One stop, Coffee shop
“44812” Peter repeats the numbers that were on his screen to Grace at the reception desk.
Grace smiles before typing the numbers into her computer. He suddenly hears the printer in the background.
As Grace gets up and moves towards the Printer, Peter glances at the clock ticking on the wall. The hour handle is just a little past the 3.
3:12pm
Peter purse his lips, it’s been a little over four hours since he left the hotel room.
Grace comes back with a few pieces of paper, she staples it and then hands it over the desk. “Here are your results, they will be marked bold.” She smiles as Peter grabs the pages.
“Thanks,” Peter nods before he turns around to leave.
“Hope to see you around campus!”
Peter smiles at Grace over his shoulder, slightly worried that it looked like a grimace before hanging his head tiredly. He really hoped they didn’t meet again, she was too joyful and it was hard to keep up.
As he heads out the front doors he runs straight into a guy that walking past.
Peter swerves just as the man trips, Peter instinctively grabbed the back of the mans dark green hoodie to pull him up from his slow fall towards the ground.
“Fiddle Sticks!” The man yelped as he held his hands out in front of him before the air rushes past him from Peters tug. Peter feels himself smile slightly at the choice of words, a small flame growing inside his chest at the humorous moment before it’s stomped out just as quickly from the black dirt of his crushed heart.
As the man stand straight Peter realises the guy has earphones in, the cord winding down his chest towards a pocket in his blue denim jeans.
“I am so sorry! Are you alright?” The man asks, his dark skin glows in the small beam of sun that is scraping along the undercover area of the steps, his dark brown locks are cut into a fade that ends in beautiful, twirling curls at the top of his head.
Despite the concerned look on the man’s face, Peter can see the smile lines around his full lips.
“Yeah man. I’m all good, sorry about that.” Peter reassures with a dip of his chin.
The man shakes his head however, “No I should have watched where I was going. Sorry! I’ve been obsessed with this comic lately.”
Peter tilts his head. “Oh, yeah? Which comic.” Right after he said that he feels immediate regret, for the sole reason that he has no interest in this conversation. He doesn’t want to get into a conversation full of fake smiles and laughter -on Peter’s end- because he was tired and bored and just wanted to go back to the dingy old hotel room and continue to mourn in self pity.
The man lets out a full on grin. Happiness over comes his features, Peter notices a small dimple in the corner of his mouth. “Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel.”
Peter remembers that comic, he had been obsessed also when it had first come out about a eighteen months ago. Maybe back then he would have geeked out with the man, grinned and started a deep conversation filled with debates and theories. However, lately he had no joy in any of his past interests, they seemed draining. He no longer felt a spark of joy, just plain numbness.
“Oh,” Peter nodded, “I have heard of that.” He smiles, eyes dull.
The man continues to grin, either completely oblivious to Peter’s lack of contribution and interest to the conversation or is ignoring it like there is no tomorrow. “Yeah, it did come out awhile ago. My brother got me into it, he loves anything like this, Starwars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Lord of the rings,The Hobbit.”
The guy runs a hand through his curls, ”Right now he is binging The Witcher, says one of the main characters, Gerald or something, is-” The man holds his hands in quotation marks “-A silver fox of a beast that I would let pound me into a mattress until I’m a suffocating, choking mess crying tears of pure happiness.” The man sighs with raised eyebrows, Peter can see the humour yet exasperation sparkling in his eyes like a firework “Of course he didn’t know that our friend was on speaker until after I laughed.”
Peter purses his lips, “Very explicit.” He already knows the character the man means is actually Geralt of Rivia, but decides to just keep it to himself. He feels his social battery going flat quickly.
The guy snorts, “You think? He couldn’t look me in the eye without becoming a red mess for, like, two weeks.” The man suddenly holds his hand out. “I’m Duke, by the way.”
Peter clasps his own, “Peter.”
As their hands clasp Peter automatically feels the calluses along Duke’s palm from presumably hard labour.
“Nice name.” Duke comments causing Peter to roll his eyes, “Yes, very unique is I say so myself.” Duke barks out a laugh before putting his arm around Peter’s shoulder.
“You’re funny, I like you.” He glances at Peter, “You busy?”
Peter hesitates, he’s exhausted and he doesn’t want to be here, he pauses to think, excuses run through his head like a quick relay. However as he looks back at Duke he can’t help but think of Ned, their personalities are so similar it makes his head spin.
Peter immediately scolds himself after the thought crosses his mind, he knows better to compare people having been compared himself but the longer he looks the more selfish he feels at just having one more familiar conversation.
After all, he can just pretend the man doesn’t exist after this anyway.
“Not particularly, why?”
Duke’s lips spread into a smile that Peter can only compare to pure and utter chaos as he starts to tug Peter with him, “I’m off to annoy my best friend at work, she works at the campus cafe and the coffee there is cheap.” He empathises the last word. “I’ll pay in exchange for your company.”
Peter feels his heart skip a small beat at the thought of MJ, the situation so familiar he starts to have second thoughts. “Wow, aren’t you forward, already paying for my drink?” He jokes, laugh cold but Duke either remains completely oblivious or ignores Peter’s lack of enjoyment in the conversation.
Duke chuckles, “I mean, if you don’t mind a third wheel breathing down our necks then sure.” He winks.
Duke starts to stroll towards the cafe, Peter beside him. “So, Whatcha studying?” He questions, voice genuinely curious.
Peter side eyes Duke, “Who said I’m studying anything?” He deflects.
Duke nods his head as they start to cross the grass, “Oh I see, you just hang around campuses, watching people. Completely normal, we all have our hobbies.” He says, shrugging his shoulders.
Peter blinks at the answer before fully turning his head towards Duke, weary seeing the teasing smile on his lips, he glances away and pauses. “General Education.” The answer is already slipping out of his mouth before he could even think about.
Peter watches Duke’s eyes light up, “Hey same! You mind me asking what certificates you’re in? We might be in the same one.”
Peter sighs to himself, knowing he is going to see Duke a lot more often makes his heart feel heavy with displeasure. Despite this he casually shrugs with a false smile and flips to his results. He isn’t surprised by the answers, considering he had them planned perfectly.
“Math, Science and English are all Certificate IV” He relays to Duke, letting the man glance at the page before flipping it back and folding it up, he tucks it in his waistband.
“Oh nice,” Duke compliments. Peter suddenly feels the shift of the soft grass to hard concrete. He glances behind himself, slightly surprised to see how much distance they had walked.
Peter gazes up and sees the cafe, it’s slightly empty considering most classes would be on at the moment. There are tables out front with umbrellas in the University colours of yellow and black. The windows are large and clean giving Peter a view inside where it is slightly more packed, the open sign on the door lights up. “We share Math and Science. Not English though, I got Certificate II for that, I have dyslexia.”
“Oh, that sucks.” Peter mutters, not even thinking about how insensitive that could have been, but before it could cross his mind Duke laughs again opening the door to the cafe and walking in, “Hell yeah it does! The amount of times I have misspelled something is insane. I get away with not food shopping anymore so that’s a bonus.”
“Using that excuse again, Duke?” Peter hears someone call out. He follows the noise towards the cashier where a lady with long, sunshine blonde hair is tied up in a long pony tail that falls down her shoulder like a vine. She has a black apron on with a white shirt. Her eyes are a crystal blue, humour and happiness overflowing.
A light blue clip sits in her hair, keeping hair out of her face, her skin is slightly tanned with a red tint to her cheeks, most likely from the slight heat in the cafe.
Duke rolls his eyes, “It’s not my only excuse!” He sighs.
The girl grins, “You use the damn thing for everything, ‘Hey Duke, could you pass me the salt?’ ‘Sorry, I have dyslexia.’ ‘Duke, can you put your dish in the sink?’ ‘No, I have dyslexia.’ ‘Duke, why did you grab full cream milk? I’m lactose intolerant.’ ‘I have dyslexia.’”
The woman’s voice went slightly deeper with a whinge whenever she pretended to be Duke.
Duke crosses his arms, “That last one was true though! I couldn’t tell the difference between the words.” He straight up lies and they both know it, full cream and lactose intolerant milk don’t even have similar spelling.
Despite this the girl shrugs dramatically, “Not my problem, it was Dick’s. He was not happy.”
Duke throws his head back with a groan before shaking his head. “Peter, this is Steph, the girl I was talking about, Steph, this is Peter. We just met.”
Steph leans over the counter, resting her head on her palm, “I was waiting for you to introduce me to this cutie.” Her eyes skim Peter from top to bottom before she holds her hand out for a handshake.
Peter grabs it but before he can shake it she turns his hand so that it is resting casually in her palm. Peter watches in disbelief as she brings it to her lips and kisses the back of his hand. He feels the residue of her lipgloss on the back of his hand as she pulls her lips away. “Hey gorgeous, I’m Steph. I can’t believe we crossed paths, must be fate.”
Peter’s eyes widen in surprise before he nods his head, unaffected by the flirting, back before his life changed he would have been a blushing, stuttering mess that would have just melted into the floor.
Steph’s eyes furrow just slightly at the lack of response, look away and you would miss it. She opens her mouth to say something but Duke cuts in and removes their joined hands with a frown, but Peter can see the twitch in his lips as he looked at Steph in fond aspiration.
“Bloody hell, Steph. Stop flirting, you’re meant to be the third wheel! Not me.”
She tsks, “I don’t mind sharing, don’t want you though, you can sit in the corner during my time with Peter.”
Duke purses his lips. “You would have to fight me on it.”
Steph’s held tilts from left to right quickly, her eye’s glance towards the roof of the cafe in mock avoidance. “Or you know, I could just kidnap the guy and hide him in my basement.” She smiles, “I would obviously have to buy new chains, Peter deserves the best quality. Might take me awhile to save though.” She mutters under her breath.
Duke gasps slightly. “Steph!” He hisses, warning in his voice. He frantically looks towards Peter.
However before any of them can continue Peter feels something he hasn’t felt in a long time.
Amusement.
It almost makes him sick at the unfamiliar feeling because it had been so long, he unconsciously steadies himself at the sudden spin of his heart, feeling it bubble in his chest.
He slightly grins, it’s small but real.
“I won’t go easily.” He jokes.
Steph tilts her head in consideration. “I could take you...probably.” However Peter can see the confidence in her eyes, the lack of challenge in her gaze.
He felt his spider sense buzz lightly for barely a second before disappearing completely.
Ever since he was forgotten by the world and fell into a deep depression he had slowly taken note that despite slightly threatening situations his spider sense had been alerting him less and less.
It still alerted him in extremely dangerous situations but otherwise it was almost absent in his life.
He no longer got that zing down his spine when he was speeding or goosebumps down his arms when entering an alleyway. It was almost as if his mind had taken note of his lack of self-preservation.
You can never truely lose your instincts, you always will have that fight, flight, freeze or submit response to dangerous situations.
Peter fights, he raises his fist and dives head first with all the force he has, either smashing through or . He just isn’t warned anymore. His spider sense is slow, almost vacant in his life.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about it and he didn’t know what was causing it either but he was at a point in his life where it just wasn’t on his mind, it wasn’t a priority.
He didn’t know and he didn’t care to find out.
Either way Peter just shrugged, “I’m sure you could with the right technique.” He smiled, Steph smirked back.
Peter wasn’t kidding, he could be taken down with the right technique, the right amount of strength-
A hand clasped around his neck. Fingers digging in, bruises forming. “Insect.”
“Anyway,” Duke started, “We are here for your finest beverages.”
Steph put her hand over her heart and gasped. “And not me?” She put the back of her hand against her forehead dramatically. “Oh, it hurts! I don’t know if I can recover from this.”
Duke just rolls his eyes, “Want an ice pack?”
Steph’s face scrunches up at the thought, “Please, anything but the ice pack, giving me flashbacks to the high school nurse.” She mutters as she scrunches her nose up. “Piece of work, she was.”
She straightens up and puts her shoulders back, “Anyways, what can I get ya?”
“What’s today’s special?” Duke asks, curious.
Steph’s shoulders hunch as she mumbles quietly, “Ugh, please don’t, it’s a pain in the ass to make.”
Peter watches as Duke’s eyes flashed with sudden mischief. It was something Peter had seen before in Gwen on their nights out, either before she did something extremely dangerous or when she was in the mood to piss Peter off.
Duke smiles innocently, “Could I please have today’s special? Large?”
Steph just stares at him with tired eyes, completely silent before she mutters, “I hate you, imma spit in your drink.”
Duke rocks back and forward on his feet with a grin, “Yeah, you do that.”
She groans, “You don’t even know what it is!”
Duke shrugs, “Honestly? Couldn’t care less, if it pisses you off then it tastes good enough to me.”
Steph’s fingers tap the screen a little harder then before as her lips thin into a painful smile. It’s then that Peter notices all her fingernails are painted different colours in no particular order, reds, blues, yellows, greens, some covered in glitter while others are just a plain colour.
She also has a few bracelets on her arm, one made with beads of different colours while the other is a bracelet that is pink, yellow and blue. Peter doesn’t want to assume Steph’s sexuality or anything but the fleeting thought of pansexual flies through his mind.
After she’s put in the order she looks at Peter. “And you, Peter?”
He barely glances at the menu before he asks, “A small cappuccino, please.” He doesn’t know why he keeps doing this.
Steph goes to type it in but Duke cuts it off, “Make it a large.”
Peter looks at Duke. “Oh, no it’s okay, really.” However Duke shakes his head.
“Large is only $3.70 and look at the size of those cups.” He points to the stand where Peter can see the cups.
Small $1.30
Medium $2.50
Large $3.70
Peter’s brain immediately notices the pattern, he also notices the size of the cups and practically raises his eyebrows to his forehead.
The large looked to be almost as tall as a basic water bottle.
“Can a human heart even handle that much coffee?” Peter asks, genuinely concerned for not only his health but everyone else’s.
Duke shrugs one shoulder as he tilts his head. “We’re in college, we need every ground we can get.”
“Plus,” she adds, “No one has died yet, or at least we haven’t gotten a lawsuit.” She mumbles the last part under her breath before continuing, “And Tim comes here daily, he gets, like, four.”
Duke makes a face of pain as if he had just gotten a heart attack. “Ooh okay, that is concerning.”
Peter nods along. His heart could handle that easily but a random human? He couldn’t even think about it before cringing.
Steph looks of into the distance, “And yet, he still functions.”
“Mostly.” Duke finishes.
Steph gazes at Peter with a genuine smile, “They are also biodegradable, so if you don’t finish your drink then don’t worry about wasting anything.”
“Tim would have a fit if he saw your coffee being washed away though.” Duke mumbles into Peter’s ear. Peter can feel his breath on his cheek. “Make sure no one that looks like a bloody corpse is around and you will be good.”
Steph grins before confirming their order. “Right,” Steph sighs, “Your total is $7.40.”
Duke goes to pay with his card but as he does the credit card reader beeps as if it can’t read the card.
Before Duke even tries to pay again Steph has ripped the damn thing of the counter. “For fuck sake, it’s been doing this all week.” She groans, “I’m tempted to throw the damn thing out the window, casualties and all.”
Duke smiles. “Well, for this inconvenience of our time, I’m sure you could give us the coffee for free as a payment for our emotional stress during this moment.”
Steph glares. “Nice try, mister. If I slap this right it will work again...for the next ten minutes but whatever.”
Peter stays silent, he wants to ignore the situation. He doesn’t want to get involved but as he thinks about it he thinks about how kind Steph and Duke have been to him.
He reluctantly pipes up. “Want me to take a look?” He rolls his shoulders uncomfortably as both of their gazes shoot towards him, “I’m pretty good at this type of stuff.”
Steph looks at Peter then looks at the credit card reader before she passes the thing over without a second thought. “Please, be my guest.”
Peter takes it and glances around at the thing. “Got a knife?”
Steph, without any hesitation pulls the draw by her waist out and passes Peter a knife.
Peter smiles in gratitude before he starts to unscrew the back.
The second it’s off Peter feels his heart stutter. It’s not joy or happiness and it makes him slightly dissatisfied with the fact that something he once loved wasn’t causing him a fluttering feeling, but it’s something.
He starts to carefully pry the middle apart, meticulously observing the device to make sure none of the patches are broken.
Peter finally removes the printed circuit board and immediately sees the problem as if there is a big glowing arrow pointing directly at it.
Steph ‘banging’ the credit card scanner on the counter would indeed have been a temporary fix considering that the problem is that a small wire is currently poking out when it should be touching a certain part instead.
Peter immediately grabs the small wire delicately and with great care tucks it permanently back into place.
He then places the board back in and puts the pieces back together. By the time he has done this two people have joined the line.
He glances at them with a nervous smile before he hands the credit card reader back to Steph. “It’s fixed now.”
She raises an eyebrow before placing it back on the stand. “Come on, Duke. Be the test subject.”
Duke places his card on the scanner and it immediately beeps with a light ding, the payment going through.
Steph’s smile is blinding. “Wow! For a moment there I couldn’t tell whether you knew exactly what you were doing or was just hoping for the best.”
She moves towards the display case with a skip in her step. “Pick something, anything, it’s on the house as a thank you.”
“Hey!” Duke yelps, “What about me? Can I get something too?”
Steph deadpans at him, “And how did you help?” She asks as she rests her arms on the counter.
“I was the test subject.”
Steph shakes her head with a fond smile. “Gimme ten bucks and I’ll give it to you on the house.”
“The cheapest thing is eight dollars!” Duke groans as he dramatically points at the display case.
“Yeah?” She asks, “How would you know that? I thought you couldn’t read.”
Duke rubs his face but both Peter and Steph can see the smile hiding behind his hands.
“Besides,” Steph points out. “Ever heard of making a profit?”
Peter looks at Duke, “What do you want? We can split.”
Duke’s face immediately lights up with gratitude and swings his arm around Peter’s shoulders. “See, Steph? Clearly someone saw how important my role was.”
Steph rolls her eyes but her smile remains wide on her face. “Hurry up, losers. There is a line.”
Peter sucks in a sharp breath at the word ‘losers.’ His heart cracks just slightly.
MJ use to call Ned and him that constantly.
Peter swallows but stays silent, hoping no one notices him tense just slightly before relaxing his shoulders, however he didn’t miss the glance Steph and Duke shot each other out of the corner of his eye, having a silent conversation.
Peter realises very quick that being around Duke and Steph was actually making him react to certain things more then he had in the past few months.
He silently wondered if it was just the social environment or just them.
He didn’t let his mind sit on it.
“How about a muffin?” Peter asks. Duke nods in agreement. “Sounds great, what kind?”
There were four kinds, blueberry, chocolate chip, banana and coconut.
“Blueberry?” Peter suggest and Duke smiles. “Hell yeah.”
Steph opens the display case and grabs the blueberry with tongs, she places it into a paper bag and passes it over the counter. “Don’t get greedy, Duke.” She casts a knowing look towards the man who holds his hands up in a defensive gesture.
“Never, I am the most kind, generous, handsome, selfless and humble person in the world.”
Steph rolls her eyes, “Humble, he says.”
Steph and Duke continue to bicker back and forth like an old married couple while Steph makes the hot drinks. Despite Steph’s “threat” of spitting in Duke’s drink, Duke’s eyes don’t even stray towards his cup the entire time.
Peter notices that it shows the trust between them.
It might also have to do with the camera in the corner and the fact that Steph is at work, no matter how close they are that would likely get her fired either way.
“If you guys stick around I’ll be on break in about ten minutes, so I’ll come join you guys.” Steph says as she places pressure on the lid to make it stay.
Duke grins “Uh, yeah we’ll see.” yet he turns to Peter and covers his face from Steph yet whispers loud enough for her to hear, “We have ten minutes to drink these as fast as possible.” He gestures to Steph with an obvious tilt of the head. “Otherwise we will have to suffer through hell.”
Steph in reply rolls her eyes and whispers back. “Asshole.” Before turning to the next customer with a smile genuine smile.
As Peter watched Steph interact with the next customer, asking about the girl’s day while making her coffee it’s obvious to Peter that Steph has a charisma around her that draws Peter in.
The girl she is serving looks dead on her feet, like someone who just wants to ignore everyone yet the second Steph smiles at her it was as if she suddenly had all the time in the world.
It was clear that Steph also loved to interact with people too, it wasn’t her ‘playing nice’ or ‘doing her job.’ She was honestly interested in the conversation and liked socialising with people, regardless of how boring the conversation is; based on the fact she is currently discussing the weather.
Peter has a guy feeling that Steph was someone that was not only interested in people but read them deeply, figuring out things that are hidden under roots and vines of secrets, learning about the smallest things and treasuring the information.
But it wasn’t surprising, given her bubbly personality and sunny smile.
As Duke led Peter towards a booth with comfy cushions Peter automatically sat in the one facing the door. He also continued to listen to the conversations and background noise around him, it was a talent he had gotten after his spider abilities kicked to life, being able to focus and process constant information from different sources at the same time.
He could diffuse a bomb while listening to both top hits and a police scanner at the same time.
“So,” Duke started as he laid back comfortably in the booth across from him. “New York?”
“It’s the accent, isn’t it?” Peter immediately stated.
Duke didn’t hesitate, “Yeah, it was a pretty big glowing sign.”
Peter nods, “Yeah, Queens.”
“Nice.” Duke smiles as he pops the lid of his coffee and tears open a stirring stick along with sugar.
“Gotham?” Peter shoots back.
Duke grin is sharp. “It’s the accent, isn’t it?” He mocks with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah.” Peter shrugs with a smirk. “It was a pretty big glowing sign.”
Duke let out a loud laugh with a wide smile. “So, why did you move here? Don’t tell me it was for the scenery.”
“Close,” Peter mutters, “Though it was more for the fact it was a lot cheaper here.”
And that he had no information so he couldn’t fly anywhere.
“Sounds about right.”
Peter opens the paper bag up to see the large muffin in there. He grabs it by the wrapper and then opens a stirring stick to cut it down the middle. The second the stick thuds agains the table Duke is grabbing a napkin and happily munching on his half.
The fact that Duke didn’t even hesitate to grab his part of the muffin despite them only meeting under half an hour ago let Peter know that Duke was comfortable in his presence.
Peter didn’t know how he achieved this exactly but he was glad he did.
Peter goes to take a sip of his coffee as Duke splutters, “What the hell?”
Peter looks over to see Duke cringing away from the drink before grabbing more and more sugar packets. “This taste like baloney!”
Peter is again reminded of Duke’s vocabulary around swearing.
Peter shrugs, “She did warn you.” Duke rolls his eyes as he rips open the packets and dumps them all in at once, creating a small mountain of sugar on the foaming top. “Oh, bugger off.” He grins, “Don’t day a word to her.”
He then mixes the drink again before taking a sip. His eyebrows furrow and afterwards he immediately takes a bite of the muffin.
“Any better?” Peter asks. Duke tilts his head, “Bearable.” He mutters.
Peter pushes his drink forward. “Want mine instead?” He asks but Duke shakes his head. “I did this too myself.” Peter is about to congratulate the man on his bravery but before he could Duke turns his cup around. “She also drew a winky face on the side of my cup so she knew which was mine, otherwise I totally would.”
Peter feels his lips quirk into a smile as his eyes trace the black marker of the winky face along with ‘good luck!’ underneath.
“So,” Duke starts while taking a sip of his drink, Peter watches the humorous scene as he swallows, it looked as if he was trying to swallow shards of glass. “What are you planning after G.E?”
G.E was a shortened version of General Education.
Peter hums as he glances out the window in thought. “I’m not sure, I know I want to continue studying afterwards but I’m not sure what to study yet.”
Duke nods. “I’m in a similar situation, but I might take a couple years afterwards to see if there is anything else I want to do first.” He looks at Peter, “Have you thought about science? Or engineering? That display back there looked pretty complicated but you seemed to be in your field.”
Peter knew he was talking about the credit card reader. He shrugs, it was his original plan but he doesn’t know if he could do it now. It causes him pain whenever he even thinks about it.
“Maybe, or maybe I’ll look into other hobbies, I was always a fan of photography.”
“Bloody hell.”
Peter looks at duke questioningly, searching duke’s eyes inquiring silently.
Duke shakes his head, “Nothing, it’s just you and Tim are so similar.” He beams, “You two would be two peas in a pod.”
“Oh,” Peter mumbles, “Who’s Tim by the way?”
Duke waves his hand, “An idiot but also one of the most intelligent people I know.” He looks at Peter in the eye. “And my adoptive brother.”
“Oh, you have siblings?”
Duke lights up. “Yeah, a sister and four brothers, none of us by blood, only adoption.”
He pauses, “Well Damian is biological to our adoptive father but the rest of us are adopted.” He leans in, “It’s an issue, like a hoarding problem with children in need.”
Peter feels himself smile. “Sounds like a big family.”
“Yeah, they are everything to me.” Duke grins.
Peter feels a swell of jealousy deep in his stomach, he feels bad the moment he notices it. He tries to stomp it down but it rises and rises.
He takes a sip of his coffee.
“How about you?” Duke asks.
Peter licks his lips and takes a bite in his muffin while avoiding eye contact. “I just lost my aunt a couple months ago. It’s another reason why I moved.”
“Oh,” Duke mummers, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Peter shrugs.
“Were you two close?”
Peter hesitates, deciding whether to be honest or tell the same story he had been telling everyone that asked back in New York.
He thinks about the fact he is in a whole different border but then Natasha’s training kicks in and he shakes his head. “Nah, we drifted apart when I was young.”
Duke nods he stays quiet before speaking up. “My parents don’t remember me.”
Peter’s heart stops in his chest. “What?” He whispers so quietly that even with his spider sense he could barely hear himself, but Duke knows what he said due to reading his lips.
“Well, sometimes they do but usually they don’t. They got stuck in a blast of Joker’s laughing gas awhile back. By the time they were cured it was too late, already messed up their brain” He features to his temple while he stirs his drink absentmindedly, “They barely remember anything, not even themselves. They spend most of their time driving themselves into insanity, constantly laughing.”
Duke gazes out the window before sighing. “I only visit when they are asleep, sometimes I still have laughing episodes and have to jab myself in the leg with a custom medicine to get them to stop.”
Duke looks at Peter and smiles sadly, “Then when it starts to become immune to the medicine I have to get a new one.” He lets out a slow breath. “Sometimes I wonder if one day the medicine won’t work and I’ll either die from an overdose or be stuck laughing until I’m crazy. It happened about a month before the snap.”
Peter starts folding a napkin so he has something to do with his fingers.
“Were you snapped?” Duke asks
“Yeah,” Peter replies, “You?”
“No.”
“I was.” Steph mentions as she slips in beside Peter, Peter also realises that she glances at the door every now and again like himself.
Someone else is now serving at the counter.
“Best five years of my life.” Duke mutters.
“Easy for you to say, you weren’t the one who had to repeat a year of high school! Worst part was when I realised that all my hard work was down the drain.” She sighs as she rests against the cushion.
Even with the jokes, Peter can see the pain in both their eyes, clearly this was there coping mechanism to tragic events so Peter wasn’t going to comment.
“You gonna eat that?” Steph suddenly asks and before Duke can even reply she has snatched the rest of the muffin out of his hand.
“How’s the drink?” Steph asks Peter as she munches on the muffin. “Good.” Peter smiles.
She then smirks at Duke, eyes glowing with mirth. “And you, Duke?”
Duke takes a sip of his drink, the only giveaway that he hates it is the small twitch in his eyebrow as he smiles. “It’s nice, very unique.”
Steph grins, pretending to be oblivious to the multiple open sugar packets that surround Duke. “I’m glad, I thought you would hate it.”
“Nope, it was perfect.”
“I’ll make sure to make it for you again next time.” Steph smirks.
However, Duke immediately shakes his head. “Didn’t you say it was annoying to make? Wouldn’t want to cause you trouble.”
Steph tilts her head innocently. “Please, I insist.”
Duke rolls his eyes. “Nah, next time I’ll stick to my usual. Thanks for your consideration.”
Steph turns to Peter, “Isn’t he ungrateful?” She groans. “I try to be nice to him and this is what he does.”
Peter nods, “He doesn’t appreciate your hard work.”
Duke scoffs, “I’m just making your life easier.”
Steph takes another bite of her muffin. “Hey Peter, there is a start of semester welcome party next week on campus. Basically half the dorms open up and people come in and start twerking on tables. Wanna come?”
Duke immediately shoots us in his seat. “I totally forgot about that!”
“Must be the dyslexia messing with other parts of your brain.” Steph comments before her gaze swivels back to Peter, blue meeting brown.
Peter bites his lip. “I’m not sure, I’m kinda busy.”
He’s not, he is just really not interested but doesn’t want to seem rude. However, just like Duke, Steph seems to either ignore or act oblivious to his attempts at getting out of the situation.
“Cmon, it will be fun. You can drink, party.” She elbows Peter lightly and wiggles her eyebrows. “Maybe get a little lucky.”
“Or you could just sit with me in the corner and eat the food.” Duke adds.
“But I have a lot to do.”
Steph shrugs, “It can be a break.”
Peter was basically on break every second of his life when he slept the days away.
“And you will meet new people!”
Peter didn’t want to meet new people.
“Free alcohol.”
Peter couldn’t get drunk.
“Free food.”
That was probably the only positive.
“And lastly, you get to hang out with us.”
Peter really didn’t want to go, but he was also a people pleaser so with a sigh he pulls out his phone.
“Text me the details.”
With the biggest grin both Steph and Duke add their numbers to Peter’s phone.
Peter doesn’t even realise that despite not feeling much his reactions have been real.
Later as he is driving back to the shitty motel guilt crashes over him in waves. The feelings of those small sparks of happiness end up tearing out of his soul.
He had compared them to Ned and MJ.
As he gets back to the room all he does is crash onto the bed and wish the time to fly by, which it does as he falls into a restless sleep.