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Peró Battaglia was never allowed to leave the house. It was a simple rule his father had put in place when he was very young, and there were two reasons for it.
The first reason was his sickness. “Alice in Mirrorland syndrome.” Not many people were diagnosed with it. It was an odd sickness, causing him to see illusions in reflections that no one else could see. But, this wasn’t the primary reason his father wouldn’t let him leave the house.
Truly, the main reason for this was how extremely “sick” Peró was. He didn’t know what made him so “sick”, or why it was bad, but he knew his father didn’t like it. His lock down had started after he had accidently killed a cat. As a child, he had only wanted to see what it looked like on the inside, so he cut it open. But, the cat had stopped moving, and Peró didn’t know why.
Now that he was older, he knew the cat had died. But, he still didn’t see why it had been so wrong of him to kill it. Peró had only been playing with it after all.
Still, Peró didn’t care if he wasn’t allowed to leave the house. Because his mother felt so bad for him, he got all the games he wanted. As long as he had his wifi and video games, he was fine. Besides that, he didn’t have to go to school when his brothers did. All he ever had to do was sit around and play games. He had the high score on everything, and if he was feeling lonely, he’d just join an online game.
As long as things stayed like that, Peró felt as though things would be fine. But, things couldn’t stay the same forever.
Like he did every day, Peró sat up in his room, playing on his PS Vita. No one else in his family was home, not even his grandparents. Everyone had gone out once again, leaving him alone to his games. It seemed like his father had stopped worrying about Peró sneaking out of the house long ago, as Peró was reluctant to even leave his room as the years went on. He hadn’t left the house in nine years now, and people didn’t even know that he was the Battaglia family’s eldest son.
Then, there was a loud crashing noise, and the sound of glass shattering as it rained down out of his window, causing him to look up from the game and lose, which upset him quite a bit.
Annoyed, he threw his game across the room and onto his bed as he stood up, wiping the tears that had already formed due to his loss. He looked down at the object that had caused it.
A single, tattered, yellowed baseball sat in the center of his room, glittering glass around it. His curtains were parted, rare rays of sunlight streaming into the room. He kicked it, causing it to roll under his bed, hitting the wall with a loud thud.
What idiot had made it break the window in the first place?
“Excuse me!” A loud voice came from below the window. It sounded male. “Is there anyone in there!?”
Peró, of course, knew he wasn’t supposed to do things like stick his head out of the window, or really talk with others outside of the family, but he didn't care at the moment. He just wanted to chew out the person that interrupted his winning streak. He narrowed his brown eyes, squinting a bit through the sun.
About sixteen feet below, another boy was standing there, cupping his hands as he started to shout up again, quickly putting him down once he noticed Peró. The male, though it was hard to make out many features, seemed to have light brown, or maybe dark blonde, wavy hair under a beanie with an odd symbol on it. The male showed off a toothy grin, looking up with green eyes.
“Hey!” He waved as he called up, “Sorry about the window! Can I get my ball back?”
Peró was silent for a moment, before he stuck out his tongue. “No way idiot!” He replied, “It's mine now! You messed up my game!”
The other male frowned, furrowing his brow, “Huh!? It's not my fault that you lost! Give me back my ball!”
“It is!” Peró argued, “If you hadn’t broken my window like an idiot, I wouldn’t have lost
the game!”
“Just give me my ball!” The male argued, glaring.
“Come up and make me!” Peró yelled back down, knowing full well the male wouldn’t come up. After all, no one outside of the family ever seemed to go into his house, so why would anyone start now?
“Fine! I will!” The male replied, before he stormed away from where he was standing. Peró huffed, leaning back inside, closing his curtains. The slight wind still blew them, allowing just a little more light than usual in, but that was fine for now. Peró walked over, retrieving his PS Vita, going back to the place he had been sitting by the wall, careful of the glass. He’d have his mother clean it up when she got home, no point in doing anything about it now.
From downstairs, he heard the door open and close. That must have been her then, seeing as she normally came home first. Slowly, Peró stood up and walked to his bedroom door, opening it. It would be better to let his mother know about the glass well she was still downstairs, so that she didn’t have to leave his room to get something to clean it with. He wanted it done as soon as possible.
“Mother!” He called as he got to the stairs, not looking up from his game as he restarted from his last save. “Some kid sent a ball through my window! There’s a lot of glass, can you come take care of it?”
“Wow, a grown kid and you can’t even clean for yourself?” A slightly familiar voice that most definitely wasn’t his mother’s caused Peró to look up. The male from just moments ago was standing there, smirking as he held out his hand. “Give me my ball.”
Peró frowned a bit, taking a step back and out of the other male sight. “No! Go away!” He called, looking back down at his game. Since his mother wasn’t home, there was no point in leaving his room for a while.
“Give it back!” The male’s voice followed Peró as he heard footsteps coming up the stairs, “It's mine, so you have no right to take it!”
“It came through my window.” Peró replied, “So I do.”
“You told me to come up and get it back, so I came.” The male was walking beside Peró now.
“I told you to come make me.” Peró replied, continuing to play, walking back into his room. He looked up, only for a moment to move around the glass, making his way to his bed. The male still followed, stopping for a moment at the door, looking around at the rather messy room.
“Then I’ll take it myself! Where is it?” He asked.
“Not telling.” Pero replied as he beat the stage, moving onto the next one. “Leave.”
The male went silent for a moment, before suddenly, Peró’s PS Vita was out of his hands, and he found himself staring at the floor. “Then until I get my ball back, I’m not giving this back!”
Peró jumped up, but so did the male. “Hey! Give it back!” He glared, reaching for his game, but the male pulled it away, sticking out his tongue.
“Then give me my ball!” The male replied, making sure to keep it out of Peró’s reach.
“Give it back you brat!” Peró reached for it again, but the male moved away.
“I’m not a brat, you are!” He stuck out his tongue, “I’m Scapp!”
“That's a weird name for a weird brat!” Peró reached for the game again, and Scapp jumped back.
“It's not! What's your name then idiot?” Scapp asked, looking down for a moment to avoid the glass.
“Peró!”
“Peró?” Scapp asked, stepping just a little out of the room.
“Peró.” Peró nodded, quickly following.
“Thats a stupid name.” Scapp nodded as though he were confirming an important fact, “Much stupider than Scapp.”
“Shut up! Give me my game!” Peró rolled his eyes, starting to run at Scapp, who just ran away himself.
“Just make this easy and give me my ball!” Scapp called over his shoulder as he darted down the stairs. Peró made an attempt to follow, but half way down, tumbled, hitting the bottom of the floor with a loud thud.
Warm tears instantly started flowing down his face as he sat up, wincing from the pain. But, of course, no one was home to help him.
Well, no one but Scapp, who came running back in at the noise. “H-Hey! Are you okay?” He asked, jogging over, “C’mon, don't cry, you didn’t fall that hard!” The boy sounded panicked, almost like he didn’t have any idea how to deal with things like crying. Still, he held out his hand to assist Peró in getting up, and Peró took it.
Holding hands with another person was odd. He only really held hands with his mother, and that was when he was a child. Sometimes, he’d grab his brother’s hands, but that felt different too. Scapp’s hand was warm, and quite unfamiliar. But, Peró didn’t hate it.
Scapp pulled him up, handing Peró back his PS Vita. Peró used his hoodie to wipe his face, looking down at his game. It looked like Scapp has paused it for him. Peró sighed, walking back up stairs.
“Where are you going?” Scapp asked, following right behind him.
“To get your ball idiot.” Peró replied, “What do you think?”
“For real?” Scapp asked, sounding happy, “You're not playing?”
“You gave me back my game and helped me up, so it's only fair I give your game back.” Peró entered his room, walking around the glass to his bed. He crawled under a bit, grabbing the small, tattered ball, pulling ut.
Peró stood up, handing the ball to Scapp. “There, you can leave now.” He smirked a bit, before making a fist and hitting Scapp in the head with it. “And don’t you dare break my window again.”
Scapp winced a bit, but smirked, holding his ball. “Alright, next time I’ll just hit you in
the head with it.” He replied.
“Next time?” Peró shook his head, “You can’t come again. My parents won’t let me have people over...Not like there's ever been anyone to have over.”
“Then...I’ll just wait for your parents to leave and come over!” Scapp smirked, “Seriously, you cry over a small fall like that, so I’d be too worried to let you be here alone.”
“I’m fine on my own...But fine. I guess if you're careful about my parents, you can come over again.” Peró nodded.
“Great, it's a deal then. The next time your parents are out, I’ll come over.” Scapp smirked, holding out his hand. Peró looked at it for a moment, before nodding, extending his own.
“Yeah, a deal.” Peró smiled a bit, shaking Scapp’s hand.
“Great...I’ll come by again and check things out tomorrow.” Scapp said, as the front door downstairs opened. Both boys looked at Peró’s door, before Scapp chuckled.
“And out the window I go. Good thing it's open.” He smirked, fixing his hat as he made his way to the window, opening the curtains a bit, before he simply lept out.
Peró went to the window, watching him run away with a slight smile, before going to his door, being careful of the glass.
“Mother! Someone threw a baseball in and broke my window!” Peró called out, “He interrupted my game too!”
“I’ll be right up Peró!” His mother’s voice came from downstairs, “Get away from the glass!”
Peró Battaglia was never allowed to leave the house. It was a simple rule his father had put in place when he was very young. Because of this, Peró didn’t have any friends at all. However, even without leaving the house, he was able to at least start some kind of relationship, which was good enough for him.
All Peró needed to be happy was wifi and video games.
And an easy going boy named Scapp.
And he was most defiantly looking forward to seeing the third again.