old friends • tom holland

seventeen

I rushed around my apartment, frantically pulling a brush through my hair while searching for my other sneaker. It was 7:56 am, and I had approximately four minutes before Tom showed up at my place looking for his tour of the city. After another minute of looking for the missing shoe, I stumbled upon it under the kitchen table. I was continually amazed at my ability to lose my belongings in a four room apartment, but at least I wouldn't be too late this time. Just as I finished tying the sneakers, I heard a knock at the door.

I laughed to myself as I listened to Tom at the door. The eight taps on the door that were issued in a rhythm that I would recognize anywhere. When we were kids, Harrison, Tom and I all spent so much time at each others houses that it eventually became a habit to just walk it. Sometimes people would be in their own rooms, and we made up a special knock together so that we would always know that it was one of us, and not one of Tom's nagging little brothers.

"Come on in!" I called in the direction of the front door.

Tom entered, clad in a hoodie and jeans. "I can't believe that you remembered our code- it feels like forever ago."

He smiled sheepishly and looked at me. "Well, Harrison and I still pull it out on occasion just for kicks. I didn't know if you would recognize it though or just think I was some creeper."

"I can't say yet that you aren't a creeper, but I can guarantee that I would never forget such an integral part of my childhood." I laughed a bit, thinking of all the good times that we had. "Well, I guess that we can get going. Are there any particular things that you want to see?"

"I've seen some stuff, but mostly just from the outside. I didn't really thing about it that much I guess- maybe just show me your favorite stuff?"

"Well, my favorite thing has to be the stadium that I play in, but it would appear that you have already seen that..."

Tom smiled awkwardly, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Yeah, I hope that didn't seem too weird to you. We were just sitting around with nothing to do and realized that you might actually have a game that night, so we figured that we should go see what all the hype was about. We being Harrison and I, I mean."

"No, it's all good, I'm just messing with you. But unfortunately, it does mean that the place that I spend the most time at is not a new and interesting destination, so I should probably try to think of some more interesting locations." I gave him a smile and laughed a little. "Believe it or not, life in the big city isn't crazy exciting for me."

The two of us began the walk out of the apartment and down to the lobby. I was working hard to come up with some idea that would be at least mildly interesting for the both of us, but so far I was still coming up dry.

"Wait, so I saw you at the smoothie shop the other day right? Why do you even bother to go out and get them yourself? It seems like Spiderman would be enough of a big shot to get people to do that for him." I nudged him teasingly as we excited the building.

"I mean if I actually wanted to get someone to deliver it to me, I could. I mean, why do you think that I have Harrison along as an assistant?" Tom laughed, and I could already feel that we were settling back into the patterns of old; ripping on each other as a form of amusement. "Honestly though, it was kind of all chance that I was there that day. I usually don't go, but set was feeling a little stuffy and I needed a good excuse to get a break from the inside of that suit for an hour. You would not believe the temperatures that it reaches in there."

"Yeah that sounds like a tough time... I gotta say that I'm glad that we were both there that day though. Crazy to see you after so long, but good crazy."

"That's true, a lot has-"

"Wait, I got it! The perfect place for you to go see, hopefully you haven't been yet, because I think you're going to love it." The words spilled out of my mouth as I glanced at Tom excitedly, looking to gauge his reaction. His eyebrows were knitted together as he looked at me in confusion- not the reaction that I was going for, but it would do.

"We're just going to have to catch a ferry real quick."