The Lost Boys

Chapter Four

Mattie's dreams were filled with bloody and blurry images of Paul and David laughing in the background. As a result, she tossed and turned all night and woke up grumpy. After several minutes of arguing back and forth with her subconscious about the pros and cons of getting up, Mattie forced herself from the bed and shuffled downstairs into the kitchen. Operating on autopilot, Mattie grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, went to the top of the fridge to grab the cereal, and cursed when her hand hit empty air. Disgruntled, she whirled around and glared at her younger brother. Sam was pouring himself a bowl of Lucky Charms and Mattie held out her hand in a demanding gesture.

"Morning sunshine." He teased as he handed her the box. Mattie flipped him off. "Nice."

"Where's mom?" Mattie asked as she prepared her bowl of cereal.

"At work," Sam replied as he opened the door to the sun porch; Nanook ran past him inside.

"Mike?"

"Still sleeping."

Mattie returned the milk to the fridge before joining Sam outside.

"What are you going to do today?" She asked after a few minutes of silent eating. Food in her stomach made her more sociable.

Sam shrugged. "Explore, I guess. You?"

Mattie too shrugged. "Try to find a job, I guess."

"Good luck," Mike muttered as he fell onto the couch next to his sister, a piece of toast in hand. "Word on the street is that the legal job market around here sucks."

Mattie sighed. "Great."

"Yeah, mom lucked out."

"I think it's 'cause Max – the guy who owns the video store – likes her," Mattie commented. Both of her brothers sent her incredulous looks. "What? Mom's youngish and single. And she's not bad looking."

"Mattie," Sam's tone was serious, "Mom and dad haven't even been divorced a year yet."

"Sammy," Mattie mimicked his tone, "So what?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Mike met someone last night too." He announced, deciding that changing the subject was better than thinking about his mom dating someone who wasn't his dad. "Well, sort of. She totally ditched him for a group of bikers." For the second time that morning, Sam was flipped off by an Emerson twin. "You two are great siblings, you know that?"

Mattie ignored her younger sibling and focused instead on her twin. "What's her name?"

"Don't know," Michael answered. "I never got a chance to speak with her."

"She'll probably be at the Boardwalk tonight," Mattie commented hopefully and Michael perked up a bit. "And hopefully so will my guy."

At this, Sam threw up his hands in disgust. "Everyone in this house is ruled by their hormones!"

The twins watched as their younger brother stomped from the porch before sharing an eye roll.

"So, what's this guy's name?" Michael asked, trying to sound disinterested when he very clearly wanted to know every last detail. Older by minutes or not, Mattie would always need protection in the eyes of her brother.

"Paul."

"Paul," Michael repeated with a snarky tone.

Mattie immediately went on the defensive. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just you never struck me as the kind of girl who'd date a guy named Paul. So, what's Paul look like?"

"Kind of like a hot Dee Snider." Michael furrowed his brow. "No, like a cross between a hot Dee Snider and Ice Man from Top Gun. Whatever, the point is he's totally hot." Michael rolled his eyes as he crammed the last bit of toast into his mouth. "Mom thought he was cute."

At that, Michael laughed. "Since when do you care what mom thinks?"

Mattie shrugged. "I don't, just thought I'd mention it." She stood and started to stretch.

"You going to see him again tonight?" Michael continued to feign disinterest.

Mattie side-eyed him. "Probably. Why?"

Michael shrugged. "Maybe I should meet him."

Mattie laugh-snorted. "Yeah, no, not yet. You don't need to go into protective brother-mode. I'm pretty sure that I'm completely safe from harm when I'm with Paul."

She turned to go into the house and get ready for the day.

"But what's keeping you safe from him?"

That Mattie didn't have an answer too so she pretended like she hadn't heard him and went inside.