Hope
Day 1
„See you later, Uncle Ben,” Peter shouted, closing the car door with a bang. Ben had given him a lift to the library since it was almost directly on the way to the big Walmart Center he was heading to, and Peter was deeply grateful. Although it was November, it had been raining heavily throughout the whole day, leaving puddles of water on the street and sidewalks. Aunt May would have never let him take the bike in this weather.
“Hey Pete, back again?” asked Mrs. Hobbs with a big smile. Peter had grown fond of the warmhearted librarian ever since she had told him her life story a few weeks ago, complaining endlessly about her no-good husband and her shiftless son.
“Yes, Mrs. Hobbs… the Theory of Relativity is actually more complex than I thought, and I want to be done with these books before Thanksgiving.”
The older lady sighed and looked at Peter motherly. “I wished my son was only half as ambitious as you… then he wouldn’t have ended up as a waiter in that dirty old bar on 42nd street.”
Peter blushed, murmured a ‘Thank you’ and was gone in an instant, not wanting to have to listen to her lamentations all over again. Mrs. Hobb’s heart ached a little when she watched him hurrying away. The little boy was a genius, no doubt, but still… he always seemed so shy and lonely and once again she asked herself whether she really wanted her son to be like the kid.
Peter bolted over to his usual spot and after putting down his jacket and bag, facing the long row of book shelves. He gathered three books and returned to his desk eagerly. He had actually already read two of them but the third one was so complex that every other paragraph he had to use the older, easier ones to look up some of the basic stuff again. Peter put on the glasses he had to wear for reading and doing school work and it didn’t take long for him to be completely absorbed in the matter. The boy loved the smell of books and cherished the quietness of the library, which was only occasionally disrupted by the turning of pages or restrained whispers from other visitors. In Peter’s eyes, the library was some kind of sacred place where he could do what he loved most without being bothered by anyone.
After about an hour a shadow fell over the page Peter was reading and he heard a gentle cough. Peter looked up, startled, and looked into the face of a teenager. The boy had blonde hair, so light it was almost white, and Peter spotted a few freckles around his nose. The young boy pressed back into the chair nervously, looking even smaller than he actually was. Had he done something wrong? It was only then that he noticed a friendly smile on the other boy’s face.
The teenager pointed to the chair next to Peter. “Excuse me, is this seat taken?”
Peter looked up and down the long tight row of tables and frowned. Apart from one older guy sitting far on the other end, every seat was unoccupied. “Uh…no,” he answered shyly.
“Awesome,” the young man said and let himself fall into the chair on Peter’s right. He ran his fingers through his hair and put a bag down on his desk. “Say… haven’t I seen you around here before? You’re the kid whose nose is always buried in a textbook, aren’t you?” He laughed and picked up one of Peter’s book placed on his desk. “Theory of Relativity? Seriously?”
The blonde boy glanced at Peter warily, who had started to sweat a little bit. What did that guy want from him? He almost sounded like the jerks from his school, who took every chance to make fun of him. Couldn’t everybody give him break for once? Since Peter hadn’t responded, the boy spoke on, “Sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Steven Westscott, but you can call me Skip.”
“Uhm… hi Skip,” Peter said, smiling at Skip cautiously. “I…uhm… I’m Peter.”
“Peter… who? Pan?”
The younger boy blushed. “Ehm… no, Peter Parker.”
“Nice to meet you, Peter Parker,” Skip grinned, and for a second Peter had the impression that the other boy’s eyes trailed up and down his body, checking him out strangely. It immediately made him feel uncomfortable, but just as he wanted to turn away, Skip looked back at the book in his hands. “Aren’t you a little too young for stuff like that?”
So that’s why Skip had been eying him curiously.
“I…uhm, I don’t think there is a minimum age for these books,” Peter said sheepishly. “Also, age is just a number, isn’t it?”
Skip raised an eyebrow. “How old are you?” he asked baldly.
“Ehm… 11.”
Skip’s mouth twitched. “Wow, Peter, I have to say, I’m impressed. You are a little genius, aren’t you…like Einstein?”
Peter didn’t reply. He still wasn’t sure whether the older boy wanted to make fun of him or was being honest.
Skip put the book back down and started to unpack his bag. He took out some school books, a notebook and a pen. “I wished I was as smart as you. I’m in serious need of some more brain cells right now.”
Peter, who was slowly starting to hope that Skip hadn’t come over to aggravate him, gathered up his courage to try and make conversation like normal people without social anxiety would. “Why? Are these for homework?” He pointed at Skip’s school books.
“More or less… midterm finals are coming up soon and I’m this close” – Skip held up his right hand, his index finger almost touching his thumb – “to fail not only one, but two of my classes, so I gotta get a move on. I come here because this place helps me focus and concentrate.”
“What grade are you in?” Peter asked and glanced eagerly at Skip’s science books.
“I’m a senior,” Skip said and grinned at the younger boy. “My mother is giving me a hard time about it. She’s already predicting that I’m gonna fail college.”
“What college will you go to?” Excitement flushed through Peter, who couldn’t wait until he was old enough to take college classes.
“Probably NYU.“
For a moment, Peter was fantasizing about perilous thrilling experiments in college science labs, but Skip’s somewhat despondent facial expression brought him back to the present. The young boy suddenly had a faint suspicion as to why Skip had sat down next to him and his excitement deadened.
“Uhm… if you… I mean… if you thought I could help you with these things… ehm… I don’t know, I mean… I could try but I would have to take a look at first to see if I’m able to understand anything of it… and….”
“Whoa, stop, stop!“ Skip laughed and put an arm around Peter’s slender body sociably. “No worries kid, you don’t need to help me. That’s really nice of you, but I’m afraid I gotta work through this on my own and like…get a hang of it or else I’d fail my exams anyways.”
Peter was tempted to ask the young man why else he would have sit down with him then, but he couldn’t bring himself to it. Instead he watched Skip pull back his arm, open up his books and flip through the pages, apparently intending to start studying. Somewhat bewildered Peter decided he should probably concentrate on his book again too, almost glad that Skip probably wouldn’t bother him anymore now.
After another hour Peter’s phone started to vibrate loudly on the wooden table, which startled not just him, but also Skip. “Sorry, my uncle,” Peter explained hastily, his face red like a tomato, but Skip only smiled considerately. His gaze followed the younger boy, who had gotten up and scurried away from the table.
“Yes?” he whispered when he picked up.
“You ready? I’m gonna be here in… 5 minutes,” Ben’s voice rang out the device.
“So soon?” Peter could hardly hide his disappointment. After all, he hadn’t exactly accomplished a lot so far.
Ben didn’t seem to listen; there was noisy honking blasting out the phone’s speaker. “Wha-…Hey! Dammit, look ahead, man,” his uncle bellowed, before coughing embarrassedly. “Ehm… sorry, Pete, I was talking to that… jerk right there in front of me.”
Peter chuckled silently. Nothing was more amusing than Uncle Ben losing his temper while struggling to get through New York’s traffic. Aunt May wouldn’t be pleased. “Anyways, see you in five. It’d be best if you were already out by then, I’m not in the mood right now for a life or death fight over a stupid parking slot.”
Peter hung up with a sigh and went back to his desk. He gathered up the books and put them back into the shelves he had taken them out from and while doing so, he noticed Skip monitoring his movements.
“Aren’t you going to borrow these?” he asked when Peter returned, who put his glasses back into his case and grabbed his jacket.
“Uhm… no, I rather read them here, I’m too distracted at home,” the young boy lied with flushed cheeks. Truth was that they had to count every penny after Ben had lost his job a few weeks ago.
Skip smiled fondly. “Well… Hope this means you’re coming back tomorrow?”
Peter stared at him in utter confusion; he wasn’t sure he had heard right. “Y-yeah, I-I guess…?”
“Great, then I’ll have some company,” Skip winked.
Why was the young man being so nice to him? If May and Ben were there, they would probably scold him for being so wary and uptight, so Peter tried to loosen up and smiled shyly.
“Alright… see you tomorrow.”
Day 2
It was still raining on Saturday, so Ben and May offered Peter another ride to the library, even though they had an appointment later on and wouldn’t be able to pick him up. Peter didn’t care too much, even by foot it would only take him about 20 minutes to get back home and a little bit of rain wouldn’t keep him away from pursuing his study on the Theory of Relativity. When he walked into the library shortly before 11 o’clock he immediately noticed Skip, already seated at the same desk as yesterday. Hopefully he would still be as nice to him today… Peter took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the older boy. He was overcome by a wave of relief as Skip beamed at him.
“Hey Einstein! I’ve been waiting for you!”
With a pounding heart, Peter pointed at his usual spot to Skip’s left. “Can I… can I sit here?”
Skip darted an irritated glance at Peter, though he was also smiling. “Kid, that’s your spot, isn’t it? I was the one obtruding, stop being silly.”
Peter blushed. “You weren’t… obtruding, really. I don’t mind if you sit here.”
“Awesome… I enjoy the company, you know.”
Smiling broadly, Peter put down his bag, his umbrella and his lunch box before getting his books. Just like yesterday, Skip was watching him gathering them and putting on his glasses, but as soon as Peter began reading, the older boy turned towards the formulas in his books too. For a while both boys were studying silently before the older one spoke up.
“Where do you go to school, by the way?”
“Louis Tucker Middle School.”
“Which grade?”
“Sixth.”
„So you’re gonna be 12 soon?”
“Uhm… no, my birthday is in August.”
“Mhm,” Skip mumbled and turned his attention back to his book.
“How old are you?” Peter asked eventually.
“17… Turning 18 in March.”
Peter felt somewhat proud that an almost 18-year-old kid had set down next to him, an 11-year-old, and seemed to admire him for his knowledge. If only his schoolmates were as mature as Skip… Perhaps it was Peter’s fate to solely getting along with people older than him. Even back in elementary school Peter had had next to no friends, which Ben and May always ascribed to him being too shy and silent after the death of his parents. It was true, for a few months after their death Peter hadn’t really spoken more than he absolutely needed to and therefore his schoolmates simply stopped trying to talk to him at some point.
After spending more than a year in therapy it actually got better but by then it had been too late. May had been eager to help him find friends and even signed him up for a children ballet class, apparently trying to fulfill her childhood dream through her nephew, but the plan backfired. Peter had been the only boy in the class and the girls hadn’t been too eager to befriend a boy. Instead of finding friends it had quite the opposite effect when Peter’s schoolmates found out about him jumping around in tight leggings trying to dance on his toes without falling on his face. They started mocking him about it and Peter practically begged May to stop making him do ballet for almost a year until she finally resigned and let him stay at home from then on.
Middle School didn’t exactly turn out any better for Peter since most of his former schoolmates from elementary school started there with him. They immediately spread rumors that Peter wanted to be a girl or that he was “gay”, leading to him having to sit alone at lunch and always being the last one to get chosen whenever they had to form teams. Despite bawling his eyes out about it in his room, Peter knew better than to talk to Ben and May about it or to stand up against his bullies. The first and only time Peter had tried to defend himself had been last year not too long after it had all started. A group of boys had been teasing him again, resulting in Peter ultimately losing his temper and screaming at them to leave him alone. The boys had circled him, pushing him around a little bit, and before Peter had really thought it through, he had shoved one of them with such force that the boy had fallen to the ground. Less than ten seconds later they had recovered from their shock and beat him up for revenge.
Even today Peter still remembered the unpleasant interrogation by his enraged uncle and his upset, teary-eyed aunt, trying to force him to give up the names of those who had given him the black eye and the bleeding nose. However, Peter had stayed silent, too afraid of what his schoolmates would do to him if he ratted them out. Nevertheless, Peter didn’t care much about it at this moment. For as long as he lived, he would always remember the day that Skip had voluntarily sat down next to him and called him smart.
At lunch time Peter opened his lunch box and drew Skip’s attention back to him.
“I guess you’re an Iron Man fan?” Skip asked and pointed at Peter’s Tupperware box.
“He actually saved my life,” Peter said eagerly, hoping to impress the older boy even more.
It seemed to work. “Saved your life? How?”
“Yeah, about two years ago… I was at the Stark Expo with my uncle and out of nowhere these weird drones started attacking. I was… well, I was wearing an Iron Man mask and I don’t know, I guess it made me feel brave or something, so I stood there like an idiot instead of running away like everybody else and… there was this big drone right in front of me and just when it was about to kill me, Mr. Stark landed right next to me and destroyed it with his repulsor.”
“You’re kidding!” Skip seemed deeply impressed and looked at Peter with big eyes before picking up his bag, rummaging around for his bagel. “And ever since then you’ve been a fan?”
“No, I’ve been a fan before that, but ever since then I’m just… I don’t know, it was just really cool, you know?” Peter grinned and took a bite out of his sandwich. Of course, it had been a really traumatic experience too, but he would always remember getting saved by his big hero.
“I actually prefer Captain America, to be honest… I mean, the guy had been frozen for 70 years, and he doesn’t really need weapons or suits to be a match for the bad guys… you know?”
“Sure,” Peter said, chewing. “But think about all the things Mr. Stark has invented… he’s a genius!”
“Should have known you’d prefer the brains over the muscles… Einstein,” Skip laughed and stuffed the last big chunk of bagel in his mouth. “Bet you admire Hulk too then, right? What does he have, like 5 PhDs?”
“Seven,” Peter corrected him, still chewing. “But it’s not Hulk who has them, it’s Mr. Benner.”
Skip rolled his eyes, evidently amused.
After Peter had finally finished his sandwich, he opened up a small bag of peanut M&Ms.
“I love M&Ms,” Skip groaned yearningly, bringing a smile to Peter’s lips. “Me too… My aunt wanted me to take an apple instead, but I told her that studying burns a lot of calories and that I needed a lot of sugar to being able to concentrate.”
“Not bad,” Skip grinned.
“You want some?” Even though the small bag didn’t contain that many M&Ms, he still wanted to offer some to the other boy; after all, he had never really had an opportunity of sharing his lunch with somebody else before.
“Sure, but… I don’t want to take them from you, I mean… you’re so small, you could use some more calories.”
Skip’s gaze wandered over Peter’s tender body, just like yesterday, and it made the younger boy blush a little bit again.
“Ehm… I don’t mind, I’d love to share them with you.”
“Well, in that case… thank you very much.” Skip winked and cracked one of the candies loudly with his teeth.
“What is it you’re studying?” Peter asked after a while and let Skip show him his school books. “Physics is my most favorite subject” he explained and skimmed through the book interestedly.
“I’d have bet on Maths,” Skip laughed, watching Peter closely.
“No, too many numbers,” the younger boy explained, “also… like, in Maths you don’t really get to do research… whereas in Physics you have a lot of freedom to explore and discover… I’m also really excited for Chemics when I’m in high school.”
“Don’t let Einstein hear you don’t like Maths,” Skip grinned and Peter frowned at him. “Einstein was a Physician.”
“Oh… well, told you, I’m bad at this. School’s much too theoretical for my taste.”
After Peter had finished skimming through the Physics book, he handed it back to its owner.
“It’s not all that theoretical… I mean, yeah you always need a theory and most schools don’t teach you a lot of interesting things, but… For example, I am working on a science project for school at the moment, due next Friday, but since I’m lacking the practical skills needed for it, I probably won’t get an A on it. You can’t be good at everything; everyone has some weakness.”
“You know what Einstein, you’re absolutely right. I might not be as smart as you, but I’m not too bad with my hands.”
“You see,” Peter smiled. “Right now, we might actually be doing better if I had to study for your exam and if you had to work on my science project.”
“I could help you, though, if you want,” Skip offered and Peter gaped at him.
Was he being serious? “Uhm… really?”
“Sure,” Skip said and ruffled through Peter’s hair. “I’d be glad to help you out.”
“But…” Peter bit his bottom lip nervously. Had he been right about Skip after all? Did the young man expect a similar offer from him now? “I…I still don’t… know if I can really help you with your homework or exam…”
“No worries, Einstein, as I told you yesterday, I gotta to through this on my own, or else I’d fail my exams and probably wouldn’t be able to graduate and go to college… it’s different when I help you. I mean, you’re like the smartest person I’ve ever met and you’re just goddamn 11 years old. When I help you with your science project it’s just me assisting you with something you could do on your own regardless, you wouldn’t depend on me or anything. There’s a difference.”
Peter had stopped listening after Skip had said “you’re like the smartest person I’ve ever met”. His heart was racing, its strong beats almost hurting, and he couldn’t believe how lucky he was that he had met Skip. He was the first one outside of his family or his teachers to compliment him on anything. Skip wasn’t just older and far more mature than his stupid schoolmates, he certainly also wasn’t a lame loser like Peter was, but rather cool. After all, he was wearing labels Peter had only seen worn by “cool people” and on top of that, Skip’s hairstyle was actually trendy.
After a few moments, Peter gathered up all his courage. “I’d be happy if you helped me,” he said shyly and Skip beamed at him. “Great, wanna give me your number so we can set a date whenever you want to work on it?”
Peter’s voice was a pinch higher than normal when he dictated Skip his number. “I’ll let it ring for a sec so you’ll have my number too,” Skip said and after a few seconds Peter’s phone started vibrating. With trembling fingers, he saved the number to his contacts, getting overly excited at the fact that this was the first number he had put into his phone that didn’t belong to anybody of his family.
The two boys started chatting about some blockbusters playing in theaters at the moment before getting interrupted by an annoyed cough from one of the other visitors. Embarrassed, the boys mumbled an apology and, after grinning sheepishly at each other, opened up their books again to work in silence for the rest of the day.
Since it was Saturday, the library closed at 3 pm. Peter and Skip stayed until the end and left the building together.
“Isn’t somebody picking you up today?” Skip asked and Peter shook his head. “Which way do you live? I never walked Einstein home before,” Skip joked and Peter couldn’t help blushing slightly once again. He didn’t want to bother the other boy.
“You don’t have to, Skip”, he said quickly, but Skip shook his head. “I want to! Einstein… This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
He smiled at Peter fondly, who felt a few inches taller at once.
“Th-thanks,” he stuttered and had to pull himself together to walk normally. If only his horrid schoolmates could see him right now… strolling home with his cool, older friend… they might actually stop harassing him for once.
During their walk home Peter was chattering non-stop. Now that Skip had officially become his friend, there was nothing holding him back anymore. It seemed like he wanted to make up for years of silence in only 20 short minutes, but Skip didn’t seem to mind. He walked next to the boy with a smile on his face, every now and then interrupting Peter’s ramble by stating his opinion. For a while they jokingly argued about whether Thor was stronger than the Hulk and if Black Widow could win an arm-wrestling contest against Hawkeye. Peter laughed more than he had in the past year and when they finally arrived at his house, he even wished the way would have been longer.
“This is where you live? Looks nice.”
“It is a little small, but I love it here,” Peter said, trying not to think about the conversation Ben and May had had last week. If Ben didn’t find a new job soon, they would have to sell and move into an apartment.
“Do you have any siblings?” Skip asked interestingly and Peter shook his head.
“No, do you?”
“Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p’, “another thing we have in common.”
The older boy hadn’t made any move to leave, so Peter chanced his luck. “Do you want to come in for a while? I could show you my Lego collection.”
Skip beamed. “I’d love to, Einstein… I mean, if that’s fine with your parents?”
“I’m living with my uncle and aunt,” Peter said quickly and unlocked the door. “And they won’t be back for another hour or so. But yeah, they’d probably be happy if you came in.”
After all, they had been nagging him so often to invite a school friend that Peter was actually excited for them to meet Skip. The young man hesitated for a second before nodding his head.
“Okay, fine, if you insist, I’ll come in for another hour.”
They stepped into the house and Peter led Skip up the stairs and into his room immediately. He was shaking with excitement when he fetched one of the three big boxes filled with different Lego sets. Meanwhile, Skip was inspecting his room.
“Gosh, you do have an insane amount of fan merch,” Skip laughed and Peter blushed. Admittedly, almost everything in his room was from Star Wars, Harry Potters or Superheroes, mostly Iron Man.
“Have you never had stuff like that?” Peter asked, a little angry with himself. Why didn’t his room look a little bit more mature? He didn’t want Skip to think he was still a small child.
“I did but never…so much. Okay, I’ll admit I actually have a Captain America figure somewhere and I still love Star Wars but… the only thing I really care about in my room is my PlayStation.”
Skip grinned and Peter looked at him enviously. “I’ve always wanted a PlayStation.”
“You can come over and play some games with me if you want,” Skip said nonchalantly.
“Really?” Peter’s voice shook with excitement. “When can I come over?”
Skip laughed and winked. “Anytime, Einstein.”
The young boy looked down onto the Legos in his hands. “Uhm… do you even wanna… I mean… I actually have an old Wii somewhere; if it still works, we could play video games instead…”
“It’s fine, I’ll gladly build this…” - Skip took a look at the box and seemed pleasantly surprised - “starfighter with you, holy shit, that’s cool.”
Peter could have screamed. Skip had called something that belonged to him cool. He spread the bricks all over the floor excitedly and because he had already built the starfighter a few times before, he let Skip do most of the work. They were chatting about Star Wars while they were building and barely heard the door slam shut downstairs.
It was May who first noticed the unfamiliar pair of shoes in the corridor. “Peter?” she called and a few seconds later her nephew appeared on top of the stairs, looking extremely happy. He jogged down and greeted aunt and uncle with a big smile. “Hey!”
“Who do these belong to?” May asked, gesturing down to the floor, and Ben frowned. The shoes were almost his size, even though he would never buy shoes from a brand this expensive, especially not sneakers.
“My friend Skip,” Peter declared and his voice quavered with excitement.
Ben and May stared at him.
“Skip? Who is Skip?” Ben asked and May barely dared to hope… The only friend Peter had ever mentioned had been named “Liam” and he hadn’t existed. However, this had happened a few years ago and the shoes placed on the corridor carpet right now, definitely existed. Therefore, it couldn’t be an imaginary friend.
“He’s my friend from the library,” Peter said proudly and suddenly another boy appeared on the top of the stairs, coming down casually. The closer he came the more baffled Ben and May became. The boy eventually stopped right next to Peter, who didn’t even reach up to his shoulder.
“Hi, I’m Steven Westscott, but everyone just calls me Skip,” the boy introduced himself with a deep voice and reached out his hand to the two grown-ups. May and Ben exchanged a brief glance, but then May grasped Skip’s hand and shook it. “May Parker, Peter’s aunt… and this is Ben, my husband.”
Ben shook hands with Skip too, but not without shooting him a scrutinizing look.
“Ehm… are you staying for dinner?” May asked and Peter turned around to look at Skip anxiously.
“No, thank you, that’s really kind but my mom is probably already waiting for me, so… I’d rather go. But really, thank you again, I’d love to take you up on that another time.”
The three Parkers waited until Skip had put on his shoes and slipped into his jacket before saying good bye. “See you tomorrow, Einstein!” Skip winked and went out into the cold.
Peter excitedly waited for his aunt and uncle to say something, but to his disappointment they seemed rather bewildered than happy or proud.
“Where did you say you know him from?” May asked.
“I met him at the library,” Peter answered impatiently. “Why?”
“How old is he?” Ben wanted to know.
“17… why?”
„Isn’t he like…. a little too old?” May asked carefully and Peter was starting to feel angry.
“What do you mean, too old? Too old for what? I’m not a little kid anymore.”
“You’re 11,” Ben said exhaustedly. “Normally, 17-year-olds don’t hold a lot of interest in children your age, that’s all.”
“But… he actually approached me and… he is really nice and we have a lot in common. He isn’t as immature and stupid as the people in my school, please, I-”
“Alright,” May interrupted. “It’s fine, baby, we’re happy for you.” She smiled and seemed to be sincere about it. “We just don’t want you to be disappointed or hurt or being taken advantage of.”
“Why would he do any of that?”
May and Ben had to admit they didn’t even know themselves. It was just a weird gut feeling every parent or guardian most likely had when their child brought back home a much older friend. On the other hand, both of them knew that even though Peter was still very innocent and somewhat naïve, he was also a lot smarter and more mature than other children his age. Therefore, it might be a logical consequence that their precious baby boy had such a hard time finding friends in school. Also, they didn’t know anything about Skip yet, as far as they know he could be as lonely as Peter, either because he was too smart, too mature, or even too immature to find friends his age. The only thing that mattered to Aunt May and Uncle Ben was that Peter had finally found a friend. A friend who made him beam and laugh, a friend whom he could play with and talk to.
Day 3
Even though the library was only opened from 9 to 12 am on Sundays, Peter didn’t want to miss the opportunity to study and – he hardly wanted to admit it – particularly to talk to Skip again. At least it had finally stopped raining, so May let Peter take his bicycle again. He smiled, when Skip was once again already waiting in their usual spot.
“See what I brought,” the older boy grinned and threw four big bags of M&Ms onto the desk. Peter’s mouth fell open.
“Holy… where did you get those?”
“From Walgreens, you moron,” Skip snorted and gave Peter a playful smack on the head. “Thought you were a genius.”
Peter had gone tomato-red again and muttered something under his breath Skip couldn’t understand.
After a few minutes he ripped open one of the M&M bags. “Hope your folks were okay with me staying over yesterday?” he asked casually.
“Of course, why wouldn’t they be?”
“I don’t know, it’s just… they didn’t seem to be too happy to see me.”
“No, no… they… they were just surprised because I haven’t told him anything about you before,” Peter said hastily.
“Do you often have friends over?” Skip asked and noticed Peter twisting uncomfortably.
“Not too often, no,” he admitted silently and pretended to be highly concentrated on some formula in his book.
Skip didn’t let it go. “Don’t you have a lot of friends?”
Peter was uncomfortable, if not totally embarrassed, being directly confronted with a question like that, but he felt like he could confide in Skip and that he actually didn’t have to be ashamed of it in front of him.
“Not really.”
“Hard to imagine,” Skip said flabbergasted. “I mean… you are super nice and so goddamn smart… who wouldn’t want to be friends with you?”
“P-people in my … in my school… they don’t understand me. Not like you…” Peter said and tried to hold back the tears that welled in corner of his eyes. He tried to concentrate on the variables in front of him, but then Skip grabbed him gently on his chin and forced the boy to look at him.
“Hey, you know what? They are idiots and you shouldn’t even care about what they think. They are probably just jealous of you because they know that one day, you’ll be rich and famous because you… healed cancer or something. Don’t let them get you down, alright?”
A silent tear left Peter’s right eye, rolling down his cheek slowly.
“I want you to tell me whenever those assholes give you a hard time, alright? I’ll come over in a sec and kick their ugly butts.”
Peter busted out laughing and dried his eyes quickly. “Thank you Skip,” he said, completely choked up, and gladly accepting the M&Ms Skip offered him with a smile.
“Anytime, Einstein. I’m your friend now and friends help each other out.”
Just before the library closed the two boys had eaten up two of the M&M bags. Peter felt a little sick and with a queasy conscience thought about the lunch May was preparing right now. He doubted he would be able to eat anything for the rest of the day and told Skip about it.
Skip’s response seemed out of place. “Your aunt is really hot.”
Peter stared at him. “Uhm…thanks?”
“Don’t you think so too?”
The older boy’s grin widened when Peter blushed deeply. “She’s my… she’s my aunt, I don’t…”
“Relax, Einstein, I was just joking,” he laughed and put an arm around Peter’s shoulders. “By the way, I mean… now that you mention it… what kind of girls do you like?”
“I-I…I don’t know”, Peter stuttered, slightly abashed. He had never really given it a lot of thought before. Sure, there were some girls in his school he considered pretty, but he felt way too young to fall in love or anything yet.
“Or do you like boys?”
“What? N-no… I…”
Peter felt Skip’s fingers around his shoulder tighten indistinguishably. “You sure? I wouldn’t judge you, nowadays it isn’t such a big deal anymore.”
The young boy shook his head quickly. “N-no, really, I… I mean, guess I like long brown hair… I guess? O-on girls.”
As subtle as it had tightened, the grip on Peter’s shoulder eased again and he didn’t know whether he said something good or bad.
“Sounds like you have a good taste,” Skip said after a while and smiled softly. “I didn’t want to sound you out, I’m sorry. I just thought you might be pretty popular with girls.”
“Uhm… no, I told you, I don’t really… have a lot of friends.” Not a lot as in zero.
“Doesn’t have to mean that nobody has a crush on you.”
Peter gave a false, awkward laugh. “I highly doubt that. Why would anyone have a crush on me?”
“Because you’re pretty cute?”
At the same moment Mrs. Hobbs left the library and turned to lock the door.
“C-cute?” Peter’s face went redder than it had ever before and he shifted from foot to foot insecurely.
“Well, I meant from a girl’s point of view,” Skip laughed, “you have to grow in confidence, Einstein.” The young man was suddenly speaking way more loudly than before. “If you really like a girl, just approach her and ask her out. If she declines… well, it will hurt at first but trust me, it had happened to me a bunch of times but I never lost my confidence, because one day I’ll be successful and find the girl I’m going to marry.”
Peter was utterly confused. What Skip had said was somewhat off the point, almost as if he had changed topics in the middle of a conversation. Peter shrugged it off though when Mrs. Hobbs went by them and smiled fondly. “Bye Pete, see you soon.”
She glanced at Skip before wishing him a nice day too.
“Sorry if I upset you or made you feel uncomfortable,” Skip said in a normal volume again. “I just thought you might like boys and were too scared to talk about it. Happened to my stepbrother… But then he realized he could trust me.”
“No problem, thank you, I appreciate it… but, no, really, it’s not like that.” Peter still felt a little awkward and wanted to change topics permanently this time. “So… guess that means your parents are divorced?”
“They are,” Skip nodded and started walking down the road next to Peter. The young boy wheeled his bicycle so he wouldn’t be faster than his friend and could listen. “My dad remarried and she had kids, meaning I suddenly had an older stepbrother and a younger stepsister. Wasn’t that easy at first.”
“I’m sorry,” Peter said quickly but then remembered their conversation from yesterday. “Yesterday you said that you didn’t have any siblings.”
“For me they aren’t siblings,” Skip explained, sounding bitter. “I mean, I’ve grown fond of them, especially Mike, but it’s more of a friendship, you know? We never grew up together and I only see them and my father every three or four months. Mike is actually off to college now, so I see him even less.”
“I understand,” Peter said silently and Skip noticed he seemed upset.
“Your aunt and uncle… why do you live with them? Are your parents… are they dead?”
“Yes”, the young boy whispered. “They died in an accident when I was 6.”
“Shit, really?” Skip had stopped walking and was watching Peter closely. “That’s terrible…I’m… I’m really sorry, Peter.”
The boy noticed that Skip had actually called him by his name for the first time since when they had met two days ago.
“It’s alright,” Peter murmured and swallowed down a big lump in his throat. “I can’t remember them too well…”
Suddenly Skip was next to him and pulled him into a close embrace. He held him so tightly that the bike slipped out of Peter’s fingers and crashed to the ground with a loud bang. Skip didn’t seem to care and neither did Peter. Being held so tightly by his friend, the young boy could feel something inside him crumble. He started sobbing and pressed his face into Skip’s shirt. “You don’t always have to be strong, Einstein,” Skip whispered and gently stroked Peter’s head, just like Aunt May often did when he was crying. Even though he had known Skip for only three days, he treated him like they’d been friends forever. He was everything Peter had always wanted… a big brother or a friend, who would be there for him and where he could be himself without having to fear getting rejected or made fun of.
Seconds after Peter had finally started to hug back, Skip suddenly pushed Peter away from him, gently, but firmly. “I, uh… I should probably go,” the older boy said and took his bag off his shoulder, squeezing it between them awkwardly. Peter wiped the tears off his cheeks and started at the bag expectantly. The way Skip held it had made Peter think he would get out a tissue or anything else for the boy, but he didn’t make a move to even open it.
“I’m sorry,” Peter finally said and let his shoulders drop. He sniffed and bent down to pick up his bike which gladly didn’t seem to have suffered any damage.
“For what?” Skip asked confusedly and looked at Peter oddly.
“For…for this. I d-didn’t want to cry… but y-you had said, that…”
“No, no, please, don’t apologize, everything is fine, I’m really glad you let it out, I’m just… I should really get going, my mom is waiting for me with lunch and your aunt is too and… well, see you, bye.”
Skip turned around and hurried away in the opposite direction with big, somewhat awkward steps. Peter watched him leave, feeling desperate and embarrassed. Why did he have to cry like a stupid child? Most certainty he had successfully scared Skip away now, but why did the older boy had to hug him and tell him to let go? Otherwise he might not have needed to start bawling his eyes out… New tears rolled down Peter’s cheeks and his legs were shaking. Good thing he had the bicycle, he wouldn’t have been able to walk home like that.
His eyes were still puffy and reddened when he slammed the door shot behind him. Gladly, both May and Ben were still busy in the kitchen, so Peter just shouted a quick “Hello” before darting up the stairs. His first went into the bathroom to wash his face, hoping the reddening would go down until lunch, before he stormed into his room and flung himself onto the bed, trying not to feel too upset anymore. After a few boring minutes of staring onto the ceiling, Peter fumbled for his phone in the pocket of his jeans and he almost couldn’t believe his eyes when the screen lit up. “1 new message” it said.
Peter’s heart was racing when he clicked on it and his stomach twisted unpleasantly as he realized it was a message from Skip. Would he forgive him?
“I’m really sry for leaving so abruptly, Einstein… Truth is, even tho my parents aren’t dead the divorce had been really hard for me and when I saw u crying like that, I almost couldn’t withhold my own tears anymore. I wanted to stay strong for u and almost failed.”
Peter sighed with relief and typed a quick answer, fingers slightly trembling.
“It’s fine, but you shouldn’t have felt that way. You’ve said it yourself: friends are there for each other and if you want to talk about it - anything - just tell me, please.”
Skip’s reply didn’t take long.
“U’r such a great friend, Einstein, ty! I just wished sb would’ve hold me like that when I’d been younger, y’know…”
The young boy was choked up with emotion.
“As I said, I really want to be there for you. I’m glad we are friends (:”
This time it took more than a minute until Peter’s phone vibrated again.
“Me 2, Einstein :) :) It sounds crazy but it’s been ages since I’ve had so much fun with anybody and I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend I feel so comfortable talking to. I always have to be strong and tough around my other friends but when I’m with u, I can be the real me. Do u know when we can hang again? I’m rather busy throughout the week with school and workout so I can’t go to the library, I hardly come home before 7pm.”
Peter sighed. Uncle Ben and aunt May wouldn’t let him go out to this late during the week, not in winter when the sun went down way earlier.
“I don’t think I can go out this late during the week ): “
“Np, if ur folk r ok with it I could come over maybe… and help u with ur science project. Can’t wait for the weekend tho, maybe we could hang out at my place then.”
“Alright, I’ll text you when I need help. Maybe on Thursday? Thank you Skip (: “
“Anytime, Einstein!”
Half an hour later May finally called Peter down to lunch. He beamed when he skipped into the dining room, bringing a blissful smile to Ben’s face and making May almost tear up. Any doubt had been forgotten, now that their nephew seemed so radiant with joy. Peter didn’t eat much, but they affiliated it to him rambling about the Theory of Relativity throughout the whole meal. Even though May and Ben didn’t understand a word, they let him speak on, awarding him with a nod every now and then, but silently thanking that Westscott boy for befriending their nephew. They hoped that Peter would become more confident now and maybe find a friend or two at school soon too.