The Stranger

6

Matt turns around slowly with a frown on his alluring face as if I was a bomb ready to explode at any moment. We look at each other with narrow eyes, studying our expression, trying to read our mind even though it is impossible. It feels like we are in a western movie, where the two gunslingers are ready to open the fire at any moment. We have also the wind that blows the dust around us, like in the best movies of Clint Eastwood. There is only the audience, with wide eyes and hungry for blood, missing in this amazing scene. But, instead of hate like the gunslingers, I think we feel both awkward and nervous about this new outcome.

Maybe, I should have stayed quiet and let him go. He could have said anything during our meeting; instead, he said nothing. Clearly, Matt doesn't fancy talk to me or remember that night. Perhaps, he is mad because I backed out after I let him believe that we would spend the night together.

Maybe, I should simply go back in my classroom, collect my stuff and return home.

The ringtone of Matt's phone breaks the unnerving silence that has grown in this few minutes between us. He glimpses at the ID caller but doesn't answer. After a few seconds, the phone starts ringing again.

"Go," I say breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I guess it's important."

"Sorry." A simple word without emotion: to dismiss me and our night.

He walks through the parking lot and stops near to a bike, a beautiful black beast. He pauses for a few seconds then comes back to me.

"I am sorry," he says, shrugging his shoulder like he isn't really sorry, but at the same time, he feels obliged to say it.

"It's okay. I shouldn't have run after you. It's obvious that you don't want to stay here," I say trying with all I have to not sound upset or hurt by him.

"Arrr..." He rubs his face clearly frustrated and then, puts a cigarette between his pink lips. "It's not that."

It's almost funny. I can read in his eyes that he doesn't want to be here, but disappear with a snap of fingers. And pops in my mind only one reason for his coming back: my sister. He owns her big time. She saved his brother's ass and Matt would always be grateful to her for that.

During the time we spent talking about Erik, I could see the love and the devotion that he has for him. And now, he feels obliged to face me and listen what I have to say. Plus, I am his brother teacher. Maybe the only one that had shown some interest in his future and Matt can't afford to lose my offering.

He has smoked his cigarette in a blink of an eye and now he is focused on a poster attached to the door like it is the most interesting thing in the world, even though he can't read what it says because it's too far from him unless he has the eyesight of Clark Kent. All this because he doesn't know what to do or say to dump me gently.

I sigh, exhaustion and frustration are punching my body with sadism, while we are stuck in this situation when I only wanted to meet him officially, and maybe ask him out for a coffee, but just as friends, nothing more.

He is hot, he smells nice, and his kisses are mind-blowing. However, I can't think about a relationship in this moment of my life or have sex with a random guy.

My heart is empty and my mind his full of shit, and the only think that I need: is a long vacation from men, any man.

"Matt, go! It's okay. You don't want to be here and me neither," I say making an attempt to sound understanding.

"Sorry, but I didn't know what to say when I saw you early and I thought the best thing to do: was not complicate the situation," he tries to explain sheepishly, taking two steps backward and I shake my head because he says one thing with his mouth, but means another thing with his body. It's just as I thought: he feels trapped.