lover boy & dollar store girl ♬ matt sturniolo

XVII

CHAPTER XVII
[ radio silence ]
♬

matt was very confused, because from his point of view, things were perfectly fine.

there was something off about minnie after the talk the four had had in chris' bedroom on saturday morning. the three boys certainly felt closer to her, and she seemed grateful for it- but as the day moved along, she started to distance herself. it was slow, inch by inch, but eventually it was time for her to head home and get ready for work, and that was when matt noticed. she gave weak hugs to his brothers, and barely even said goodbye. the entire car ride back was silent, despite matt's attempts to poke words out of the girl. it was almost like she'd shut down.
matt tried to ask if she was alright when they made it to her house, but she blew it off with an easy nod and shut the door on him.
now, it's been four days. it was wednesday, and all efforts to reach the girl have failed and most interactions have been skillfully avoided by her.

     matt was sick to his stomach. he even looked the part- pale face, purple undereyes, wild hair. he was driving himself crazy over her absence.
     the three brothers sat in the van, skipping the fast food and deciding to just sit and talk during their lunch period instead. nick was swaddled in a big grandpa sweater in the backseat, and was trying to let chris handle the talking, because chris knew how to coax matt into a conversation. nick often just tried to smack sense into the boy, which was not a good method when dealing with matt.

     "she hasn't answered anybody yet?" matt groaned, rubbing his eyes roughly. his skin was dry around the corners of his eyes, and you could see he'd been having trouble sleeping from a mile away.

     "did she say anything to you? anything that might explain why she's MIA?" chris asked his brothers.

     "nope," nick pursed his lips frustratedly.

     "not that i can think of." matt knew that wasn't entirely true, but he didn't want to tell his brothers about what she'd said when they were alone. it wasn't his place to tell them how she felt- or, at least how he thought she felt. now he wasn't so sure.

     chris sighed and sat back in his chair, picking at a hangnail to busy himself. "i don't get it. everything was fine a couple days ago."

     "i just want to make sure she's okay. i wanna talk to her," matt mumbled, "i worry about her."

     "isn't that hayley chick still in town? could that be why?" nick piped up, leaning over the glove compartment to reach his brothers.

     chris' eyes grew wide in realization. "i bet that's it! didn't we tell her we would help her out? why would she just ghost us like that?"

     matt started to zone out, suddenly not interested in the conversation at all anymore. all he could think about was minnie.
     everything that happened between them meant something to him. when he first discovered her issues with anxiety- that stemmed their first argument, and their first make-up. and when she'd hung out with them for the first time, that was when he'd learned about her passion for music. and the diner showed him how much she loved milkshakes. he thought about how that floral dress she wore drove him up the wall, and how she took quite kindly to his red sweatshirt. and how she always managed to be completely bewildered when he kissed her forehead, like it was the first time every single time.
before she stopped talking to them, matt did not realize how attached he'd become to minnie. he felt like a psycho for being so strung out over a few days of radio silence, but he couldn't help the feeling in his gut. something is wrong, he knew.

"matt?" nick snapped his fingers in front of the boy, drawing his focus back to the real world.

"what?"

"chris and i think we should go over to minn's after school and check on her."

"she's not going to want to see us."

"we won't know until we try, right?" chris patted matt's shoulder encouragingly.

     matt checked the time on the dashboard of the car, seeing they only had a few more minutes of quiet until the bell rang and they'd have to go back inside. all the boy wanted to do was skip- just drive off somewhere, get out of that parking lot and away from minnie. if she was going to avoid him, who said he couldn't return the favor?

     "if we just skipped right now, would you guys be okay with that?" matt blurted out. his intrusive thoughts were becoming increasingly vocal in the past few days.

     chris smiled sadly, ruffling his brother's hair and politely declining. "mom would kill us if we dipped right now. plus, don't you and nick have that english quiz today? you don't wanna bail on that."

     "matt, i know you're really upset, but don't let it drive you crazy. we're gonna figure everything out." nick tried his best to sound comforting. in his head, all the boy wanted to do was smack matt and say, if you want the girl, go get her, but he knew it wasn't so simple for matt. his feelings have always been complicated.

     matt nodded reluctantly, knowing they were right. "yeah. yeah, okay."

     "come on, kid. the day will go by quick and then we're gonna go see her. sound good?"

     matt knew chris meant well. nick, too. he knew they wanted to help him. he was just so frustrated, and there was this pit in his stomach, bottomless and painful. he felt like he had to have said something, that her silence was his fault somehow; the idea of driving her away made him so upset he didn't know what to do with himself. the boy's anger was being misplaced with his brothers, and what little sleep he got was plagued with short dreams of her being with him and then leaving, over and over and over again. he felt weak for being so distraught over a girl, but minnie wasn't just some girl. to say he missed her would be to understate things.

     "yeah. sounds good." matt agreed, losing focus again as he began to mull over what he might say to the girl when his brothers track her down.

     as the boys collected their bags and made their way back into the all too crowded hallways of the high school, matt tried not to let his mind drag him to the dark places where things with minnie would go horribly wrong. instead, he tried to imagine her being happy to see him, and never wanting to be apart again.