caller • mattia polibio

022.

A couple weeks had passed, life began to move again.
Claudia struggled for a while, crying often to Mattia or Laura, but soon found her peace and closure when her uncle had the beautiful send off he deserved. Mattia wished he could've been by her side, keeping her comforted, but instead Laura attended with her. The boy wanted to tell Claudia how he felt, he wanted to finally move on with their relationship, to be able to call her his girl.

He just couldn't think of the right way to ask her. A big fancy date? Simply tell her one day whilst hanging out? However he still cared for her wellbeing and whether asking her to be his girlfriend was the right choice at this time. It just couldn't be held in any longer. Mattia just had to tell her.

He hadn't seen her in a few days, despite everything, Claudia still made the effort to see him regularly, mainly going over to his: seeming as her Dad was more frequently home. Sometimes they would go on little walks through the fields behind her house, or late night dates to anywhere their fast-food-loving hearts desired. Claudia even had a drawer for her things in his room, clothes, skincare products (which Mattia wouldn't admit but has tested a couple times), her favourite snacks which he often topped up. Slowly but surely their lives merged together, they were a part of each other's routine, an old married couple: just minus that they weren't together.

Frustrated, Mattia lifted his head off the school desk and looked up at the clock, fifteen minutes to go. Claudia's school finished thirty minutes after his so he decided that he was going to surprise her and take her for a drive. He had no time to sit and think about what he was going to say or even seek advice from his friends. Maybe he was acting off impulse but 'fuck it'.

The bell rang and he raced for the door, many people giving off weird stares and mumbled something negative if he pushed passed them. He managed to run across campus and to his car in about three minutes, if his coach had seen then he was sure he'd be pushed harder in training. Claudia's school was only about ten minutes away, he was going to park by the doors and wait, however on his way there Mattia wanted to make a minor detour for a drink and buy some pretty flowers for the pretty girl.

He pulled up to the school entrance with about four minutes to spare, in the mirror he checked his hair, slapped his cheeks to make sure he was in reality and took a sip of his Gatorade, in the second cup holder was an Orange one waiting for Claudia.

Clusters of students filed out of the school, he people watched how similar their schools were; from the jocks to the girl friendship groups, until he laid eyes on the girl, his girl. Mattia presses the horn once, to gain her attention, it brought a confused but happy smile to her face as there was he was sat with flowers in his hand and a cheesy grin beaming at her.

"Get in beautiful, we're going on a drive."

Claudia waved to the two girls she was walking with and climbed inside the passenger seat, Mattia handed her the bouquet of flowers, with ranges of pink and white roses, she held them to her nose and gave the boy a kiss to indicate a thank you.

"So where are we going?" She asked.

"You'll see."

The journey consisted of singing loudly, playing the number plate game and taking in the nature filled view. He was taking her to some sort of cliff edge, overlooking the city. Mattia pulled a blanket from the trunk and lifted Claudia onto the roof of the car before pulling himself up too. Wrapping the blanket around the smaller body besides him, they lay down and looked up to the sky, watching the clouds pass and how they were tinted yellows, oranges and pinks with the sunset.

"Claudia, I need to tell you something."