The room was empty.
With no students shoving their way through the double doors to get to the meals and pick out the best tables for themselves and their friends, the school's expansive cafeteria was silent enough that even the tiniest tick of the wall clock's hands echoed with astounding resonance. This sort of solitude is what Matthew enjoyed.
He enjoyed being able to sit at any table he felt comfortable sitting at and being able to hear his thoughts. Everyday before classes starts, before a lot of his peers were even getting out of bed, Matthew would sneak out of the house before his family awoke and take a brisk walk to his school to reap the benefits of an almost-empty school. He could talk to the teachers about assignments he didn't understand; he could finish up homework assignments or projects he couldn't complete at his own home; he could used his hard-earned downtime to read his books. Most importantly, Matthew loved the solitude, peace, and silence of the cafeteria because he was able to write.
The young man tended to write an assortment of things, from short stories to poems to a quick idea he has before it leaves him, but what he usually write the most during these silent minutes were lyrics. Sometimes when he hums, tap on a desk in utter boredom, or simply said something that rhymed and sounded deep, he would whip out his trusty black leather bound journal and scribble away, letting the words pour onto the pages as freely as they came. The greatest thing about being alone in the cafeteria was that Matthew had a lot of time to himself so he could write without a distraction or urgent matter interrupting him.
Humming a tune to keep the rhythm memorized, Matthew toyed with the pen in his hand- which caused a lot of black ink to mark the palm of his hand- and tapped his foot on the tiles beneath him as he tried to think out a chorus. "'Stars glittering the dark night/Look up at the dotted skies/ this is ours to take flight...' How should I continue this part?" He wondered out loud. He bent over his journal and trained his eyes on the next few blank lines as he tried to think of words rhyming with skies and how to fit them into the song.
Then the worst possible thing at the moment happened. Just when Matthew finally figured out the right words to put onto the page, the double doors to the cafeteria swung open, hitting the walls with a startling bang that pounded out the words Matthew had. Matthew sighed and closed his journal, regretful at the loss of peace. He folded his hands on the table and waited expectantly as the sounds of running feet came closer behind him.
"Dammit, where the hell is that little bastard- Yo, Mattie, there you are! What's up?" Matthew's older brother, Alfred, yelled into Matthew's ear as he wrapped his arm around Matthew's neck in a chokehold-like hug. He slapped Matthew's chest with his open palm. "I was looking all over for you, you little sneak!"
"Ngh! S-so I hear," Matthew gasped out. "Y-you're here, early, andwouldyoumindlettingmego!"
Alfred released Matthew. "Yeah, and so are you. You left your lunch when you were trying to sneak out of the house again," he said as he dropped a lunchbag on top of the table. "If you're going to sneak out, at least bring this with you, and Matt, you really need'a find a better place to go besides school. Also, Dad's getting pretty sick of your forgetfulness and I'm kinda getting sick of bringing your shit to you."
"I don't see why; you get to take out whatever dessert he leaves to me." Matthew opened his lunchbag. Sure enough, he was missing his usual sandwich bag full of maple-flavored cookies. He glared up at Alfred, who simply stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and shrugged.
"Daily payment for helping you to not starve during lunch." He looked around at the empty tables. "Dude, what is so great about being here when it's completely deserted? What do you do here, anyway? Extra homework or something?" He spotted the leather bound journal and snatched it up. "Whoa, you still have this old thing?!"
"Hey!" Matthew yelled. He stood from his seat and tried to make himself appear taller to gain some intimidating factor. Not today. He was not going to let this happen today. "Yes, I do still have the book. I appreciate gifts given to me and try not to ruin them. Now give it back before you rip it up or something!"
Matthew reached for the journal, but Alfred dodged Matthew's hands and backed away, silently reading the poems and lyrics on the pages. "Ew, man, there's so much gay shit in this!" Alfred grimaced as he flipped through the pages. "'Bright-Eyed Lover?' What kind of man names a song 'Bright-Eyed Lover'?"
"It's a soliloquy, Alfred, and it's none of your business what I write!" Matthew snapped as he ran up to Alfred and tried to snatch his journal back. "Now give it back, prick!"
Alfred held the journal high above his head, sniggering as Matthew stood on his toes to get it. "Dude, I'm doing this for you, trust me. Write anymore of this shit, and you'll end up being some big-dicked guy's bottom bitch, and your anus is too sensitive for that kind of ass-pounding!"
"Holy shit, Alfred, that's not funny! And I'm not gay! Knock. It. Off!" Matthew kept reaching for his journal, angry at the four-inch difference nature blessed Alfred with and cursed Matthew with. "This is seriously immature!"
"Like I said, Mattie, I'm just trying to save your ass from some guy's huge dick." He quickly glanced back when he and Matthew heard the doors swing open again. "Oh, hey, Gil, catch!" Alfred flung the journal to Gilbert Beilschmidt just as he and Feliks Łukasiewicz walked in through the doors to cut through the cafeteria.
The journal's spine made contact with Gilbert's forehead, leaving a small, red rectangle mark to form up and down the pale skin. "Ach!" Gilbert spat as the journal dropped to the floor. "Alfred, what the hell?! Don't throw random shit-!" When he saw that Matthew was practically jumping at the journal on the floor, Gilbert quickly caught on and side swept the book to Feliks with his foot.
Feliks picked it up and loudly read a line to one of the poems. "'Dry any trail of tears from your cheek before they catch on to the sadness, run towards the light before you get lost in the worldwide madness.' Ha ha, oh my god, Alfred, your little brother's going all emo on us!" He tossed the journal back to Alfred, who caught it and waited for Matthew to run to him before slapping Matthew with it and tossing it to Gilbert.
"A gay emo at that," Gilbert added as he read a line of soliloquy Alfred found in the journal earlier. "Damn, man, all this stuff would put that wrecking ball song to shame in an instant." He flung the journal back to Alfred, who threw it to Feliks. They continued this game of keep away, snickering and flinging the journal in the air just out of Matthew's reach. The game went on too long for Matthew, because he slowed down, and suddenly froze. He stood still and hung his head, his fists shaking at his sides and his shoulders shuddering.
Catching Matthew's body language instantly, Alfred laughed and held his hand up for the journal. "Okay, guys, the little man's had enough for today; give it here."
Feliks nonchalantly handed the journal to Alfred. Alfred walked up to Matthew and slammed the journal into his younger brother's chest, hissing in his ear as Matthew huffed from the impact, "Learn to take a fucking joke, you ass," before walking out of the cafeteria with his friends to their classes.
Matthew stood still with his cheeks burning, holding his journal tightly against him as he tried to stop his body from shaking. He started sniffling, but inhaled and lifted his head. Don't do it, Matthew, not here, he told himself. When the bell finally rang for first period, Matthew ran to the table that he was sitting in, gathered his lunch and backpack, and wordlessly rushed out the cafeteria.
Okay, guys who've been following this story for the really long time even when I haven't updated, I have some things to say!
1. I'm sorry that I didn't update this with a newer chapter, and instead updating it with a slight edit, but I had to. I did not realize that I started out really poorly in this, and so I'm posting an edited version and will be editing the next chapter. But there is some good news to this, too, which is-
2. I'm going to update this fic during November! NaNoWriMo is here, and I chose this fic to write because I've missed working on it so much and I really want to finish it, or at least get it far enough where it's good. I don't know how much I can go with this with college and stuff, but I wrote out every detail I wanted in the story in my notebook, so if I can kick my own ass enough to sit and write, it may go somewhere!
And to any new readers, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter!