stupid feelings." She gave me a confused look, her friends did too. They didn't seem to understand what I was saying.