caller • mattia polibio

030.

Claudia woke to the sound of a door slamming.
A tall figure placed his bag on the floor and hadn't seemed to notice the small body lying in the bed. Mattia had spent a couple of hours at Claudia's house, waiting for her to come home, but she never did. Her dad asked more questions about him, getting to know him better, the boy was certain he was more liked now.

"Mattia?" Her sleepy voice hummed. The girl lifted her head off of the pillow, vision more cleared. His movement stopped abruptly, standing back up tall and turned to his bed.

His large hands grabbed onto her ankles, pulling her to the end of the bed, Claudia squealed with shock. Mattia pulled her into an embrace, he had missed her perfume, her long soft hair tickling his face, he had missed her.

"I'm sorry Tia" As if the girl hadn't done enough crying over the past few days, tears welled up in her brown eyes again. "I'm so sorry"

Mattia placed his hands on her reddened cheeks, wiping her dampened under eyes. Passionately he kissed her lips, with need and passion. As her boyfriend, Mattia assured her that she had done no wrong, explaining the most surreal three hours of his life, watching soccer with her dad, bonding about Italian meals. Claudia couldn't believe him at first, it seemed so unlike her father. He mentioned the conversation they had about her mother and her uncle, in reality the man just wanted what's best for his daughter, like any father.

Claudia spent the night with Mattia. They watched movies until the sun came up, playing board games, eating snacks, laughing, just again enjoying each other's company, soon brushing off the pain and hurt their relationship had faced. By the time, the clock graced 8 o'clock of the following morning, the couple had fallen asleep to early episodes of Victorious.