Moon Boy ▷ Flash Thompson

7 - GET A HOBBY

MATTHEW COULDN'T DECIDE WHAT TO WEAR. He always cared about his appearance, not for vanity's sake, but for the sake of not wanting to be noticed should he wear something wrong. Of course, he tended towards brighter colors and patterns since he had stopped fearing what his teammates would think—he still feared, but they were distant from him now—but the colors were a choice of his, not an accident.

"Why do you think Daddy's being weird, Pamela?" he heard Mason ask, the boy lounging on his brother's bed, talking to their bunny, "I think he's finally lost it, but he won't tell me. You should ask him."

Matthew scoffed, reaching out to look over a sweater before immediately remembering it was burning outside. "I don't tell Pam anything, 'cause she's a snitch." He gave a pointed look to the bunny who just looked back at him and he grinned, turning back to his closet. "Is there anything I look good in that I didn't wear recently?"

"How should I know?" Mason yawned, stretching out like a cat and moving to lie on his stomach, closing his eyes, "I don't look at you that way."

"You don't have to," Matthew sighed, moving to lie on top of him, turned horizontally while Mason was vertical, the older twin complaining and demanding that his brother get off him, "You just have to look at me and think 'that looks good on him,' there doesn't have to be anything weird with it."

"Yeah, well, if you ask me to try and notice stuff like that, I'm gonna wind up making it weird, and I really don't want that, because I'm not into dudes," Mason countered, much more agitated than needed, and Matthew sat up, frowning.

"What happened?" he asked, moving off him and sitting cross legged, picking up Pamela and placing her in his lap.

Mason sighed and moved onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, glancing over to Matthew. "Don't blame yourself for it, okay, she was just being an ass."

"Oh, it's a girl," Matthew hummed, perking up despite his stomach sinking, watching as Mason sighed heavily and rubbed at his eyes, "What happened, man?"

Mason shrugged, turning away from him. "So I was with Quinn Salsbury and she said she didn't want to date a guy who might leave her for another guy, and I don't even like guys, but she wouldn't believe me, even after her own friends explained it to her. And I can't blame you because what the hell, why would I, but damn that just sucked."

Matthew sat there for a moment, unsure of how to react. Contrary to popular belief of both himself and his brother, he didn't blame himself for how people reacted to his brother. Of course, he would soon enough, but at the moment all he could think to feel was a raw surge of anger and frustration at how people were treating his brother because of him.

"You know," he began, frowning as he looked around his room, "You need a hobby."

"Thank you, Matthew, I didn't realize you were siding with mom and dad now," Mason scoffed, shaking his head and turning away from his brother who shushed him, grabbing his arm to force him around.

"No, think about it," he said, shaking his arm, "If you're busy doing stuff, you won't have to bother with all these girls from school. You might even meet a girl from a different school, who doesn't know about me and won't judge you as a result."

"Okay, but she should know about you, because you're important to me, and if she can't handle me having a bisexual brother, then I don't really want to associate with her," Mason pointed out, and Matthew sighed, forcing him upright so he could shake him.

"Could you just quit caring about me for two seconds to get a girlfriend so you can quit whining to our bunnies about it?" he demanded, his grip on his brother's shoulders only tightening with every word.