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“Din! Come on, we’re going to be late!” Peli called from the kitchen as she tried to juggle Din’s lunchbox, her lunchbox, and her work satchel, almost tripping over in the process. “Shit!”
“Alright, little one.” One of the lunchboxes was snatched from her hand, and Peli scowled.
“Call me that again and you’ll see how being small has its advantages.”
“I feel like I’m being threatened by a mouse.” Boba smirked, leaning in for a kiss. Peli kneed him in the groin with mild strength and snatched the lunchbox back as he doubled over in shock.
“I warned you.” She smirked back, kissing the top of his head while he was at her level.
“You’re a cruel girlfriend. Cruel.” Boba grumbled. Peli rolled her eyes at him.
“Mom, I can’t find my- oh.” Din stopped in his tracks, his bag on his back.
“Here.” Peli handed Din his lunchbox with a fond smile.
“Why’s Boba doing that?”
“Doing what?” Peli turned to Boba, just in time to get a hand of spit in her face from her boyfriend, who smirked as he dragged his hand down her face. Peli shoved him off.
“You’re a disgusting, vile man!”
“You love me.”
“That was gross, Boba.” Din shook his head and crossed his arms, and Peli snorted. “You should be nice to Peli.”
“Yeah, Boba, you should be nice to me.” Peli wrapped an arm around Din’s shoulders. Boba gawped.
“But she started it!”
“And I’m finishing it!” Din retorted. Boba knew he’d picked that up from Peli.
“Come on, baby, time to go.” Peli smiled, guiding him to the front door and giving Boba a quick kiss as she passed. Din turned to look over his shoulder.
“Bye, Boba!”
“Bye, Din. Have a good day, both of you.”
Peli walked Din to school, then ran home to get the car to drive to the garage. As well as Din was doing with the car at the moment, she didn’t want to risk him having a PTSD episode before school. She’d made that mistake once before. At least, when she picked him up in the car after school, she was there to calm him afterwards in their own home, where they both felt safe.
Once she reached the garage, she parked her car and headed inside.
And gawped at the sight in front of her.
“What the hell are you doing ?!”
“Oh! Hey, boss!” Thomas tried to smile, but it was hard from where he was clinging to a ceiling joist with his arms and legs, Axel and Chris below him with a blanket stretched out like a tarp.
“Just let go!” Chris called up to him.
“NO!” Peli stopped them, throwing her satchel to the side. “Do not let go, I’m getting the ladder!”
“Thanks, boss!”
“You won’t be thanking me when I get my damn hands on you, you cretin!” Peli snapped before leaving to fetch the ladder. Chris pulled at the blanket-tarp.
“You wanna jump down so you can run for your life before the boss get’s back?” He asked Thomas, who shook his head and clung tighter.
Peli eventually got a story out of them: Thomas had wanted to see if he could reach the ceiling if he stood on Axel’s shoulders while Axel stood on Chris’ back, and the two had entertained Thomas’ idea.
In front of Axel and Chris, Peli gave Thomas a verbal berating that he had completely expected the moment he got caught. But once the other two had left, Peli quickly wrapped her arms around him and held him tight.
“You silly boy…” Was all she’d muttered, but Thomas could feel the way she was shaking, the way her voice sounded thicker than usual. He recalled Din’s trip to the hospital after falling from a tree, repeating a trauma from Peli’s past where Oto hadn’t been as lucky as Din, and immediately felt bad.
“I won’t do it again. I promise.”
“Good.” Peli pulled away, and it was as though nothing had happened.
Peli left the garage at 4pm, leaving the boys to clean up and close up. She’d gotten halfway home when her phone rang.
“Oh, fuck…” Peli grumbled, fishing around in the satchel on the seat next to her, and answering the call. “Peli Motto.”
“Hi, Miss Motto. It’s Mr Skywalker from Mos Eisley Elementary. Din is fine, I promise. I know our last phone call wasn’t a good one, but he’s fine.”
“That’s good to know.” Peli was thankful for the quick reassurance. Any longer and her brain would have started to spit out all the worst case scenarios.
“Can I please speak to you at your earliest convenience?”
“I’m on my way home from work, I can come now?”
“Perfect. Thank you.”
Peli hung up, her heart racing.
What the hell was going on?
“Hi, I’m here to see Mr Skywalker?” Peli made it sound like a question, as though asking the poor receptionist what she was doing here.
“Ah, he told me he was expecting you. He’s in the science faculty room, I’ll take you there.” The receptionist smiled, and Peli had to admit, it helped her feel a little better.
“Thank you.” Peli brushed imaginary dust off her belt before following the woman, only then noticing what a state she was in. “I came straight from work.” She explained, as though it needed explaining.
“Aw, your little Din is alway talking about how he helps you at the garage.” The receptionist chuckled. Peli smiled, continuing in silence until they reached a door with a ‘science faculty’ sign on it. The receptionist knocked on the door. “Here you go. I hope everything goes okay.”
“Thank you.” Peli nodded, and watched as she walked away. The door opened a second later, and Mr Skywalker smiled kindly at Peli.
“Miss Motto.”
“Mr Skywalker.”
“Luke, please. Thank you for coming to see me at such short notice. Come in, please.” Luke stepped aside.
“Into the teacher’s room? Din must have done something awful.” Peli tried to joke as she entered the room, trying to ignore the thumping of her pulse.
“I assure you, Din has done nothing wrong.” Luke closed the door, and gestured towards a chair in front of a desk in one corner of the room. “Please, take a seat. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Water?”
“A water would be nice, thank you.”
“Of course.”
As Luke filled a cup with water from a water cooler, Peli looked around the room. Several desks were scattered around the room, each piled with paperwork. She figured she was at Luke’s desk, where a mug of coffee sat already. Had he been waiting for her specifically?
Peli jumped when Luke put the cup on the desk in front of her.
“Apologies.”
“Sorry-”
“Miss Motto-“
“Peli.”
“Peli. Please try and relax, no-one is in trouble.” Luke tried to assure her as he sat on the chair on the opposite side.
“I’m fine.” Peli sighed, rubbing her eyes. “So, if Din didn’t do anything, why am I here?” Luke paused then, looking over Peli’s face, and making her feel a little self-conscious about coming in her work attire. “I came straight from work.” Peli explained again. “That’s why I’m filthy. Soot and oil and such.”
“Ah, I did wonder.” Luke nodded, as though knowingly. “How are you, Peli?”
“Me? I’m fine?” Peli blinked. “I’m sorry, are we not talking about Din?”
“Yes. But first I need to talk about you.” Luke sighed. “Din told me you recently got into a relationship with your friend, Boba?”
“Yes, I did.” Peli frowned. “I don’t see what that has to do with you.”
“It was just… something came to my attention, and I just want to be safe.” Luke explained, reaching into his desk drawer, and Peli’s anxiety worsened suddenly. “Din drew this in his free time today.” He placed a sheet of paper in front of Peli, and she sat forward to look at it.
It was a drawing of her in her work attire, and Boba in his usual hideous green jacket. The two of them stood together, and it was a very sweet drawing, except for the fact that Boba had his hand in Peli’s face, as though punching her.
“Din told me about how Boba broke your nose once. And how Boba has been getting angry with you sometimes regarding your mental wellbeing. And that Boba has made multiple promises not to hurt you again .” Luke scanned Peli’s face again, and it suddenly clicked what was going on.
“ Oh! Oh, no, oh, bless you. It’s not like that at all! Boba broke my nose when I was a teenager because I punched him in the face first after his Dad passed. And he hasn’t been angry , just short, and he has to be sometimes to get a point across to me. He’s been making those promises everytime we talk about how shitty we were to each other at school. He isn’t hurting me or Din, I’d kill him if he dared!”
“Oh, thank goodness…” Luke sighed. “I’ll admit, I saw the smudges on your face and immediately thought my suspicions had been correct.”
“They look an awful lot like bruises, I’ve had that before.” Peli laughed, sitting back in relief.
“If Boba isn’t hurting you, then what’s he doing in this picture?” Luke asked. “If you don’t mind.”
Peli looked the picture over. It did look an awful lot like Boba was punching her in the face, and she could see why Luke was concerned. Poor Din wasn’t the best artist for his age… But why would Boba even have a hand in her fa-
Oh.
“Spit-hand…” Peli muttered, burying her face in her hands in embarrassment. “It’s… it’s just a silly thing… Boba and I have done it since we were kids. He licked his hand and wiped it on my face this morning.”
“I see.” Luke looked at the picture. “Yes, that’s… I’m sorry for calling you here.”
“Don’t be. I completely see how this all looked, and I’m glad you didn’t just brush it off. It reassures me that Din is in a good environment.” Peli assured him. “And honestly, it’s Boba you should worry about.” She joked. Luke smiled at her.
“Thank you for coming to see me. I’ll show you out.”
Din had super-hearing, Peli decided, because he’d gotten to the front door to greet her before she’d even opened it.
“Hi, Mom!”
“Hey, space man!” Peli smiled, allowing Din to throw himself at her and hug her. She hugged him back. “Hey, do me a favour, and go and get your space figures. I brought home some bits to make a tray-planet.”
“Okay!” Din beamed and ran off. Peli looked up at Boba, who stood in the corridor.
“You’re late.”
“Mr Skywalker called me in to talk to me.” Peli sighed, moving into the kitchen and fishing a tray out of a cupboard.
“Oh? About?”
“Din drew a picture of you giving me a spit hand, and the poor teacher thought you were beating me up.” Peli couldn’t help but laugh. Boba blinked, turning red.
“Oops.”
“Yeah, oops.” Peli smiled, emptying whatever she could find onto the tray. Today, it seemed Din’s astronauts were going to explore a planet with Moonsand terrain and a jello ocean. She then put some long stem broccoli in the Moonsand for trees, and put some fish crackers on the jello ocean.
“Thomas was on the ceiling when I got to work.” Peli continued, moving to the sink to wash the bolts and screws she’d stolen from work.
“Too much caffeine?”
“No. I mean, he was on the ceiling. Clinging for dear life.”
“Why?”
“Don’t ask, I might drive back to the garage just to smack the back of his head if I think about it any longer.” Peli joked. Boba smiled, wrapping his arms around her as she dropped the parts into the Moonsand for Din to find.
“What’re those?”
“What do you mean ‘what are those’? They’re obviously pieces of a rocket that went missing when it crashed on the planet!” Peli scowled at him, picking up the tray and carrying it through to the living room. “Don’t you know anything?”
“I know you got called into school for a welfare check .” Boba snorted. “Should’ve been me, you bully me more than I bully you. Only this morning, you-“
“Not in front of Din!” Peli hissed as Din ran into the room.
“Woah, cool planet! Thanks, Mom!” Din giggled excitedly. “And there’s pieces of rocket! Oh! What if the rocket crashed and they have to find the pieces to fix it?”
“Told you.” Peli smirked, watching Din set up his little planet. Boba chuckled, pulling her over to the couch and setting them both down. The two watched Din play in content, before Boba caught Peli bringing her hand to her face out the corner of his eye.
“I cut my hand at work.” Peli muttered. Boba frowned, leaning forward.
“Let me see.”
Peli slapped her hand to his face; her hand that she’d licked moments before, and wiped it down his face. Boba glared at her, but Peli just smirked.
“You asked for it.”