Jealous

During The Events of Last Name Keener, First Name Harley

Third Week of School

A Week before The Great Prank War

A Week before the start of their friendship

Six months until The Incident

Peter stabbed his stupid plastic fork into his stupid chicken salad, glaring at the stupid image in front of him.

He fucking hated that stupid Harley Keener.

Okay, he didn’t hate Harley, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to be friends with the kid. Harley was… a lot of things. Harley was Harley. Harley was loud. And annoying. And arrogant. And funny. And pretty. And really smart. And really clever. And really cool. And super fucking annoying.

Like, right at this moment, he was being absolutely annoying, and Peter did not like it. Harley was flirting with someone obnoxiously and loudly. While Peter was trying to eat his lunch! So rude. Didn’t Harley know that flirting should be done with bad jokes, not, not-

Harley batted his big blue eyes at the boy and Peter gripped the fork harder.

Not that.

Not whatever the fuck Harley was doing right now. That was just.. Weird. And they were doing it right in front of his salad, those assholes. That asshole. That one big asshole named Harley Keener. And just when he thought that they had been getting along better, he had to go be annoying by flirting with everything that moves.

“Dude,” Ned raised a brow at him, “You good.”

“Peachy keen.” Peter growled, still glowering at the scene in front of him.

MJ snorted but didn’t say anything. Peter looked at her, “What?”

“Peachy Keener more like.”

“What?”

“Ooooh,” Ned made a sound like he just realized something, “You’re jealous of someone flirting with Harley?”

“Wha- what?” Peter was sputtering and he could feel the blush rush up to his face, “No!”

“Yes,” MJ deadpanned, “Yes he is. He’s just frustrated that he can’t get Harley to be friends with him, let alone date him.”

“Makes sense.”

“I don’t wanna date him!”

“Don’t wanna date who,” Harley plopped down, typing something in his phone, “And more importantly who would wanna date you?”

Peter ignored the sinking feeling in his chest, instead sputtering back, “Who would wanna date you?”

“Uh, Elijah Mason,” Harley deadpanned, “Who asked me out, literally moments ago.”

“And you said yes?” MJ raised a brow, “Do you even know that kid?”

“Not really.”

“But you still said yes?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“Because,” he reached and took a piece of chicken off of Peter’s plate, despite Peter’s warning glare, “He’s really only doing it to meet Tony.”

“How do you know that?” Ned asked curiously, and if he was honest Peter kind of wanted to know too.

Harley shrugged, “You can always tell. He wasn’t nervous asking me out, he acted like he was really really eager to get my number, he called me Harley Stark- which all of y’all should know, I hate being called a Stark- and he asked if our first date could be at the Tower.”

“And you still said yes?”

“Well,” Harley directed his attention to the boy sitting across from him, and Peter honestly felt so out of place. Fuck Harley’s eyes for being so blue, “Despite all of that, he wasn’t rude, he wasn’t handsy, and he wasn’t pushing me into saying yes. That’s pretty good for someone who’s just asking me out to get to meet someone famous.”

“That's good?”

“Ned, my dude,” Harley rolled his eyes, looking over to his friend, “Guys are fucking dicks. They never ask me out nicely.”

There was more there, Peter found himself thinking, as he realized Harley’s hands where tapping out an S.O.S despite not being in danger. And he knew it wasn’t just force of habit, because Harley’s go to in morse code was always ‘Macy.’ And he could tell there was definitely more because MJ sent Harley a look.

MJ’s looks never meant anything good.

“Do you at least think he’s cute?” Ned’s question caught them all off guard.

Peter didn’t understand why he felt so low when Harley shrugged, “I mean I guess.”

IronMansMechanic: ANyway that was THE WORST forty min ive ver spent

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: Dude, why did you even go on a date with him?

IronMansMechanic: bc he was nice when asking me out

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: Ugh, I’m sorry you’ve had such bad experiences with guys before. That really sucks.

IronMansMechanic: peter babe

IronMansMechanic: i couldnt give a shit tbh

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: hfjkalfjlafjalf I guess.

IronMansMechanic: how was ur friday tho

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: To be honest? I’m in a conundrum.

IronMansMechanic: ooooh big words ur frusterated

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: So you know asshole mcass?

IronMansMechanic: the one you so clearly like

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: Shut up.

IronMansMechanic: i calls it like i sees it

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: Anyway. He’s just??? So??? Annoying???

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: He flirts with people even if he doesn’t like them and it makes me so mad?

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: Like, what gives him the right to be that cute and flirt like that? I just

IronMansMechanic: are jealous

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: JSKFDLFHSAJKLF NO IM NOT

IronMansMechanic: u literally cant even pretend to be mad at him for flirting your just jelly

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: Die.

IronMansMechanic: i wish lol

IronMan-DidNothingWrong: MEHCA NO

Peter smiled at his phone. He could always count on Mecha to make him feel a little better about everything- even if Mecha was completely and totally wrong about what he felt for Harley.

Yeah, Harley was attractive and he wouldn’t lie about that. He had the prettiest blue eyes, with long lashes, and yeah, he was really pretty. The spray of freckles across his entire face was really… cute and he liked to count them. He had really fluffy hair but… he was still Harley Fucking Keener.

Harley who annoyed him. Harley that aggravated him. Harley that bantered. Harley that had a kind smile. Harley that was so... so... so... Harley. Harley that was so Harley. Harley that was so Harley and was an absolutely huge flirt.

Peter groaned burying his face in a pillow. Why did that make him feel so bad?