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Teddy understood Phil like no one else did. He saw Phil, and they both knew that. They spent their weekends and hours after school before dinner at each other's houses, talking about everything but still nothing at all. They read comics about dumb, scrapped superheroes that Phil somehow found super cool. Teddy never really understood why, but then again, he also never got why Phil believed in aliens. Phil was just Phil, uniquely him. And that's what made him so admirable for Teddy, the things that Phil did that other people found weird. Phil's theories would range from there are aliens everywhere, scouting to see who they can abduct, to the aliens are pretending to be our dogs and hiding in our homes to observe us.
To Teddy, it wasn't weird. It was never weird, it was just..different. Phil was just different.
But Teddy was especially different. He was a Jewish kid in 1962. In the small town of Derry, Maine. It wasn't exactly the best time period for him. He didn't have it as bad as the other Jewish kids had it. He didn't get whispered about; rumours spread about him, or socially isolated. He always blended into the background, just there. It was easy to notice him in the hallways if you were really looking, cause all you had to look for was the tall, black-haired boy in a blue polo, and right next to him was always Teddy. Phil never blended as well as Teddy did; he was loud, funny, optimistic, and most of all? Unapologetic.
Phil never apologised for being himself, not to anyone. “I can’t help it, it’s in my blood, Teds. I’m a Malkin!” He used to say, whenever Teddy told him to keep his voice down, whispering frantically about volume control. Phil never believed in lowering his voice level, cause he didn’t wanna let anyone tell him what to do.
He’d whisper to Teddy during assemblies, “Look at this. It’s bull. Forced conformity.” Phil also stayed silent during the pledge, never saying a word. He got shit for it, but in his eyes, it was 100% worth it, so he never stopped.
The Malkin house, 4:23 PM
They were hanging out at Phil’s, Teddy doing his science homework, Phil reading a comic by the window. “Hey, Phil?” Teddy said, breaking the comfortable silence that had passed over the room like a fog neither of them noticed. “Um, what do you wanna be? Like, when we finally get out of here. Out of Derry.” He asked, hoping Phil wouldn’t say ‘dunno, what do you wanna be, teds?’ or something like that. Phil looked up, and Teddy saw a flicker of confusion pass over the taller boy's face for a moment before Phil seemed to settle on an answer. “An astronaut.” He answered, with that all too familiar confidence Phil seemed to always speak with, like he was so certain about every word out of his mouth. Teddy nodded, letting himself think about another question, but something else caught his attention- A joke. “So you can finally test your alien theory for real?” Teddy asked with a smile, ‘real’ ending with a small, breath of air kind of laugh. Phil nodded, “Yep, Astronaut Malkin, sounds cool, doesn’t it?” Which, true, Astronaut Malkin was a pretty cool name for an older Phil to have.
Once Phil went back to his comic, Teddy put his pencil down, needing to get an answer for his next question before Phil got bored. “Sorry for all the questions. But- I was just wondering..why don’t you like Lily Bainbridge? She's pretty, she’s nice.” Teddy trailed off, but got back to what he was saying. “She just seems pretty cool. I don’t get why you don’t like her.” Phil looked back up, thinking. He didn’t have anything against Lily; it was just that Teddy seemed so interested in her lately. Phil didn’t get what was so special about her. He was a little jealous, yeah. But he didn’t know why.
“It’s not that I don’t like her, I just-” Phil sighed, running a hand through his hair, the comic lying on the windowsill in front of him. How was he meant to tell Teddy he was jealous of Lily? “I don’t know, okay?”
They’d known eachother since the first grade. Teddy knew when Phil lied. “Cross your heart and say you swear.” Teddy challenged, if Phil was lying, he’d say nothing. Neither of them ever dared to break their blood pact from the fourth grade.
“I guess I just don’t get what's so good about her. What do you even see in Lily anyway?” The burning question itched at the back of Phil’s throat, ‘What does she have that I don’t, Teds?’ but he didn’t dare ask it. If he was being honest, Phil didn’t even know himself when he started feeling so jealous of Lily; it wasn’t like she was taking Teddy away from him, it was just shared looks in the halls. So why did his chest feel tight whenever he saw it?
Teddy always got defensive in conversations like these, so he snapped back with more bite in his tone than needed. “I don’t know, Phil. I just like her. What do I need permission to have a crush?”
A crush. Teddy actually liked this girl? Phil narrowed his eyes, “What? No, that's not what I’m saying, I’m just saying- I don’t- I don’t get what you see in Loony Lily, I mean- I mean she’s crazy! She’s batshit!” The room went silent after Phil said that. Yeah, a little too far.
“Well, not everyone can be as perfect as you, Phil. God, you’re so jealous.” Teddy rolled his eyes and grabbed his bag. “Teds, wait, I didn’t-” Phil tried to get him to stay; he was never good at apologies, so a ‘sorry’ wasn’t coming until it sank in how bad he really messed up this time. Phil always apologised with gifts, but this time he didn’t know what to give Teddy to make this right.
But while rummaging through his old comics, he found it.
The special edition of Teddy’s favorite comic series ever. Perfect.