>>> reasons to live <<<

three

"you're late, mr.banner," mr. macclan drones as bruce enters the classroom. "i know, i'm sorry, sir. it won't happen again," bruce says, going to his usual seat. he is confused when he sees someone in it. "hey, i-" bruce begins but is cut off by his teacher, "we have switched seats, bruce. you are beside mr. odinson now." bruce scans the room and sees an empty seat-his seat, apparently- beside thor odinson. he holds back an eye roll as he walks over to his new seat. "so, as i was saying," mr. macclan begins as bruce sits down. "hello, banner," thor says and bruce rolls his eyes. bruce ignores thor as he brings out his notebook. he flips to an empty page and tries to listen to his math lesson. his mind wanders to his list and he takes another notebook out of his bag and flips to it. 'reasons to live,' bruce reads his writing again. his pencil hovers over the indentation of tony's name on the page.

before bruce knows it, the bell rings, signaling it's time for his next class. bruce closes both of his notebooks and shoves them in his backpack. thor stands up beside him and bruce looks over at him. thor odinson, member of the school football team, popular, part of a group that bruce could never join, even if he wanted to. even tony isn't quite as popular as thor, despite his charm. bruce stands up as thor walks off and tries not to think about how attractive he thinks thor is. nobody knows that bruce is gay, not even tony, but that's just one more reason why he hates himself.

bruce spends the rest of the day thinking about his list. he thinks about the five empty spaces and how he would have more success making a 'reasons not to live' list. he begins one in his head. 'one: noone would miss me. two: i wouldn't have to burden my mom anymore. three: same with tony. he would be better off without me. four: i am wrong. five: school and work are too stressful. six: i could be with my dad,' bruce's thoughts are interrupted as the last bell rings and he sighs. the bus does come until 3:20 so that gives him 20 minutes to change into his work clothes and eat. he changes into his work clothes and ignores his growling stomach. he has skipped lunch too and bruce wasn't sure why. after he changed, he headed to the bus stop and put in his earbuds.

his shift is uneventful for the first few hours and he waits his tables with ease. at about 9pm, bruce stops when he sees thor and some of his football teammates sitting in his section. he takes a deep breath and walks over to them, putting on his customer service voice, "hi, what can i get for you? can i get you started with drinks or appetizers?" "yeah, uh. we'll be havin- oh, banner, hey," thor recognizes bruce. bruce sighs, "hello, odinson. what can i get for you?" thor looks at his menu again, "can we please get four pepsis and some cheesesticks. two medium pepperoni pizzas, too." "sure. that'll be right out," bruce puts his customer service voice back on, taking their menus.

bruce tries to be civil towards the football players, but most of them treat him like trash. this is not new for bruce, because he works in food service and almost everyone he meets treats him like shit. what is new to bruce is thor's kindness and insistence that his friends treat bruce like a person. thor pays for their food and they leave. bruce walks over to bus the table and sees a $50 tip tucked underneath thor's cup. he gasps and picks the money up, noticing a note is stuck to it. he plucks it off and reads it. 'text me? - thor,' it read with thor's number scrawled underneath. bruce scoffs, 'of course he's pranking me. with the kindness and the tip. i should have known.' bruce wads up the note and throws it away then continues his shift.