STRAY KIDS.

XIX. PEACH

( STRAY KIDS! )
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
❛ peach ❜

SHE DOESN'T STOP trying, though. she asks him about it at the most inopportune of times.

for example, he's pretending to suck at doing sit-ups during P.E. when she throws a basketball in his face.

"owww."

  eli waves at him and makes the signal for phone-call with her fingers.

  peter raises a hand to his already swelling eye.

he flips her the bird.

✷

"owwwww."

  she slaps him over the swollen eye. then she presses the ice–pack to his cheek in a gesture of goodwill.

"sorry. only i get the honour to flip you," she explains.

peter heaves a sigh. "and you say you had no friends before?"

there's a pause, during which he takes his time to analyze the situation. they're both in the boys' bathroom and she shouldn't really be here, but when has asha ever listened? she's standing awfully close to him. in fact, he can count her freckles. they're like an explosion of stars.

eli wavers. "are you afraid i'll embarrass you, parker?"

"what?"

"in front of tony stark, i mean."

"why would you ever think that?"

eli shrugs. "i know i'm not exactly a peach."

"i think he'd actually like that about you," peter muses. oh yeah, tony would love her. and he feels that mean possessive streak again. eli is his special sardonic friend. she shouldn't be shared with cocky billionaires.

"it's not about that," he begins, hesitantly. "it's just –nothing good happens to people who get mixed up in this business."

"i'm already mixed up in it," she points out, pressing the ice–pack to his face and she doesn't say anything else, but in the companionable silence that follows, he senses a sort of personal statement: i'm here and i'm not going anywhere.

and he thinks that's worth a black eye.

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