Matt stared into the mirror, his face staring back at him.
The cool air of the bathroom surrounded him, as the dim lights covered his face, as well as his other face in the mirror. His reflection smiled, crossing its arms, staring grimly into Matt's eyes.
"Back to see me again, eh," the reflection said with a teasing voice.
Matt sighed, rubbing his forehead, not making eye contact with his life long friend.
"Uh-huh."
The thing frowned, seemingly peering into Matt's soul. Matt shifted in the tension, staring at his feet, leaning against the wall, with frustration plastered onto his face. The thing smiled, with a look of concern and pity.
"Aww," it said, putting its hands on it's hips. "What's the matter?"
Matt grit his teeth. "Everything."
The reflection looked up at Matt with surprise, lowering it's smile for once. After a long moment of silence and staring, the reflection lowered it's crossed arms, and rubbed one arm nervously. Matt just looked... tired. His eyes were filled with the same joy and enthusiasm as always, but when Matt removed his makeup, it could see the large eye bags underneath his eyes, and his slouched position was never really noticeable to his friends, but whenever Matt gotten the chance, he'd lean up against a wall and close his eyes, and he'd even sometimes fall asleep.
The reflection was bothered deeply by this. It softened it's voice, and leaned in towards the bathroom counter top to show it cared. The reflection sighed, staring into Matt's eyes, which who was not staring back at it.
"What's wrong?"
Matt looked up, crossing his arms, he stared at the reflection for a moment, and then quickly looked down.
"I already told you, didn't I," Matt said with a strange monotone voice.
"But tell me what happened."
Matt held himself tighter, as if he was a breaking piece of glass that was bound to break at any moment.
"Tom."
"Hmm?"
Matt clenched his fists.
"T o m."
"What did Tom do?"
Matt closed his eyes as his eye brows knitted together in frustration.
"H-he called me an idiot."
"...Matt..."
"H-he called me an idiot but I'm not an idiot, aren't I."
"You're brilliant Matt."
"H-he called me an idiot, and a 'fucking loser who has nothing better to do other than to bitch around.'"
Matt's voice cracked as he slowly slid to the floor, curled up, with his hands around his legs, hugging them tightly.
"You're smart Matt."
"H-he said that I only loved myself, but he doesn't know that I care about them too!"
"Matt-"
Matt lowered his head into his arms, letting tears fall down his face. "A-and now I fucking hate him! H-he thinks that I'll just brush what he said off! T-that stupid fucking piece of shit! T-that fucking a-asshole! T-that d-dick! B-bastard!"
Matt held himself tighter, his fists curled up into balls. The reflection pressed it's hands onto the mirror glass, desperately wanting to go into his world, in order to comfort him. But he couldn't. That was the thing. He couldn't go anywhere that didn't have a reflective surface, and he hated that. The reflection sighed, knowing that it couldn't get out of the mirror, so it just sat there, attempting to comfort Matt with it's words.
"Matt."
Matt grumbled in response.
"Matt!"
"W-what?!"
Matt looked up with a furious expression, with his eyes red, and tears coming down his face.
"You have to listen to me! What others say about you doesn't define you! Do you hear me Matt!"
Matt nodded shakily, sighing. "I-I know. I know."
"Do you remember what I said?"
"'I am the best. Who I am is fine by me.'"
"Say it again."
"'I am the best. Who I am is fine by me.'"
They stared at each other, before Matt decided to look away. It was the reflection's turn to sigh.
"People care about you Matt."
Matt nodded again, staying silent. "I know."
"Edd, Tord, and Tom. They all care about you. Even I care about you. What Tom said today wasn't your or his fault, okay? Maybe Tom was having a bad day. You know how he is."
Matt chuckled, wiping his eyes. "He's so gosh darn irritable."
It chucked too, remembering the vague memories.
"Yeah."
"D-do you remember the time that he threw the sofa through a wall, just because he was so fed up with everyone?"
"Or how he shot Tord's giant robot, and killed him?"
Matt smiled, lifting up a finger with a questioning look on his face.
"Who's Tord?"
It smiled, and laughed hysterically, having to wipe the tears off of it's face, while Matt grinned, chuckling. The reflection forced words out of it's mouth in the middle of it's laughter.
"W-wait! You don't-"
"No! No! I do know who he is! I was just playing a prank." T
he reflexion wiped the tears out of it's eyes, chuckling.
"You aren't the type of person to play pranks on people. Especially to me."
"Tord's the guy who loves henti and guns. He also almost killed Tom with a giant robot, and almost took over the world."
"Wow, look at mister non-short-term-memory over here."
Matt poked at the mirror, laughing. "Shut up."
Matt quickly collected himself, and sat up. He quickly put on more makeup to cover up his eye bags, while the reflection commented on how he should get more sleep so he didn't have to do this every single day.
As Matt was about to walk out the door, the reflection tapped on the glass.
"Wait! Matt!"
"Hmm?"
The reflection flashed a sympathetic smile at him, choosing his words carefully.
"...If you ever need someone to talk to, you always have me. Got it?"
Matt paused, in surprise, and for a moment, and smiled back. "Got it."
Edd's View
"What were you thinking, Tom!"
Tom sighed looking away from Edd's intense glare.
"I don't know."
"What the hell were you thinking Tom?! You made Matt cry!"
Tom slammed his hands onto the dinner table.
"I. Don't. Know.," Tom hissed, with a familiar sharpness in his voice.
Edd raised his hands in the air, angrily.
"Well if you don't know, why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
Edd was mad. No, no. Edd was beyond mad. He was furious. Edd's face was completely red as he slammed his fists into the table, breaking it completely in half.
"I am tired of your bullshit Tom! I know that you didn't know what you were doing, but if you didn't know what you were doing then why do it in the first place?!"
"Well, we all don't know the meaning of life, but we still continue living anyway."
"This is different Tom!"
"You didn't know why you broke your table, but you did anyway."
"I did it because of your fuckey!"
Tom pointed both his fingers towards his chest, glaring at Edd.
"And I yelled at Matt because I was tired of his fuckery, the same as you to me! But noooo... You're too retarded to understand that! Too retarded to understand that I'm not perfect, ok?! Everyone gets angry once in a while! Even you!"
As Edd was preparing his next line, out of the corner of Edd's eyes, he say a flash of green and purple.
"Matt?"
Matt rushed into Edd's apartment, with a determined look in his eyes.
"OK EVERYONE STOP TALKING!"
Tom scoffed, crossing his arms.
"Oh look. The hero's here."
Matt stared at Tom with a fury that he's never seen before.
"Shut it Tom."
Edd smiled staring his black eyed friend.
"Yeah Tom. Shut it."
Matt pointed to Edd. "And you too!"
Edd stared at Matt, holding his hands to his chest.
"Huh?! What did I do?!"
Matt smiled, glowing with self pride and innocence. That's the thing he liked about Matt. He truly cared about everyone, and would really rather put people he cared about in the front seat, but instead he pretends to say, that he's the greatest of the three, which Edd thinks so too.
Matt continued smiling during his lecture.
"You have to understand, Edd that Tom isn't perfect, and doesn't have to be. He could yell at me a thousand times over, and I wouldn't care! As long as you two are great and fine, everything's fine and dandy with me."
Edd couldn't help but smile too, at the sight of the radiating glow of Matt's smile.
Edd sighed. Edd held up his hands, sighing.
"I'm sorry about what I said," Edd said turning to Tom.
Tom shook his head, and his eyes turned white in surprise.
"No." Tom pulled back, angry.
"...No?"
"NO!"
Tom let out an unexpected shout as he took a step back, which made Edd flinch backwards. The room was silent for a moment, the sounds of a yell echoing seemingly endlessly.
Edd held out his hand.
"Tom? Are you okay-"
"I'm fine," Tom hissed, slapping Edd's hand gently.
"Tom!"
Tom quickly walked towards Edd's apartment door. Tom paused, looking back at his worried friends. He sighed again, opening the door, looking forwards into the empty hallway.
"As I said, Matt, Edd. I'm fine," Tom said quietly.
He briskly walked out of the room, leaving two friends confused and stranded.
Edd stared with sympathetic eyes at the door to which their friend has left.
This wasn't the first time fights like these happened. Matt ran towards the now closed apartment door, and looked out onto the empty hallway.
"Tom?!"
Edd sighed, placing his hand on Matt's shoulder.
"Matt. Let's go look for him later."
Matt slapped Edd's hand off his shoulder with pure scorn.
"No! We need to go look for him!"
Edd sighed. "Okay..."
Matt crossed his arms, staring at Edd with a shadowing look crossing his face.
"What has gotten into you, Edd?!"
"What do you mean?"
Matt walked in a tight circle around Edd, pacing.
"You never acted like this before! I never seen you like this before..."
Edd sighed completing Matt's sentence. "Before the incident."
Matt lowered his crossed arms, with confusion and worry coating his face.
"...So you're angry at him."
Edd hummed in response.
"Angry for what happened with... Tord," Matt said with concern.
Edd crossed his arms, looking away from Matt, completely silent. After a long amount of silence, Edd stepped through the doorway, looking back at Matt.
"I-I know. I know it's been months since he... Well... B-but I can't get over it. No matter how hard I try, I just can't."
"Edd..."
Edd grit his teeth. "It was his fault! It was all his fault! At first I was happy that he died, but the more time went on, I realized what had actually happened there. Tom killed someone Matt. Tom killed one of our friends."
Edd crossed his arms, staring at Matt in silence.
After a long pause, Edd pulled on Matt's sleeve, looking away from his face.
"Edd, we don't have to look for Tom if you don't want to."
Edd looked at him with a friendly smile. A tired smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"Well I do want to, if you want to."
Matt chuckled. "I am the most handsome one here after all, so you're under my command. I do want to look for Tom, servant," Matt said, in a high pitched voice.
Edd smiled wider in response. Then Edd took off, walking briskly down the hallway. Edd looked back at Matt, grinning.
"Hurry up slowpoke! Tom's not going to just stay in one place and wait for us to find him." Matt walked towards Edd, nodding.
"He surely isn't."