When they got to the restaurant Nate was already there and so was Christie, his girlfriend, right by his side. Matthew smiled. Finally those two were happy and together. “Hey Matt, it’s good to have you back” she greeted and then looked at the other two “Joe, Stella” and simply smiled at them.
The lunch was even funnier than the blue eyed boy had imagined, and he was more grateful than ever for having people having his back like they were.
And just like this he was lost in his thoughts, could no longer hear the voices of the people surrounding him, and he looked outside. It was a sunny day. He wondered where his father was. He wondered if he was able to hear him. And even though the was one he knew for sure was that no matter what he would look out for him he wasn’t able to hold back some tears.
No one seemed to notice his absence from the conversation except for the red-haired girl, Stella. She softly grabbed his hand that was covered in bruises to gain his attention. “And you?” she chucked. Matthew felt embarrassed when they all turned to him expecting an answer when he didn’t even know what they were talking about. But thankfully Joe suddenly said something and he asked Stella more discreetly “What were you talking about?”.
“Plans for the summer” she giggled and then she asked him if he had any. “I think I’ll stay here, just relaxing, chilling.”
“You mean fighting” she cut off his answer “You think I don’t know that you won’t stop. Just try not to get yourself killed.” Stella stated as she looked into his eyes. After saying that, she just turned to the others and started talking.
“Matt, we were thinking about going out tonight, are you coming with us?” Nathaniel asked and although he sounded very pumped about the idea he was also almost sure about having ‘No.’ as an answer, so when a “Yeah, I’m in.” came out of Matt mouth he could not believe it. “I’m so buying you something tonight!” he almost shouted and a huge grin was now on his face. “Where do you wanna go?” he asked excited.
“Anywhere except ‘Dirty Dancing’” he said in his normal tone, no signs of either happiness or angry feelings in his voice.
"We could go to this cool disco I know here, the music is cool and it's super glamorous" Stella said and it was clear that she was excited.
“How long have you and Nate been together?” Stella suddenly asked Christie while the boys started to talk about sports.“Technically 2 years and 8 months, but we broke up, and we’ve only been together for 3 weeks now” she smiled, and it was easy to know how happy she was.
“Matthew told me something about that” Stella said but Christie quickly cut her “Matthew told you? Damn that’s new, Matt never tells anything to anyone!” she said and turned to the boys “Matthew! Stella said you told her about your lovely bitchy ex, wanna tell me anything?” she almost yelled although the boy was sitting just across the table. “No, I had taken way too many pills that night, I would tell it to pretty much everyone that asked” he said and laughed just like all the others in the table.
After paying and leaving the restaurant they all agreed to order some pizza’s and although Matthew’s didn’t exactly volunteer to give his house the others basically convinced him that it was in fact the closest to the disco so it was easier if they all had dinner there.
On his way home with Joe and Stella he ended up telling that his house was a mess and that he would most likely spend the rest of week cleaning it, his tone was a mix of panic and mocking which made the siblings laugh a lot.
“I guess I could help you if you want” Stella suddenly said “I won’t be doing anything in the afternoon anyway”. Despite not loving the idea at first he ended up accepting because truth be told, his house was a mess and any help would be needed.
“I would help too but there’s this girl who asked me to help her with math” and as Joe said that Matthew started laughing and the siblings looked at him not realising what was so funny “Oh, c’mon, we are on vacations, there’s something else going on isn’t there?” he said mockingly, “We’re here” he said as they approached the house. Joe said his goodbyes and while he opened the front door he started warning her what a mess his house looked like and once she got in it was easy to tell what he was talking about. The kitchen floor was covered with broken pieces of almost everything and there were white-reddish towels on the sofa. “I see you have been going through some difficult times” she said as she picked up the towels “Where is the washing machine?” Stella asked and the boy, who was picking up some garbage off the ground pointed to a door that she soon realised led to the laundry room, and that one had been untouched, looked clean and new, making it look like it wasn’t part of the same house.
It was three o’clock and they had finished cleaning every bit of both his chaotic living room, kitchen and bathroom making it look like a different place.
But then Stella reminded the obvious, they were missing the bedrooms. There was a clear “No that” look on Matthew’s face but Stella was still cleaning the hall’s mirror and wasn’t able to see that, so she said it again “Matthew, we’re just missing the bedrooms”. And so he was forced to say something “It’s getting late, I can do that no worries really! You’ve already done so much”
She didn’t really pay attention to him though and made her way to the two closed doors at the end of the hall yet as obvious as it seems she didn’t know which one was his room. Her hand was already on the doorknob when she asked “Is this one yours? May I?”, but then she saw Matthew’s face and seemed pale and he just wouldn’t say a word. “Hey Matthew, look I’m sorry. I didn’t think” she said as she walked closer to him again “Do you want a glass of water?” She then asked noticing he really wasn’t feeling well he just nodded and before she went to the kitchen held his hand and helped him to the living room. Stella came back soon after and sat by his side waiting for him to say something.
The words came out of his mouth seconds after but it was a merely “Sorry ‘bout this, I’m fine now though!” And even though it was clear as the water he was drinking that it was a lie she pretended to buy it.
“Thank you for today really, I don’t think I remembered what it feels to live in a place that actually smells nicely and looks like a home” He said and she clearly got that it was the queue for her to leave. “No worries! Anytime” She said playing along because it was more than clear that he didn’t want to say a word about what had happened.
She left his house around four and made her way home so she could take a quick shower and change clothes, and even though he offered her a ride home as a thank for helping him, she said she’d rather walk. He ended up pulling her into a hug before she left “Thank you” he said, and right there she could feel he was thankful.
When the bell rang at first Matthew was still getting ready, he opened the door only a few seconds later with a plain oxford shirt some black jeans and shoes instead of his usual sneakers which wasn’t very usual of him.
Stella walked in like she had been waiting for hours “Damn why did it took you so long?”. He laughed as he greeted her brother at the door “I took like 5 seconds, I was getting ready”.
He then realised how pretty she looked. The blue sleeved dress she was wearing did not only look amazing on her, but it also worked as a contrast between her pale skin and red hair. She had her hair over one shoulder, curled, as usual. And the fact that her eyes were shinning with excitement seemed like it had filled the room with joy. Before he actually said something Joe started talking about how his afternoon had been and eventually Nate and Christie arrived with the pizzas.
“You two did a brilliant job here, I have to say” Nathaniel said looking around while eating “This was the biggest chaos I’d ever seen, and now it actually looks like a proper house” he said “Well I kinda said the same” Matt admitted and they all laughed.
They left home only to head straight to the disco, agreeing that it would be better to take a cab – or two, the girls pointed out – and after waiting outside for it, they talked and laughed just like normal young adults, like people who were truly happy. And anyone who saw them would think that life was easy, but any of them knew that it was not.