Facade

Chapter 17- Tell Me.

"Tell me, tell me everything." I enthusiastically say as I shift myself across from him. I push the thoughts and worries of Nick aside, I'll deal with it later. I'll have to eventually.

I want to spend time with Matthias, to get to know him more. I... uh like him and yet I don't know anything about him. Then again the times that we've spent together haven't been exactly spent talking about ourselves.

"Well you've met my parents." He starts and leans back on his bed's frame but winces a little at the pain from his ribcage. It's nothing he said? If this was nothing I didn't want to see what happened to the others. Were there a lot of others? Could they be people I know? Neighbors? Teachers even?

I laugh under my breath at the thought of my teachers being one of them "Yeah, your mom is really nice, really cheerful." I grin and lean back on my hands.

"Yeah, she's really chipper" he chuckles.

"So what were doing before? Just studying and roaming?" I don't really know anything expect his interests. Nothing about his past, what he did before. I look around at his room, it was bland, a typical room. A poster of the solar system hung up above his blue sheeted bed where his desk sits right next to it. All there is in his room is his desk, chair, bed and shelf filled with miscellaneous stuff. It was sadly just like the rest of the rooms everywhere, it was something he wasn't.

"Yea actually." He smiles and turns to look at the windows, shifting his position. "I had a pretty ordinary life here." I slightly frown, he wasn't comfortable enough to talk? He didn't want to talk about his past?

"When did you come here then?" Hiding my frown, I cock my head to the side and make a curious face. Ordinary? With all the cats and the smoke buildings I don't think his life was all that boring.

"From the outside? seven or eight years ago," he shrugs and looks at my expression, smiling "there're a lot of ways to get in."

How many ways? How could you possibly come in? There was a giant wall surrounding us.

I open my mouth to say something but close it. So he came here when he was about eleven. Was it really different? Was it really a barren wasteland? How did he live before?

Matthias stares at me and laughs at my expression, knowing what I was thinking "you know it wasn't that bad, we do have electricity, just from generators."

"You have electricity?" I say in awe. Not barren after all. But how did they get the generators?

"Yup and it's not just a desert out there, it's mainly just forest now but there are remnants of cities, towns, villages. There's almost nothing there now, we've scavenged everything" He explains with a twinkle in his eye, making me smile and I give him a nod to show my enthusiasm.

"Cities? Wow." I couldn't have guessed. I wouldn't even think that there were cities since all they told us was that it was a wasteland. There was a civilization a long time ago on the outside. I wonder what they were like, was this the society Matthias was talking about before? No soul mates, I wonder how that was like then again, we don't know who we are suppose to be with now too but at least we thought we did. We think we're happy but what were they like?

"It's beautiful out there though," he sighs as he interrupts my thoughts and begins reminiscing "a different kind of beauty. It was mainly just us and nature, me and my family had to move around a lot but we picked some great places."

"Your family? It wasn't just you and your parents?" I ask. He isn't an only child? I've never heard anything before... Then again he didn't have a reason to.

"No, no it wasn't," he shook his head and he sighs again, remembering the past. "I have a older brother, Eli, but he didn't want to come. He stayed behind."

"So you don't know where he is right now?" I ask with concern, if I didn't know where Mikael was... I don't know but then again I'm the older sibling.

"No, we have an idea. The people he's with like to rotate around the areas but they always visit the same places.

I open my mouth to say something but I'm interrupted by my phone, I look at the caller ID and see that it's Mikael. I widen my eyes and groan, Matthias looking at me with confusion. It's been an hour since I left and I said I would be right back.

I jump out of my seated position and look at Matthias with disappointment "I need to go, I'm late."

"Go, I'll see you soon then." He says as he stands up and closes in on me, leaning in to give me a soft kiss. I grin as he backs away and I slink away, closing the door behind me. I rush down the stairs and I give a quick goodbye to Matthias' mom.

"Hey, sorry, I'm coming home right now." I say as I press the accept button.

"Great, I thought something happened to you." Mikael sighs through the phone with relief.

"What would happen?" I ask as I laugh, getting on my bike.

"I don't know, something." He says.

"I'll see you in five." I chuckle and hang up, pushing off the sidewalk.

After a few minutes I quickly get home. I lay the bike on the grass and greet Mikael who sat on the couch, still watching tv.

"What were you doing?" He asks as I sit down beside him with a smile on my face.

"I needed to help my friend with something." I shrug.

"Friend? Okay." My brother sounding unconvinced, nods and leans his head on his hand. I stare at him for a couple of seconds, maybe I should've told him who.