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When Ted told his younger brother that he would be out for the evening (probably sleeping with a woman) Pete thought he’d have a good night’s sleep. He was unfortunately mistaken when, at one am, he was awoken to the sound of somebody frantically pounding on the front door. Reluctantly climbing out of bed, Peter went to open the door, still rubbing sleep from his eyes. To his surprise, he was met by Hatchetfield’s most infamous homeless man, looking at him in wide-eyed terror. In a panicked voice, the man began raving like a lunatic:
“Pete- Petey, you gotta listen to me, you can’t go to school tomorrow! You can’t go to school tomorrow, there’s a meteor at the Starlight but I know it’s not a normal meteor- it’s not a normal goddamn meteor! It’s from the evil space goat with the box, and the creepy eldritch fuckers he lives with- just lock the door tomorrow!”
Scrunching up his nose in confusion, Pete just replied with:
“Dude, I have a test tomorrow, I gotta go.”
Then he shut the door in the homeless man’s face, trying to tune out his desperate cries to be listened to as he went back to bed.
——————————————————————
The next day, to Peter’s immense shock, he turned on the news to discover that there was in fact a meteor in the Starlight. Was the weird homeless guy… psychic? No, he couldn’t be, he was just some guy on drugs. Even a broken clock is right two times a day. Shrugging off the sense of doubt, Peter left the house, backpack slung over his shoulder, beginning his walk to school.
He hadn’t even left his neighbourhood when he encountered a group of people singing and dancing. At first he thought it was a flash mob, but then he saw another person as clueless as him being forced to join in with the dance. The person resisted, and actually landed a punch on one of the singers before they were tackled to the ground as some sort of blue shit was forced into their mouth. Pete only had a few seconds to watch this, mouth and eyes agape with panic, before somebody grabbed him and pulled him into a nearby alley.
It was the homeless man from last night, looking just as panicked as the night before. Shaking with terror, the man yelled:
“I told you! I told you it wasn’t no normal fuckin’ meteor! That guy’s dead, and so are the little flash mob.”
Peter nodded, unable to speak. He sat down on the concrete, heedless of the litter lining the alley. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was feeling faint - god, his blood sugar was low, and this was the worst time ever for that to happen. Weakly, Pete asked the homeless guy:
“What do we do?”
The man sat down next to Peter and lifted his hand, clearly debating whether or not to pat Pete’s shoulder. Eventually he decided to put his hand down again, and he said:
“We try to survive, I guess.”
Pete tried to smile and nod, but he was so panicked and faint-feeling that all he could do was groan awkwardly. This made the homeless man furrow his brow in concern, asking:
“What’s wrong, Petey?”
Peter sighed heavily and replied:
“Nothing, how do you know me anyway?”
The homeless man dismissed Pete’s question and said:
“I just do, okay? It’s your blood sugar, isn’t it?”
Peter nodded before opening his backpack, desperately scrambling for a chocolate bar or anything containing sugar that could boost his energy. After a minute or two of fruitless searching, the teen realised that he’d forgotten to pack anything, and he let out a cry of frustration, combing his fingers through his hair as he felt the beginnings of a migraine come on. The homeless man eyed the sugarless bag before glancing up at Pete, his gaze slowly travelling to the nearby coffee shop - Beanie’s. The place served cold coffee and shitty pastries, but they did sell hot chocolate…
At the same time, Pete and the homeless guy seemed to decide that Peter needed a hot chocolate to boost his blood sugar. Without a second thought, the homeless man ushered Pete towards Beanie’s urging him:
“Go get your hot chocolate, I’ll guard the door to make sure none of those musical freaks attack you- go, now!”
Knowing that this was for the best, Peter thanked the homeless man and ran into Beanie’s, forgoing manners in lieu of blurting out a blunt hot chocolate order to the overly chipper barista serving him. Peter recognised this woman, her name was Zoe Chambers and she loved musical theatre. But she was normally sardonic and disinterested, never greeting every customer with a blinding grin. But this strange behaviour didn’t really matter, Peter was solely focused on getting his hot chocolate.
As the teen sat down to drink his hot chocolate, he let his gaze wander to the window, watching the homeless man who was patiently standing guard. Pete didn’t know this man, but he owed him his life, and he was so thankful. The man noticed him looking, and raised an arm to wave… that was his fatal mistake. One of the singing people surged forward from the crowd and bit Peter’s saviour in the arm. Peter almost cried, but he couldn’t draw any attention to himself, so instead he winced, and sadly drank his hot chocolate, vowing to continue living both for himself and for the homeless man. Unfortunately, in his grief, he didn’t notice the odd texture of the hot chocolate…