The Orphan Club

Boston: A Tumble

It's 12 o'clock at night. Everyone is in their assigned bedroom, I will be sharing the basement futon and couch with Penelope who is already downstairs and has already selected the massive futon. Matty is on the living room couch, still ignoring me as I clean up the dishes from the day in the kitchen.

My mind keeps going back to the picture from the Gotcha article. I want to talk to Matty and ask him but maybe he doesn't remember. Or maybe he was just there, waiting for his brother, and never met Harry.

Just as I rinse the soap off the cupcake baking tray, Liam walks in.

"You're still up?" He yawns and makes his way to the fridge to get a bottle of water.

"Yeah, just cleaning up and getting some things ready for tomorrow. There are going to be more people here since it's a preplanned party." I sigh, but because I am tired but because my mind is still going a mile a minute. I can't take it anymore. "Was it Matty?" I blurt out. Liam, who still has a sip of water in his mouth, swallows fast.

He knows exactly what I am talking about because he says, "I am not sure. Matty came to dinner with me that day. Didn't sit with me because he 'didn't want to meet Robin's dumbass husband' but wanted to hang out with me after." Liam says putting aired quotes up. "Whatever happened, happened in the bathroom of the restaurant— both Matty and Harry were there at the same time."

"So it was him," I asked again.

"I don't know, but honestly I don't think so. When Harry came back, he acted totally normal and ignored me when I asked about his eye. I could have been—but no—after I dropped Harry to his car, and when back inside to get a drink with Matty, he was fine too.

"Can you two keep it down? I am trying to sleep and all I hear is you two yapping." Matty says, sticking his head into the kitchen entrance from the living room.

Liam shrugs and yawns again. "He is right. It's too late for this. Ask Matty if it's really bugging you, Rob. Sorry! Going to bed." Liam walks out from the same entrance that Matty's head is speaking from.

"Ask me what?" The head says to me.

"Nothing goes back to bed." I go back to scrubbing.

I hear Matty clear his throat. "Um, you should sleep too. It's late."

"I will." I go to put the now clean baking tray on the already full drying rack and the tray acts like the straw that broke the camel's back, causing everything to tumble down into the floor. This makes an atomic bomb level nosy. I stay frozen to make sure I don't cause any more noise. Once I am sure my blunder didn't wake anyone up, I bend down to pick up all the dishes that are now no longer clean. To my surprise, Matty appears in front of me and begins to help, also squatting down. One by one we collect the fallen Tupperware and creatively hold it in, tucking it where it fits.

When the last piece of utensils, a wooden spatula is all that's left we both grab each end and try to pull. Matty, clearly stronger than me, pulls me closer to him, causing both our haul of utensils to clatter down once more as I land on Matty's chest, while he remains unmoved. I want to move away but his chest feels warm, and I am lulled into laziness. It could be my imagination, but I think I hear his heartbeat fasten. His chest raises with an intake of breath but never comes down. Is he nervous because I am touching him? It's been a little over a year since we had any kind of contact, like this. I've only really seen him twice since we ended our sexcapade.

The awkward silence finally gets to me and I open my mouth to ask him exactly what's been going on in my head, "odd question," I say into his chest. "Have you ever met Harry?"

"Met is a confusing term. I've seen him before when he was working with Liam but we were never officially introduced." He finally exhales and is able to talk.