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It’s not like Ralph actively sought out Piggy. They just happen to be together more often than not.
And to his defense it was the bigger boy who would follow him around like a lost puppy that couldn’t take a hint.
Would anyways…
Recently their dynamic has taken a shift, though he wasn’t sure why. When Ralph declared to the boys that he was off to do something, Piggy would no longer jump at the chance to accompany him.
In fact, he didn’t seem particularly interested in anything he was doing or saying for the matter.
The nerdy boy who would often stick his nose where it wasn’t needed, speak logically despite the criticism of others and who was always quick to defend Ralph at meetings would now no longer even even participate in them!
When he first met the fat boy all Ralph wanted to do was find a way to make him shut up as it seemed all he did was ramble about what the one considered nonesense, but the new quiet Piggy made his skin crawl.
When he had first noticed the silence of the bigger kid he thought to himself ‘good riddance’ but as days turned into weeks he couldn’t shake the off feeling itching at the back of his mind.
Not to mention it had now become clear to him that he had seemingly taken advantage of just how much Piggy would actually assist him in meetings.
When the boys would ask Ralph a question he couldn’t answer he no longer had a crutch to lean onto in these awkward instances. When the littluns were scared he no longer could give a logical explanation to reassure them.
He wasn’t even sure he could come up with a logical explanation to reassure himself.
Even though Piggy’s rational talk would more often than not bore him to death, he did have to admit….the smartass was usually right about things.
Rationality was reassuring. He missed the reassurance that came with him it.
Plus now that Piggy wasn’t jumping at his feet to do task with him he’d have to do the labor with one of the other boys.
Roger had a presence that would creep him out and he would always be accompanied by his friend Maurice.
Maurice was much better than his eery and quiet friend, as Ralph found him quite funny but the duo would eventually lose interest of the task at hand and run off to do their own thing leaving all the work up to him.
He had worked with Simon a few times but he was pretty disappointed.
For some reason when he first saw the boy he was given the impression that Simon would be similar to his second favorite character Peterkin from the book Coral Island. (His first favorite being the character Ralph, for obvious reasons).
He even thought that maybe the two, along with Jack could complete the trio from coral island.
He was gravely mistaken.
He and Jack would always end up in an argument one way or another. The worst instances being some nasty fist-fights they had gotten themselves into.
This saddened Ralph as he initially thought the two would be great friends just like his favorite book characters in Coral Island with their same names had been.
He flushed at the childish thought.
Unlike Peterkin who was an outgoing humorous character, Simon was much more shy.
He rarely went out his way to make conversation it’s almost like he wanted to remain invisible from the other boys. Ralph would catch him wandering the island by himself and sometimes even talking to the small creatures like lizards. ‘He’s batty’ the blonde would think to himself.
Besides that, Ralph did have to admit Simon seemed to be the most genuinely kindest and nurturing out of all of them as he was always there to aid the littluns and even the older boys when injured. Plus he actually helped Ralph get task done even when he didn’t ask for it.
SamnEric were helpful boys too but being brothers proved their connection much stronger often making Ralph feel left out as they talked about inside jokes and stories from their lives back home.
There were many other boys of course like Bill, Robert, Henry ect. but none of them held his interest for long.
So instead he chose to do task mostly by himself as long as it didn’t actively need a second or third party.
Wait. He paused. That would mean he found Piggy remotely interesting. Which can’t be true. How can a kid who rambles on about science or candies be a candidate of his interest.
That would mean he actually enjoyed the fat kids company. He pushed the silly thought aside.
He’s just unwillingly gotten used to the boys presence since Piggy used to practically chase him around everywhere. That’s all.
“What you doing out here?”
Ralph jumped at the unexpected voice.
With that, it had just become apparent to him that he completely forgotten about his task at hand and was mindlessly wandering the island.
Oh god, he was becoming just as weird as Simon.
Speaking of the mysterious boy, he was actually the one who had happened to startle the blonde.
The tanned boy winced at Ralph’s reaction
profusely apologizing.
“Oh…what I’m doing out here?” He repeated the latters question. “I’m…”
What was he doing out here again? For some reason he’s been getting more and more forgetful. He frowned.
Simon smiled kindly as if he understood Ralph’s predicament which made him feel uneasy. “If you’re looking for Piggy, he’s by the tide pools watching the littluns. I was helping him until-“
Ralph rudely cut off the speaking boy. “Why would you think that?” He nearly snarled but wasn’t sure why he was so upset.
Maybe because the boys words had some truth to them and he had actively been caught red handed.
Simon faltered. “Just a…guess.” He recoiled into himself nervously.
Ralph relaxed feeling guilty. “I’m just getting leaves and wood to build up on our shelters.” He looked down at his arms that were so full of these items that he was practically hugging the bundle trying to hold everything together.”
Yesterday had been a particularly windy night, destroying fragments of the shelters.
“Looks like you’ve got enough.” The boy stated matter of factly.
“Maybe…” Ralph’s voice faltered feeling embarrassed from being caught and his excuse clearly not working.
But Simon was a kind soul. Maybe too kind for a pre teen boy. “I can help you carry some of those back that way you can collect more.”
“Oh. Thanks a lot, Simon.” Ralph smiled gratefully at the perhaps crazy but kind kid and handed him half of the pile in his arms.
Simon flushed and scrambled off stammering things like ‘no worries’ but the blonde only laughed at this. Just Simon’s typical nonsensical nonesense.
He was a bit weird but at least he was amusing. The strange boy was growing on Ralph.
Yet, Simon’s words stuck to him. He was in fact looking for Piggy…but why?
The question didn’t matter though as his legs seemed to have a mind of their own already knowing where they were headed.
———
When Ralph arrived near the tide pools there were multiple littluns running around on the sand and or collecting seashells.
On the further end nearer to the shore were the actual tide pools where a few younger boys were splashing in the water and Ralph didn’t miss the glimpse of red clothing of the boy crouched over the water watching over the little kids.
He marched on over to him.
Oh god, why was he doing this. He didn’t even know what he planned to say. Hi? That’s just weird. The truth? Worse!
Sometimes he wishes he thought things through but it was always too late by the time he thought of that.
Piggy startled at the blondes presence when he realized someone was looming over him. “R-Ralph you scared me! For a second I thought you were Jack, creeping over me like that and all.”
The blonde rolled his eyes. “If I were Jack you would’ve been drenched in the tide pool by now.”
There was a beat of silence before they both begun to laugh simultaneously at the grim but honest joke. Ralph forgot how good it felt to laugh with someone.
The laughter fell and there was an awkward silence between the boys.
Piggy broke it. “Did you come looking for me? Is there a problem?”
“U-Um looking for you…? No, I just—“ Ralph stuttered out unsure how to explain his predicament as he wasn’t even sure of it himself.
How was he supposed to explain that for some reason he genuinely wanted to see the nerdy guy.
“Actually, there is a problem.” Is what he stupidly settled on.
The boy below him raised a concerned brow.
“My problem is…” He pondered. “My problem is that you just sit around all day and leave me to do all the work!”
He said that a bit too passionately than he intended and a few of the littluns were now staring at him.
Piggy’s face twisted in confusion and then that quickly morphed into mild annoyance . “You never ask me to help you.“ He deadpanned.
The blonde had no response to that because, as usual Piggy was right.
“Plus,” The bigger boy continued voice rising. “The times I would come along to help you, you would act all annoyed with me. Like I was some sort of bother.” He pointed an accusing finger at him.
Ralph’s ears burned in embarrassment faced with the consequences of his actions. He always thought that Piggy just couldn’t take a clue at first but it seemed like he was wrong. But now that he did…Ralph couldn’t say he enjoyed it as much as he initially thought he would.
“Not to mention,” Piggy went on ranting. “When the other boys pick on me you laugh with them! You’re not nice.”
Okay, well now Ralph was pissed. What was this guy being so sensitive about! Sure he had his moments where making fun of Piggy was funny but for the most part he would like to say he would mostly defend him.
Well less so defend more so drag attention towards something else but that counts!
“Well, fine then.” Ralph spit out his word coldly with venom. “This way you won’t constantly be in my way to slow me down.”
Now it was Piggy’s face that burned in anger. He begun to retaliate but the blonde cut him off.
“And don’t except me to help you out when Jack is picking on you anymore.” He crossed his arms.
The bigger boy hesitated at this and Ralph actually felt a little bad but for some reason he felt betrayed by the boy even if he had brought this upon himself. Not like he’d admit to that out loud though.
Now all the littluns had stoped what they were doing to watch the scene unfold. The air was thick with tension, pent up resentment and betrayal from both of them. For some reason Ralph couldn’t help but think that it felt more like a break up than a friendship spat.
He expected to be yelled at by the fatter boy. He deserved it. He was being unreasonable. And it looked like the other boy was thinking about it until he turned his back to him.
“You’re not a good friend, Ralph.” Was all Piggy uttered out until completely giving the blonde the cold shoulder.
And Ralph couldn’t say anything more to that.
——
It had been nearly two weeks since that argument. Since then they both have actively gone out of their way to avoid one another.
The only time they would ever run into each other was at night as they both along with SamnEric all shared a shelter.
But even then their run ins were rare as Ralph went out of his way to go to bed an hour later than usual that way when he went to bed the fatter boy would already be asleep.
At first the tension between the two went unnoticed by the rest of the boys. The only person who brought it up to Ralph being Simon but he had just dismissed it.
It wasn’t until one day in the morning, Eric had caught the blonde glaring daggers at a sleeping Piggy that things got out of hand.
To say the least, he told his brother about it and the news ended up spreading fast.
“Break up with your boyfriend?” Jack had commented loudly raising laughter from a few of his friends.
“Shut up, Jack.” He scowled.
“About time if you ask me. That fatty was nothing but annoying. The way he was always following you around was pathetic. I’m not sure why you let him do that for so long. It’s about time you kicked him to the curve.” The ginger cackled.
“It’s not like that…”
The red headed boy wrinkled his nose. “You see Ralph this is why you’re a terrible chief and why I should’ve been it. You’re weak. Why can’t you just admit the fatty is a useless deadweight who-“
Ralph didn’t really process what was happening until he physically felt his fist connect with the freckled boys face.
There was a beat of silence by eveyone around. Until there wasn’t.
It didn’t take long for that to turn into a bigger fight and suddenly there was a crowd surrounding the two yelling ‘fight fight fight!’
That didn’t matter though as the only person Ralph deeply wished would’ve been there to seen it wasn’t there.
——
Ralph stared at the grand mass of ocean in front of him. The thing separating this island from civilization. From home.
He wasn’t sure why he threw that punch. He wasn’t sure whether it was because Jack was attacking him or because he was attacking Piggy. He didn’t even really want to think about it for long because deep down he knew why.
He missed his friend.
If he could even call him that anyways. He never really thought about their relationship status up until Piggy made that ‘you’re not a good friend’ comment.
Acquaintances felt like too little. Espically with what they had built up over time. Companion? No that’s just sounds strange. So friend it was. He smiled at the word as he was even starting to like the sound of it.
The fatter boy was certainly being a friend to him all those times but Ralph can’t say with confidence that he was as well.
Piggy was not a typical friend Ralph would make back home. In fact, Piggy was the type of kid the blonde would go out his way to not acknowledge. Which to be fair was his initial plan.
But as time passed on the island, Piggy seemed to have had a determination to stick with Ralph. Perhaps partially due to the fact that Ralph was the only one Jack seemed to have a bit of respect for, and sticking by him would be the logical choice to avoid being picked on. But the blonde didn’t mind. His enjoyed the responsibility that came with it as the fact Piggy looked up to him enough for that job made his chest fill with pride.
At first what was a nuisance to him slowly started blossoming into a comforting friendship.
He had just happened to realize it too late, like he did most things .
“Ralph are you okay?”
His heart raced at the familiar voice and he turned around reluctantly.
It was the boy who was the reason for his current doubtful thoughts and the bruises on his knuckles..
Ralph couldn’t process this. “Um…what?” Was all he could stammer out feeling whip lashed at the irony of the situation.
Piggy fidgeted nervously. “Simon told me what happened between you and Jack.”
Ralph wanted to make a mocking remark, asking when did Simon and Piggy get so buddy-buddy but he held his tongue.
“Oh.” The blonde hesitated. For some reason it’s been getting harder and harder to talk to his former friend. “I’m fine.” He stared at the bruises and scratches on his legs and picked at a scar until it scabbed to distract himself. Some injuries had been from Jack, some from the island and some from back home.
There was so much more they both wanted to say but were too immature to.
He heard the crunching of the sand as the larger boy begun to walk away. ‘Good riddance.’ He tried to convince himself.
“Wait.” Came a voice that he didn’t recognize as his own until Piggy had paused turning to face him again.
The next words that came out his mouth were unbelievably more shocking.
“I’m sorry…for you know….everything I guess.” He bit back all his pride to get those words out and was humiliated when Piggy just stared at him dumbfounded.
Why did he say that? He probably made things more weird between them! He internally kicked himself.
“Shit, sorry that was a bad apology-“
“No it wasn’t!” Piggy cut him off a bit too loud and rushed but the blonde was just happy he was talking to him.
The bigger boy continued. “I mean it kind of was bad but…I get it.” He nodded understanding.
Ralph smiled sincerely up at his friend. For as long as he had met the boy they’ve always been able to read each other with just a glance and he was glad that that hadn’t changed between them.
“So…” The blonde started. “Are we cool?”
Piggy paused before smiling. “Yeah, we’re cool.”
They went on informing each other about all the things they didn’t talk about when they weren’t on speaking terms.
Ralph told tales of how it was to rely on the other bigguns and Piggy talked about the nonesense the littluns got themselves into.
They spoke freely and calmly all former tension they might’ve had completely released.
They didn’t talk about the argument they had. They didn’t talk about how Ralph defended Piggy. They didn’t talk about the apology. They didn’t have to. Because they understood each other and that’s what mattered.