First December Snow
The snow gently freckled my face, soft and tiny, melting away as it brushes against my cheeks. It’s then, in this slight moment of contentment, that the soft crunching of boots on the new snow catches my ears, and I notice a disheveled doe-eyed Peter make his way over to me, phone in one hand, bag slung over his shoulders, with a grin on.
Facing him, my thin red jacket doesn’t do much to block out the slight gust of icy wind. He seems so happy.
“Hey, you made it on time this time,” I say, and he rolls his eyes.
“That was one time-”
“I know, I know. Come on, the store has its heater on.”
The small gaming store was tucked into the side of the brown building, narrow and decently cramped, piled high with video games on racks, and an odd assortment of boxed games as well, ranging from some Monopoly rip-off to Catan, to some older tabletop roleplaying games. Pretty standard stuff.
“Ey, Mira, check this out!” He’s holding some board game in his hand, and when he flips it over to show me, it seems to be of the strategic kind, played like chess but with cards added in.
As I slink further and further back into the store- I think I hear Peter talking to the guy at the desk about the price of it- I find a bookshelf with different limited edition wares, some figurines, and some books piled up. Pulling one out from the stack at random, it seems to be a fantastical story- about an archer assassin descended from lion gods whose arrows teleport her to a different time in history whenever they hit her intended target. Odd, certainly, but odd enough to be intriguing.
“Find anything Mir?” I hear Peter call from the front, which despite being somewhat visible between the racks of comics, feels like it’s coming from miles away.
“Yeah,” I shout back. Turning the dusty book over in my hand- it certainly doesn’t seem like it was written in this decade- I see the reduced price stickered. 10 bucks for it seems like quite a steal to embark on what seems like an acid-trip of a book, so I tuck it under my arm and continue browsing.
Turning around, something else catches my eye on the metal rack- a limited edition Star Wars comic trilogy that cost a pretty penny, but yet is stuffed in the back. I need a gift for Peter anyways with Christmas coming up, and I’m sure he doesn’t have it, so I discreetly keep it behind my book.
A few minutes go by, then a few more, and more, and I’ve lost Peter. Then I hear him being excited over some rare collectible and then I lose him again. After about an hour of us deep-diving through the store, we make our purchases and leave, and pray that he didn’t see me pay when he was in the back, back turned, as I try to hide his gift.
As we face the cold whiteness of snow that is the outside world again, we realize it’s been snowing heavily, and make a mad dash trying to find the closest cafe, because, “It’s important! First snow of December- come on, let’s get some warm drinks to celebrate!”
In which case I remind him that it had already snowed twice in November, but he doesn’t care.
A small vegan cafe rounds the corner, and we enter in a dash. The place is mildly occupied, a few people at small oak tables, and two baristas at the counter, and we’ve seen to have broken the peacefulness of the bubble here, but only momentarily as their gazes quickly lift to watch us, and then revert back to their phones, moleskins, and nearly-empty cups.
Our orders come quick once we pay for them- a Aztec hot chocolate for me, and a coffee for him, as we take a corner table by the wide windows.
“Hey, so I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Peter says, slightly stumbling over his words.
“What’s up?”
“I know it was over text, but you’re okay with coming over for the break, right? It doesn’t have to be for the full break either, it can be whoever long you want or need it to be-”
“I’m sure, just as long as it doesn’t inconvenience you or um, anybody else,” I said.
“Oh no, you wouldn’t be, trust me!”
“Okay, but how many people would be there again? If it’s your family then I don’t want to take up too much space.”
“You’re fine, but there’s going to be a good amount of people. You know, kind of everyone within the....” He trails off, but I get what he means. Best to be vague in public.
“Yeah, yeah, and are they okay with this? That’s a lot of people right? Am I even allowed in then, like what if I accidentally hear them joking about some super high-profile case at dinner and now I’m a wanted man by the FBI? Or Shield?”
Peter chuckles at it and takes a sip, shaking his head, “No, no, nothing like that. When you had accepted, I think they ran a background check on you anyways. Definitely something that Tony would do. And they trust me, so they trust you by extension. They’ll make you feel welcomed, don’t worry.”
How they already ran a comprehensive background check on me I’m not sure, but they probably definitely have the tech for it anyways.
“Okay, I trust you Peter.”
“And if you ever feel uncomfortable, you can always tell me if you don’t think you can tell them directly, or just leave. I won’t take it personally if it’s too much for you.”
I know that he would, I know that he will if I leave, but I’m not sure if I will want to. Or if I’ll want to go running at the first sight of superheroes- minus Peter, because, well. I’m his friend.
“All right, um, and when exactly would this be?”
“Maybe this weekend we can head up. But of course I know I’m springing this on really quickly-”
“I should be ready by then.”
He seems a bit surprised by that, but smiles warmly, “Oh, great! Yeah, cool, so uh… There’s just one big thing I need to tell you before you come. Well, multiple things actually, but this is the major thing-”
He’s talking at a million words a second, hands clamped around his mug where steady hot fumes are coming from his still piping hot coffee, while I have barely somewhat touched mine. It’s really good, but also ridiculously overpriced.
“So,” he looks around at the tables a bit nervously, and I get what he’s hesitant about.
“Let’s just call them your family friends for now, we can just generalize them.”
“That helps, but I mean it’s a bit odd to explain. I trust you, but please, for the love of anything, just keep this on the downlow and between you and me?”
“Of course.”
“It’s just that, my family friends, well my family, they’re sort of mostly in a relationship together. Polyamorous. Not that it’s a big deal, but it’s not something they’re public about, and I don’t want it to scare you off if they all get a bit affectionate and cuddly, and thought that just springing it onto you once you arrived would be a douche move.”
I process it for a second, taking a sip of the hot chocolate, before nodding. “Yeah, I see why you want me to be certain then of coming up and trusting me. Which, by the way,” I take one of his hands in mine, “Thank you. For trusting me, I mean. I can’t really imagine how risky it might be for you, especially since I don’t really know the scope of things, so I really do appreciate it. Whatever you need me to be silent about, I will be, and even then I won’t tell.”
The comments make his shoulders drop, the tensity in them seeping out, and he breathes out a sigh of relief.
“I-thank you-”
“No, thank you. I’ve got a place to go for the holidays, and I get to spend it with my best friend.” His foot lightly touches mine when I say it, and we share a smile. There’s an unspoken kind of mutual agreement in the air, and we both know the amount of trust we’re placing in each other, especially since we only met this summer.
And even then, I’m a bit clueless. I know of the Avengers, know their basics, but don’t follow up on their stories, or the news that feels like it is always gossiping on them.
We continue to drink our pricey liquid warmth, letting the mugs heat our hands up, then take them off when they got to warm, only to them cup it again, until the warmth felt like mere embers beneath our palms and the cups were cold and the drinks were gone, just mere splatters along the linings of the cup walls.
As we toss our stuff into the eco-friendly bins and leave, the snow having calmed down and the streets a soft white, we walk together, and I feel his nervous energy between us, and I’m a bit jittery too- I have zero idea on what to expect. And so does he. But it’s okay, because he trusts me, and that’s not easy on his part I’d assume.
“I’ll text you later with more details, we’ll probably drive to New York in a few days,” he says, as we have to part ways at the T. I nod, and we exchange simple good-byes, plastic bags in our hands, our wallets a bit lighter, and head off in opposite directions- him back to his MIT dorm, and I back to my own campus dorm.
I’m excited, definitely, but there’s an air of anxiousness surrounding the whole ordeal. What if I come off as too introverted, too shy? Or the opposite, they think of me as too loud, too open? Am I expected to be some STEM prodigy like he is, or is my odd major something that might amuse them? Am I too much, not enough- definitely not enough-
And the whole ride home my mind is racing, and even back at the dorm. But I trust Peter, and he trusts them, and while I can turn off if I wanted to, a part of me doesn’t. So I dig out an old dark green suitcase from the dorm- my other roommates have already left- and lay it open on my bed.
Better start packing.