Bruised

Chapter 6

When they got to the restaurant Nate was already there and so was his girlfriend, Christie was 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 that had his back.
Soon he was lost in his thoughts, he could no longer hear the voices of the people surrounding him, and he looked up, at the sky. It was a sunny day. He wondered where his father was. He wondered if he was able to hear him. But he knew for sure that no matter what he would look out for him. His eyes were now filled with tears.

 No one seemed to notice his absence from the conversation except to the girl on his left side. Stella. She softly grabbed his hand that was covered in bruises to gain his attention. “And you?” she giggled. Matthew got 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 turned to Stella “What were you talking about?”.

“Plans for the summer” she laughed not to loud and then she asked him if he had any. “I think I’ll stay here, just relaxing, chilling”

“You mean fighting” she cut his answer “You think I don’t know that you won’t stop” she said looking away “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. This time Matthew was listening and even talked sometimes, which wasn’t very normal.

“Matt, we were thinking about going out tonight, are you coming with us?” Nathaniel asked and although he knew he was enthusiastic he was also almost sure about the ‘no’ as an answer, so when a “yeah” 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.

Christie started talking to Stella and the boys quickly realised that they were not included in the conversation, so they ended up talking about motorcycles, a love they all shared.

The girls on the other hand discussed make up and fashion and daily problems, but soon they were talking about boys. “How long have you and Nate been together?” Stella asked and the other girl looked at her boyfriend for a second “well, 3 weeks” but soon she added “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 agreed at first they all decided that his home was the closest to the disco so they would meet 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.