𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞.

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟓: 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬

Matthew Perry-Benson

A little more than an hour ago...

Matthew paced back and forth along the sidewalk, only a block away from the cafe he was supposed to meet the mysterious person. For some reason, he was feeling more nervous than anticipated. His palms were sweaty and his heart was pumping much faster. He could feel the adrenaline building up, he didn't feel very good about sneaking behind Vanessa's back.

Just go in, see who's there, see what they want, get out.

He repeated the mantra over and over and started walking up the sidewalk of the sketchy area downtown. 

They said they would be wearing all black... I'm sure they could recognize me already.

At a distance, he spotted a man in a dark jacket entering the building. He picked up his pace, keeping his eyes on the man. When he entered the cafe, the little bell rang overhead. 

He cleared his throat, the man turned and gave him a dirty look. A tag sticking out underneath his jacket read the words "Dr. Johnson, M.D."

Matthew made a mental note. Not Unknown.

He looked around the cafe, people were chatting everywhere. The bell rang overhead again and a young woman came in, almost bumping into Matthew.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," she chuckled and looked up at him, straight in the eyes.

Matthew glanced to see what she was wearing for a quick second.

The woman noticed, her cheeks going red. "Gosh, what's wrong with you!" And made distance with herself.

Matthew looked back at her face. "N-No that's not what I was-"

"Is there a problem here?" The doctor man had turned and was now in front of Matthew.

"This creep was checking me out!"

"Really?"

Matthew shook his head. "No, you see, I was supposed to meet up with someone here and-"

"Yeah, he did! I saw him!" Another lady got up from her seat nearby and interfered.

Matthew felt embarrassed.

"Listen, pal, we don't take kindly to creeps like you, get out!" The man quickly grabbed his elbow and gripped tight.

Matthew tried wiggling out of his grip. "No, you see, I'm supposed to see somebody here and-"

"Get out!" The man pushed him, heaving Matthew's body into the side of the door, leaving Matthew's forehead banging into the metal ridge.

The man shoved Matthew out. With his vision going slightly blurry and the ground spinning below him, Matthew took steady steps to a bench he found by the park only across the cafe.

When he finally sat down, he uncovered his hand from his head, seeing the smudged blood covering his palms.

"You have got to be kidding me," he sighed, leaning slightly forward as the world stopped spinning.

He took deep breaths, trying not to think about what had just happened.

"I should have just come to them," he said out loud, regretting the texts he had sent to this person.

Guilt started to rise in himself, he was pretty sure he would get in serious trouble if anyone knew about this. He didn't even know what to tell Vanessa.