Promises Broken And Promises Kept

The Gift of Friendship [Pt.2]

Chapter 2: Friendships Never Last
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Peter watched as adults walked past him. Heading for their daily commutes. None of them dared pay attention to him. Perhaps they were afraid that he might ask for something. Help, maybe. Or maybe some food. Maybe they were afraid of him looking at them like a lost puppy. He sighed. It's not like he would ask verbally anyway. "Mommy... What's wrong with him?" A red headed toddler asked his mother. Peter looked up from the ground to smile at the kid. The kid waved but the mother pulled him away. "Stay away from him, James. He might have rabies." The mother glared at him before pulling her son to the other side of the street. Peter frowned. Him? Rabies? Oh, the things mothers said about him. One mother said that he was faking it. Another, called him fat and dumb for thinking people would fall for his tricks. What did being fat have to do with it? Didn't they see how skinny he was? They for sure could see his ribs through his oversized red hoodie.

People continued to pass by him. Occasionally, he asked if they had anything to spare. "Excuse me. Do you have any food?" He hated asking people to waste their time for him, but he hadn't eaten in almost a week. Everything hurt, and he was weak. Very weak. "Excuse me?"

"Move. Don't you have a better place to be?" Peter sniffled and shook his head. "Goodness. How old are you?" The man shook his head and quickly ran off down the street. Peter frowned. He knew he looked older than he actually was. The stubble growing on his chin aided in that. Peter knew he shouldn't have had, but he did. He grabbed his items and crawled back to his soggy box and cried. "Why?" He wondered to himself. Even after years, he still found himself giving in to the despair. He cried until he fell into a fitful slumber. Even then, tears still rolled down his cheeks.

The next day, Peter started his day later in the afternoon. Checking his busted watch, the time read 3:34pm. Or maybe it read 8:87am? Like he said, it was busted. With an empty stomach, he did the same thing he always did. Sit there and hope someone had a big enough heart to help him out.

They didn't.

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A man and his teen son walked down the busy streets of Midtown. The man had just finished picking up the boy from school and the duo were on their way to the Subway. "Dad look!" The boy pointed to a young homeless man on the side of the street. Dirty and saddened, he held out his hands, hoping someone would give him something. The boy frowned. "Papí? Why aren't they helping him? He looks kinda sad." The dad looked down at the boy with a concerned look. "Oh Miles. You're always thinking about others. How about we give him one of our blankets and your leftover school lunch." Miles smiled and quickly pulled his lunch out of his backpack and ran towards the homeless man. "Hi!" Miles greeted with an inward cringe. The man looked up with a surprised look. "Ummm. Hi?" Miles grinned and held out his lunch that was wrapped in a blanket. "Is this for me?"

"Uh huh! My mom and I make these blankets every other day... Not to be biased, but they're really warm. And this is a Vegetable Stir fry." Miles watched as the man before him unwrapped the food and opened it. Then he threw the blanket around his arms and shivered.

"But..."

"No buts mister. Bye!"

"Wait!" Then man stopped him, taking in the warmth of the blanket. Miles turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Thank you so much. This... You have no idea how much this means to me. I really needed this. Thank you." Miles smiled warmly before running back to his dad. Miles waved to the man before grabbing his dad's hand. "Look at that Miles. You made him smile." Miles looked back at the man. "Yeah. I guess I did. I'm glad I could help him."

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Peter watched as the son and his father walked away. Peter was smiling, he didn't know why. That boy --- he had no idea how much Peter needed that blanket and food. He wasn't sure how much longer he would've been able to go without food. He pulled the blanket closer to his shivering body as he took several ravenous bites of the noodles. His eyes widened in shock at how good the food tasted. He smiled as he remembered the boy. Peter now believed that there was still hope for humanity.

Now, if only his Aunt and Uncle weren't part of humanity. Well, he could fix that... No! He would definitely not go to his relatives' house and threaten them with that realistic water gun he kept eyeing in the toy store window. It's not like he could buy it anyway.

Oh well, he guessed it was time to move to another block so he wouldn't have to think about that water gun.

Days later, Peter was sitting on the sidewalk. Still next to the toy store though. He had just moved further onto the pavement. He figured that if he was somewhat in people's way, they would have to at least stop to look at him. And then, they would pass by, feeling slightly guilty about not helping him.

Perfect.

"Hi again!" Peter jumped slightly at the voice. Looking up, he noticed the kid from before.

"Hi?" Peter responded, looking around for the boy's dad.

"He's not with me today." How did this kid know what Peter was looking for? Peter raised his eyebrows. "Aren't you worried I might kidnap you?" The kid scoffed as he sat down next to Peter. "Nah. No offence, but you aren't in the best position to kidnap a thirteen year old kid."
Peter mustered a small, painful smile, "You... Have made a strangely fair point." The kid smiled and pulled a backpack around to place it in his lap. And unzipping it, he pulled out two containers of a meal. He held out one to Peter. "I'm Miles by the way. And you are...?" Peter gaped at the boy as he timidly accepted the meal. "Um... Peter."

"Cool."

"Why...?" Peter began with an unintended frown.

"You looked lonely. And hungry. So here I am. Keeping you company while we eat lunch." Miles beamed at him and placed a fork on Peter's container of food. "You should eat that. It's terrible when it's cold." Miles made a disgusted face before beginning to eat his own food. Peter looked at the bowl, then at Miles, then back at the bowl again. He finally popped of the lid and began to eat as well. "So," Miles started with his mouth full. "How old are you really?" Peter sighed before answering, "Sixteen. Almost seventeen."

"Okay... You don't look that young."

"Yeah, I know."

"How'd you become... disabled?" Peter looked at Miles and immediately decided he no longer liked him. He asked to many questions. "I don't --"

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it." Miles gave him a reassuring smile. Peter smiled, but didn't actually mean it. It had been a while since he had smiled and meant it. He now liked Miles all over again. Peter opened his mouth to ask a question, then quickly decided against it. "Um... Did you want to say something?" Miles asked with a raised eyebrow. Peter shook his head before turning his full attention towards his food bowl.

His friendships never lasted...

A/n: There are typos in this somewhere... So if anyone could point those out, thanks!