caller • mattia polibio

042.

Days had passed, the loving couple turned to nothing.
Life had stopped. Dramatic but that's what Mattia felt as he wandered through the halls of the school. As he wandered through the school, he thought about if Claudia knew her way around yet, worrying that she didn't have anyone to sit with. Despite it all, he still wanted to care for her. He still loved her. He sunked his hands into his pockets and walked into the classroom.

His head rested onto the table as a finger tapped on his shoulder. There stood Laura, well dressed as always, and a smile on her face.

"Is everything okay Tia?" She said in a caring voice.

"You know only Claudia calls me that. Everything is fine."

Laura had hurt his girl, just because they were going through a rough patch, it wasn't the time to betray her either. With a huff, the girl left him alone and sat on the other side of the classroom, in time for the lesson to begin. Mattia had no interest in English, at the minute he didn't have an interest in anything.

Time passed slowly, lessons dragged, especially when not paying any attention to a single word, Claudia and Mattia were living the same pain and day - just in parallel. They moped around, glum looks on their faces; Mattia avoided his friends (Claudia had no friends to be with); when the day had finished they headed back to their cars, not turning the engine on and heading off but sitting there, breaking down in tears.

Claudia knew she had made a mistake, it didn't take a genius to know that, she needed the boy in her life. She sat in the car for a while, body slouched in her seat, staring off into the distance, mind blank: she had done the crying, she had done the damage.  On the other side of the parking lot Mattia rested his chin on the steering wheel, think about only a couple days ago his girl was sat besides him, jamming to music, heading out for an unneeded fast food meal.

——————

Mattia lay alone in his room, staring at the ceiling.
His mind was in another world as his mother entered his room, she had a slight disappointed look on her face as she told him there was a girl waiting for him at the door. Instantly, Mattia's first thought that is was Claudia, which caused his face to light up. He rushed passed his mother and rushed to the door, slipping here and there at the polished floors. However his face fell as it wasn't who he expected it to be.

"Laura? What are you doing here?" Mattia's tone turned cold.

"I'm sorry to hear about you and Claudia, it's tragic really, I thought you might need one to talk to?" She said, being sickly sweet.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, we're just sorting things out, I don't need you to talk to."

"Well that's not what I heard, apparently she's moved on already? So Clauds is cheating then?"

"You're lying!"

A lumped formed in the boy's throat. There was no way, not his Claudia, she wasn't like that. Why would he believe Laura anyways? Mattia deeply hoped for it not to be true.

"Oh baby, but I'm not, ask Kairi where he's disappeared to. A shoulder to cry on becomes a dick to ride on Tia." Laura wiped the tear that had fallen from the boy's face. "Call me if you need me."

Laura replaced the hand on his cheek with her lips and left Mattia stood there, utterly heartbroken.