𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 | 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫

TWENTY EIGHT

School was now different. People were chatting about Olivia's secret identity as well as the regular Olivia.

Many of her classmates and people she didn't even know were coming up to her. Every time she would get the question about what happened to her leg and why she was on crutches.

Her answer was always the same in every way. Olivia's story was that she had been painting and she fell of her ladder, busting up her leg pretty badly. Everyone seemed to buy into the lie, which Olivia was thankful for.

The whole day was fine, and the pain was numb to her so that didn't really get in her way. But the one thing that was bugging her was Peter. She hadn't talked to him at all.

She had seen him come out of the principal's office with Ned, but as soon as Peter saw her, he walked away. And that hurt her in a way.

So at lunch she went to find them, spent the whole entire thirty minutes hobbling around the school. However, when people started to flood the halls once more the only person she could find was Ned.

Olivia went up to him and spoke, "Ned, can we talk?"

The boy's eyes went wide and gave a small nod. Olivia then pulled him into an empty classroom. For a few seconds she was quite, trying to figure out how to phrase her words correctly.

"What's wrong with Peter?" Olivia finally asked.

"What do you mean?" Ned replied, a smile on him face.

The girl rolled her eyes, "Don't play stupid. He hasn't tried to talk to me all day. Is he okay?"

"Yeah he's fine," Ned answered.

"Then why isn't he talking to me? He told you what happened, right?" Olivia asked, just wanting answers.

Ned gave a nod, "Yeah he told me."

"So then why the hell is he avoiding me?" Olivia repeated, growing annoyed.

Ned quickly answered, "After what happened he thinks that he is the reason why you got hurt. Peter's beating himself up over it. That and him losing the Stark internship."

Olivia shook her head, "But why would he not come and talk to me about it?"

"Because he has like a massive crush on you," Ned replied.

"What?" Olivia asked, her eyes growing wide.

Ned gave a shrug, "I wasn't supposed to tell you, but it's that he does. He really likes you Olivia."

"How do you even know that?" she questioned, not believing what she was hearing.

"Because Peter tells me everything, or I find it out myself," Ned answered, "Trust me, I'm his best friend."

Happiness filled Olivia's heart hearing those words. It was one thing to hear it from all of her friends and even Tony Stark. But to hear it from his best friend, to hear it from Ned was different. To hear that Peter admitted that he had feeling for her to Ned was the final thing.

Olivia finally had hope that she could tell Peter how she felt. The realization that she has to tell him came over her. Peter felt as if he was bad for her, when in fact he was the best thing she had.

A smile grew on her face as she let go of one of her crutches and gave Ned a huge hug, "Thank you."

She then exited the room and made her way down the now empty hallway as fast as she could. Olivia wanted to find Peter, she needed to.

It was like a calling was placed in her heart. Telling him how she feels about him felt right. Olivia was about to turn the corner when she heard people speaking.

"Hey," Peter said.

"Hey," Liz replied.

Olivia stopped herself from turning the corner. Part of her didn't want to eavesdrop on the conversation, but her small sliver of doubt came back once she heard Liz's voice.

"I thought you had Calculus fifth period," Peter stated.

"Yeah, I was just doing some homecoming stuff," Liz informed.

Footsteps were taken as Peter spoke, "Hey, look, I, uh... I just wanted to apologize about the whole Decathlon thing. I really-"

Liz then cut him off, "It's fine. Last week, Decathlon was the most important thing, but then I almost died."

"No, I- I just mean that... it was not cool, especially..." Peter then took in a deep breath, "Because... I like you."

At those words Olivia felt her entire heart shatter. It felt as if a knife had just been plunged into her chest. And it was even worse because she had just gotten her hopes up.

"I know," Liz replied.

"You do?" Peter asked, his tone sounding bright.

Liz let out a small laugh, "You're terrible at keeping secrets."

"Yeah, you'd be surprised," Peter laughed.

Olivia was trying to hold back her tears that were threatening to fall. Her head felt stressed as she tried to keep her emotions to herself.

"I gotta get to class, but, um I'd say we should hang out, but I'm gonna be in detention for like... ever," Peter said, "But, um, I guess you already have a date for homecoming."

"Actually, I was so busy planning it I never really got around to that part, so..." Liz informed.

"Uh, do you wanna go with me?" Peter asked, his voice cracking with nerves.

"Yeah, sure," Liz answered.

"Really?" Peter asked, "I mean, uh, great. Cool."

"Cool," Liz repeated.

"I'm actually going that way," Peter stated.

Olivia turned around and started to leave, silent tears finally making their way down her face. Liz, her friend, was going to the dance with Peter, the boy she desperately knew Olivia liked. That hurt, but what hurt the most was that Peter didn't like her. And he clearly never lost his feelings for Liz.

"Liv?" Peter spoke.

The girl stopped in her tracks. She knew that he was behind her. So she wiped away her tears and turned around, "Hey Peter."

"Did you hear?" Peter asked, his face dropping.

"That you asked Liz to the dance and she said yes," Olivia answered, "Yeah I did."

She went to leave again, but Peter ran in front of her, "Can we talk?"

"There isn't anything to talk about. You asked the girl you like to go dance. I'm happy for you," Olivia stated.

"I just-" Peter tried.

Olivia gave a fake laugh as her tears over came her, "Peter, it's fine. Clearly you changed your mind about what you were saying at her party. And I'm happy for you. You deserve to be with her. She's perfect."

She then pushed past Peter and continued to limp down the hallway. Everything was silent except for the small sounds of her crutches hitting the ground.

More tears began to fall as Olivia walked to the nurse's office and claimed she needed to go home.