The Unwanted Ones - Book One

Chapter Four

After school I go home. When I get there the house is empty, since my parents are both at work. I do some housework, washing dishes and sweeping floors. Then I decide to get some homework done.

Five minutes into my calculus homework I give up, completely bored out of my mind. A feeling of restlessness has completely taken hold of me. So I get up and get dressed, deciding to go into town.

I pull on an old pair of jeans, ones that are ripped at the knees and frayed on the edges. I shrug on my warmest hoody since it's chilly out there. We live in the territory of Massachusetts so it's chilly nearly all the time. It's November now so this time of year is especially cold.

I walk out the house, listening to the familiar sound of leaves crunching beneath my feet, and head over to town. It's busy and loud by the town square, the perfect place to do one of my favorite things: people watch.

I go from one stand to the next. The town square has lots of them, at each one there are people selling their wares. I'm not planning on buying anything but it's nice to look.

I watch as people wall around, trading and buying and talking. And then I walk right into someone and stumble backwards.

A hand graps at my arm, stopping me from falling.

I look up and see Matt looking at me, smiling.

"Hey there," he chuckles as I steady myself. "Who would've guessed that I'd run into you here?"

I can feel the heat rising to my cheeks in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I was distracted," I say, looking away from him. I seem to have a penchant for uncomfortable situations. 

"Yeah, I noticed," he says good naturedly.

We start walking together side by side. His arms swing casually by his sides while I have mine folded across my chest.

"So Alex, what brings you here?" Matt asks me.

"People watching, " I say before thinking. It's the truth, after all. 

"Really?" he asks incredulously.

"Well yeah," I say defensively. "People are interesting to watch."

"Yeah, that's true," he says with a nod. He turns and looks at me, holding my gaze.

"So why are you here?" I inquire.

"Just picking up some stuff for the house," Matt tells me. He starts to go over towards a stand that sells tools and I go with him, having already matched his stride.

"Uh, do you have any wrenches Stan?" he asks the vendor. The stout man nods, and turns to look for a wrench.

"A wrench?" I say to Matt.

"Yeah, don't know what happened to ours, and there's a pipe that needs fixing." he explains to me, leaning against the stand so that he can fully face me.

"You're going to fix it?" I ask.

"Well don't sound so surprised," he retorts, holding up his hands. "These are the hands of an accomplished workman."

I laugh at that, and he smiles. "Is that why they keep you around?" I ask. 

He shakes his head ruefully. "Possibly, I never thought of it that way."

Stan taps Matt's shoulder with the wrench, and he turns around so that he can pay.

We then walk over to another stand that sells fruits.

As Matt picks and pays for fruits we talk more.

"So, Angela is your aunt?" I ask.

"Yeah, she took me in when my folks passed. Influenza." he tells me.

"I'm so sorry," I say, reaching out and touching his hand. Without thinking, I hold it, and he looks at me.

"I was young when it happened, so I don't remember them very well. But it's okay. It could have turned out much worse." Matt says. He's still holding my hand, and neither of us pulls away.

Finally we let go of each other's hands. He pays for the fruits and we start walking again.

"So you're gonna come by the house today?" he asks me.

"Yeah, I'll come with you now if you don't mind," I say.

"I dunno. You talk too much and you're kind of annoying," he says to me with a serious look. I stare at him, my mouth agape, caught off guard by his rudeness, but then I see the smile forming on his lips. I elbow him in the arm and he feigns a pained shout.

"I take it back, you're wonderful in every way, please join me," he says, holding back a laugh.

"That's what I thought you said," I reply with a curt nod. We both burst out into laughter, drawing stares from onlookers.

"Hey, what was with that girl with the red hair?" I ask, remembering her awful attitude.

"Gwen? Eh, she's like that sometimes. She's really nice once you get to know her," he says.

"If you say so," I tell him. She didn't seem nice at all.

We walk into the woods onto the familiar path.

"So, Alex. Is that short for something?" Matt asks me.

"Yeah, it's short for Alexandria," I confess.

"So, Alexandria," he continues, as though he's testing out the sound of it. "What are you doing hanging out at the town square and hanging with me?"

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused by his question.

"I mean, is that something you do often? People watch?" he explains.

"Yeah, I suppose so," I tell him, my face getting warm. "There's not much else to do. Except school, homework, read."

"You don't have any close friends?" he blurts out. I bite my lip and look away from him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," he says, his face showing just how apologetic he is.

"No it's okay. I don't really have any really close friends. No one I'd hang out with outside of school." I tell him. He looks like he wants to ask why, but he keeps his mouth shut.

"There's a reason for that," I continue. "I had a friend I was really close to, a girl named Odette, a few years ago." I hesitate to continue because I haven't talked to anyone about her since the thing that happened. But I decided to continue. Something about him makes it easy for me to let this out.

"Her parents had a second child. And the police found out. They came and tried to take him, but Odette's parents wouldn't let them. Odette told me all about it the next day after school. And the day after that, I never saw her again. Their house got burned down, with her and her parents and brother inside. The official verdict was that it was an accidental fire, but everyone knew the truth." I say quietly. "After that, I tried to avoid becoming close with anyone. Losing her was like losing apart of me. We'd been friends for so long."

Matthew stops walking so I stop too, and he turns and pulls me close to him.

I'm taken aback by this, and even more surprised by my willingness to disclose so much to this virtual stranger.

"I'm sorry about your friend," he says to me. I nod against his shoulder. And then I quickly pull away from him as though burned by his touch. I don't know why I told him all of that and I don't know why I'm getting close to him. There's no point. He acts like he doesn't notice, and instead looks me straight in the eyes.

"When we get to the orphanage I need to tell you something important." Matt says.