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"Is this really the way we are going to spend the day?"
Jay flipped Matthew off and sunk lower in his chair. "No one invited you to my pity party."
"Didn't know that an invitation was needed. At least feed me."
Matthew headed towards the kitchen. Damn if today he wasn't wearing a bow tie. A marvel bow tie but still. How did this guy not get beat up every day?
Since it was nearly noon, and he hadn't eaten either, he got up and followed the nerd. Lisa and Jack were gone to visit Angel, so he had the whole house to himself.
Not that he was excited about it. He'd rather be at Paisley's, but her mom had finally gotten smart and kicked his ass out.
Not that he blamed her. A couple nights ago she'd walked in on some very heavy making out between him and her daughter. He'd been so out of it; he'd never heard her coming.
He wouldn't be able to call himself a man if he hadn't been. Paisley had needed a distraction, and he was only human. Let it be known now. When his girl threw herself at him, he definitely wasn't strong enough to push her away.
She'd been hot.
It was almost worth it being kicked out. Especially since more times than not, he ended up over there, anyway.
Matthew was attacking his cereal like he hadn't eaten in years.
"I heard Paisley didn't make it home last night."
Jay's eyes narrowed. "How in the hell do you know that?"
"Jackson called me. He wanted to make sure you weren't tearing the town apart trying to find her."
He knew where she was. He wasn't happy about it, but he knew. Which was why he was having his pity party.
His girl was in the city shacked up in a motel with her ex.
Why else would he be sitting in a dark living room wishing he had a drink? Well, not exactly wishing he had a drink. If he was drunk, then he wouldn't know that nothing was going on between her and the ass and believe him, if he didn't know that nothing was going on, he'd be like an atom bomb going off. As it was, it was taking everything in him to make sure she didn't know how upset he was about all this.
Since he was too lazy to fetch himself a bowl, he stuck his hand in the cereal box and grabbed a handful that went directly into his mouth. Before chewing, he took the lid off the jug of milk and poured some into his mouth.
Matthew nearly choked on his own cereal and sat his bowl down. "Please tell me you don't always drink from the carton."
Shrugging, Jay reached for the other boy's bowl. No need in it going to waste.
"Let's do something today. My dad has a cabin up on the lake. Let's go fishing."
"I don't fish." He said, his mouth so full it was a wonder the other boy understood what he said.
As soon as the other boy mention the cabin, he felt some unease which got instantly stuffed out as he turned to find something else to eat in the pantry.
It was the first real emotion he'd ever gotten off the other boy and he tried to find the source of his unease.
Usually it didn't take so much work, in fact he could know what someone was thinking with no work whatsoever but with Matthew it was different. He was beginning to wonder if there just wasn't anything up there, but now; he had reason to think otherwise.
What was the boy hiding that was so bad he never allowed himself to think about it?
"Bowling?"
"I don't bowl. Tell me more about this cabin." If he hadn't been looking for a reaction, then he would have missed Matthew's small pause.
"Just a place to fish. Are these cookies any good?"
"Are any cookies not good?"
Catching Jay watching him, he hid his face and shoved a whole cookie in his mouth. "Weren't we talking about the fact your girlfriend didn't come home last night?"
"Nope."
"Don't blame you. I wouldn't want to talk about it either." He pushed his glasses up and shoved another cookie in his mouth.
Maybe it was the mood he was in, maybe it was because he was suddenly worried about the dork, but Jay did something he never did. "If we are going to be friends, then you should know that I have a superpower."
"Yeah, right." Rolling his eyes, he went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. "Are we talking flying or unnatural speed? Or are you talking about your ability to cut people with that razor-sharp tongue of yours?"
"I know you have secrets. I just don't know how you're able to keep them from me since I'm able to read everybody else."
He tried to keep it lite by crossing his arms and grinning. "You already know about my mad crush on Daphnia Zimmerman, what other secrets could I possibly have?"
"Good question." He studied the other guy so intensely that the skinny boy squirmed. His cheeks became red. He didn't believe Jay's claim but what if he was wrong? Matthew was an open-minded kind of person. Was someone being able to read someone's thoughts so farfetched?
That was the opening he needed. Within moments he knew everything he needed to know about him and a few things he didn't need to know.
He looked away but not before witnessing the other boy's eyebrows jumping up into his hairline. "Don't worry about it. It won't ever happen again."
He didn't know whether to be nervous or amazed. "What are you talking about?"
"Your dad. It won't happen again."
Matthew had to sit down.
"You can trust me when I say it won't happen again."
"He's not a bad guy."
Jay's lips twisted. "Your definition of a good guy differs from mine."
"It's only happened a few times and only when he drinks a lot. My mom running out on us hurt him pretty bad."
"So, he hurts you?"
He ducked his head and his voice became little more than a whisper. "It's only happened a few times. He doesn't even remember it afterwards. I choose not to remember it either. I choose to remember him the way he usually is. If you want it bad enough, you can almost make yourself believe anything."
His mom had left over four years ago and out of those four years his dad has beat him half a dozen times. The last time so bad that Matthew had to miss a week of school. His dad might not remember doing it but he damn sure wouldn't miss the fact that his son had the shit beat out of him. Matthew hadn't been back to the cabin since then.
Jay got up and put his dish in the sink then he turned and settled his hands on his friend's shoulders. It was easy to erase those memories from his mind. He didn't have to rearrange anything; he didn't heal him; he just took them away then he took this conversation away from him.
When he looked down at him, Matthew was frowning at him.
"Usually when you're this close you're about to hit me."
"Won't happen again and you don't have to worry about what we will do today. We're fixing to have company."
