Aurelio's Dilemma

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

The worn wooden door creaked as Matt opened it, and Aurelio stepped into his house, scrunching his face at the stench of burnt food and the thin branch of smoke stemming from the kitchen.

"Leslie's fault," Matt said, palms up at his sides. "She told me I should cook instead of eating fast food and look! I nearly burnt down the house."

Aurelio wordlessly walked past Matt and into the kitchen, squinting against the terrible smell, and there it was: a shriveled, coal-black egg in a pan on the stove, which Matt had turned off. After peeking at it, Aurelio spun around and reached for the nearest window. "I'm sure you wouldn't have burnt down the house," he said with a chuckle as he opened it. "How did this even happen?"

"I forgot about it there."

"Don't tell me you napped while it fried," Aurelio said as he scraped the burnt food off the pan, then set it in the sink. He turned to Matt. "Feeling something sweet?"

"Anything edible."

"I can make pancakes."

"Please."

"Manners?" Aurelio raised his eyebrows. "That's new." Matt laughed and told him to shut up. They prepared the mix for the pancakes, even though Aurelio did most of the work, and Matt only leant over the counter near him, watching him with his palm holding his face up. When Aurelio had to pour the mix into the pan, he tried to make it a perfect circle. A habit he'd picked up from Leslie. But it didn't work; his hand slipped a little while tipping the pan, and now a small bump jutted out of the original circle.

Matt tsked. "Sloppy work, Elio."

"Do the work, then."

"You offered."

When the pancakes were done and they drizzled on some chocolate syrup (nearly expired, as were most of the items in the fridge), Aurelio and Matt settled down on the kitchen table with their plates. Matt ate his fast. Aurelio could only swallow down a bite or two, and he could hardly keep his spine straight; he slouched on his own.

Matt must've noticed. "No sleep?"

"None," Aurelio confessed. He sighed and stretched over the back of his chair, rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes. It only made it worse. "Yesterday I slept an hour or two, but today I just couldn't." He placed his elbows on the table, but they knocked against the edge of his plate. Matt moved it aside so Aurelio could hunch over more comfortably. "And I've got the most terrible headache ever. It started when I saw the car accident on the news and literally hasn't stopped since."

"No progress yet with the new therapist?" Matt asked.

"A little."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Backward progress. It's getting worse."

Matt made an apologetic face, like the despair in the answer had startled him. "Oh, man. That's really..." Matt mumbled. His voice was low, tinged with understanding, then he offered silence and sincere eyes. It was about as much as Matt knew how to comfort, and Aurelio appreciated it. "Hey, if you want I can get you a painkiller for your headache. And you can crash here too. There's no one here anyway."

The place was small and stuffy, so Aurelio wasn't sure about that. "Your mom?" he asked.

"Haven't seen her in three days," Matt said, then he chuckled. "Maybe she decided to leave too."

It had been a while since Matt had thrown a joke like this. Some kids at school said he did it for attention. He probably did. Which, in Aurelio's eyes, was perfectly understandable. Of course the boy who'd been severely neglected throughout of his childhood--an absent father and an overworked mother--craved attention. Leslie told Aurelio once that this was the reason Matt exaggerated a lot, even if Matt himself wasn't aware of it.

At last, Aurelio said, "You'd sleep through an alien invasion. So I'm sure you slept through her coming and leaving."

"Yeah. But someohow I can't sleep through Leslie knocking on my window."

"You know she doesn't mean to annoy you."

"I know. And I appreciate that she gives a shit about me." Matt grinned the slightest bit. "But I'll be damned if she ever hears that from me."

Aurelio laughed. Matt relaxed in his seat and brought a knee up, and he passed time on his phone. Aurelio wanted to do that too, but the screen light was too harsh on his eyes. He lowered the brightness. It still bothered him. So he gave up and just folded his arms on the table and rested his head on top, depending on Matt to nudge the table occasionally and prevent him from falling asleep. But Matt was exceptionally considerate today, and he made sure he didn't so much as move a muscle, so Aurelio had to make extra effort to stay awake.

Until Matt said, "Huh. Elio?"

Aurelio felt him tap his arm, but he didn't move. "Hm?"

"Look. Turns out Leslie's boyfriend plays the cello, and..."

Aurelio scoffed, as if that guy wasn't allowed to be a musician as well. He straightened and squinted at the screen; he had posted a pic of himself playing the cello. It bothered Aurelio, yes, but that wasn't the problem.

The problem was the caption.

Violin's for kids.

Aurelio made the most disgusted face ever. He frowned so sharply his eyebrows might've touched his eyes. "What the hell," Aurelio said. "Who the hell says something like that? Literally two days ago Leslie told him I play the violin, and now he posts this?"

"You think he's trying to challenge you?"

"To challenge me he decides to offend an entire group of people? Nah, I'm not that important. He's just stupid."

"He is," Matt said, looking through more of his posts. "But he's also so tall and ripped and he has a perfect face, so that makes it up." His voice was low and bitter. "It's like he was born to make us insecure."

Aurelio didn't have to agree; Matt already knew he felt the same way.

"Just forget about it," Aurelio said. "Why do we keep comparing ourselves to him if we know it will only make us feel like shit?"

"Don't know about you," Matt said, and the dark circles under his eyes had never been so noticeable, "but I like making myself suffer."

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Random question but who's ur fave and least fave character so far? Tysm for reading/voting/commenting ❤❤