Peter and Bradley

[st_randedinwinter]

Bradley was avoiding Liz and Peter and he found it hard to do sometimes in a small inn. Some days he held up in his room almost entirely, but he got bored. Today Brad needed to re-stock some food and drink. He decided to take the elevator down with the plan to sneak various baked goods that would have a fairly long shelf-life.

He leaned against the back of the elevator with his hands in his pockets. His hoodie was up over his head and he had his earbuds in as he listened to music from his phone with them.

Comments

[st_arkintern]

Peter passes them down. The stack is considerable.

"Sorry, was trying to get all of them returned before Ms. Rasputin showed up." Somehow, Peter'd (mostly) managed to avoid her for months now, and he didn't want to keep these books any longer than he had; he'd already procrastinated on bringing them back for a few days now.

[st_randedinwinter]

"She's the one that looks like she's always angry, right?" He asked as he braced himself for more books.

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah, with the platinum blonde hair."

Peter hands off the last book, and then slides through the opening and easily lands on the floor. "She doesn't like me," he says, holding out his hand for the stack Bradley's acquired.

[st_randedinwinter]

"Why not?" He asked as he watch Peter.

It was easy to see how much more skilled Peter was physically compared to Brad. Bradley was suddenly distinctly aware of how things might have been different back home if he was more like Peter.

[st_arkintern]

"I don't know," he admits. "I'm just too excitable, I guess and she said she wanted me to leave her alone."

And so he had for the last half-year or so.

[st_randedinwinter]

Brad's arms start to feel the strain against the amount of books Peter had been carrying. He won't admit it.

"Sounds like she's being a little unreasonable." He said. "But people can be strange."

[st_arkintern]

If Peter notices Bradley's struggle, he doesn't acknowledge it.

"Yeah," Peter says, and he takes the stack of books from Bradley. "I know she's been through a lot, so some of it might be that. I guess some things just get harder when you've lived through a lot."

[st_randedinwinter]

He felt instant relief when the books were taken away. Brad wanted to rub his arms, but he didn't.

"Yeah... I guess that makes sense." He said. I wonder if I've changed too

Brad looked at Peter. I've never really met anyone as nice as him before that's my age. Bradley felt guilt again.

"Peter?" He started. "I'm... going to stay away from Liz, okay? At least until I figure things out. A part of it is she reminds me of my girlfriend back home, Melissa, and I guess her being one of the only, like, normal people here kind of makes her feel safe to me."

Plus she's cute as hell

"Just so you don't have to worry, if you are." He added.

[st_arkintern]

Peter can understand needing space extremely well.

"I'm not worried. When you decide you're ready to hang out with Liz, you don't have to worry about that, either."

[st_randedinwinter]

He nodded to the boy. He thought Peter was definitely a better guy than he was.

"Okay..." He said. "I guess... I'll see you around."

[st_arkintern]

"Yeah," Peter says. "But if you want to watch Jumanji sometime, send me a message. It just showed up in the library last week."

And with that said, Peter gives Bradley a friendly wave, then heads in the direction of the library.