black treacle - matt sturniolo

Chapter Two, Liar Liar

Matt was a liar.

Firstly, he didn't hate pepperoni pizza. In fact, it was his favourite. How could you not love pizza?! It embraced his New York and Italian roots and it targeted all the major food groups - it truly was the perfect dish.

That being said, the only time it had ever disgusted him was watching his brother, Chris, fling the dough onto the ceiling during one of their rare attempts at cooking in the kitchen. It was precisely why they ate out.

He didn't want Robyn to feel tense during this meal. Not only did she have to eat with people she'd never met, which would've sent Matt into a panic, but she also had to eat with Chris and Nick.

If their faces were not identical, Matt would have been convinced that his parents, out of the goodness of their hearts, had adopted his brothers from a pack of wolves.

Saying 'wolves' was actually an understatement; at least wolves had a sense of independence and intelligence. Racoons defined them best. He and Justin were the only normal ones.

Next, he was the one who had written all those notes for Robyn. Matt correlated the notes with her publishing schedule so that she'd always have new material. Hell, the publicity was booming. But that's not why he did it.

While writing his first post-it, he noticed how terrifying it was to be on the receiving end. Imagine getting an anonymous note telling you to be at a certain location at a specific time.

The only solution Matt had was to sign it off with a smiley face. Sure, it could have been perceived as creepy, but what else could he do? He wasn't known for his planning skills.

There were plenty of opportunities where he could've taken those pictures and written articles that could've given him a one-way ticket to MIT. Still, Matt knew how much she wanted to get into Harvard, and in her words: "Elle Woods was wrong because it is hard, very hard."

So that's why he, instead, wrote a column about the best restaurants to eat at in New York.

He didn't count being Spider-Man as a lie because nobody had ever asked him about it. Nobody had suspected him - of course they didn't, why would they? - and he'd like to keep it that way for as long as he could.

At school, he spent his time either in the design and technology lab, at the newsroom, or in the cafeteria, either alone or with his brothers. Even in his classes, he stayed silent at the back and slipped out of class the second the bell rang.

Honestly, Chris suited Spider-Man a lot more than he did. The only person who had spoken to him voluntarily was Robyn and, behind the mask, he could talk to Robyn without becoming a flustered mess.

Only his brothers Chris and Nick knew about his vigilante alter ego, but that's because they were snooping in his room looking for blackmail only to find his suit not hidden well enough from his invasive brothers.

But he had lied to them about why he got delayed. Their plan was to be at Joe's Pizza waiting for Matt to change after he met with Robyn so he could finally spend time with her outside of the newsroom.

Nick didn't understand why he couldn't just ask her when they were together since she was obviously interested but complied with the unnecessary plan.

Matt told them that he was taking photos of the exterior for the paper and got distracted but in reality, he was investigating the deck of cards he had found in his backpack.

The shuffled deck had random letters painted on their backs. His first possible arch nemesis could trigger anxiety and guilt in the brothers as they, not to point any fingers, were the ones who had dared Matt to let the spider bite him.

So far he'd just been a friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man who helped with petty theft and crossing elders - not domestic terrorism.

Matt discarded the thoughts of the cards away. She'd just told him that she liked being with him and was now arguing about which Girl Scout cookie was the best, an unsavoury conversation topic that many did not dare to join.

For now, he would like to just live in the moment.

It didn't last very long because thoughts of the cards crept into his conscience. Much to his dismay, Matt blamed his migraine and excused himself from the table to go back to his room and examine the cards closer.

As of then, any words he could form just resulted in gibberish. Meanie? Coffee? Persimmon? Toying around with the cards, the light bulb above his head flickered. Matt began arranging the cards based on the order of rank starting with the row of clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades from Ace to the King. He then flipped them over to reveal the message.

SPIDER-MAN, COME FIND US IF YOU DARE

"Find us?" Matt asked, disgruntled, "You're not even going to give me a map or something?"

He looked at the sprawled-out cards again and noticed that the only untainted cards were Spades. The ten, Ace, Jack, Queen and King.

But what the fuck did that mean?

His thoughts carried on the next day he sat in the newsroom, eyes strained from staring at the five cards, and the glare from the monitor certainly didn't help. Matt didn't bother turning it off because, knowing himself, it was just karma for not seeing what was under his nose the whole time. When Robyn entered, he gave her a weak nod before returning to the cards.

"I didn't know you played poker," Robyn's smile was audible as she peered over his shoulder, looking at the cards in front of him. The evidence was stored and hidden safely in his room away from Chris and Nick's grubby hands, the cards he had were just a deck he bought to fidget with for the time being.

"Oh-" Matt hesitated, he didn't want to lie but it would be embarrassing to confess that his only knowledge of cards was Uno. What else could he say to explain it? In the corner of his eye, he spotted the newspaper print framed on the wall. "I was just thinking about my next article, places for... card lovers to visit..?" The pause ensuing after Matt's lie worsened his anxiousness.

"You should put Flushing in, just for the pun." Robyn reached towards his computer and began searching up different places she thought suited his article. Matt turned to face her dumbfounded and arched his brow, trying his best to ignore how dangerously close their faces were.

"Like a royal flush in poker? You know, a ten, jack, queen, king, ace?" She released a breath in a mocking laugh. He felt the heat of her breath hit his cheek, warmth tingling on his skin until he was convinced his whole face was covered in a rose-coloured balm. "You're writing an article for card lovers but don't even know basic card lingo?"

It was like hitting a brick wall. "Robyn," he breathed, "you're a genius."

"What do you mean? Matt?"

He could have leapt over the table and kissed her right then.

Grabbing his backpack, Matt leapt out of his seat and dashed to the door, "I'll see you tomorrow!"

The door slammed behind him, echoing through the nearly-empty corridor - but that didn't matter.

For now, he had some cards to deal with.