𝗚𝗥𝗨𝗗𝗚𝗘 - 𝙼 𝚡 𝙺

3. Irony: Not Found

When Mattia stepped out of Mrs Cosentino's car that morning, he was fuming.

Just before he'd exited, he'd delivered a final harsh jab to the back of Kairi's seat with his knee. He reveled in the way Kairi's jaw ticked and his eyes hardened into a glare.

Mattia only just caught the look on his face through the reflection in the side mirror. He didn't want to dwell on the deflation he felt when Kairi hadn't even turned around, though.

He wasn't even sure why he wanted to get a reaction out of him. Mattia knew he shouldn't.

He was never really good at being in a fight. That being in the sense that even when he knew he should just ignore the other person completely, he always found a way to bring them up or try to further aggravate them.

He thanked Mrs Cosentino profusely before she drove off, willing himself not to even look at Kairi but ending up doing it anyway. Kairi it seemed had a better level of self restraint, for he stared stonily down at his phone. And without another word they drove off.

That was enough to put Mattia in a bad mood for the rest of the morning.

When he got inside and discovered that Kairi had unfollowed his spam (just as Mattia had done to him) it was enough to put Mattia in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

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Mattia thought he was good at pretending that he was unbothered by things.

Part of his whole brand was to be that laid back, kinda rude guy that didn't really give a shit about anyone or anything. That was his thing.

He didn't realise how it was coming off to everyone (namely his remaining friends and followers) as he continued to post about the situation on his spam.

It was easier to make posts about it when he knew Kairi was still following him. He liked taking jabs and stirring the pot and causing up a stink. He thrived in it—the way his big fan pages would praise and agree with his every word.

But the problem with that was he just didn't see how childish it made him look. Not until he started receiving text messages from people like Josh, anyhow.

Not that there was anything wrong with the guy. He had, after all, been one of Mattia's first close friends.

But he wasn't his best friend, and he hadn't been in a long while.

That was why when Mattia received the message from Josh asking if he was good, he knew that he wasn't coming off as unbothered the way he wanted to be.

One upside to Kairi having unfollowed him, Mattia supposed, was that at least he wouldn't be able to tell now.

The last thing Mattia wanted was for Kairi to think that he was bothered by any of this. Especially when Kairi himself had seemed so unperturbed.

He hadn't even told his mom. Like, what was that?

Mattia had told both his parents on the night that it had happened.

He'd also left all his group chats with Kairi and Alejandro in them out of anger. He didn't really think it through at the time.

Mattia did that a lot: had these sudden bursts of anger, did some dumb shit while he was still seeing red, and then payed for it in the days to come. There were surely enough covered up holes in his wall to advocate for that.