The loud thrumming of the bass of a Top 40s song shook the walls of the rather large house in the suburbs, and she could feel it vibrating in her chest as she threw back another shot, her face contorting almost imperceptibly at the familiar burn down her throat. A chorus of cheers punctuated by the slamming of her shot glass onto the thick wood of the kitchen table cut through the pulsing sound of the music. She grinned manically, thrusting a fist in the air with a loud whoop.
"That's six, bitches!" she slurred, giggling madly as she stepped back from the table. "Who's next?"
Bottles were snatched off of the table before she could say another word, and she laughed as her friends knocked back shot after shot, and she grabbed another bottle of Svedka from the remaining stash.
"This one's mine!" She took a drink straight from the bottle, the bright green liquid sloshing around the inside when she brought it back down with another loud cheer.
On the other side of the party, Peter Parker's pajama-clad body pushed through sweaty masses of people in the foyer as he searched intently for his best friend.
"Ex best friend," he reminded himself bitterly as he maneuvered his way through the crowd.
"Y/N?" he called, elbowing his way past his classmate's moving bodies. When he saw a familiar face in the crowd, his eyes lit up and he pushed more intently through the crowd.
"Betty!" he called to his friend who stood on the outskirts of the crowd deep in conversation with Abe. "Betty, have you seen Y/N?"
"Hey, Peter! I think she's in the kitchen? Just follow the cheers and you'll find her," she yelled over the music.
"Cheers?" he asked, eyebrows shooting up in question, but Betty had already turned back to her conversation.
At the sound of drunken cheering, he turned towards the source of the noise which indeed seemed to be coming from the kitchen.
"Excuse me. Pardon me. Excuse- oh, sorry MJ. Excuse me, exc-" In the midst of weaving through the crowd, Peter was stopped in his tracks by the sight of his ex best friend who stood on top of the island singing along to the music at the top of her lungs, her hips swinging back and forth as she sang into an almost-empty vodka bottle while her peers cheered her on from below.
"Goddammit. Y/N!" Peter yelled in an attempt to get her attention. If she'd heard him, she made no effort to let him know as she continued to rap along to Usher's "Yeah!".
"Fuck," he muttered as he shoved to the front of the crowd.
"Y/N!" he yelled again, this time reaching out to grab her ankle to get her attention. Her focus shifted down and her eyes brightened when she saw Peter's face.
"Peteyyy! What're you doing here?" she called, not ceasing her movements but, rather, taking a sip from the bottle in her left hand instead.
"I'm here to take you home, Y/N. Come on, get down!" he shouted, reaching a hand out to help her down.
"Nooooo, Pete. Come up here and dance with me!" she giggled, twisting her hips to the beat.
"I'm not kidding, Y/N. If you don't come down, I'm carrying you out!" Peter was annoyed now, his arm still extended to her in hopes that she'd actually listen to him for once.
"No wayyy, I'm having so much fun, Peter! Come on, come dance with me!" she whined, gripping his hand in an attempt to pull him up alongside her.
"This is not up for debate, Y/N!" he grunted as he used her unstable body to his advantage and yanked her down into his arms as she let out a tiny sound of protest.
When he let her down, she turned to face him and shoved his chest weakly. He didn't budge and she growled, battering his torso with her fists while he stood stony-faced and let her continue her abuse.
"What the fuck, Peter! What the hell is wrong with you?" she fumed, pushing him backwards through the crowd that didn't notice much else besides the remaining alcohol in the kitchen.
"What's wrong with me?" he asked, finally grabbing her wrists so she'd stop hitting him. "What the fuck is wrong with you? You shouldn't be here, Y/N. You know this isn't you!"
"And how the fuck would you know that? Maybe staying in every Friday night to watch dumb movies with you wasn't me and this is!" she argued as Peter attempted to ignore the pang in his chest at her statement.
She stormed away from the hurt and irritated boy, grabbing a cup and filling it with more vodka on her way out, not pausing to take a drink until she was in the middle of the crowded living room.
She moved to the music, bumping against faceless bodies as she drank from the cup. She could only assume that Peter had followed her, but for now, she allowed herself to get lost in the music, eyes closed and arms raised above her head.
"Y/N!" she heard Peter call over the crowd. She ignored him, turning to wrap her arms around the neck of the boy closest to her who just so happened to be Flash Thompson.
"Heeeey, hot stuff," he smirked, pulling her closer as she moved against his body.
"Y/N," Peter called again, closer this time. Then he was behind her and tapping on her shoulder. When she ignored him, he forced her around, causing her elbow to jostle against someone else.
The split second after that seemed to happen in slow motion. She lost her grip on her cup and could only watch as the liquid spilled over the side and splattered onto the front of her new white top.
"Peter!" she shrieked, pulling away from his grip and surveying the vivid green that stained her shirt. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"
"Shit, Y/N, I'm so sorry, let me-"
"Back off, Parker," she growled, pushing past him and ignoring his apologetic pleading as she made her way to the front door. He followed closely behind her to the door which she promptly slammed in his face.
"Seriously?" he mumbled under his breath, yanking the door open. "Y/N, I'm sorry!"
She continued down the driveway, paying no attention to the shivering boy standing in the doorway of the house.
"Y/N, stop!" he demanded, rushing to catch up with her and grabbing her wrist when he did.
"Why, Peter? Why the fuck do you care about what I do anymore? We haven't even spoken in over a month!" she shouted, whipping around to face him.
"What the hell are you talking about? You're the one that stopped talking to me for no reason. Do you know how much that hurt me, Y/N?" he asked, not letting go of her wrist.
"Are you fucking joking right now, Peter? I hurt you? That's really rich coming from you," she scoffed, yanking her arm out of his grip and crossing it over her chest to keep the cold at bay.
"I have no idea what you mean! One day, you were asking me for help on the bio lab and the next you wouldn't even look at me! What did I even do?" he demanded, his eyes wide and pleading.
"'Dude, Y/N? No way, telling her I liked her would be so... wrong,'" she deepened her voice in a poor imitation of his, narrowing her eyes and tilting her head, watching as his shoulders deflated and his face screwed into an agonized grimace.
"Y/N, I swear that wasn't-"
"What, wasn't what I thought it was? I don't know how you could've gotten any clearer, Peter. Especially after I told you... what I told you literally hours before I overheard you talking to MJ," she frowned. "Clearly you don't give a fuck about me, so stop trying to save me! You're not my boyfriend, a fact that you made abundantly clear. You're barely even my friend! So leave. Me. Alone."
With one last yank, she pulled out of his grip and stormed out into the cold as he watched her go helplessly.
"I didn't mean what you think I meant, Y/N." he sighed in a last ditch effort to get her to turn around. "Just so you know."
"Then explain it to me, Peter! Because I know what I heard!" she yelled, turning and planting her feet.
"I said that because- oh, God, this is not how I wanted to tell you this," he groaned, burying his head in his hands. "Okay, earlier that day when you told me that you liked me, like... more than just a friend, I freaked out. And I'm sorry I left, but I had to internalize it all before I said anything. God, Y/N, we've been best friends for years and then you sprung that on me out of nowhere! What was I supposed to do?"
"Um, I don't know, maybe let me down gently rather than going off and telling another girl that liking me would be wrong!" she argued, arms crossed.
"That's not-" he cut himself off with a dry chuckle," God, that's not what I meant at all!"
"What else could you have possibly meant, Peter? Because I'm honestly not seeing any other possible solutions!" she said with a self deprecating laugh.
"I told MJ that telling you I liked you would be wrong because it wasn't how I felt!" he burst out, rubbing a hand over his mouth.
"Yeah, that doesn't make me feel any better!" she scoffed, turning back around a final time.
"I told her that wasn't how I felt because I more than like you, Y/N. Goddammit, I fucking love you, okay!" he shouted, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes as his breath puffed out in crystallized white clouds. "Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"You what?" she asked, not turning to face him.
"God, Y/N, I love you so much, and it honestly physically hurt me sometimes because I could never tell you! And then you hit me with that confession completely out of the blue and... I didn't know what to do, so I left, okay? I left because I was scared!"
"Peter Benjamin, you better not be fucking with me right now," she sniffed, still not facing him as he made his way closer to her.
"I swear to God, Y/N. I'm fucking in love with you, and nothing you do or say will ever make me feel otherwise," he admitted, placing a gentle hand on her elbow.
Finally she turned, her eyes glistening with tears. Her eyebrows were furrowed intensely as she looked up at him with a distressed look on her face.
"God," she broke into a sob, covering her mouth with a shaking hand, "why didn't you just tell me?"
Peter sighed and pulled her trembling body into his embrace as he kissed the crown of her head.
"I'm sorry, Y/N. I'm so sorry. If I'd known that you heard me... God, I should have told you. I wish I'd told you."
"I wish you had, too," she whispered into his chest.
"So are we okay?" he asked hesitantly, pulling back to look at her with two cold hands on her flushed cheeks.
"Not yet," she whispered. "But soon."
"Good. And I would apologize until the end of time if that meant I'd someday earn your trust again. I don't ever want you to ignore me again. My heart couldn't take it," he said, pulling her into his side. "Now come on, let's get you home."
