One night sucker asked pete “do you really love me like a brother?”.He just wanted to know if pete felt the same way towards him as he felt toward pete. Could you blame him he didn't know his parents because they died when he was very young and the could emotionally hurt a kid. I think all kids need to know someone loves them no matter how they are.
At the beginning of the story pete said “ a while back suckers parents died in a crash when he was young so we took him in.” That's how you know he wanted someone to love him like a mother and a