Page 26 of Never Landing

“You won’t ever be too much for me. It’s okay for this to be hard. It’s going to be. But I don’t mind hard things, Peter. You’re worth it. Always have been.” He smiled at me like he meant it, and I blinked too fast and looked down at the plate.

So he held out another taco, and I wasn’t going to say no to that.

“You are the best thing that’severhappened to me, Peter. Ever. There’s been some other good stuff, but nothing that even compared to how happy you make me.”

I blinked. But he’d gone out and done somuch. “Are you serious?”

“Completely. You’re—I care about you, a lot. We have fun, and you always listened to me, and you’re so fucking smart. I want to talk to you all the time. You have no idea how many times I’ve wished I could just call you and talk to you about stuff that happened to me or—or just hear how you were doing.”

“I—” I twisted the edge of the blanket between my thumb and first finger. “I didn’t realize you missed me that much.”

“Well, I did. All the time. I don’t ever want to lose you like that again. But I know this is hard and I—I maybe did something? I think it’ll be good, but if you’re not ready, I totally get it.”

I reached out and took the taco from him to finish off the second one. “What’d you do?”

“I called someone we can talk to. I think they can help. If you want to, we can go tomorrow. It’ll just be talking, nothing major,and if you don’t like it, we don’t have to go again, but they help lost children—kids who come back.”

“Okay,” I said, taking another bite.

“Okay?” He seemed to doubt I meant it.

I shrugged, a weak smile on my face. “Talking to somebody can’t hurt. Who is it?”

I expected to feel stranger, walking into a building with my name on it, but it wasn’t reallymyname. I was just Peter, not Peter Hawking. Weirdly, I didn’t want to take the guy’s life away from him.

I’d always wanted this one, with Everett. Peter Hawking could keep his.

It was a little weirder to sit on a couch beside Everett, looking at Dr. Liza Hawking, whose hair was the same shade as mine, whose eyes were a familiar hazel.

“It’s really nice to meet you, Peter,” she said, her voice calm and placid, almost comforting. “And you, Everett. Peter’s lucky to have a friend to help him through this transition.”

Everett swallowed. His face went pink.

I reached for his hand. “Everett’s my best friend. The very best.”

I felt better when he squeezed my hand back.

Dr. Hawking nodded. “That’s wonderful. Is he why you came out of the forest?”

I bit my lip, looking down at my lap, not sure how to answer that. When I was silent for a long time, Everett spoke up.

“I lived in Cider Landing for about four years when I was a kid. Peter found me in the woods, and that was it. We clickedimmediately. Back then, I didn’t even realize there was anything different about him.”

When I looked up, Dr. Hawking was looking Everett square in the eyes, nodding. “That’s pretty normal around here. Sometimes kids will find friends their parents think are imaginary. They’re the kids in the forest. When you’re playing, everything seems so normal.”

“We grew up together,” I said, “but then?—”

“My family moved,” Everett continued when I stumbled.

“And I got stuck again.”

“And when was that?” Dr. Hawking asked.

“When I was fourteen,” Everett said.

“You too, Peter?”

I nodded.

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