Chapter 32

He did not give him a chance to finish his greeting. He did not even give him the opportunity to finish saying his name or get up from his seat by the worktable. As soon as he stepped inside the temple, Rhodey made a beeline to where Tony was working, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and then shoved him towards the floor.

"Whoa! What the heck, Rhodey?" Tony asked, still on the ground, as he straightened his now wrinkled shirt; silently wondering what bug had crawled up James Rhodes' butt to make him so upset at him to the point of physical violence.

"That is EXACTLY what I was gonna ask you!" Rhodey pointed an accusatory finger at the genius "You're going to prom with Samantha? Of ALL people?!"

Tony held back a flinch of guilt at Rhodey's words.

Oh. Yeah. That.

Word, it seemed traveled quick. Even if said word was not entirely true.

Then again, for the sake of his plans, he needed people to believe that it was true. All people. Any people. People which included Pepper Potts and James Rhodes.

It was hard to lie to his friends, but it was harder to sit there and do nothing while he watched Samantha Potts actively seek to ruin her own sister's life. He was not proud of what he was doing – or what he was going to do – but he also knew someone had to stop her. Someone had to give her a taste of her own medicine. The more he had thought about the entire thing since Pepper had broken up with him, the more he had realized he should have supported Pepper all along. Instead, he had encouraged her to let her guard down and give her little sister a chance to redeem herself. In a way, without knowing it at the time, Tony had helped Samantha get as ahead as she had. He knew that now. He knew it and he hated himself for it.

At this low point, there was no other way to go but up. Or so he hoped.

At this point, there was no doubt in Tony's mind that the younger Potts girl was beyond wanting to call a truce for the rest of their lives. There was no reason to push that narrative anymore.

He could only hope that Rhodey and Pepper forgave him for not sharing his plans with them until after everything was said and done. He could only hope that Pepper found it in her heart to hear him out when he explained why he did what he planned to do.

That, however, was a story, task, and challenge for later. At the moment, the story, task and challenge were selling his lies to the young man that had known him since before he had learned to walk. A young man that would know Tony was lying to him the moment he let down his guard.

He had led on Samantha this far with her being none-the-wiser. He could lie to Rhodey, too.

Right?

I hope so, he inwardly sighed, knowing what he had to do.

Despite how much he hated playing the rich, arrogant kid card, the inventor knew that activating that side of him was what needed to be done. He had only used that against people he did not like because he could really be an obnoxious, cold-hearted, despicable person when he wanted.

Who would have thought that acting like Justin Hammer would come in handy at some point in his life? Not him, that was for sure.

Oh, well. Here goes nothing!

Tony eyed Rhodey up and down, scoffed, and then rolled his eyes. "What's it to ya, anyway? You wanted to ask her first?"

Rhodey narrowed his eyes, anger towards his friend rising within him faster than he had ever thought possible.

"I'm not here to play games, jerk. I'm here because even though you're my oldest friend, Pepper is also my friend, and you are being a giant d-"

"Hey! Stop right there. I wasn't the one kissing someone else in the halls just days after breaking up with someone. Pepper was!"

It was Rhodey's turn to roll his eyes. "If you had stayed for about five more seconds, wherever you were that gave you the vantage point to see that, you would have seen Pepper kick Rick Majors' butt. Badly."

Internally, Tony was relieved and proud. He knew that Pepper was not the kind of person to play with his heart. Superficially, however, he had to play his part.

"Whatever," the genius said as he slowly stood up and straightened his clothes. "She clearly gave him a reason to think he could even try that. I don't need that in someone I date."

"Sure. You just need someone who thinks they are better than their own sister and does anything to prove that to the world. That checks out, seeing how much of a self-absorbed person you tend to be, sometimes."

"Look, did you come here just to insult me? Because I don't have time for that. I've got to get ready for prom tomorrow. I can't mess this up because I'm going to it with a smart, beautiful girl. Smarter than Pepper would ever be, even if it took me this long to see that. So, how about you insult me later, when I'm free? Can you fit that on your schedule for this weekend?"

The deceptive words had burned before he had even said them, making him sick to his stomach while trying to keep up the charade. Yet, it was the look of shock and betrayal on Rhodey's face that almost did him in. If this was how much Rhodey was hurt by his words and actions, Tony could not imagine what Pepper was going through right now.

It was awful and he did not want to be the one to hurt her. Yet, he knew that his alternative avenues to stop Samantha were gone. This was the only way, as disgusting as he found it to be.

Tony saw the moment that hope left his friend's body when his shoulders deflated, and his head hung slightly. Rhodey then shook his head at the blue-eyed boy and gave him the clearest look of disappointment that the genius had ever seen on the man.

"You know, I came here because Pepper is in tears at my house. Samantha didn't let this down and made sure it hurt her, so bad, that Pepper packed up her stuff and is living at my place until graduation. Her dad is pissed but Samantha doesn't care. I assured Pepper that Sam must've been lying. That you would never do this to her. But… I was wrong. So wrong. And now I have to go back and tell her it's all true."

"Well," Tony swallowed hard to keep his cool. "That sounds like a problem I'm glad I don't have to deal with. Good luck."

Appalled at his words and, knowing that there was nothing else for him here, Rhodey took out his Stark Pod from his back pocket and threw it at Tony's face before walking towards the exit of the Makluan Temple.

"Go to hell, Tony. Go. To hell."

Ironically, hell would have hurt a lot less than this.

xxxXXXxxx

She was not sure why she was doing this or where she had found the strength to do it in the first place. There was absolutely nothing good that would come out of it, she was convinced of it. Yet, here she was, dressed to the nines, riding inside a limousine, practicing how to wear a fake smile all night long.

"We're not here for them. We're here because this is our Senior Prom, too."

Those had been Rhodey's words to finally convince her to come to prom together. They would be high school seniors only once. There would only be one Senior Prom for them. They had earned the heck out of tonight. They would be danged if they allowed Tony Stark's antics to take it from them.

Tony Stark. A name that had once brought a smile to her face and a skip to her step now made her chest feel tight and her eyes prickle.

From all the bad things that she thought would ever happen to her, she had never imagined one being Tony Stark betraying her as he had. He had not seemed the type. He had sworn up and down, left and right, and all around, that Samantha was not his type; that she herself did not need to change to be smarter or prettier or more… feminine. He had told her, multiple times, that she was simply perfect the way she was.

Clearly, in Pepper's eyes, he had lied to her all this time. For all she knew, maybe Tony had been the one to leak the secret of her past to the host of Breakdancing with Celebrities to force the breakup. It did not sound like him, but she did not know what to believe anymore. She had not believed Tony had asked her sister to prom when she had gloated about it to her the first time, yet it had ended up being true.

Samantha had come to ruin her life, and she had succeeded in every way. The saddest part of all, however, was that her sister had enlisted Tony's help, whether he had known it or not.

The comforting squeeze on her left hand coming from Rhodey brought her back to the harsh reality. She returned the small smile he was offering her and then sighed deeply, preparing herself for the inevitable. The school was coming into view. It was almost time to step out of the vehicle and into the Academy's building with her head held up high. It was almost time to see her ex-boyfriend parading her sister around. It was almost time to face the truth that she had lost Tony to her own flesh and blood.

"I know I said this is for us," Rhodey began as if reading her doubts on her face, "But if you want to leave early, just say the word, all right? I think Belly Busters is open all night."

Pepper nodded and squeezed back his hand while a grateful smile graced her face. "A midnight snack of Belly Busters sounds just right."

No sooner than she let out another sigh, the limousine came to a halt in front of the school. Pepper exchanged a nervous look with Rhodey before he went around her to open the door and exit the vehicle. He waited by it and extended his hand to his date, purposefully ignoring the gasps and judgmental looks he could feel piercing daggers onto his back from other students at the academy. The known truth about tonight was that Tony was coming with Samantha and not Pepper. What people had not known was that Pepper would show up, at all, and with him.

It really did not mean anything special for him and Pepper to arrive together for prom, but he knew that people would come up with their own wild theories as to why this was the case. And, he knew, that none of these theories would even be remotely close to the truth: that him and Pepper were just two close friends who decided to enjoy their last party as kids, even though their common friend had broken their trust and hearts.

Nothing more. Nothing less. Just as simple as that.

Pepper braced for the music as she took a step outside the limousine to unexpectedly lock eyes with a pair of electric blue ones that were as shocked to see her there as she was to see Samantha clinging to his arm. It was one thing to know they were coming. It was a completely different thing to see them together, and for them to be the first thing she saw upon arriving.

She felt her knees buckle, but only for a second. Rhodey was there to hold her in the blink of an eye, keeping to himself the anger he felt for Pepper at seeing Samantha and Tony arrive at the same time.

"Ready to make the news?" Rhodey jested in her ear.

"As long as we can make bail," she replied with an honest smile before they both left a stunned Tony staring at the couple make their way inside.

Great, Tony inwardly groaned while keeping a nonchalant look on his face. This was going to be a lot harder to do with Pepper and Rhodey around.

"Ready for the night of your life?" Samantha's words snapped him back to his mission and he smiled at the brunette.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

A/N: Hello, my Faithful Readers! Please don't kill me! Long story short about this delay: I had two COVID scares since the last update; one of which turned into bacterial pneumonia. I was quarantined and under treatment for a few weeks, and I'm just now catching up with a lot of things I had to forgo until now. I can't promise a new update soon either, as one of the things I had to leave to the last second was finding a new place to live. Our lease is up this month and we are stuck between renting again or buying. Wish us luck, and thank you for sticking around 3