Kill All Men

Chapter Eight

Luna McCanahey
While Matteo is sleeping I sit in the couch next to his bed and watch his chest rise up and down. At times, I regret letting him be involved with my line of work. It makes me uneasy whenever he goes somewhere on his own. With all the enemies I have, there's no telling who's waiting to kill me or him and he knows it. He knows that even being in a five mile radius of me puts his life in danger and yet he still follows me till the ends of the earth. It's scary knowing that someone is willingly put themselves on the line to protect me. Although I'd do the same for him, I just feel like he can do so much more then me. He's only twenty years old and he's spent most of those years in danger.
I open the blinds then sit on the side of his bed. I scratch his hair and his body slightly twitches.
"Hmm." He hums as he shifts around in his bed.
"Come on. It's time to wake up, Matteo." He grunts and turns his body the other direction.
"Five more minutes."
"No, it's one o'clock in the afternoon. You're gonna miss your appointment at three." I stand from his bed and watch as he sits up. He drags himself out of bed and walks into his bathroom.
"Are you coming with me?" He asks.
"No. I'm dropping you off then I'm heading back to the cafe. I need to see this May girl for myself." His head pops out of the door and he scuffs.
"If you're going, I'm going." He argues. He starts to put on his business clothes and I stop him.
"No Matteo. I can do it on my own. Just worry about your health." I go to walk out of his room, he grabs my arm. I turn to him.
"If you get hurt..."
"I'll be fine, Matteo." I touch the side of his face and walk away from him. Usually I wouldn't fight him on coming but this is an important appointment. A few years after I found him on the streets, he occasionally gets heart pains. I'm not sure why but it's scary. He can sometimes wake up screaming and crying as he clenches his chest without warning. It happened a lot when we were homeless but now it's not as often. I never knew what it was but all I knew is that it pained me to see him in pain. I've taken him to numerous doctors but they say there isn't anything wrong. So today I got him an appointment with a therapist because I assume that it has to be a mental issue if it's not a physical thing.
I sit in the car and wait for Matteo to climb in. As I drive, he looks out the window and ignores the fact that I'm in the car. I love the quiet, just not when it's awkward.
"Matteo, you know I don't like when you don't communicate with me."
"I just don't think you should be going alone. If Pink actually killed your father and the others, she's a threat." I grip the wheel and sigh in defeat.
"If it makes you more comfortable, I can come with you to your appointment so that when your done we can go together." He looks to my with a raised brow then huffs like a little kid.
"Yeah. Lets do that." I chuckle to myself and watch as he eases.

Matteo
When Luna and I walk into the therapy room, it's very dark. The sun from the window lights up the room but the walls are gray and the couches are and even darker gray. There's unnecessary plastic plants scattered everywhere.
"Hello!" I look to the direction of the voice and see a short black woman stand before me. She holds out her hand to me and I take it.
"Hi."
"You must be Matteo and Luna McCanahey. I'm doctor Starling." The therapist goes to shake Luna's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh no, the pleasure is all mine." Luna says with an obnoxious smile. I don't know why she's smiling so hard.
"So I'm sorry but Matteo is the only one who can be in the room. Is that okay?" The doctor advises. I look to Luna in panic and she notices.
"Uh. Can you give Matteo and I a second?" The doctor walks away, leaving Luna and I alone.
"You know what? I feel a lot fucking better so let's just go to the cafe." I walk towards the door but she grabs my collar and pulls me back. She gives me a stern look and I cave.
"We need to know what this is, Matteo."
I've never liked going to the doctors. Since the day Luna started getting money, the first place she would take me to was the hospital. I've had millions of needles put into my veins and been put to sleep multiple times but all of this happened with Luna there. "Go. I'll wait for you out there in the lobby. Be open with her as much as possible okay?" I watch her walk out of the room and look to doctor Starling. She places her notebook on her desk then places herself onto a bean bag next to the door.
"Sit anywhere. The desk, the couch, anywhere you want." I look to her desk then place myself in the chair. I don't know why the biggest chair always appeals to me. Maybe its the effect of feeling like the bigger person.
"So, is Luna your wife?" I look to her then back down at the candy jars in front of me.
"No, she's more like family then anything else." I take a hand full of candies and start to toss them into the air and watch them fall and bounce on the tile floor.
"How long have you two been friends?"
"About eleven years. She found me when I was nine."
"Found you as in..." She alludes to the fact that she wants me to tell her. That same heavy weight falls back onto my chest. It becomes a bit harder to breath so I just cough and ignore her question. She waits for a response that she's not going to get and I continue to play with the candy.
She stands up from the bean bag then turns the lighting down in the room, I jolt up from my chair and look at her with slight anger.
"What the hell are you doing?" I scold.
"I thought that the cool lighting would calm your nerves." I watch her movements as she sits back in the bean chair. Her body language hasn't changed at all. She is still calm and collected so I know that she isn't trying to seduce me.
I look to her as I toss another candy into the air. I'm not being silent because I don't want to say anything. If anything, I wanted to tell her everything because I don't want to ever come back here again.
The real problem; I have no idea. These so called "heart problems" have been a thing with me since I was kicked to the streets. Since meeting Luna, the pain stopped for a little while but recently, they came back. I don't know why or what is causing it. With Luna always going everywhere on her own all the time, me worrying about her safety, I haven't been able to reflect on my emotions like I usually do when something is bothering me.
I don't want to tell Luna why I'm being so weird lately because she's always worrying about everything else and I believe she doesn't need another problem to handle. She already has enough on her plate.
The door reopens and Luna emerges from it. I quickly sit up and watch her come up to me. She grabs the bag of Twislers and puts one into her mouth.
"Are you okay?" Her voice is calm but I can tell that she is a bit irritated.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Oh, I don't know. Just the fact that you've been throwing around candy senselessly, making a mess!" She starts to hit me with the bag of Twislers as she scolds me.
"I didn't bring you here to stay silent, I brought you here to see if your okay." She then grabs a fist full of my collar and pulls me to her face. "This isn't sit around and mess up other peoples shit, Matteo. Now it's either you start talking, or you can deal with me when we get home. Which one?" I look to Luna with fear in my eyes. She may be aggressive most the time but it still scares the shit out of me. I may be 6'4 and her, 5'6 but she's one of the scariest people I've ever met.
"Talk. I wanna talk." She smiles in victory then calls Starling back in. This time, I actually tell her everything on my mind.
When the session is over and I clean up all the candy I dropped, I walk out to see Luna standing by the exit waiting for me. When I see her signature smile, my heart starts to clench in my chest.
"How'd it go?" She asks. I look away from her eyes and breath so that the tears forming don't come out.
"It was pointless. Let's just go."