Boy // Matt x Mello // Boyxboy

Chapter 4

kittens and angst. my favorite.

After school, Matt drove me home to pick up my things since I didn't have a car. Or rather, not anymore, since Near and I usually shared his.

He insisted on helping me load, but I wasn't in the mood for any odd questions from my mother, so I convinced him to wait in the car.

When I left for the last time I hugged my brother tightly when he asked where I was staying. He looked out the window and locked eyes with Matt in the car, and nodded his head.

As I was walking out the door I heard mother choke out a sob when I didn't acknowledge her.

What happened to my baby girl?

---

"Uh, it's-it's not exactly the cleanest right now..." Matt said nervously as he threw open the front door. I strolled through the foyer and into the living room, marveling the open-floor plan.

"What, you mean a teenager lives here?! Shocking," I chuckled at the pizza boxes and video game wires littering the room.

"That's so you." I nodded toward the gigantic triple screen TV.

"It...it was on sale," he admitted bashfully, dropping his keys on the marble kitchen counter.

My smile dissipated as I set my suitcase down and leaned lightly on the counter. "Matt, this is just too much. We barely know each other, and you're letting me stay in your house? I mean, I got the feeling you were kinda ditzy to begin with, but really-"

"Mels, stop. Yeah, I'm probably insane. I don't know exactly how to go from here, but...it gets kinda lonely in this huge house sometimes." Matt shrugged, his voice echoing off the high ceilings. "It might be nice, sharing it with someone."

I turned away, a slight smile escaping me. "Only until I can get my feet on the ground, right?"

"Right," he agreed, elbowing my side playfully.

Right. Like it's that easy, I thought.

The day passed in a flurry of rooms and hallways. Soon after Matt showed me to my new bedroom (we were next door, jointed by a bathroom), he gave me a tour of the place like a proper guide.

"And on your right you can see the the birthmark of seven cats forever stained into the carpet." He pointed dejectedly at the tinted blotch in the corner of the hallway.

"...You're telling me you have kittens and you haven't introduced me yet?"

"Well, they're not technically kittens anymore, but-"

"Matt."

He reminded me of the sun when he smiled. It was so bright and it was blinding and slightly disorienting at the sight, but you couldn't look away. You were afraid you'd miss something important, like when the light catches his pale eyes and causes a lump to form in your throat that you just can't swallow.

Matt never wore his goggles at home, it seemed. I didn't ask, because it wasn't that important. Not like I minded, and I wasn't gonna jinx it. But it hit me all at once, that this is what it was like to be comfortable in your own space, in your own house. Even if it was sorta lonely, even if it wasn't all that clean. I would have been jealous if it were anyone else's. I would've hated them. Anyone else.