Today seemed different. The air seemed different. People were talking and showing each other things on their phones. I could've sworn that people looked at me more than usual.

I opened my locker. A little note fluttered to the ground and I picked it up. 'I love you' was all it said. I smiled as I recognised Pietro's handwriting. I clutched the note to my heart.

"I'm so sorry, y/n."

I turned to the owner of the voice. A girl who I had only spoken to a few times was standing next to me.

"What?" I said, confused.

"About the bet," she clarified.

I stood there dumbfounded. When I didn't say anything, the girl's eyebrows raised.

"You don't know?" she asked.

I shook my head, still puzzled. What was she talking about?

"Pietro was only dating you because of a bet," she said.

My heart sank. A bet? He wouldn't, would he?

"I – what?" I said dumbly.

"He and Tony had a bet about who could keep a girlfriend longer. Pepper found out and dumped Tony," the girl explained.

My heart almost stopped. I looked at the note in my hands. Was the message a lie? Was every I love you, fake?

"Excuse me," I said, brushing past the girl.

Pietro was at his locker. I walked up to him angrily.

"Is it true?" I asked, hoping that the answer was no.

Pietro looked up at me. He looked confused.

"Was there a bet?" I said.

Pietro's expression slowly turned to shock, and then panic.

"Who told you?" he asked.

So it was true. Tears filled my eyes. I shoved him. Hard enough that he took a step back.

"How could you?" I said angrily.

He just opened his mouth in shock.

"How could you?" I yelled.

Hope and Scott walked up to us. They looked between the two of us, trying to figure out what was going on.

"It wasn't like that-" Pietro began, but I interrupted him.

"You lied to me!" I yelled.

Tears began streaming down my face. More of my friends crowded around us.

"What's going on?" Natasha demanded.

"Did you know?" I yelled at her. "Did you know about the bet?"

Natasha's face fell.

"Y/n-" she began, but I cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it," I yelled.

"Y/n, please, just hear me out-" Pietro started to say.

"I don't want to hear anything you've got to say!" I cried.

Everyone looked at me with a mix of sadness and shock on their faces.

"It was all a lie, wasn't it?" I hiccoughed.

Pietro began shaking his head no.

"The worst thing is I actually loved you," I said tearfully.

Pietro didn't say anything.

"Congratulations," I said coldly, "You won. And we're over."

Pietro began to protest but I turned away.

"Y/n, please-" Wanda began.

"No! You lied to me too! All of you! I thought you were my friends!" I said angrily.

I shoved passed Wanda and the rest of them. Pepper had known as well. I had no one to go to because all my friends had lied to me.

I decided that I wasn't going to school today. I grabbed my bag out of my locker and walked through the hallways. People were staring at me and I wiped my eyes. I walked all the way home. When I opened my door, my mother came rushing towards me.

"Why are you home? School only just started," she said.

Then she took in the tears in my eyes and my wobbling lips.

"What happened, honey?" she asked.

I began crying. Hard. Harder than I'd ever cried before.

"It was all a lie!" I cried.

My mother held me to her, cradling my head.

"Shh, shh," she hushed, swaying me.

I wrapped my arms around her middle. We stayed like this until I had calmed down enough to speak.

"Now," my mother said, "What happened?"

I tearfully told her everything. About the bet and how he lied to me. How they all lied to me.

"I loved him, mum," I whispered.

More tears began to fall down my face. My mother looked at me sadly.

"It's okay. You can take the day off today, but you need to go tomorrow. A breakup shouldn't affect your education. You can have ice cream for dinner if you'd like," my mother said.

I nodded sadly and trudged to my room. I fell face first onto my bed and began crying again.

My phone began buzzing. I checked it to see that everyone had texted me. Pietro had texted the most though, with twenty-seven texts and three missed calls. I turned my phone off and threw it onto my bed beside me.

How could I have been so stupid? The girls even told me that he'd had a reputation. I thought he'd loved me.

The thought made me cry harder.

He told me he loved me every single day since that night on the beach. I had said it back and meant it. Had he only become my friend because of the bet? Had he looked at me like I was nothing, like I was something that could be used for his entertainment?

Did everyone else think of me like that? Natasha, Wanda... they'd all known. Even Steve and Bruce, the nicest people I'd ever met, had lied to me.

Even Pepper. I'd told her she was one of my best friends, but even then, she'd lied to me.

I glared at the giant penguin on my bed. The penguin had so many fun memories attached to it.

Losing everyone at the same time was hard. But it killed me that losing Pietro was harder.