#c1p7

Date With Death - Chapter 1, Page 7

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Read on Smackjeeves

After waving bye to Markus (who looks pleased to see him gone), Peter steps inside and closes the door behind him. 

Clive is sitting on the couch, watching cartoons. He nods a hello. Peter hides the Mug In A Box behind his back, but it’s pretty pointless, considering Clive is probably the least observant person on the planet and wouldn’t notice the box if it hit him in the face. 

“Mum made lasagna, I think there’s still some left in the fridge,” Clive mumbles.

“Nice,” Peter says, stifling a yawn. He’s already half upstairs and wants nothing more than to go to sleep. 

“Oh, and mum asked me to ask you if you picked up dad’s dry cleaning like he asked.”

Oh god.

“Uuuhh,” Peter says, scratching the back of his neck. He even wrote it down, how did he forget? Oh go d-

“He’s going to be so mad that you haven’t.”

Peter grabs his keys from his pocket-

(wait, where are my keys? have i dropped them?? goddammit this is the third ti- oh they’re here never mind)

Yeah, this is definitely Peter’s street. Phew, finally. He can tell Markus doesn’t want to be around him any more, he’s started to glance at Peter impatiently from the corner of his eye.

“Which one’s yours?” Markus asks. 

“It’s the one next to the one with the weird bushes.”

“Okay.” Markus says, stopping the car in front of that house. 

“Uh...” Peter sits there uncomfortably for a few seconds. What’s he supposed to say? OH-

“Thanks for giving me a lift,” he mumbles, scratching the back of his neck. He really needs to stop doing that.

“You’re welcome.” Markus nods. They sit in awkward silence for a few seconds before Peter realises what’s going on and unbuckles his seat belt.

“I, er... I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow’s your day off.”

Oh, that’s right, no work on Tuesdays. Niiiiiiiiiiice.

“Well, see you on Wednesday then.”

As Markus drives on, away from the city centre, the buildings shrink from skyscrapers to terraced houses. Peter’s struggling to keep his eyes open.

“Have you remembered where you live yet?” Markus asks. He’s staring straight ahead, not frowning for once.

“I mean...” Peter glances out the window before looking back at Markus. “I knew where we were going before, but now I’m lost.”

“Fantastic.”

“Hey that’s hardly my fault, you’re the one who drove us here.”

“You’re the one who forgot his address.”

“I haven’t completely forgotten it,” Peter says.“It’s got Finch in it.”

“Right.”

They continue along in silence. Peter looks up at the sky, which is dotted with stars. When he was younger he learnt a few of the constellations, but he can’t remember them now. At age ten he went through a phase of wanting to be an astronaut, but he changed his mind when he realised how much exercise was involved. Now he hacks things. 

After a while, they pass a sign which has “Finch road” on it, and Peter snaps awake.

“Markus!” he shouts, causing Markus to jump.