"Hey, nice backpack." Julie was already at the usual lunch table, drinking some kool-aid from a reusable bottle. she LOVED the stuff, meanwhile, Nathaniel couldn't stand it. Julie also had a gross habit of mixing all the different powders into one 'super flavor'. when she'd shown him her creation for the first time, the taste was alright. Yet, it didn't stop from wreaking havoc on his stomach. He'd spent the whole night puking.
"Right? I got it from Professor Parker." he admired the backpack proudly, seeing the intricate designs and well-made material it was rafted from. It seemed like such a simple thing, to have a nice, well-made bag. Unfortunately, it was something he didn't often get.
It seemed wrong. To hide your economic status from everyone. When his uncle was still alive, they'd at least been able to afford groceries and electricity. Now, however, they relied on food stamps. Nathaniel was probably the only kid in the entirety of Midtown high who paid for his own phone bill. He scrounged up money in the oddest of places for the past four years, from fast food joints to under the table labor to babysitting to mowing lawns. At his lowest, he'd held a sign advertising a pizza place on a street corner for a few months. Whatever income he didn't use for school lunches and his phone, he'd pour into the apartment's bills.
It was strange not having his uncle around. they'd always been a team. He'd been more than an uncle. He was a mentor, he was a person he could tell anything to, hell, he was a father. Nathaniel's father was never around. He'd deserted his mother during her pregnancy, and left her alone with a newborn baby. No child support, no calls or birthday cards or gifts. His uncle had stepped up, helping his little sister and his baby nephew. He had admired him for that. their family was small, but they relied on each other.
That's why it had been such a shock when he had died.
He'd had a pain in his chest that morning. Nathaniel had tossed him a bottle of painkillers, and his mother had told him to ask the foreman to go home early that day. His uncle had gotten into the car, and drove away. thirty minutes later, they'd received the call. A man had suffered a heart attack while driving, crashing into a tree. Luckily, no one had been hurt in the collision. They couldn't afford a funeral, so he was cremated and now sat on a ledge in the living room, beside a picture of his uncle back in his glory days.
Sometimes, Nathaniel replayed the moment over and over in his head. In a perfect world, he would've told his uncle to rest or to go to a hospital. They would've called an ambulance. He wouldn't have just told him to take a pill and work it off. His mother would've paid for attention: they could've stopped it.
But it wasn't a perfect world. It was a shitty world. It was a world where good people died and thieves could live until they were one hundred years old. It made him sick to think about sometimes.
"Sorry I missed chem. Theresa would NOT get out of the bathroom. You know how the middle school starts like, an hour later. How privileged is that? I wish when we were in middle school we started at 9:45." Julie was sculpting a mountain out of her gluey mashed potatoes, but right now it was only a molehill. Nathaniel listened to Julie go on and on about middle school, her dad's new job, her brother's latest entrepreneurial venture with lemonade. She had this habit of talking, no matter who was or wasn't listening. Her voice, along with all the background noise had melted away, and he just watched her lips move as she talked.
How long had he liked her? It seemed like forever since they'd known each other. His thoughts of his uncle disappeared and were replaced by thoughts of Julie. Of course, they were best friends. everyone knew that. It was as real as gravity, or hating infomercials.
The ringing bell brought his Julie filled brain to a halt. She gave him a wave and ran toward the doors outside, heading to her art class in the next building. He smiled back at her, a warm genuine smile that made his heart beat fast. Nathaniel looked down at his hand, struggling to read the smudged writing that had only this morning been pristine. He had not memorized his classes yet, but he knew he definitely did not have a spare this period. Maybe he had put a paper copy in the bag? Professor Parker had handed out the schedules this morning. His hand moved like a tornado through the bag, searching through every nook and cranny. How could one backpack be like a bottomless pit? It seemed impossible.
Clink.
His hand had hit something, in some sort of back pocket. His grasp quickly found a small vial, capped by a rubber stopper. Nathaniel pulled the vial up to his face, examining the top of the stopper. It had tiny pin like holes decorating the rubber. For what? He lifted up the vial to see what was inside.
Climbing on the glass, seeming to look straight at him, was a tiny red spider.