...Running through the hallway as he starts to corner me up against the wall; nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. He raises his hand up, reaches out towards me and...
"Grace. Grace. Grace!"
I awake to my older brother shaking me.
"Are you alright?" he asked as a worried look consumed his face; I hate that I do this to him.
"Yeah, I'm fine …just another nightmare …" I looked out of the window with a blank expression.
"I'm sorry, Grace. You can't keep letting the past get to you. I know it's hard, but I can't bear to see you like this, it kills me inside to know that my little sister is still suffering."
My brother was there for me from the beginning. He knows everything I've been through and he always tries to help me out…there's just nothing, anyone could possibly do. I looked over at him; he was holding my hand, worry still written across his face. I gently placed my other hand above his, "Tyler, trust me, please. I'm going to be fine; they're just figments of my imagination. I know… I hope …that history won't repeat itself…"
"It won't! I won't let it!" Tyler declared as my alarm blared obnoxiously, indicating it was 6:45 in the morning.
"Well, time to get ready for another day of school …joy." I slid my hand out from underneath Tyler's; I got out of bed and gathered my clothes for the day.
"…Grace…" Tyler faintly said.
"Yes?" I didn't bother turning around; I wouldn't be able to handle his expression.
"Please, promise me, that you won't do anything…"
I froze in place, why did he bring that up? How does he know?
"…I won't…I promise…" I said quietly as I walked into the bathroom and shut the door. After I was finished getting ready I headed downstairs; the smell of eggs and bacon filled the air.
"Smells good." I said with a smile, hoping the mood would be lighter than earlier.
"Thanks." A smile slowly crept across his face. I sat down in my seat waiting for breakfast to be ready.
~~~~~~~30 minutes go by~~~~~~~
"So...what are you doing today after school?"Tyler asked me as we drove to school.
"Probably going to hang out with Matt and Ashley at the park, why?"
"Just wondering." He put plainly, "I have a bad feeling about that Matt kid, Grace."
"Why? There's nothing to worry about. Please stop being so overprotective. I've known this kid for awhile, if there was something bad about him I think I would know by now."
"Then why haven't you brought him around ever? Do his parents even know you two hang out?"
"Why does that even matter?! I don't need their or your permission to hang out with him! I am fifteen years old! I can handle myself!" Now I was just getting aggravated.
Every time, every single time I mentioned Matt around Tyler he'd get all edgy and over-protective. But I don't know why…does he know something I don't? Is there a reason he isn't telling me?
"Just take precautions, that's all…"
"There isn't anything that you're keeping from me, is there?"
He got as stiff as a board. There has to be something, I just know it.
"Well...?"
"No. Just take precautions, that's it."
"Ty-"
"We're here. See you after school. Be safe." He stated as we hugged me quickly, watched me get out of the car, and walk into the building.
Why won't he just tell me? No sense thinking about it too much, time to get another day of school over with. Matt was right up ahead at his locker, I'll ask him about it.
"Hey, Matt." I said with a smile.
"Hey, Grace. How are you?" he closed his locker, rather rough.
"I'm…okay…Is something wrong?"
"No. Nothing at a-…" he started to fade off as he continued to talk.
"What? I'm sorry; I couldn't really understand the last part."
"Ashley broke up with me!" The way he yelled, and I know not at me, had me scared. I jumped back about two steps afraid to ask or say anything else.
"…I'm sorry, Grace. Today's just been tough for me, and it's only eight in the morning. I didn't mean to yell at you." He hung his head, as if in shame.
"It's alright. I understand; is there anything I could possibly do?" I hated to see Matt like this; I've known him since I was ten so he's like a brother to me.
"Well…" Matt shook his head, "never mind. I don't want you to get involved with my pity drama."
"Matt, you know I'll do anything for you. You're like a brother to me." I gently placed on hand on his arm.
He all of a sudden got quiet, "Yeah, I know…" He sighed, "Do you mind if you skipped the first two periods with me so we can talk?"
"Sure, of course." We headed to the back of the school. After we went out the back door we headed straight to the big shady tree; we would always hang out here during lunch.
"So, what do you want to talk about?"
"You don't mind if I just vent do you?" he said as he stared me directly in the eyes; I could tell he was truly hurt.
"No, not at all, but before you start venting can I know why she broke up with you?"
Matt looked away.
"Ashley thought I was cheating on her. Which, I don't blame her for because of what she's heard about me. But, I swear I didn't! She saw me hug another girl and just assumed. I would never…could never, ever cheat on Ashley. I love her to death! I'd do anything to get her back. I'd quit talking to girls for her, I'd quit everything for her; partying, drinking, smoking, racing, fighting, arguing with my parents…everything," Matt started to slowly tear up at the corner of his eyes.
I felt so bad for him. If anyone knows Matt, it's me. He's done a lot of messed up things in the past but, he truly made an effort to change his old habits for this girl.
"I honestly don't know why I love her so much. After everything she's done to me. I've never brought any of it up because I didn't want to lose her. But she's cheated on me, lied to me…she didn't even tell her parents about us! I feel as if she's ashamed to even be with me…or was at least…"
At this point he was crying. There's nothing I could possibly do to help the situation, but I was determined to try.
"Matt, I get that you loved Ashley to-"
"Love."
"Sorry, love; but all you can do for now is back off. Until she knows what she's done is a mistake."
"What if that's never? Grace, what if I never get Ashley back? What if she moves on and forgets about me? What will I do?" It was as if he was about to go into hysterics.
"Matt, please. You're not going to die without her, I promise. It's going to be rough for a while but, I'm here for you and you know that. I'll talk to her for you, but I can't promise anything. Okay?"
Matt pulled me into a huge bear hug, I could hardly breathe, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much! How can I ever repay you?"
"No…problem…and you don't…have to repay me…" I could hardly say anything from the loss of breath.
"Are you sure? I'll do anything in return; you don't know how much this means to me!" I swear his smile couldn't get any bigger if he tried.
"I'm sure. But, if I think of anything I'll let you know okay?" I winked at him with a little chuckle.
"Ha ha, okay."
We both got up and brushed each other off.
"Ready to head back?" I said as I reached down to pick up my bag.
"No." Matt stated as his stared blankly up into the sky.
"No? What do you mean 'no'? We have to go back." I didn't get what he meant, was there something else he wanted to talk about?
"Grace…isn't there just a day that you want to forget all of life's responsibilities and just let loose?" He cocked his head far enough for our eyes to meet.
"Um…sometimes…why?" Confusion could not be any more obvious on my face.
"How about today? Let's not go back. Just you and me, hanging out today anywhere and everywhere?"
"I don't know Matt...What if my brother found out? He'd kill me." Although, I am debating whether or not I should because I mean really, what's the worst that could happen?
"Come on Grace, live a little." He insisted as he put his arm around my shoulder with a nudge.
I was quiet for a minute, contemplating the options.
"You know what? Screw it, why not." I giggled at the thought of actually skipping school.
"Cool, I'll drive!"
Matt and I went around the building, not caring or worrying if any teachers saw us and got into his car. I don't know what it was, but we were always able to cheer each other up. Once he started his car it roared like a lion.
"Matt, did I ever tell you, how jealous I am?" I slid my hand across the dashboard with a smile of envy.
"Ha ha, no you haven't what is there to be jealous of?"
"This. Your car, it's beautiful."
"If you say so," he said as he let out a loud 'Ha'.
Matt has a Black 2013 Mustang; I was beyond jealous of how much he got and that he basically could get anything he wanted.
"So, Matt…what are we supposed to do? Everyone's in school, so there's no one to chill with…"
"We can just go to the park, maybe buy some ice cream and talk?" he was acting as if the whole 'Ashley-breaking-up-with-him' thing never happened.
"Ha ha, sort of sounds like a date, but okay."
As we headed towards the park we heard sirens and saw bright flashing lights. Curiously, we turned the corner and saw that there was a huge car accident. An 18-wheeler had tipped over and crushed half of, what seems to be Red Mustang, wait…that's my brother's car!
"Matt, stop!" he halted to a stop and I got out of the car as fast as I could, running over to the scene.
Police men were trying to hold me back, but I kept fighting, I finally broke loose and ran over to the car. Afraid to look, I slowly bent down and looked through the window. There he was, lying there, defenseless; my eyes started to tear up fast. I pulled my knees up to my face and started to ball my eyes out. Matt soon enough was at my side, trying to comfort me.
"Why…why did it have to be him…why not me…?" I softly said to myself as I cried into Matt's arms.
Matt straightened his arms from around me and gripped both of his hands on my arms. "Grace…look at me," I slowly tilted my head up; having my eyes meet his.
"Don't you ever, I mean ever, say that again!" We stared into each other's eyes for a little bit until I broke down and buried my head back into his chest.
"I'm sorry…I just…he's all I have Matt…"
"It's okay. Just know that I'm always here for you."
Tyler was finally pulled out of the car and was placed into the ambulance. As soon as the ambulance had left the scene, people slowly started to flee as well. Matt and I headed back to his car, once we were inside we sat there in silence. After about five minutes of silence Matt started his car.
"Well…what now?" Matt asked not even bothering to look at me.
"Would you mind if we went to the hospital?"
"Not at all." Matt put the car into in reverse, drive, and then drove towards the hospital.
The entire car ride was dead quiet. It was starting to feel awkward; I wanted to say something to break it, but decided against it. We finally arrived at Mary's Hospital; Matt once again turned his car off. My heart was racing, what was I going to do if something serious happened to Tyler? He is all I have left. "Do you want me to stay here?" Matt asked, looking at me this time.
"No, I need you with me; I don't know what will happen…or how I will react." I wanted to take any and all precautions for what may be to come.
We got out of the car and headed towards the main desk, "Um…Hello…" I began to tear up, "We are looking for Tyler Thompson" Matt finished my sentence.
The nurse looked through some papers, walked from one area to another, looked at some other papers, and then finally looked up at us "Room 134, take this door to the right and it's the sixth door on the left."
"Thank you." We went through the double doors and slowly walked; Room 129, 130, 131...finally Room 134, we're here. I hesitated to open the door. As I opened the door I got more and more afraid of what was behind the door. Matt put his hand on my shoulder, I looked over at him, and with a small smile he nodded, as if he was saying "It'll be okay". I finished opening the door and we walked in. Tyler was hooked up to bunch of machines, it was horrifying. I couldn't handle it I collapsed into Matt's arms and began to sob.
"Grace, let's find a doctor to see what's going on. I'm sure everything is alright." Matt tried to reassure me as he helped me back up to my feet. We walked back into the hall, around the corner, and found a nurse practitioner, "Excuse me, Miss. May we ask the condition of the man in Room 134?" Matt talked for me; he knew I would begin to cry if I tried.
"Are you guys in any sort of relation to the patient?"
"She is. She is his younger sister."
"Alright. Well, Mr. Thompson is fine. He's not in critical condition. We just want to monitor him over night to see how things go." A small weight was lifted off my shoulders. I could finally relax a little, of course I was still worried about Tyler, but knowing he's not in critical condition helped calmed my nerves deeply.
"Thank you so much." I was actually able to talk for myself. I looked towards Matt, "I'm going to stay here for as long as I can. You don't have to, if you don't want to."
"I'd like to stay if it's alright with you." Matt asked as he smiled faintly. I nodded. We both walked back into the room. I took a chair closest to Tyler and gently wrapped my hands around one of his, a single tear fell from my eye. It was clear Matt felt awful about what happened with Tyler and wanted to try and cheer me up, but he knew it best he just stood in the background till I was ready to talk.
It's been a few hours, school was out for the day, and Matt and I hadn't said a word to each other. What was there to say? A nurse walked into the room, "I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over for the day."
"Oh…Okay. Well, thanks. When can I come by tomorrow morning?"
"Eight."
"Thank you." I turned to Matt, "About that favor you owed me…do you think I could crash at your place tonight?"
"Of course you can. I don't want to leave you alone anyways. Plus I am sure Tyler would kill me if I did that," Matt's been there through thick and thin; he's seen me at my best and he's seen me at my worse.
"Thank you." As grateful as I felt I couldn't bring myself to smile. We headed towards the car; once we got in we just sat there for a good while in silence.
"Would you like to head back and grab some clothes?" Matt said hesitantly.
"Would you have anything that would fit me?" I don't know why I asked, of course he would. Matt was a tiny guy, but he enjoyed wearing clothes that were too big for him. By tiny, I don't mean scrawny, but more like toned.
"Yes." He chuckled lightly. Matt started his car and began to drive to his house; the car was silent. We had finally arrived at his house, we hadn't talked the entire way there and it was apparent that a conversation wasn't going to happen anytime soon. We walked up, unto his porch; we could already hear his parents arguing.
"…I'm sorry…" he felt a little embarrassed.
"It's alright." We walked inside his house and tried to avoid his parents, but to no avail. His father cleared his throat, "Matthew Smith Greene, where do you think you're going?" We stopped in our tracks. Matt backed up a few steps and stepped into the living room, I decided to stay put.
"To my room, why? Is there a problem?" Matt's relationship with his parents had never been a good one since I've known him.
"It's a problem when we get a call from school saying they saw you leave during school hours. It is also a problem when you are gone for five hours after school is over and don't even bother to give us a call!" His mother had a real temper.
Matt didn't know what to say, he didn't want to say what truly happened because it really wasn't any of their business, nor was it his business to tell, "It's none of your business. I had some things to do." He began to walk away from his parents and back towards me.
"Matthew! Get your ass back here now! We aren't done talking to you!" his father called out to him. Matt didn't even bother to look back or answer them; he guided me up the stairs and to his room. Once we in his room he shut and locked his door, "I am so sorry about that."
"It's alright. I'd probably be in the same situation if…you know…didn't happen." I had walked over to his bed, let me legs give out, and fell right onto it.
We could still hear his parents, now arguing about each other's parenting techniques, through the floorboards. Matt walked over to his dresser and began to rummage through his clothing, after about a good ten minutes he finally picked out a wife beater and a pair of basketball shorts, "Here these are the smallest sizes I have. Hope they aren't too big." He had tossed the outfit over to me.
I held them up one at a time to see if they would fit, "They will be fine, again thank you for letting me stay."
"It's no problem, really." Matt had taken off his shirt to switch into something more relaxing.
"Have you been working out more? I could've sworn I don't remember your abs being that cut." When did he even have the time to work out? He was always with either Ashley or myself.
"Eh, not really. I have been slacking, has it really been that long since you've seen my abs?"
"I guess so…" I shrugged a 'oh well' kind of shrug and began to get undressed.
"Um…" Matt began to blush, hardcore. "You don't want to use the bathroom or anything?"
"No? Why would I? We've known each other forever, plus like I've said you're like a brother to me." I was oblivious to his blushing; my shirt had already been taken off as I began to take off my jeans.
"Oh, right…" Something seemed off about Matt. But, so much had happened today that I decided to shrug it off. Finally, getting into the wife beater and shorts I plopped right back onto Matt's bed. There was a moment of silence; his parents had finally stopped arguing. As soon as Matt opened his mouth to say something there was a knock on his door, he rolled his eyes and groaned, "…yes?"
"Open your door." His mother was on the other side.
"I'm a little busy right now. What do you want?"
"We just want to talk," he father chimed in.
"There's nothing to talk about. Go away." Matt was beginning to get aggravated.
"Yes there is, now open this door or I will." Matt knew he was bluffing; he didn't even bother to respond. "Open this door right now! I'm not kidding!" His mother began counting, "What am I twelve? Are you seriously counting right now? I am almost eighteen years old." Matt began to laugh.
"That's it you asked for it." We could hear step foots going backwards then rush forward, when all of a sudden his parents were in his room…they really weren't kidding. I tried to hide, but one there was nowhere to hide and two by the time I had thought about it, it was already too late. Once again there was a moment of silence until his mother had exploded.
"Excuse me, young man! Who is this? And what right do you think you have to bring over some girl without checking with us first?!" Not getting to know his parents beforehand was a bad idea…definitely not how I pictured our first meeting to go.
"She isn't some girl, first of all. Second of all, for the second time I am almost eighteen years old."
"I don't care how old you are; as long as you are in my house you live by my rules."
Matt was about to explode, I could tell. He was standing right in front of me, so I tugged at his pant legs and shook my head, it wasn't worth the fight and he knew that. Matt sighed and decided to give into his parents, "Mom…dad…this is Grace. Grace these are my parents. Is it alright if she stayed the night?"
"You can't just introduce us and expect for it to be alright for her to stay over."
After about an hour of awkwardly sitting there has Matt and his parents argued back and forth, Matt somehow convinced them to let me stay for the night, but that's it. After everything that had happened today it was about nine at night and we were able to finally relax.
"Well now that's over, once again I'm sorry." Matt plopped down onto his bed, back first, and let out a huge sigh.
"I didn't really picture meeting your parents for the first time would be like this. Tell me again why we didn't have them meet me when we first met?"
"You see how they are! I don't think it would've been any different back then than it was now." Matt had his entire body sprawled out and his eyes shut. Luckily, he had a queen size bed so I was able still sit on it.
"That may be true, but with us being teenagers they probably thought it was something completely different. And that in itself is weird." Once again there was a moment of silence. Matt finally responded, "Yeah that would be weird…"
"You alright? You seem a little bit out of it. I mean it it's still about the whole Ashl-"
"I'm fine." Quick and to the point, I probably shouldn't have brought her up.
"Right…Well it's getting late. I know its Friday, but I'd like to get to the Hospital as soon as I can; if that's alright."
"Yeah, that's fine." He moved up to one side of the bed, turned to his side, and covered himself with the blanket.
"Are you sure you are alright, Matt? You know you can tell me anything." I got to my side, but instead sat there looking at Matt, hoping he'd tell me what's going on.
"I'm fine, Grace."
"…Alright, I guess…" I laid down and pulled the covers over myself. Matt turned off his side light.
I laid there awake, unable to go to sleep. Something was going on and I wanted to know. I looked over to Matt's alarm clock and it read '10:00pm', Ugh I need to be at the Hospital for eight and I can't sleep for the life of me! What was Tyler talking about 'taking precautions? Why is Matt being so weird today? What am I not being filled in on!?More and more questions began to fill my head; to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. I pulled out my I-Pod, shoved the headphones into my ears, and put on "Cocaine" by Nomy, for some reason this song always helped me calm down.
~~~~~~~an hour goes by~~~~~~~
…Nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. He raises his hand up, reaches out towards me, and grabs me by the neck. I struggle to breathe, kicking, punching, clawing at his hands, but to no avail. He threw me over his shoulders and began to walk; I was in and out of consciousness, eventually passing out. I awake in a dark room. My wrists are chained up above my head, as the rest of my body is limp on a cold wet floor. I couldn't gather the strength to pick myself up. He enters. I can't make out his face or even his body; I can only hear the noise of his footsteps coming closer…and closer.
"I hope you're ready," the strange man said with a shirt eating grin, I could make out this purely white teeth.
"Re-a-a-dy fo-or wha-at…"I tried to hide the fact that I was scared shitless, but couldn't.
"For this!"He rushed towards me when…
"Grace! Grace!"
I threw my arms up and scratched something; I shot open my eyes and quickly sat up, "Wha-What's going on!?" I shook my head back and forth trying to comprehend what was going on.
"You…were having a nightmare…Ugh." Matt stood back up holding onto the left side of his face. "Were were sweating, shaking, and screaming. I had to wake you up. But I didn't think you'd attack me." He moved his hand off his face to reveal two long, deep scratches going from the top of his nose to the top of his outer cheek.
"Oh my god! I am so, so sorry!" I rushed over to Matt to take a closer look to his face.
"I'm fine, really. Just a couple of scratches, you know it takes more than that to take me down." Matt said with a smirk, then going straight back to being serious, "The more important question is, are you okay?"
"Yeah… I'm fi-ine…" I got up off the bed to go grab my clothes and get changed.
"Why don't you talk to me anymore? I'm always here for you, Grace." Matt sounded truly concerned.
"I could say the same thing to you Matt! Instead of talking to me last night you decided to roll over and go to sleep. Don't you trust me? I thought we were best friends…you know what I don't have time for this. I need to go see my bother." I rushed out of the room before I could give Matt the chance to answer. As I rushed out his house I tried to find the closest bus station. I hopped onto the first bus to Mary's Hospital, where as soon as I arrived I rushed to Tyler's room.
"Tyler…?" I asked, not expecting a response, as I opened the door. There he was still unconscious, hooked up to numerous machines. It killed me to see my brother in this position; he was literally the only family I had left. I pulled up a try to sit by him as I stroke my hand down his face. Hours went by and nothing bad, but neither did anything good had happened. I wasn't leaving until they made me when all of a sudden Tyler's hand twitched a little; I looked over to his face, to see his head shaking from side to side.
I stood up from my chair, "Tyler? Tyler, it's me Grace. Can you hear me?" I said anxiously. Tyler groaned a little, "…Grace…"
"Yes? Tyler? I'm right here Tyler." He didn't respond. Is he okay? What's going on? The machines began to start beeping and go hay wire.
"Tyler? Tyler! Someone get a doctor!" I was freaking out, I couldn't lose Tyler. Before I knew it doctors and nurses flooded the room, pushing me out of the room.
I tried to get by, but there was no use. What was going to happen to Tyler? Negative thoughts entered my mind. What if he didn't make it?What would I do? I can't lose him! I need him, he's my older brother. Who's going to help me when times are rough? Who's going to tell me to be careful? Tyler, please, please, please be okay! I can't lose you! I collapsed onto the floor. Matt came to my side, I stared blankly at the floor. Tyler you can't leave me, without you I have nothing. I am nothing. I can't lose you Tyler, I just can't. Tears flooded my eyes quickly and streamed down my face. Matt embraced me in a big hug; I didn't budge, even a little. I didn't care that we had just had a fight this morning, all I cared about was Tyler; my big brother could possibly be dying right now! He rested his head against mind, "I'm here for you Grace. I know there isn't much that I can do and I know you may be mad at me, but just know that I am here for you."
His words comforted me, but only a little, I was still so worried about my brother. The doctors and nurses began to clear the room. With the help of Matt, I brought myself to my feet again, "Is he going to be okay?"
"Yes. His blood pressure and heart rate was getting low. We gave him some medicine, making him stable now. He will be sleeping for quite some time though, he needs the rest anyhow."
"Oh okay, thank you." It's now three in the afternoon and since it was a Saturday visiting hours were cut short. I had only three hours left until I had to leave. I walked back into the room and once again took resident in the chair next to Tyler. Matt stayed with me, but we didn't say a word to each other since the doctor had left. Tyler didn't move at all for the last three hours of my visiting hours. Before I headed out I kissed him on the head and whispered, "I love you Tyler, I'm here for you," I left, not worrying or really caring if Matt followed or not. I walked out of the hospital and onto the sidewalk, it had been raining all day and there were no signs of it stopping anytime soon. I sat waiting for the bus to come, "Grace…" I could tell it was Matt, but I didn't want to look at him.
"Grace, please. We're best friends. I want you to be able to tell me anything. Is it about…"
I didn't want to talk about it, the bus came and right as I was about to step on Matt grabbed my arm and pulled me back, gently. "Grace, please. Let me take you home. Fine, you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to right now." He signaled the bus driver to go, "What the hell, Matt?! What if I said 'no, I don't want to go with you'? Hmm?"
I wasn't taking 'no' as an answer. Like I said we are best friends. I won't let you suffer through this, or anything alone. I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
I sighed; there was no winning, "Fine…" He pulled me into a hug and then headed to his car. As we were driving I asked, "So…are you going to drop me off at home? Because if you are you do know you passed the turn like five miles ago, right?"
"I know. I'm not dropping you off. You are coming back home with me."
"But Matt, your parents…"
"I don't care what they have to say or what they think. You can't be alone."
"I can't?" Who gives him the right to say what I can and can't do?
"Fine, I won't let you. Don't worry about anything; they aren't home for the weekend anyways." He was serious; I have never seen him so serious in my life.
"Alright…" Silence.
We had finally arrived at his house. We walked in and before heading upstairs Matt asked, "Are you hungry? I can cook something, if you are."
"No. I'm fine." My stomached growled, stupid stomach, "I guess I'm a little hungry…"
Matt chuckled, "I thought you would be, go into the living room and I'll make us something."
I walked into the living room and turned on the TV. Nothing good was one, as if there ever was, so I decided to put on his PS3. What games did he have to play? Sports? No. First Person Shooter? No. Racing? Oh yes, but which one? "Need For Speed" had won. I was on my fifth race, almost going to get first place for the fifth time in a row when Matt called, "Dinner's ready!" Pause.
I walked into the dining room to see a full blown meal laid out on the table, "Woah. I thought maybe you'd make some Mac -n- Cheese or something, but this. This is amazing. When did you learn how to cook?!"
"Right around the time that I started dating Ashley…She would always tell me how she liked home cooked meals, so I learned how to just for her…" Things fell to a sad, awkward silence.
"I'm sorry…"
Matt shook his head and put a smile on, "No need to be, it's a good skill to have."