somebody else, matt sturniolo

twenty one

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XXI
the spaghetti couple !

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»»———-flashback———-««

mattew stood, hands shoved in his pockets as he waited for the upperclassman to pass in front of him. he wore a bright orange hoodie, the gravity falls themed. it was his favorite cartoon, and his favorite hoodie he'd ever owned at that.

the small boy leaned against the wall with his two brothers on either side of him, it was lunch hour for the three fourth graders. after a minute, the rush slowly began to die down and chris stood up all the way. "let's go, guys, i'm starving." matt and nick followed through the line.

a little brunette girl sat by herself on the other side of the lunch room, her tray in her hands. she'd just moved from new york, and hadn't touched her food. it was her second day at this new school, and so far hadn't made any friends at all. she sighed, slamming her fork onto the tray. she wanted to cry, was she unlikable. or maybe did she just not look interesting enough to make people want to talk to her.

sourly, she stood up from the empty lunch table and found her was to the trash can. to her dismay, however her shoes had become untied at some point during recess and it took her less than thirty seconds of walking to trip and fall, landing against a boy who'd been walking past her. her lunch tray splattered all of his shirt, turning the bright orange into a stained spaghetti red.

good going, emersyn.

she pushed herself off the blue-eyed boy, mumbling varied apologies under her breath. she couldn't believe she'd done this. what a wonderful first impression.

the boy looked up from his destroyed hoodie, his eyes wide. she couldn't quite pinpoint his emotion, was he angry or upset or sad about his hoodie? she couldn't tell.

matt was furious. if this had happened seven years later, maybe he would have understood, maybe he would have been more apologetic, but he was only nine when this whole thing transpired

his teeth gritting and his nose scrunched, he was ready to yell at the girl and cry. but then his eye met hers and he froze. she was really pretty.

even to matt's little brain, every part of her satisfied him in someway. the way her rose lips tugged into a frown, and the way her brown hair fell over in front of her face. to him, she was perfect. she had smooth skin and brown eyes that reflected off the ceiling lights. something inside his small stomach flipped. he was honestly bewildered. he'd never really had a crush on a girl before, but the liking he took to this one was instant.

he gulped, he didn't understand why he felt as though he'd just given a google slides presentation. even so, he still wasn't happy with the girl, and he was afraid that if he'd accepted apology, his brothers and friends might tease him.

"you ruined my sweater!" he cried.

shaking, emersyn removed her cupped hand from her mouth. "i— i'm really sorry, i am! i didn't— i didn't mean to."

part of matt wanted to accept the apology, tell her that it was just a hoodie and it wasn't a big deal. however, matt had apparently been this dumb all his life. because, again. dumb matt made dumb decisions.

emersyn sat alone that day at recess, her fingers wrapped around the chain of her swing and her legs vaguely kicking up and down.

still, the fourth grader had yet to make any friends. she didn't really mind sitting alone, though, she kind of enjoyed it. she swang for awhile, humming a tune to some cartoon theme song.