overwhelming [m.h]

[ 3 ]

The guys smiled amongst themselves as they heard Sam's question. "Well, we had a small gig planned, it's at this pub downtown on Saturday. Maybe you could come." Said Matty, looking at us, almost with a hopeful smile. Sam smiled back stood up. "We'll be there." He gave me the look and I grabbed my book bag and my popcorn bag and stood next to them. Sam began to walk out and I followed closely, feeling weird about the whole interaction.

After walking to the outsides of the school building I stopped Sam. "What was that?" They looked at me with a faux confused look. "The vibes there, the "we'll be there", the look." I said, and a smile showed up on Sam's face as they put their hand on my shoulder. "Oh, you should've looked at Matty's look, he's fit and he's def into you, you guys need to go out." I rolled my eyes at Sam, they were always putting me up to some sort of dating plan, after all, they already had a boyfriend so it was easy for them to speak of romance and what not. "Sam, I'm fine being single, and while yes, he is fit, I don't know if dating a band boy will make all of my problems go away." This time it was Sam's turn to roll their eyes, looking at me with an angry look. "Girlie, a boyfriend is not gonna solve your problems, however, they will distract you until you feel like actually facing them." I looked at them with a cynical look and sighed. "Besides, you said you liked their music, nothing particularly romantic will happen if we just go to their little gig and support a local band." They had a point. I was going to see the band because I liked the music, and not because of Sam's evil plan. "Alright, let's go get something to eat." We made our way to the cafeteria as we changed topics.

Break went by fast, and before I knew it, classes were done for the day. I waved goodbye to Den and Sam and I plugged in my headphones to my phone. I opened up my music and drowned in the glory of The Paper Kites' Tenenbaum. The calm guitar made me unaware of any conflict that could be going on in the world that surrounded me. Suddenly, I felt a tapping on my shoulder, which made me jump up, and take off my headphones. It was Matthew, or Matty or whatever. "Hi," he said with a small smile. "I don't think we've properly introduced, I'm Matty." He stretches out his hand and I shook it, looking at him a little confused. "I'm Mae, but you already knew that, we were introduced in the music room, remember?" I laughed a little as I slipped out the last word in my sentence.
"Yeah, but I needed an excuse to come talk to you." My heart skipped a beat. I looked at the floor as we kept walking, him next to me. "Uh, I just wanted to chat. I noticed we walk the same way home, and the guys stayed behind for some project so, yeah." I nodded quietly and lowered the volume of my music from my pocket. "What were you listening to?" He asked, and this time I looked up. I felt nervous around him, for some reason. Well he was fit, but I think it was Sam's words which kept lingering around my— "Uh, just a little bit of The Killers, I really like their music." I answered as I realized I had kept quiet for a while after his question. He smiled and began to ramble about how he loved their music, but I wasn't really listening, as I felt too nervous around him.
"Uh, well this is mine." I said as he finished his last sentence about his love for live music. I felt like I should've been paying attention, so I felt a little bad, but I also couldn't wait to just throw myself on my bed and sleep for hours. He looked a bit disappointed as he realized we had arrived to my home.
"Well, see you tomorrow Mae!" He smiled again me and walked further down the street as I waved at him with a smile. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and made my way inside the house. My mom was there, two plates sitting in the countertop and a box of pizza on the table. I smiled at her and hugged her.
"How was school, honey?" She asked as she placed the plates on the table and served us each a plate of the warm pepperoni pizza. I put my phone next to my plate on the table and sat. "It was okay, nothing new" I said, only to take a bite out of the delicious meal my mother had ordered for us. "Is that so? 'Cause I saw you outside with some curly-haired boy, who wasn't Sam." I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Were you spying on me, mum?" She put her hand to her heart, as if I had accused her of committing a war crime and she was deeply offended. "Of course not! I just happened to be washing the dishes by the window and I noticed your little man friend." I laughed at her and took another bite of the pizza, which was rapidly approaching the crust. "Well, his name is Matty, and we just happened to walk the same way home, so he talked to me the entire time." I said, taking the plate to the sink, which was in no proximity to the window, and I looked at her from the kitchen. She smiled at me, and then went on to talk again. "I'm going to go see your father this Friday, and I'm staying until Sunday. I trust you will not make any wild teenage-drinking parties, so I trust you with the house." I nodded. I knew how difficult this routine was for mum. She visited dad as frequently as she could, but it was difficult for her balancing personal life with her job. "Teenage drinking parties? With Sam, Den and Josh? You think so?" Josh was Sam's boyfriend, they had been together through thick and thin and Josh was probably the most important thing in Sam's life. "Well, it was worth a try." My mom giggled as she left her own plate in the sink and sighed.