Philips (Sequel to De Santa)

Chapter Fifteen

Days went by without a word from Matt. Dad asked the day after our day together, but I said no. Since then, he's been too scared to ask, afraid that he'd upset me. Instead, he has resorted to a certain look. His smile would slightly cock sideways, his eyebrows would raise slightly hopefully, and his eyes would beg me for good news. Sadly, every time I got this look, he'd get a head shake in return. What was making this all worse was that I still hadn't gotten my acceptance letter from ULSA, which was sending me into a nervous breakdown. Was my transcripts not good enough? Was this Davey's way of getting back at me for breaking his nose back in Sandy Shores? Was this Karma's way of teaching me a lesson for killing Hannah?

Jim told me that they replaced Hannah with one of the bar tenders there. Questions were asked, but were told that she went on a vacation. Paige said that there'll soon be a story on the news that will tell me when all this is behind us. I waited and waited and, sure enough, as soon as I turned on the living room television, the news story appeared. "Small Single-Engine Aircraft Discovered in Pacific Ocean. Passengers Whereabouts Unknown."

"Huh," Dad said from a few seats down. "When Lester kills someone off, he sure knows how to kill someone off."

"Yeah," I sighed.

"I'm sure he has a good reason why he hasn't called or texted." The room fell silent. "Why don't you go to his place?"

"What?"

"You know, talk to him, see what's up."

"But showing up uninvited is rude."

"So? Ignoring your messages is rude. Go see him and, if he's truly been ignoring you, kick his ass."

"Dad!"

"What? I'm tired of seeing you moping around the house all day. Go. Go talk to him and see what's up. See if he wants to come over for dinner or something."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Well...alright." I got up from the couch and tossed Dad the remote before grabbing my keys from the kitchen and heading out the door. The drive seemed like it took forever, but in all reality, my mind was just racing. So much that I nearly ran a stop sign and caused an accident. After the angry driver flipped me off and cussed me out, I continued on my way to Matt's house. The property was quiet, but Matt's car was sitting in the driveway and the lights were on at his house. I nervously climbed out of the car and walked up to the door. I took in a nervous breath and knocked. There was slow movement from inside and, finally, the door opened.

"C-Chels?" Matt looked at me with shock. His hair was a mess, his clothes were disheveled and reeked of sweat and alcohol, and a stubble was growing on his face. "W-What, uh...what are you doing here?"

"I haven't heard from you in days, I was beginning to worry...are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Matt sighed. "I'm sorry. I just—I didn't want you to see me like this."

"Is it the manager's position?"

"No, I got it."

"That's great, Matt. Congratulations."

"Thanks."

"So, what is it?" Matt didn't respond, just averted his eyes to the ground. "Can I come in?" Matt gently nodded and let me inside. As I shut the door behind me, he quickly cleared a spot off on his couch, where he obviously has been sleeping for the past few days. I took a seat and Matt sat down beside me. "What's going on, Matt?"

"The day after I had dinner with you and your family, I had to make a delivery. A really nice refrigerator. It had French doors, a screen that showed you what was inside the refrigerator before you oven opened it, built in craft ice maker, and it even had a touch screen that allowed you to order groceries without even having to go to the store."