Matthew hasn't seen his father in eleven years.
But now Arthur wants him to babysit his younger brother while he goes off to London with his new husband.
He doesn't know who this kid is and has never babysat before.
But one thing is clear about t...
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Peter had a nasty habit of falling asleep during movies. It happened first when they watched deadpool, then second when they watched the one of the Trailer Park Boys movies, and then when they watched the 1997 Doctor Who movie. That was just over the time frame of one weekend. Matthew decided that he would use movies to get the boy quiet when he needed to work. He would out on a mildly age inappropriate movie then curl up with his notebook and let the magic happen. Of course, there was no magic happening on those pages. There was still something missing in his stories but it was empowering to think that all the bad language Peter was learning would drive Arthur nuts. Plus it was great having him asleep. You don't have to socialize with somebody when they're sleeping. That is.... ....until they wake up.... "Mattie?" "Uhm...can you maybe not call me that..." "Why not?" Peter poked his head out of the blanket Matthew had thrown over him, innocence in his baby blue eyes. "It just...brings back memories." "Can you tell me?" Matthew swallowed. This kid was hungry for a story. He couldn't leave him hanging, but he also didn't want to think back to how it was before he left that house. "I can't." "Why not?" "They're just not good memories." "Can I tell you a story instead?" "Yeah, sure." "One time I was hanging out with my friend Wendy and we found this mud hole and we played in it all day." "That's it?" "Yeah." "Can I give you a tip, Peter?" "Sure." "Next time you tell a story, try to use some dialogue. You can get caught up in the conversation and pull yourself out of writers block, the formatting causes your writing to take up more space, and it's easy to include humour that catches your readers off guard." "Like the writer is doing now?" "Yeah." Matthew pat Peter's head. "Anyway, it's getting kind of late. You should go off to bed." "But Maaaaaaatt!" "No buts." "I just woke up." "Then it shouldn't be hard to get back to sleep." "I wanna play." "I've got to do some work." "Can I help you?" Matthew sighed. "I guess." "Can you read the story to me?" "Um sure..." "What's it about?" "Is a coming of age story aboot this boy whose mom has a drug addiction." "Hold up...there aren't any superheroes? No magic?" "That's exactly what Alfred used to say aboot my stuff." Matthew muttered. "Alfred?" Matthew doubted the boy knew who Alfred was. It had been so long since- "He was your brother wasn't he?" "Yeah...." Matthew choked. "Dad won't talk about him much." "It's probably better that way." "What was in that envelop Mr.Anderssen gave you?" "Oh shit. The portfolio!" Matthew had almost forgotten about the artist coming in a few days. "Language!" Peter scolded. "Get fucked." Matthew cussed back. He hopped over the back off the couch and walked to the book shelf where Gilbert's drawings were stored. "Alright. Let's take a look through this crap, little helper!" "Yippie!"
