DIANA HAD CALLED NICKY THAT NIGHT. SHE DIDN'T USUALLY CALL, BUT THAT NIGHT SHE WAS DESPERATE. She was surprised to find that he had picked up, considering how late it was, but his tone let her know that he hadn't been even thinking about sleeping. She wondered what he was doing, but the thoughts were quickly replaced with the memory of Peter looking at her, disappointed and almost betrayed.

She had quickly regaled their conversation, barely able to get the words out. She was pacing, disregarding the neighbors downstairs, so worked out she could barely stand still.

"I screwed everything up," she groaned, falling onto her bed, face buried in her pillow.

"Kiddo, c'mon, you didn't screw it up," Nicky said, "I mean, sure, you hurt him, that much is clear, but it's not as if you've destroyed the relationship forever."

Diana sighed, turning around to face the ceiling. "I feel awful. I-I don't know what I said."

Nicky hummed. "I think you invalidated him. He expected you to understand that he wasn't okay, despite what he showed, and you didn't. It hurt him to realize that you didn't understand."

She made a noise. "But how was I—I mean, how—"

"You want people to understand and he expected the same from you. When you couldn't do that, it hurt. He wanted you to understand, but you did the opposite."

She was ready to cry. "I didn't mean to do that! I didn't want to make him feel bad."

"I know," Nicky whispered, "I know. Maybe he does too, but it doesn't stop him from feeling what he's feeling. You have to let him, Diana, you can't control him."

She nodded, swallowing. "I know. I just—I don't want to screw this up. I liked what we had, I like him, you know?"

Nicky made a sound of acknowledgement. "I know." There was the sound of something being sucked through a straw.

Diana frowned, confused. "Are you–are you drinking a slurpee?"

"That's nobody's business, go on."

She couldn't help but laugh. "I've got nothing else, I just...I like him, you know? I don't want to screw this up."

"You didn't. You won't. Guarantee. If I'm wrong, you can kill me."

She smiled. "Thanks, Nicky."

"Of course, kiddo. You get some sleep. And let's hope I'm right, I like being alive."

She laughed and hung up the phone, feeling lighter than when Peter first left. Not much lighter, but enough to notice.

º º º º º

It was the Friday of the next week and Peter had been effectively avoiding Diana. The girl had been willing to give him his space, but she missed him. She knew it was selfish to want him to show up at her window since he only showed up when he was injured, but she couldn't help it, she missed him.

It also didn't help that he was actively avoiding her at school as well. People were starting to notice.

"Hey, Dina?" Harry began as they sat alone at their lunch table, "Is everything good? With you and Peter, I mean, he seems to be avoiding you. He won't even talk about you when we're texting." Over the months, Harry and Peter had grown very close, the two boys being seen hanging out at Harry's penthouse on social media.

Diana shrugged. "I dunno. I asked Nicky about it and he said that I didn't screw everything up, but now I'm not so sure."

Harry brightened. "You're talking to Nicky? That's really good, Diana, I'm glad you're talking to someone."

She tried to smile; Harry claimed to not know how to show his love, but he was actually very good at it.

"I just," she sighed, "I miss Peter, you know?"

Harry gave her a look. She couldn't read it, but it was both soft and teasing. She wasn't sure how it made her feel.

"I'm sure you didn't screw things up," Harry said, "Peter...yeah, don't worry. Besides, Nicky said so, so he's probably right."

Diana laughed. "Thanks, Harry."

He tapped her hand. "Sure, Dina. What are friends for?"

º º º º º

After class, Diana was at her locker. She opened the small door, throwing in some of her books. Instead of closing it, she just placed her hands on either side, bracing herself as she tried to calm down. The feeling was trying to take over again and she didn't think she could handle it this time around.

She felt a hand on her forearm and quickly glanced over. It was a white hand with the sleeve of a suit. Immediately assuming it was Harry, she looked back into her locker. The hand didn't move and no words were said.

"How's Gwen doing, does she feel better?" she asked, wishing that she could just shrug him off. Harry didn't normally touch her and if he did, he pulled away quickly enough. Maybe Gwen being sick made him more touchy; he had to compensate.

No answer. She frowned, a chill running up her spine. There was no way Harry wouldn't have risen to the bait and started talking about his best friend, he loved Gwen more than he loved his own father at times.

She turned her head quickly, jumping when the hand, which had just been touching her lightly, tightened, grabbed onto her arm and holding on.

"What the hell?" she spat, yanking her arm back, glaring up at the boy.

It wasn't Harry. She never wanted him around more than she did at that moment. Her skin crawled as she realized that she let that hand touch her for such a long time, thinking that it was her friend, someone that she cared about.

"What do you want, Danny?" she demanded, slamming her locker shut, whirling around and starting to walk.

"You ask a question, then walk away? Yeah, that makes sense," the boy called out, chasing after her, weaving through the crowd of people trying to get out of school.

"I don't really want an answer," she called back, trying to move faster, unable to run.

"Yeah, well," he started, grabbing her arm and pulling her to the side, "You're gonna get one."

She scoffed. "Since when do you get to decide anything about me?"

He shook his head, his tone condescending. "Diana. C'mon, we should be friends. I mean, we're going to be seeing a lot of each other soon enough, we should try to be on good terms."

She took a step back. "Why do you always have to be so fucking pretentious, acting like you know more than us? Sounding vague doesn't make you sound alluring, it makes you sound like an asshole."

He clicked his tongue. "Profanity makes you sound ten years stupider, Diana, didn't you know?"

She blinked. "I'm leaving."

With that, she turned on her heel and continued walking down the hall, quickly rounding the corner, trying to disappear into the sea of the crowd, hoping he wouldn't follow her.

"Diana!" he shouted after her, "Diana Smith!"

She ignored him, opting to pull out her phone and text Nicky. She had been texting him almost daily ever since the counselor stopped their sessions in lieu of giving Diana class time since her grades were starting to slip. That was due to her lack of sleep, but that was nobody's business.

She asked him how his day was and mentioned her short conversation with Harry. Texting him was mostly as a cover to get away from Harry, but texting him random letters didn't seem fair.

She felt a hand on her arm and quickly closed her phone, yelping as she was dragged to the side.

"Who's Nicky?" Danny asked, leering. He grabbed her phone and tried unlocking it, hissing whenever he couldn't figure out her password.

"Give me back my phone," she shouted, trying to jump and grab it from him.

He held it just out of reach, still typing. "Wait, what's the anniversary of The Incident. Makes sense that'd be your password, huh? After all, that's when mommy and daddy died, right?"

Then she punched him. She punched him in the stomach, then kicked in between his legs. He cried out in pain and she aimed for his cheek, wincing in pain as her fist collided with the hard part of his face, running away as his head hit the floor. He shouted after her, demanding she come back, but she didn't stop.

She ran down the stairs, but as soon as her feet hit the ground floor, someone grabbed her arm and yanked her into the maintenance closet.

She tried to fight back, kicking and punching, shouting for help. She was stuck in a closet with one of Danny's goons and she feared the worst.

"Diana! Diana, Diana, it's me! It's Peter!"

She stopped struggling, her eyes adjusting to focus on the boy in front of her who had his arms in front of his face, cowering back.

"Peter?" she breathed.

She felt the sudden urge to hug him or cry or bury her face in the soft looking graphic tee was he wearing. Something.

He nodded, not looking at her. "Hey."

Her stomach dropped and she opened her mouth, ready to say all the things she had wanted to the week before, all the things she had told Nicky. But he beat her to it.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly. After a moment, he went on, "I'm sorry I freaked out on you, that wasn't fair, you didn't know and it's okay you didn't know, I can't assume that you just know how I feel and I can't get mad at you for not knowing something I never mentioned. I just—yeah, I'm sorry."

She shook her head, reaching out to take his hands. "Peter. No. No, you shouldn't be sorry, I was the one who didn't get it and you can't be sorry for how you feel, especially when I feel the same and I'm the one complaining about how people don't know how to act around me, but then I ended up just being them to you. You shouldn't be sorry, I should. I am. Sorry."

He shook his head as well. "You shouldn't be sorry, it's not your fault that you don't know."

They just stood there, looking at each other, Diana still holding Peter's hands. There were words unspoken, but they didn't need to be said; they both already knew.

She sighed and moved forward, letting go of his hands and wrapping her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. "I missed you, Peter."

He pulled her close, resting his cheek on the top of her head. "I missed you too."

"Are we still good?" she asked, her voice quiet. She closed her eyes, just breathing.

"Yeah," he said softly, "We're good."

She pulled away slowly, coming to sit on the floor of the closet. He followed suit, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"Why were you running?" he asked, resting his head on his knee.

She sighed, scowling. "Danny. He was being an asshole again."

Peter wrinkled his nose. "I'm sorry. You know, his motives confuse me. I don't really believe him."

Diana shrugged. "I don't know what to believe anymore, if I'm being honest."

He gave her a sad smile. "I'm sorry." After a few moments, he asked, "What's one thing that would make you happy? Not long term, just right now. In this very moment."

She licked her lips, thinking. That was something she never really had an answer for, especially when she was in a mood, she just didn't know.

She looked over at Peter. He was watching her with an unreadable expression, his brown hair neatly combed and gelled like it usually was. His jacket was a little too long and was pushed up to his shoulders and his shirt had one of the science puns she would always need a minute to understand.

"Can I have a hug?"

He wordlessly held out his arms, lowering his legs from his chest.

She smiled and moved towards him, barely needing to move at all, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

He sat up straighter, his arms wrapped around her waist, trying not to slip down to the floor. He hug his heel into the ground and pushed himself up.

Diana shrieked, Peter having overshot the force he used to push himself up, jostling her.

"Sorry, sorry," he breathed, laughing.

She scoffed. "You ruin the moment and you laugh, you're really good at this, Peter."

He laughed as she moved away from him, sitting with their shoulders touching, trapped between him and one of the racks holding supplies.

She rested her head on his shoulder. "You have to get to your academic team thing?"

He shook his head, pulling out his earbuds. "Not for another hour. You staying around to wait for Flash?"

She shrugged. "I can, though I was thinking of getting home to work on homework." She took the proffered earbud.

"Will you stick around until practice starts?" he asked, searching for music on his player.

She nodded, smiling as he played the alternative pop music that she always argued with Flash about.

"Sure, why not?"

The two sat in silence, listening to the music. At one point, they picked up their phones, texting other people.

Unbeknownst to the other, they both texted Nicky, the man whom they both confided in during the nearly two weeks of them not talking.

Nicky, who was waiting for a patient, smiled as he received similar texts regaling success. If he was the one who told Peter to talk to Diana after school, well, that was nobody's business.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

( 06.18.17 )

I actually hate the way I ended it, but I had to end it somewhere. Also, I hope the Peter and Diana scene was alright, I hope it wasn't gross.

I know they made up a chapter later, but it was 2 weeks in terms of the timeline.

I don't have much to say so...thanks for
reading and I hope you enjoyed!