Apathy & Empathy

Chapter 3

School finally ended after Henry's least favorite class of the day, economics. He and Spencer had agreed to meet each other by the bus pickup line, so Henry made a beeline over there and found Spencer with ease. He walked over to him and gave him a smile. He was still happy he didn't have to be by himself all afternoon. Spencer smiled back.

"Well, it'll be a short walk when we get to the stop. I live fairly close to the bus stop."

"Cool, Man. I would have been fine either way. I walk all the time." Henry replied, holding his arms to his chest again. He was having a hard time warming up today.

"And maybe before we start our work, I can brew us some hot coffee to warm you up." Spencer gave a knowing smirk.

"Oh dude, you don't have to. I'm fine." Henry insisted. Spencer raised his eyebrow at Henry and looked him straight in the eye.

"You're literally shivering right now. Don't try to be tough. Accept my offering of coffee." Spencer had a smug smirk on his face. Henry's face flushed.

"Urr, okay." That was all he could manage to say.

The boys boarded the bus and took their seats near the back. There was quite a bit of hustle and bustle. Henry watched some people chit chat with their friends, a few were sitting there quietly, a few were crowded around phones watching videos together, and there was even a paper airplane flying back and forth. Henry hadn't taken the bus since he was in elementary school. It was interesting seeing everyone interacting in different ways. Spencer took note of this.

"Do you like to watch people?" Spencer asked. Henry shrugged.

"Yeah, sometimes. It can be fun to watch what people get up to." He replied.

"I do the same thing. Humans can be really interesting."

"Dude, when you say it like that it sounds like you're not human." Henry said, chuckling. Spencer grinned in response.

"How can you be sure I am human?" Spencer asked. Henry busted up laughing. He hadn't expected that kind of response.

"I mean are you like Superman where you were sent here from an alien planet but the aliens still look like people or is it like a vampire situation?" Henry thought for a moment. "Or I guess the vampire thing wouldn't work since you were literally just out in the sun."

"I was always partial to werewolves over vampires." Spencer added.

"Oh hell yeah, now we're talking! Werewolves are the shit!" Henry said, excitedly.

"I feel like there's just more you can do with the werewolf mythos. Vampires are so limited. They can only go out at night, which by itself makes no sense because the moon light is just a reflection of the sun, they need to hunt humans for their blood so in theory they always need to be traveling, otherwise they are likely to get caught, and the mythos is so inconsistent with vampires. I mean look at the differences between Dracula and Twilight."

"Oh God, fucking Twilight..." Henry muttered.

"Whereas werewolves are pretty much always consistent. You get bit by a werewolf, you become one and transform on the night of a full moon. Simplicity. You can do so much with a werewolf character! Grappling with this secret, trying to prevent themselves from escaping, or just throwing caution to the winds and wolfing out in the woods somewhere."

"Have you seen Wednesday?" Henry asked. Spencer shook his head.

"No, but it's been on my 'to watch' list." He replied.

"There's this werewolf girl in it that I think you would like. The way werewolves are in that show is kinda cool." Henry explained.

"Do you like The Addams Family?" Spencer asked. Henry shrugged.