It's Definitely Not All Mary Poppins

Try Something New (2)

'You ask me that like I already know.' Matthew so wanted to snap at her but held his tongue. He'd purposefully been avoiding the question entirely; thinking of an alternative to teaching meant, to him, that he'd failed. For the last decade, he'd devoted himself to teaching, in the hopes of allowing some other poor soul to avoid what he had gone through. He was already such a burden on her and Toby, it seemed like the least he could do was get a job. "I..." he began, leaning back on the counter, "...I don't think –"

The door swung opened again. Toby, dusted with dirt from head to toe, danced into the room, plopping down a plant with stiff leaves pointing from the pot on the counter. Swinging his arms over his head, he announced, with a triumphant smile, "We have Sansevieria trifasciata! Cleaner air for all!" He kicked the door closed.

"Did you just get dirt on my computer?" Liza snapped, snatching up her old computer, examining it.

"You don't want clean air, Liza?" he asked, tipping the stiff-leafed plant back into his arms and into her face.

Liza swatted the pot away from her and snapped back, "Go away. I need to do things." She turned around to her computer.

"L-let me water that for you," Matthew whispered, stepping forward, his hands outstretched for the plastic pot.

"Stop." Toby pointed his finger into his roommate's forehead. "What's wrong?" When Matthew didn't answer, finger still pressed to his head, he asked Liza, "What's wrong with him?"

"Audrey fucking Culpepper," Liza murmured on cue. "What else is ever wrong with him?"

Toby moved the plant to the side and leaned against the counter. He put a fist on his hip and sighed. "Really? Y-you said the interview yesterday went great."

Matthew opened his mouth and promptly closed it. He wished he could swallow his tongue. That would actually be easier than having this conversation. 'Dying seems like the easier option than finding an actual job, apparently.'

"What happened?" Toby asked.

"Audrey fucking Culpepper," Liza enunciated, turning to him. "Oh my God, are you normally this slow, or today are you just fucking special?"

In response, Toby pulled off his shirt and threw it at her. "What was that? You wanted my dirt-covered shirt that smells like B.O.?"

Throwing it off her, Liza gathered up her things and turned for her room. "Disgusting pig. I need to work."

"Then go to the library, Liza."

"Says the person who's barely paying rent!"

As soon as her bedroom door closed, Toby turned to Matthew and whispered, "She's fun."

"Oh my God," he sighed. "Whatever the hell that is, it's so exhausting to watch."

"Don't find someone you can argue with like that someday," said Toby, smiling as he patted Matthew's shoulder. "Kill me if I find someone like that."

Matthew stepped forward, swiping the plant from the counter. "If I didn't know any better, I would've assumed you liked her."

Toby opened his mouth, a throaty sound of disgust oozing off his tongue. "How can you say that to me? After everything we've been through?" He snatched the plant from Matthew's grip. "No trifasciata for you." Plopping himself down in one of the empty counter seats, he muttered, "Clean air for you, though."

Matthew rubbed his hands over his face. "...saying 'it was bad' seemed like a waste of breath at this point." He wrapped his hands around the plant's pot and pried it away from Toby's hands. "Name, like, four times where I didn't have this angry, gut-wrenching feeling after an interview where her name came up somehow."