The Lost Boys

Chapter Eight

Mattie awoke with a gasp, sitting straight up in bed. Her room came sharply into focus and she frowned as her foggy mind tried to remember how she had gotten home. It ended up being a fruitless struggle. She groaned and decided that if that was how she was going to feel after one sip of wine, she was never going to drink again. Forcing herself out of bed, Mattie shuffled into the bathroom. She debated looking at her reflection in the mirror but decided that she wasn't ready to face her appearance, so she figured that she would take a bath first and do damage appraisal of her reflection after. The water had barely started to flow into the tub when a knock came at the door. Annoyed at the interruption, Mattie shuffled back into her room and opened the door to find her little brother. Sam gave her a once over and frowned.

"You look like shit. Are you sick?"

"What do you want?"

"Mom left us a list of chores."

"Okay...." Mattie said slowly, not understanding why Sam had knocked on her door.

"I wanted to know if we could switch? You take mowing the lawn and I'll do laundry?"

"Not a chance." Mattie snorted. "Enjoy your sunburn."

She closed the door, ignoring Sam's string of curses. The tub was close to overflowing.

"Goddamnit."

She quickly turned off the tap and reached down into the tub to pull the plug. Once the water had drained down enough, she replaced the plug and undressed. Once in the water, Mattie allowed her to relax and closed her eyes, her mind again returning to the events of last night. All that she remembered was sitting on the couch with Paul nuzzling her neck, all the while earning death glares from Michael, and eating Chinese food. The boys – mostly David – had been teasing Michael, who had fallen for their jokes repeatedly. The last thing she remembered with any certainty was taking a sip of the wine from a jeweled bottle. The rest was blank. She hoped she hadn't done anything stupid. The thought of making herself look like an ass in front of Paul, David, and the guys made her flush with embarrassment.

She stayed in the bath until the water turned cool and then dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt before heading downstairs with the laundry basket she shared with her mother under her arm. She could see Sam outside struggling with the lawnmower, there was music blaring in grandpa's taxidermy room, and no sign of Michael. Mattie figured that he was still asleep and envied him briefly. The envy died the minute that she stepped onto the porch and the sun hit her eyes as a sharp pain ran through her head. Dropping the laundry basket, Mattie rushed back inside, her chest heaving. Remembering something about light sensitivity and being hungover, Mattie trudged back upstairs to get her sunglasses. Once her sunglasses were in place, she gingerly returned to the laundry on the porch. The sunlight still hurt her eyes, but the sunglasses made it bearable. While she had been retrieving her sunglasses, Nanook had decided to play in the fallen clothes.

"Knock it off, Nanook." Mattie muttered in annoyance as she went to bat him away.

She quickly retracted her hand when the husky growled menacingly at her. Mattie frowned. Nanook had never growled at her before.

There was a tense moment where Mattie was sure that Nanook was going to attack her, but instead, he ran from the room. Shaking her head – and calming her on-edge nerves – at his strange behavior, Mattie returned to the laundry. As her clothes and those of her mother's spiraled around in the washer, Mattie went upstairs to collect Sam's and Michael's. Sam's were sprawled out all over the floor and Mattie grimaced. Bending down to pick them up, she was startled by her reflection – or rather lack thereof – in the mirror on the door as she grabbed one of Sam's ridiculous Miami Vice-like shirts.