Holiday With My Neighbour

25. Different Light

Savannah's POV

I just set fire to one of Theo's cars with Matt, and while it felt amazing in the moment, the feeling quickly fades.

As I'm sat in the passenger seat of Matt's car, I observe him as he casually lights up a blunt. "So, how do you feel now?" He inquires as he takes a drag.

"Fine." I lie. I still feel like shit. "You smoke now?" I ask, shifting the focus away from me.

"Sometimes."

"So, you drive high?"

"Sometimes. Anyway, what was your plan for that?" He gestures towards the warehouse. I'm guessing he's talking about the dents in the door.

"What do you think?" I dead the conversation. I don't want to talk about it.

"Did you really think ramming your car into it would work?" He teases with a smirk.

I glare at him and then notice the fresh bruises on his hands as he takes another puff. "How did you get those bruises?" I ask.

"How do you think?" He copies my response.

I smile as I roll my eyes. "Tell me." 

"Your ex." It's the first time someone has called Theo that. 

"You saw him?" 

"Yeah, at the house. Adam told me to collect some food to keep me out of the way, so when I came back and saw that fucker, you can imagine what happened."

"Ugh, I hate Adam, he's such a snake."

"Mm-hmm. But on a real, don't do stupid shit because of other people. If I didn't arrive in time, fuck knows what you would've done."

"Says the one who just set a car on fire."

"I can do that shit. I can get away with it. You can't. You'll only end up hurting yourself more than anything else. It's not worth it. The feeling will pass."

So now Matt's telling me what's right and wrong? I scoff in disbelief. "Don't act like you understand what I'm going through. You have no idea. You've never been in a relationship, what do you know about them?"

He shoots back, his brows furrowing. "Who told you that? I have."

This catches me off guard. "When?"

He clears his throat. "Long time back."

"Was it a serious one?" I inquire with curiosity.

"Yeah." He responds, taking more frequent drags of his blunt.

The idea of Matt being in a relationship is so hard to process. "Yeah, well, I bet it ended because you were cheating or something like that." 

Matt scoffs. "You have no idea." The way he says it is like he was the one who got hurt. 

"Was it a bad one?" I ask softly this time.

He takes a long drag of his blunt. "I guess."

"What happened?"

He holds eye contact and I stay patiently waiting for his response. Eventually, he clears his throat. "She just wasn't good for me, was she." 

"Okay, I'm sorry that happened to you." I decide not to push further for more details. This is so surprising - Matt is capable of loving someone.

"I did a lot of stupid shit because of her. I don't want you to make the same mistakes." He adds, hinting at the impact the relationship had on him.

Is he telling me that she's the reason he's like this? I love that he's opening up to me. It makes him seem human.