Peter was showering after practice with the rest of his team. They had a competition tomorrow and everyone was buzzing with an air of excitement, even if everyone felt drop dead tired. It was almost like a second wind.

Peter thought to himself not partaking in any of his teammates' conversations, quietly getting dressed. Flash, one of the most annoying of his team members, gave Peter a loud smack against his ass. Peter jumped and immediately went to protect himself from more abuse, but the deed was already done.

"Hey Parker, nice job tripping during our relays."

Peter rolled his eyes.

"Nice job on being last in the relays, you couldn't even beat your own time."

Flash visibly was angered by Peter's comment, but he didn't say anything back. The coach said if they got into any more fights they'd both get kicked off the team.

Peter and Flash were every definition of rivals, and have been since freshman year, now they were juniors.

If Peter didn't know any better, he'd say Flash was in love with him. But he did know better. He was Bi. He knew when a guy liked him. At least he was pretty sure. Wait did Flash like him? No, no he's probably the most painfully straight person Peter knew.

Peter put his binder and underwear on quickly and fumbled putting his pants on. He was fast but he still struggled with his clumsiness.

Everyone continued with their conversations and Peter went through his mental checklist of things he needed to get done. He had a physics test he needed to study for, a calculus project, and he was also invited to hang out with Ned after practice.

Shit, he forgot about Ned.

Peter quickly sent a text out to Ned saying he would be late due to some homework, but he was still coming over.

Ned immediately responded and Peter felt a pang of guilt knowing Ned was probably waiting on his text.

Ned and Peter had been friends since freshman year. It was an odd friendship, but a good one nonetheless. They were both interested in the same things academically wise, engineering, chemistry, the works. But that's where their similarities really stopped.

Ned was very much a nerd. A huge one at that. Peter liked Star Wars but Ned loved Star Wars. Ned loved Legos and video games and comics. Peter didn't hate those things but he preferred to focus on studies and his sports. He could be considered a nerd as well but because he was so good at sports, not to toot his own horn, people considered him a jock.

Ned and Peter didn't hang out much outside of school, and Peter felt bad about that. He initiated the hanging out, but he had a problem of being late or canceling. A lot. And it was never on purpose, Peter was just dealing with studies on top of sports. Ned had his own extracurricular activities as well, and Peter had no idea how Ned was able to have so much free time.

Although, it felt great everytime they hung out, even though it was far and in between. Peter always had something on his mind, checklists upon checklists of things to do, but when he was with Ned it stopped. Peter felt genuinely happy listening to Ned talk even if Peter had no idea what he was talking about half the time. He felt free to do or say whatever he wanted around Ned.

Peter walked home the same route he always did and made sure to make it the same pace as always. He passed the same shops, saw the same people that also walked the same route at the same time. Arriving at his aunt's apartment, he closes the door and locks and unlocks it three times. He wipes his feet off on the mat three times, right, left, right. He would usually then haul into his room and strip off school, and get into more comfortable clothes. But Ned was there.

He loudly greeted whoever was there, it was unknown if May was even there, with her shifts and all. He paused and heard shuffling from his room. Peter slowly entered his room and saw Ned sitting on his bed and they stared at each other for what was more than an awkward amount of time. It was always awkward at first when they talked or hung out.

Ned spoke first.

"Hey, Peter,"

Peter exhaled.

"Hi, Ned,"

"Did you finish all of your homework?"

"Yeah I got everything done, so we can actually hang out instead of studying…..nerd."

Peter held his breath making that joke. It was a joke and he hoped his tone passed over well.

Ned broke into a grin and Peter couldn't help but do the same.

"You're the nerd! Mr. 'I have all A's in my college-level classes and am a talented sports person'."

Peter's heart fluttered and he felt light and happy. He realized he had been standing in the doorway of his bedroom for a few minutes now. He schluffed off his sports bag, his backpack, and his coat that he wears after practice. Peter approached Ned and awkwardly sat next to the boy and they were silent again. Peter didn't want there to be any awkwardness between them again, he wanted to have fun!

"So what do you want to do?"

Ned took a thoughtful look.

"We did something I like last time….why don't you pick?"

Peter took the thoughtful look for himself now. What he wanted to do was nothing really. He just wanted to, well, hang out? Like do nothing, enjoy each other's presence.

"Well I was thinking….," Peter began. Ned looked onto Peter, intently waiting for Peter's suggestion. "We could do nothing?"

Ned looked slightly bummed but tried to feign indifference.

"Not like nothing nothing! But like….I just want to….hang you know? Chill out….don't you ever just chill out?"

"Peter," Ned began, putting a hand on Peter's shoulder "I have never been chill once in my life."

Ned's answer shocked Peter and he was silent looking at Ned. Ned had a stone solid face of seriousness that soon burst out into laughter. Peter couldn't help but laugh as well, it was infectious and Ned was funny.

"So what, you wanna play like sleepover games? Talk about boys and gossip?"

Peter's heart caught in his throat at 'talk about boys'. He knew it was just a joke but Peter couldn't help but get anxious at that. Trying to subside the anxiety Peter let out a giggle that sounded strained. He cleared his throat.

"Sure."