The Hero

“Don’t fucking play games with me, Burke. You gonna tell me or what?”

“Freddy.”

“Yeah. It’s that and old people who don’t have teeth anymore, so they have to go with ice-cream instead of burgers.” She continued with a smirk on her lips. “You know what I was thinking the other day? I don’t really remember seeing you around that much when we were kids. I remember Essie, though. But she was close with Nat back then.”

Peter laughed. That wasn’t a picture he wanted to keep in his head, in fear that those old people would be him one day. “Really?” He had to think about that one. He remembered spending a lot of his time playing with the other boys around town. The whole ‘girls have cooties!’ epidemic was still in play back then. “You’re probably remembering right. I was around Andy, Matt and Chris a lot.”

“Yeah, I guess only the truly cool and chill people come here.” She chuckled softly. “I go to Freddies too, but going there after school is never a good idea. Freddie tends to always be packed, but well, it’s always especially crazy at this time of the day.”

“Oh yeah?” He teased. “Smart. I try to stay away at this time too, yeah.” The last thing he wanted to do after being crammed in a school building all day with every kid around town, was join them all once again in a small diner. Sometimes he couldn’t help but follow, those milkshakes were too hard to resist. 

Putting her menu down, she returned the smile to Peter and signed to one of the waiters to come pick up their order. “Yeah, it’s usually my go-to hang out spot!” She rested her elbows on the table in front of them. “Are you more of a Freddies kind of guy?”

“Sometimes I can be.” He shrugged. They both ordered quickly when the waiter came, sticking to their plans of a banana split and pancakes. “It seems a lot more mellow here.” Which Peter didn’t dislike. Freddies was so often filled with kids his age, hence the rowdiness. 

Narrowing her eyes, she spotted an empty booth in the back. “Over there seems nice.” The booth was hidden well enough to give them some privacy, but visible enough to not seem like they were doing anything inappropriate. Sitting down, she reached for one of the menus on the table and scanned through it. “Oh, I really want a peanut butter and chocolate banana split, but it might actually be too big for me. Are you cool with sharing?”

He slowly flipped through the menu and only looked up when Lizzy spoke. “Sounds good.” He nodded and smiled. He wasn’t entirely familiar with everything on the menu, so he tried to take his time to see what he really wanted. “Do you come here a lot?”

“… Which friend?”

“Who do you think it is?”

His response was amusing, but what a shame for him to view her as a villain like that. “And you asked the Pastor for permission to pull him up?” 

“Very funny.” He didn’t want to give Jill what she wanted, which was undoubtedly a big reaction.

Contrary to popular belief, Will didn’t live in the library as many suspected. Sure, he made daily visits to the library to do his homework but it was only for a couple of hours to complete his homework. His stay used to be longer till he diagnosed himself and now the only books Will read were his textbooks and books assigned to him from class.  "I did. I normally come to the library at this time to do my homework assignments because not as many people come in, so I don’t have to worry about noise and Mrs. Carpenter isn’t working at this time either,” he answered, taking a seat opposite of Peter. It was a pity that he was spending one of more pleasant days inside finishing up his paper for Bible Study. 

It was a bit of a pointless conversation they were having, but a good one nonetheless. He rarely ever saw Will around for long enough to strike up a conversation. Maybe if he spent more time in the library there’d be more opportunities, but Peter was the type of student to bolt from class as soon as the bell rang. He was a good student and liked most of his classes, there was just no reason to roam the halls or linger around the school yard, unless practice for one of the sports he played was in session. But seeing as it was not yet time for fall sports, he tried to spend little time in the school building and more time anywhere else. “Are you holding some type of grudge against the librarian?” He raised a brow. Peter didn’t take much notice of other people unless he was engaging in a conversation with them. He wasn’t a people watcher, he thought it was rude. So if Mrs. Carpenter had done something to rub him the wrong way, he’d never know.

“You trying to start something again, Burke?” Freddy asked icily. He lifted his head, his narrowed eyes meeting Peter’s. It was like he was in permanent fight mode whenever he was around, ready and willing to throw a punch even if both of them knew it wouldn’t be very effective. (Maybe he should ask Danny to teach him how to box. Ha. Yeah, right.)

Only a bitter laugh left his lips in response to Freddy’s question. He didn’t enjoy fights, watching or participating in them. Peter never would have come at him if not provoked, so he was indeed not trying to start something. Who knows how long it would take for Essie to forget about his quarrel with her friend, he didn’t need another one on his record. If there was one thing he didn’t want to change, it’d be his relationship with his sister.

“Consider today the turning point of your life!” Not being able to read into Peter’s body language to understand if her move had gone too far, she released herself from him and took two large steps to reach the diner’s door. Holding it open for her date, she took a small bow. “After you, please.”

“Thanks.” He added a nod to go with his words. The atmosphere of Carla’s was always a bit strange to him. He didn’t see many of the people he knew from school there often, they always chose Freddies first. His eyes scanned the place, spotting a few open counter seats and booths. “Where do you want to sit?”

Things had been rocky since Freddy’s fight with Peter. (Though fight might have been too generous a word. Really, Peter had just beat the shit out of him while Freddy managed to throw in a couple of lucky swings of his own.) But a black eye and a bruised lip still weren’t enough for Freddy to regret what he’d said, or even consider apologizing, so the last week was spent avoiding Peter as best he could and ducking his head whenever they made accidental eye contact.

How in the world did he manage to run into Freddy of all people? Nothing was resolved between them, and maybe it never would be. Peter would never be happy about Essie hanging out with the boy he beat up, nor would Peter ever be happy about Freddy hanging around his sister. He knew it was stupid to hit him, but what was he supposed to do? Walk away, be the bigger person? That would probably only make Freddy hate him more. It was funny to him, now knowing why he was hated by the other boy. Because just a few weeks prior he had not the slightest clue. Sometimes he thought, and thought... and thought, ‘Why does he hate me? Does he hate me or just dislike me? Is there a reason he hates more or does he just hate me for fun?’ Then other times he made himself stop, knowing it was dumb to spend his time dwelling on someone he hardly ever saw. Even though, after their fight he’d been seeing Freddy an awful lot.

Jill tilted her head, lips pressed and eyebrows raised in amusement before straightening it again. “Are you gonna allow me to say whatever I’d like?” 

“Since when have you ever asked permission before doing anything?” He rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time since he started talking to her.