𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚙 |𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚡 𝚏𝚎𝚖 𝚗𝚘𝚗 𝚋𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚌
authors note: you’ll notice i changed the timing of things, but i had to for it to work for the story.
summary: they have a crush on one of their best friends, spider, what happens when they see spider with some chick at the festival, they spend time awkwardly avoiding him, until the party. as they run away from the cops, they hurt their ankle, and spider takes care of them.
words: 4.7k
“fuck my life” rowan groaned, aggressively rolling over and pulling the blanket over their face to shield them from the sun entering through the windows.
“ow what the hell” ant grumbled, rubbing his head after they had hit it by accident. he yawned, stretched out, before looking at his alarm clock. “it’s 8:10, rowan. we have to get up or we’ll be late for school.”
“wow okay mr responsible, since when do you care about being on time?” they joked, knowing how rebellious ant has been in the past few weeks.
“hey, i’m responsible” he throws back, before getting up and pulling the comforter off the bed, leaving rowan curled around pillows. as he starts to get ready, changing into cleaner clothes, they finally start to wake themself up.
“honestly, i don’t feel like going in today” rowan shrugs watching as he puts on a sweatshirt. “i really don’t want to see spider..”
ant turns around, and slouches dramatically. “dude, no way you’re going to skip school just because spider slept with some whore at the festival. and you know what? it probably meant absolutely nothing” he said comfortingly.
“i just don’t get it, one minute he’s super sweet and holding my drink so it doesn’t get spiked, then he’s pashing some slut who has her tits out.” rowan calms, feeling disappointed in themself for letting a guy get to them. they’ve never felt like this before, in all honesty it’s typically the opposite way around.
rowan’s definitely gotten around, but to be fair it’s hard not to when you go to hartley high. i mean they’ve even slept with their own bestfriend, who happens to be right infront of them. they both agreed it didn’t mean anything, and was just some fun, but it did make them closer.
“i think you should forget about it, okay? he’s literally an idiot, and that’s coming from me”
“but you’re also an idiot.” rowan chuckles, pulling on some black baggy jeans. they look around, and start pulling out stuff from their bag. “fuck i didn’t bring an extra shirt, can i borrow one?”
“uh of course??” ant draws out his words to make it more dramatic. he digs around in his closet, looking for one that rowan’s worn before. “hows this?” he asks, holding up the one with a sunflower and bee on it.
“absolutely perfect!” rowan puts on the shirt, and huffs, grabbing their bag, and digging out the side pocket for their car keys. “are we stopping for breakfast orrrr?”
“i think my moms made pancakes?” he says in a questioning tone, opening his bedroom door and smelling the hallway. “yes, yes she has.” he laughs.
“god your mom makes the best pancakes” rowan starts moaning, causing ant to laugh which therefore makes her laugh.
“god save it for the sex you’re going to have this term” he jokes, snickering as rowan pulls into the parking lot.
as they get out, rowan can already see spider and dusty from here. they’re having a quick chat with one of the basketball guys. they glance around the lot, also seeing darren and quinni.
quinni starts to jump up and down seeing rowan. they wave to eachother before she goes back to whispering with darren. quinni and rowan had been friends for a few years, meeting at the extra help room in middle school.
they’ve always had problems with adhd and focusing, making it hard to be in a class with loud and disruptive classmates. unfortunately in highschool, they just have to suck it up and wear headphones most days.
“you got this” ant whispers in their ear, while holding onto their arm as normal. ant is big into physical touch which means he’s constantly holding rowan.
“hey guys!” he calls out, earning grins from the guys.
“hey rowan! see you at ants tomorrow night?” dusty asks, curiously wondering if they would be there to play video games.
“oh hell yeah, i still have to kick your ass!” they giggle.
“oh? is that ant’s shirt?” he points out, giving you a face. spider finally snapped out of his staring at the ground. his eyebrow raised, as he inspected their outfit. “are you sure you aren’t sleeping together?” dusty wonders outloud.
“n- we are” ant shakes his head as he speaks, throwing his arms up like he’s been caught.
spiders eyes widen. “what? really?”
“no idiot. we’re friends. i love this fucker but i’d never sleep with him a second time” now that confession makes his eyes widen even more. he quickly shakes his head, and calms himself.
“wow, knew you were a slut, but your best friend? damnn” spider snickers, before realizing that sounded less like a joke and more like an incredibly rude insult.
ant’s jaw drops, and dusty looks like he’s unsure whether or not to laugh.
“well aren’t you sweet.” rowan says scoffing, before adjusting her backpack and walking off, towards quinni and darren.
“bro, that is totally not how you get rowan to like you.” dusty slaps the back of spiders head out of disappointment.
“no really, that is not cool, even for you.” ant says, rolling his eyes.
“i didn’t mean to.” the blonde shrugged, “thought it was a funny joke.”
“don’t lie, you’re just jealous.” ant walks off in rowans direction.
all of a sudden, his thoughts are interrupted by a younger student. “OI! there’s a fully-gacked sex map in the old stairwell!!”
all of a sudden, everyone is rushing towards the stairwell, completely disregarding that class was starting in a few minutes. spider finds himself running at a quicker speed then most.
all he can hear is screaming, heavy footsteps and panting as other people find their way to the map. “oh shit” he lets out, his eyes wandering to his own name first. quinni, saska and suzie cho. two of those weren’t true, he had made those up to his mates almost 7 months ago, and suzie cho was only a blowie. he groaned internally now knowing that they would know that he was lying.
“what in the kids helpline?” darren looks bewildered.
“everyone whos fucked everyone”
“couldn’t walk for three days, that’s true” spider laughs, watching as ant dabs up dusty.
“jenny got fisted, holy shit” spiders eyes wander more and more.
“oh shit, darren jerked you off? nice bro, you into dudes now? spider questions.
rowan turns in his direction, and pushes back spider a bit, feeling offended for darren. “who says i’m a dude?” “why didn’t you tell us?”
he laughs it off, then faltering. he sees rowan in black sparkly letters, then he notices the lines connecting to their name, all of the lines.
sasha, zoe clarke, nathan white, ant, cash, tilly, and suzie cho. wait, he bent down to look at the small writing under their name. and two private school boys.
he felt a turn in his stomach, having to clutch it. something about knowing everyone they’ve had sex with, hurt him. he saw them go closer to the wall, finger running against the lines of the people connected to them. “what the fuck” rowan let out, before then standing on a stool that they dragged out from the corner.
“this is not true!” they shout, pointing at the line connecting them to cash. they grabbed a marker from their backpack and drew over it. cash and rowan were in a hidden relationship for around 5 months but things just weren’t working out, tons of communication issues. rowan still loved him, platonically, almost like a brother in a way.
after drawing over the line, rowan steps back, walking into spider on accident. they take a deep breath, and suddenly in seconds, there’s tears welling in their eyes. “guess you’re right. i’m just a slut”
“can the following students please meet at classroom 5D. Amerie Wadia, Harper McLean, Sasha So, Missy Beckett, Dustin Reid, Spencer White, Anthony Vaughn and Rowan Yearwood, Darren Rivers, Quinn Gallagher-John, Douglas Piggott, Malakai Mitchell.”
“welcome, welcome” rowan walks by the principal entering the class. there’s multiple tables scattered around the room, and suddenly they see ant waving them over.
“what the fuck is this” rowan questions, seeing everyone come in and sit down.
“punishment probably” dusty shrugs.
“map bitch!” spider shouts towards amerie.
“so.. cemetery tonight?” rowan asks, looking towards the guys.
“oi, uh whats the cemetery?” darren asks.
“none ya biz, bongwater.” spider spits, looking them up and down.
“it’s just a party thing.” they clarified, sending a gentle smile towards darren, before ignoring spider.
“okay, settle down. thank you.” ms woodsy’s attempt to silence everyone wasn’t working very well.
the woman standing at the front takes a deep breath. “hi, everyone. i’m miss joesphine obah, but you can call me jojo. it’s kind of like yo-yo but j.” she chuckled, before clearing her throat. “i’m an english teacher, so i know some of you.” she nodded in rowan’s direction.
“but i’m sure you’re all wondering why you’re here.. well your names were on the map in the stairwell. the one that’s out of bounds.”
a boy up front sitting next to amerie raises his hand out of confusion. and finally rowan begins to question who he is. they whisper in ants direction, asking if he’s seen him before.
“uhm, what map?” the new kid asks.
“okay, very funny, look peeps, we’re not dumb. we know a lot of you are sexually active, but we’re concerned this map demonstrates a real lack of respect for one another when it comes to sexual relationships. so we want to address it head on..”
the new teacher, miss josephine went on about the new class and how it aims to give the students information about sex and intimacy. rowan wasn’t paying much attention, they were looking at spider, still upset about the comment he made to them earlier. how could he say something like that? did he really think it was some funny joke?
he then stood ontop of the table and started chanting “sluts, sluts, sluts” thrusting himself near ant.
“oh brother.” rowan shook their head, and started focusing on the teachers again.
“i think we should do the handshake game.”
“that’s not the best one to start with”
“all right everybody.. up!” woodsy shouted. “okay now clear these tables to the side please. thank you, now i want you all to start walking around the room. come onn, walking!!”
rowan started walking, listening to everyones chatter. “now i want you to choose three other people to start shaking hands with.. shaking, shake, good, you know how to shake.”
rowan first shook hands with ant, it sort of became a bro hug, then they walked past dusty, making sure to give a good shake with him too. spider came around them and held his hand out with a gentle smile, almost as a way to apologize.
rowan scoffed, and shook hands with quinni.
“and, stop.” everyone stood straight up, and still. “spencer, you have genital crabs.” people started laughing at that.
“checks out.” darren shrugged. “yeah i’m not surprised, he is a bit of a slut” rowan added on avoiding spiders eyes. more laughter.
“not in real life, thank you darren and rowan for the purposes of this game.” “put your hand up spencer, hand up, spencer, now!” “now everyone that shook hands with spencer, hands up.”
dusty, and ants hands raised up high. “now, shook hands with them.” rowans hand went up too, followed by more people, then more. “you all have genital warts.”
rowan snickered, as malakai spoke. “i thought it was crabs.”
a little while later, the bell rung and rowan went to go sit on the rocks near the edge of the school, eating their lunch that ant’s mom had made for them. veggies, fruit, and a sandwich. cash came by and they talked a bit, about the map, until it got a bit serious.
“i did something really bad.” he admits, grimacing already.
“what did chook make you do.” were the first words out of rowans mouth.
“okay-well, i technically didn’t do anything myself, but that’s the problem..”
“oh god cash, just tell me.” rowan pleaded, scared for one of their best friends.
“i-i, i was driving a car.. after the festival and-d in the back, chook was groping someone.. she was so drunk and i think he drugged her.”
“holy shit.” rowans eyes widened. “is she okay now? was she underage? who was it?” they began to panic.
“...harper.” cash’s voice wavers. “i don’t know why i didn’t help sooner, all i did was unlock the car door when we were at the gas station. i tried to talk to her after slts, but she told me to fuck off. i don’t know what to do.” his eyes began to well.
rowan took a few deep breaths, before grabbing him tightly, and pulling him into a hug. “fuck man.. you need to distance yourself from them.. but i’m proud of you okay? you probably just saved that girl from being raped.” they took a second. “i’d avoid her for a bit, she could think you’re just as bad as them, maybe even scared of you.”
he nodded along. “okay, okay.”
“maybe i’ll try and talk to her.” rowan shrugs, knowing that harper could probably use some comfort, especially considering the weird girl fight happening between her and amerie.
“thank you, rowan.” cash hugs them tight, trying not to cry.
“hey, hey, it’s okay cashy.” feeling him tremble, starts to make them cry as well.
spider, dusty and ant walk out of the gymnasium laughing about the basketball practice. spider had absolutely kicked ass, and the new kid was on the floor, holding his ankle.
“i knew he was shit.” spider snickered, getting a highfive from dusty.
ant checked his phone, seeing no message from rowan. they were all a bit surprised when they hadn’t shown up to watch practice, it was a normal thing they did together. “have you guys talked to rowan in the last little bit? they haven’t replied to my messages.” ant frowned.
“nope.” dusty said, popping the ‘p’. spider scratched the back of his neck.
“is she-” “sorry, are they, still upset at me? they wouldn’t shake my hand when we were in sex jail.”
“i mean what you said was pretty fucking rude.” ant glares at him. “like, jeez, glad they returned the favour and called you a slut infront of everyone.”
spider threw his hands in the air. “i’m such a fucking idiot.” with mutual agreements from the other boys. “can’t believe i fucked everything up because.. ugh.” he groaned.
“because you were jealous at the thought of me and rowan boning.” ant jokingly smirked. “but really, it meant nothing, we were just drunk and thought it would be funny.” “that was awhile ago too, we’re like practically family.”
“ew, you’d fuck your family?” dustin made fake gagging sounds.
“pfftt shut up, don’t be gross.” ant winced at him. “but like i said spider, no feelings, at. all.”
spider let out a deep breath, fully relieved. “thank fuck.” he ran his fingers through his hair. “how do i make it up to them?”
“confess your feels, bro.” dusty shrugged.
“or just be not a complete asshole to them? show you care or like actually respect them.” ant said, like it was obvious to the guy.
it wasn’t. which may be surprising to some people, to normal people. he wasn’t normal. he’s never done the whole ‘crush’ or ‘liking’ someone thing. infact he’s not really experienced in sex either. everyone thinks he’s some sex machine but in reality he’s just a virgin, whos gotten a few blowies. he tried having sex with some girl a few months ago but he couldn’t get it up. in general he just doesn’t understand vaginas. ‘stupid things’ ‘lazy kebabs’
“make it up to her at the party or something!” ant suggests, before catching a glance of rowan and cash sitting by the rocks. “i’ve found them!” he shouts, running and flailing his arms in their direction.
rowan wipes their eyes, seeing ant in the distance running towards them. “oh god.” they giggle.
the next few classes were absolutely boring and went by almost too quickly. the only thing rowan could think of was, what to wear at the cemetery.
once school had ended, as usual rowan and ant met up by their car, chatting a bit before getting in and taking off. “so, how was the rest of your day?” they asked ant, curious.
“ugh full of spider talking about you.” he yawned dramatically. “gets tiring after awhile.”
“wait really?” they question, looking to him.
“yeahh he felt really bad about earlier, said he wanted to make it up to you, he’ll probably be allllllll over you at the party.” ant said, as they pulled up to his house. he started to get out, but before he did, rowan grabbed his arm.
“okay so i’m gonna go home, get ready and i’ll come by at 9? is that all good?”
“9? party starts at 11.” ant clarifies.
“yeah but i wanna get high before we go.” rowan smiles, laughing before they push ant back out the car.
“i’m cool with that, see you then, row!” ant calls out, walking off to his house.
rowan got home, and made sure to get upstairs quickly to avoid their mother. bit of an asshole she was. after their fathers suicide, their mom was never the same, drinking, taking drugs, beating on them and their younger brother. they hadn’t seen him in awhile. he was temporarily re-homed for his safety. they had taken him to the emergency room once night after their mom had an episode.
thankfully the department of social services got involved, and he’s safe now, with a loving normal family. rowan wishes they would’ve taken them too but, something about their age made it complicated.
they foraged through their closet, trying to find something that would make them look attractive. they wanted to get some attention, hoping it would make them feel better about the spider situation. they had liked him for years, since middle school. it only made it harder when they became friends, and when they became the second bassist for the guys’ band.
pulling out a plain black tank top, and throwing it on the bed, rowan was then looking for some jewerly, planning on wearing the pants they were already in. they decided on a black choker and dangly silver earrings, along with studs for the rest of their piercings. they re-adjusted their septum, and looked at themself in the mirror. ‘hmmm jacket.. jacket..’
they grabbed a plain red sweater, and reached for their doc martens. “hell yeah” they nodded at themself, wondering if they should do any makeup.
after a few minutes, they decided on just a light red smokey eye. they were about to start on their hair, when quinni started ringing.
“hey girl, what’s up?” rowan asked.
“hiii!!” darren gently pushed quinni so they could see the phone. “woah, okay sexy. will we see you at the cemetery?”
“obviously, can’t you tell by this-” rowan cuts themself off and does a spin. “outfit.”
“you look gorgeous.” a different voice is heard, and suddenly amerie is on screen too. “i don’t think we’ve properly met.” she said.
“well, talk to me at the party, and we can.” rowan smiled, before looking at the time. “i gotta get going guys but i’ll talk later.”
and just like that, rowan was on their way to ants.
“fuckk, this is some good shit.” rowan says, while breathing out smoke, from the joint between their fingers, while watching the road.
ant took over driving while rowan decided to get high before the little get together. “you look really cool.” he said, looking over to them.
“thanks! i tried a new makeup look.” rowan smiled. “i’m so excited, can’t wait to get fucked up.”
“me too, however i am missing the responsible you. don’t let the spider thing get to you okay?” ant nodded.
“i’m trying not to, i feel a lot better now then before.”
“good. also i heard dusty saying to park the cars by his house so it doesn’t look suspicious to the cops.”
“ohh yeah, good idea.” rowan agreed, and watched as ant pulled into dustys driveway. “its like a 10 minute walk right?”
rowan groaned as they began walking, feeling the tiniest bit dizzy. “told you, you shouldn’t of smoked!” ant laughed, watching them walk.
“whatever.” rowan kept going, walking up the hill, before seeing the firepit. there was only like 6 or so people there so far. spider, dusty, malakai and some strangers they didn’t know.
“hey!” spider called out, seeing rowan. he quickly grabbed an extra beer and popped it open, before passing it over to them.
“oh, thanks.” they replied, nodding along to the music awkwardly. dusty walked up to them and checked them out.
“you look nice.” dustin said, touching their shoulder.
“yeah.” spider agreed, nodding along, as dusty went back to ant. it was silent for a few minutes. “so-”
“i’m sorry.” he blurted out, rubbing the back of his neck. “i want you to know that what i said was really dumb and i didn’t mean it. you’re really cool and i have no place to judge your sex life.”
“wow, spider apologizing?” rowan jokes. “i appreciate it though, thanks spencer.” his heart immediately softens at his name, his real name. it sounds like the most amazing thing ever hearing his name out of their mouth.
he watches as their eyes flicker, before they lean in and give him a side hug. ‘holy fucking shit’ he thinks to himself, putting his arm around them.
“well.” they smiled, before seeing other people begin to arrive. “thanks for the beer, i’ll see you around, yeah?”
“yeah.. yeah i’d like that.” he watches rowan walk away, and suddenly two bodies are next to him, patting his back.
“oooo, rowan and spider sitting in a tree-” dustin starts.
“fuck off.” spider shrugs him off and gives him the finger, before laughing and going back to talking with other people.
soon, the group gets bigger and the music is louder, people are dancing and it’s like an actual party. rowan sees cash out of the corner of their eye. “hey!” they smile, giving him a friendly hug, before whispering in his ear. “you got anything?”
“obviously.” he rolls his eyes, pulls out a small tin and passes it over to rowan. they open it and take a few edibles. “so, hows the spider thing going?”
“hmm it’s better.” they shrugged. “he gave me an actual apology and we hugged.”
“he apologized to you? holy, what have you done to spider.” cash snickers. rowan takes his hand and sits on the hill with him.
“you think he could like me back?”
“you’re joking right. it feels like it’s obvious.” rowan looks surprised. “he’s always looking at you during classes, and he’s so friendly to you.” rowan thinks for a moment.
“there’s no way, he’s literally an asshole to me half the time.”
“because he likes you!” cash exclaims, fed up with having to explain it over and over.
“rowan!! stop talking to mr eshay, and come have fun!!” rowan gave a smile that looked more like a grimace to say ‘sorry’. suddenly they were being pulled away by ant, and dragged onto the dance floor.
“woo!” they exclaimed, dancing their heart out. “this is awesome!” the music was loud, and it just took control of them, everything was floating away. they slowly turned the other way to dance into more people, seeing quinni and darren.
“hell yeah! how you guys liking the party?” rowan asked, before they started jumping up and down to the beat of the music.
“it’s sick!” darren says, grooving.
“very loud.. but i confronted spider about my lazy kebab flaps!” quinni grinned, making rowan chuckle.
“awesome!” the sky got darker, and eventually it was only the city lights and buildings keeping the party a lit.
it felt like seconds, but in reality it was minutes of dancing, minutes of thrashing around, hair whipping, and bouncing, and soon rowan began getting tired, and the effects of the alcohol really started hitting. the dance moves got sloppy, and rowan, dizzy.
they felt a hand on their waist, almost as support. “aaa helpp” they slurred, pushing off the hand not knowing who it was. they felt the person get closer, and felt something by their ear.
“rowan, hey it’s me, i think it’s time to get you home.” he said softly, very gently attempting to drag them away from the dance floor.
“nooo, dancing..” they mumbled
“rowan, hey, you can barely stand, okay? if you don’t want to go home, atleast drink some water.” he handed them a plastic water bottle.
“need. need to sit down.” they said, before dramatically plopping onto the ground in the middle of the dance floor, people surrounding them with dance. it was almost like they were the only two present.
he snickered at them. “too much to drink?”
“maybe..” they leaned onto him for support, clinging to his orange overshirt, for warmth.
“you cold?” rowan nodded to the question. “i know it’s not much but here.” he passes over the shirt before realizing they can’t do it themself. he moves positions to help put it on for them. “there.” he smiles.
“spence.. i..” they, and everyone else at the party was cut off by police sirens in the distance, and quickly there was cars pulling up.
“cops! cops!” ant shouted.
“oh fuck.” they screamed, holding onto spider as he got up.
“a bit shit that we’re littering.” sasha squeaks.
everyone split up except for spencer, rowan, ant, dusty, sasha and harper.
“fuck, fuck, fuck.” rowan muttered, running as fast as possible.
they ran towards a large gate. it was triple the height of any of them, spider was about to jump but looked towards rowan. he got down, and grabbed their waist, suspending them over the gate. of course being incredibly drunk, they don’t stick their landing and they end up fucking their ankle up.
they swore out of pain and started limping, spider threw himself over the gate and held rowan up. “i’m so sorry, are you okay?” he asks, holding their head.
“little ouchie, my ankles fucked, you should run, i can hide behind a bush or something.” they suggested.
“what, fuck no.” spider scoffed, before pausing to think. “can i carry you?” he asked, looking into their eyes.
“get back here!” a cop shouted, getting closer to the gate.
“yes, yes, hurry!” they shrieked. and soon enough they were in spiders arms, as he ran. it was a wild feeling, being held by him like this, being held so tightly.
“thank you spider.” they spoke, muffled into his chest as he ran.
“don’t worry about it ro.” he smiled, it was crazy, feeling them curl up in his arms.
“fuck!” they heard a cop shout, stuck behind the gate.
after about 10 minutes, he had stopped sprinting, and was now carrying them back to his place, knowing how far theirs were. “you okay?” he wondered.
he gushed at them, they were so cute.
once he got to his house, he quietly rushed upstairs, hiding them from anyone in the house. he set them on his bed. “i’ll make a bed on the floor, you stay comfy up there, alright?”
“noo, please stay with me.” they beg, pouting. “don’t wanna be alone.”
spider sighs, shuffling into the bed and putting an arm around them. he watched as they fell asleep, cuddling into his chest. “god, i love you.” he mumbled, pulling them closer.
“m love you too.” they mumble back.
