Chapter Text
„Everything your see out here will die, it’s just a matter of time.“
Tommy sits overlooking the pond, watching the happy family of ducks swimming there. The sun is just entering the golden hour and the bugs are loud in his ears as they almost drown out the splashing water. It’s still warm out but there are almost no people in this corner of the park.
The spot he sits in is secluded, surrounded by shrubs and trees, almost as if it is it’s own little reality. He likes it that way. He had to crawl through the bushes to get here.
It is because of that, that Tommy startles violently, hands shooting out to the straps of his backpack sitting beside him, when suddenly there is the crashing of branches snapping and another person stumbles into his small clearing. They stop and stare when they notice him sitting – crouching, halfway to his feet already, ready to run – and Tommy stares back.
The guy is youngish, older than Tommy by a couple of years he guesses, with light brown hair going past their ears and wearing a dark blue hoodie printed with the logo of some university.
„… Hey.“ The uni-guy’s eyes dart around, he looks just as awkward and uncomfortable as Tommy feels, still standing frozen in their respective spots.
„‘Sup…“ Tommy talks himself into action, grabbing his backpack more securely as he slowly stands up fully. He looks at the ducks one last time and turns to leave the way he came in here. „Bye.“
He can find another spot no biggie. It’s a big park with lots of thick greenery. On his first round through he saw a bunch of nice places that weren’t as good but no worse by a lot.
A shame though, he thinks as he settles down in his new spot – under a weeping willow with leaves to the floor – leaning back against his backpack and pulling his jacket’s hood deeper over his face, no ducks to watch here.
The sun has just passed the horizon and Tommy’s been barely dozing off, when he’s startled awake by a branch snapping underfoot a passer-by. Tommy opens his eyes just to stare at the same university hoodie guy who stole his first spot looking at him with a furrow in his brows
„I’m not giving you this one.“ The scowl on the guy’s face deepens in confusion. Tommy closes his eyes again and pulls his hood over them again.
„You’re still here.“ Captain Obvious say and Tommy rolls his eyes and sniffs, readjusting his position and crossed arms to be more comfortable.
„So are you.“ Tommy lifts his head so that he can look past his hood at the guy. He raises an eyebrow and stares pointedly at him. „Why are we stating the obvious?“
Uni-guy furrows his brows even more and opens his mouth to answer something undoubtedly moronic, but before he gets the chance Tommy’s stomach breaks the silence by growling loudly. The guy reconsiders and states the obvious again: „You’re hungry.“
„What’s it to you?“ Tommy can’t help but bristle.
The guy looks him over and for the first time in their short and casual acquaintance Tommy can’t tell what he’s thinking. The blank look on the guy’s face is low-key creeping him out.
Uni-guy turns halfway around, looking over his own shoulder and then back to Tommy. „There’s a food truck that’s open late somewhere over there.“ He says like it’s supposed to mean something.
Tommy knows there is a food truck there. He walked past it. „Ok, and?“
Uni-guy looks at him and then pinches his nose bridge, muttering something that Tommy doesn’t catch. Clearly the guy has never done improv theatre or he would know how to Yes, and? Instead he looks like he thinks Tommy is being purposefully obtuse. Tommy thinks his face looks hilarious like that.
After taking a deep breath through his nose, the guy turns back to face Tommy fully. „Get up and follow me.“ Uni-guy grunts out frustrated and the looks taken aback for a second and then his eyes jump around awkwardly again.
„Yeah, fuck no!“ Tommy doesn’t find the situation funny anymore. „I’m not following your anywhere, weirdo.“ He’s sitting up now, hands going to the straps of his backpack. A mirror of earlier.
Uni-guy pinches his nose bridge again and groans. „That’s not…“ He heaves a sigh and pushes his fringe up with the hand he pinched his nose with. „Look, you obviously haven’t eaten in a while.“ Tommy’s stomach growls again as if to validate the guy’s assumption and Tommy’s face twists deeper into a scowl as his hand grabs the backpack strap tighter.
The guy gives Tommy a pointed look practically screaming „See? I’m right.“ and then continues to speak, „And you also look like you have no money.“ Tommy scoffs offended. Like, the guy is right but still, rude much? „So I’m gonna buy you a burrito or somethin’, but if i go alone you’re gonna be gone by the time I’m back and I’d have to toss it. And I hate wastin’ food.“ The guy huffs.
They stare at each other quietly for a beat after uni-guy finishes his speech and Tommy can’t help but find the humor in this random guy understanding him better in five minutes than everyone he’s known his whole life. He let’s out a breath.
„Fuck, no need to write a thesis on me. So, what, you study psychology or some shit at your fancy university? Christ, dude.“ Tommy mumbles most of this into his jacket collar as he stands up slowly and brushes dirt and blades of grass of his pants and backpack. Still the guy hears and snorts a laugh.
„Nah, experience.“ Tommy shoots him a glance but he’s not gonna touch that shit with a ten foot pole. „Used to…“ the guy breaks off. Or that, he thinks. „I study english lit.“
They’re walking towards the food cart now, Tommy keeping a healthy distance to the guy for case of emergency. He might be hungry and broke but he’s not stupid. „Good for you.“ He doesn’t say anymore and neither does the guy.
He buys Tommy a chicken burrito, some cut up fruits in a plastic cup and a bottle of water that’s ridiculously overpriced. Tommy counts his blessings and doesn’t mention he only ordered the burrito. Let the guy do what he wants with his own money and buy the dirty kid sleeping in the park expensive water to ease his own guilt at being able to go home back to a warm home and stocked fridge.
„So Shakespeare and shit.“ He says around a mouthful of chicken and beans.
The guy laughs loudly with a snort. „Yeah, Shakespeare and shit.“
Tommy is back at the park the next evening because it’s the quietest and most secluded place he’s found in this city so far. He’s shuffling through the foliage, cursing at branches getting stuck on his clothing and bag, and breaks into the clearing by the duck pond with a substantial amount of noise, expecting to find it empty. Save maybe for the ducks on the water if he didn’t scare them off. What he finds instead is uni-guy sitting on his jacket and messenger bag beside him. He’s got a notebook open in his lap, a pen resting in the crease between the pages and is looking at Tommy with his eyebrows almost up in his hairline.
„for a second I thought I was gonna get trampled to death by an elephant.“ He smirks in a way that makes Tommy think there’s a part of the joke he’s not getting. Like he’s the only one in a group left out of an inside joke.
„Oh, for fucks sake!“ He groans and uni-guy snorts.
Tommy is already halfway turned around, when the guy gestures to the ground next to him. „You don’t have to leave, kid.“ Tommy inhales affronted at being called a kid by someone who he bets is barely three years older than him. „I don’t own this spot.“
„Ever consider I just don’t wanna hang out in the same space as you, prick?“ Tommy says but the bark in his words is immediately undercut by him dropping his stuff in the corner furthest away from uni-guy. He plops down on his back, using his backpack as a pillow and closing his eyes against the sun reflecting off the water and streaking through the overhead leaves.
Uni-guy laughs under his breath and says, „Whatever makes you sleep better at night.“ and picks up his pen, going back to whatever he’d been doing before Tommy crashes through the bush.
„Fuck you.“ He says but even Tommy can’t hear anything but good humor in his own words, so he decides to let it rest until he isn’t exhausted and tired anymore and just watches the blotches of light behind his eyelids.
He doesn’t mean to doze off and doesn’t even realize he did it until he’s startled wide awake by the loud crinkle of plastic coming from the direction of uni-guy somewhere to his left. He cracks his eyes open and watches the guy fumble opening a pack of store bought waffles, fingers slipping on the plastic wrapping for a full couple minutes until he gets a good grip and tears it open with more force than strictly necessary, almost sending the waffles flying into the dirt.
Tommy can’t suppress his choked off laugh fast enough and uni-guy shoots him a narrow eyed and furrow browed glare. He makes a grab into his bag and throws something at Tommy fast and accurate it hits him square in the face. He sputters and the sealed pack of mini salamis falls to the floor next to him.
„What the fuck!?“ Now it’s uni-guy’s turn to laugh at him and Tommy just huffs and doesn’t put much effort into squashing down his grin. „Bitch. I’m gonna eat these now.“ He says, grabbing the pack and willfully ignoring the pleased tilt of uni-guys smile. „You’re not getting these back, fuck you.“
The same thing repeats the next day, only this time when uni-guy opens his preferred snack of the day he silently holds the box of chocolate cookies up for Tommy to take one, and Tommy scoots over and pretends he doesn’t notice the guy letting him eat the whole box by himself.
The next day uni-guy takes out a pink lunch box filled with cut up apples and grapes and after teasing him about the Barbie logo on top of the box Tommy takes some and eats without asking.
The day after that, Tommy is the first to arrive at the spot, watching the ducks until uni-guy plops down onto the ground next to him and rummages through his bag, pulling out a brown bakery paper bag with sandwiches. He deposits it on Tommy’s lap before pulling out another one for himself.
They don’t really talk, but Tommy almost prefers it like this. Anything to stop himself from remembering that he doesn’t know the guy except for the fact that he sometimes talks to himself when he’s concentrating on his notebook and dislikes raisins but tends to accidentally buy buns with them in it because he forgets to read labels when he’s in the store and actually wanted chocolate ones. That happened twice so far.
They don’t know each other but they spend a week in this bizarre routine where they don’t acknowledge that uni-guy is Tommy’s only stable food supply and Tommy gets used to the company and the guy’s dry and surprisingly funny responses he can’t help but laugh at when they do talk a bit.
Tommy gets so used to their unspoken routine, that when uni-guy still hasn’t shown up as golden hour passes and the sun dips behind the trees and buildings, casting the park in shadows, he gets restless. He refuses to call it worried even in the privacy of his own mind.
He sits in the little cove of trees and bushes and watches the ducks settle in for the night on the bank across the pond, as the sound of the bugs chirping is slowly replaced by frogs croaking in the oncoming darkness. This would’ve been the first time going to sleep hungry in a week, he thinks and stuffs the rest of the protein bar he lifted from one of the big chain supermarkets and doesn’t know how to feel about that. So he stops trying to place it and just looks at the sky turning darker by the minute and tries not to miss the stars, his fingers fidgeting with the couple pins on his backpack.
He wakes up early the next morning as usual and has to consciously slow his breathing when he startles violently at seeing uni-guy sit by the water, turning a stone over in his hands again and again. As is not usual.
Tommy pinches his own cheek and then rubs at his eyes to clear his vision some more as the small pain throbs through his head. „What the fuck, man?“
Uni-guy looks over his shoulder at Tommy and then turns back to watch the water. He doesn’t say anything and even from the short glance Tommy could tell his face looked paler and the circles under his eyes were darker, so he doesn’t say anything either.
They sit in the silence of the park waking up with rustling leaves and birds hopping from branch to branch. Tommy wakes up some more with it and after some time uni-guy softly throws the stone in his hands into the water and they watch the small ripples move across the pond.
Tommy’s eyes flick up, when uni-guy finally breaks the silence just as the sun rises above the horizon. „I’m… going on a road trip.“ He says it like he meant to end the sentence differently.
„Where to?“ Tommy says after a pause, when it becomes apparent uni-guy isn’t going to continue on his own.
He shrugs. „I don’t know. Somewhere.“ Silence. The sound of the ducks quacking and gliding into the water. „Away.“
Tommy hums and looks at the guy’s side profile for a bit and then stares at the ducks instead. He gets it. Sometimes all you can go to is away.
„I’ve got a car.“ Uni-guy says and Tommy snorts.
„Good for you. Wouldn’t be a road trip without one, bitch.“ He says and grins at the sound of uni-guys aborted laugh and shaking shoulders. „Sure, I’ll come. No need to beg.“
Uni-guy chokes, glancing over his shoulder and then away again. „I didn’t even ask, you brat! Who’s begging?“
Tommy throws a stick at the back of uni-guy’s head and laughs as he sputters and throws it back, missing by a mile.
They leave the last family homes behind themselves and Tommy feels like he can breath again as fields of yellow span out on either side of the road and all he can see is blue sky. He stares out of the passenger side window and pretends he can’t hear the hitched breaths next to him.