Silver Stilettos

EPILOGUE | I will always love you [3]

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MATT'S POV

February (4 Months Later)

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"This seat taken?"

He registered the words but didn't think they were directed to him until the voice said, louder this time, "Matt?"

It was a decidedly feminine voice and even though Matt knew it was impossible, his heart lurched like he had just begun a steep descent from the top of an ambitious roller coaster hill. He supposed it was the hallmark of survivor's guilt to always see the face of a lost compatriot in a crowd, to chase after a girl with dark, swinging hair only to find out it wasn't the one he wanted, to feel a thousand and one emotions barrel into him whenever a girl said his name.

The intrusion meant that someone had found his secret space, which came as a surprise since students mostly only entered the library to make out in the back stacks. Matt looked up, a frown set on his face, but it faded once he saw who had said his name.

"Lenox?" The surprise gave way to suspicion. He drew his legs toward his chest and tried not to scowl. Lenox Hill was the last person he thought would find him and judging from the way she was fidgeting with the sleeves of her oversize cherry-red sweater, she was just as uncomfortable about it as he was.

Her cheeks turned pink and with slow, mincing movements, she lowered herself to the floor. "My back is killing me," she said, casually, like they were picking up on a conversation they'd started before. "Can't imagine how you're sitting here. The floor is so hard."

The book spines digging into his back weren't all that pleasant, either, but Matt was used to the discomfort. Anticipating Lenox's next question, he said, "I come here to be alone."

He heard the accusation in his tone, the not so subtle reminder that he didn't want to talk to anyone, but it was too late to bite his tongue.

Lenox flicked her gaze to the books above his head. "I figured." A wan smile crossed her face. "No one is likely to come into the reference section, are they?" She nodded at the encyclopedia in Matt's hands, open to the page on silkmoth caterpillars. "Interesting reading?"

Matt's face burned and he snapped the book shut on the blue-barbed insect whose body showcased a range of colors as vibrant as a Jackson Pollack painting. In truth, he'd been moving his way through each encyclopedia on the shelf, reading the words with glazed brown eyes, but not really absorbing any of them.

"Just killing time"—he didn't miss her wince—"until my next class." He had enough credits to graduate high school already, but the principal didn't want graduation rates going down because of Matt's early departure - especially not after losing so many other students.

"I was in the main office getting a pass to leave early today when I overheard the receptionist on the phone with Fenris' mom," revealed Lenox. Her eyes gleamed bright blue and she leaned forward, hand fluttering on her stomach.  "He took off over the weekend and she wanted to make sure he would still be able to graduate. He has a lost of missed days."

Matt frowned, not sure why she was coming to him with this. Was he supposed to care about the asshole who got Mayuri, his best friend, involved with that psychopath, Reed? He could care less whether Fenris was there to walk across the stage on graduation day in May or whether the dude would have to repeat the twelfth grade and spend the rest of his life working a checkout line at the local grocery store.