I have never gotten so many reviews so quickly. I love you all.
Gah, I forgot to mention: This takes place in present-day so they have, like iPhones and modern tech stuff, okay? Just to make it easier. It isn't during the original timeframe, which wasn't THAT long ago but I want them to have the most modern tech stuff.
Sorry if that bothers anyone.
Matt POV
Two months.
That's how long it's been since we got here.
For two months we've been free of the twisted man who ruled our every waking moment. For two months Mother, Mari, and I have been safe in our own home.
And for these two months I've been living a lie.
I have countless things to love about the last two months. I have friends, I have a job that isn't actually all that bad, I have my mother and cousin, and the last of the marks on my skin faded weeks ago. We have settled in nicely, not completely safe but in a lot better of a position than previously.
But it doesn't feel like me that has those things. It feels like someone else is living in my body, taken my place for the sake of appearances. I think my own family has forgotten that "Matt" is just an alias, a cover up. "Charlotte" and "Misa" are too. These identities are not real, and I'm the only one who seems to grasp that fact.
Matt is an average student. He is somewhat shy, sarcastic, patient, and isn't too serious about a lot of stuff. He's laid back. Matt is an avid gamer, and he has some quirks, but aside from that he's normal.
Mail is a cynical genius that doesn't give a crap about his schooling. Mail smokes, Mail is gay, Mail pretty much lives in a pixellated world. He hides from the world because he doesn't have a choice, and he hides because he doesn't know what else to do. He's alone. He's a kicked puppy on the streets that no-one wants. If he hadn't been treated like that, he may have come out as a completely different person.
But Matt and Mail are two very different people living in one mind. I think I've had a headache for the past five weeks straight.
"Where's that git gone off too this time?" Sheryl mutters, looking around for Alec.
"You sent him to stack up the new shipments in the storage room, remember?" I remind her, smirking at her forgetfulness.
Her eyes pop. "What? I sent him to do stacking? Oh that's just bloody great!" she turns around and hurries through the employees only door to fetch my clumsy coworker. I was wondering when her slip up was going to catch up to her.
I bend over the table I was about to clean before Sheryl interrupted me, sweeping the crumbs left by the previous customer away with a wet cloth. Cecil insists on having her cute/modern-looking café absolutely spotless.
The café really is typical of a coffee shop with couches and tables and displays of mugs and packaged coffee beans, but there are flowers and hanging plants places tastefully around the place. There's enough that watering them all takes a good twenty minutes.
"Alright, I get it! You don't want me stacking!" I turn as Alec is shoved back through the door, holding his hands up defensively. A few of the customers laugh. Alec is liked because of his friendly, easygoing personality, but he's well known because of his clumsiness.
"Did you knock anything over?" I tease.
"Yes," he grumbles, coming over to help me. "When Sheryl practically exploded into the room and scared the living daylights out of me."
I laugh. Laughing comes easily to Matt. Being friendly comes easily to Matt. Being happy comes easily to him, too.
I'm not so sure about Mail, though.
It really is unfair. I'm not one to wallow in self-pity, but my whole life I've been forced to do what someone else wants, and now that I've escaped that control, I have to be someone I'm not.
"It's not funny," Alec grumbles, but the smile on his face says otherwise. He pulls out the rag tucked into his back pocket and starts cleaning the tables I have yet to get to.
Life seems so easy for the people I now call friends. Everyone has issues and difficulties, some worse than others, but the people who surround me have the type of life I wish I did: relatively carefree, having fun on weekends and going to school during the week, and the difficulties that arise are usually fairly easy to deal with. They don't have much to hide or hide from.
But some people have it worse than I do, one example being the homeless man Hugh. At least I have a roof over my head and a little money in my pocket. At least I can lead a somewhat happy life, even if it's a lie. Some people don't even have lives.
I run my hand through my hair to clear my mind of the depressing thoughts that tend to creep up on me out of nowhere and move on to the next table.
The bell goes off, signaling the arrival of another customer. I look up automatically, and blink in surprise.
It's Misa and Light.
Misa has her arm hooked through Light's, and when she sees me she looks surprised.
"Hi Matt!" she calls cheerily, tugging Light over towards me. "I saw you from outside and had to come say hi!"
"Uh, hi Misa. Light." Light looks kind of bored. It appears that he finally gave in to Misa's obvious hints that she's been dropping pretty much since she met him.
"Hello, Matt."
"So, since when did you two decide to get together?" I ask, raising my eyebrows slightly. Misa blushes.
"Uh, Friday!" she giggles. "Is it really obvious?"
"Yes."
I honestly didn't think Light would start going out with my cousin, because it seems to me that he has quite a liking for Lawliet, but then, what do I know?
"Hey, who are you guys?" Alec asks, coming over with his rag in hand.
"This is Misa, my sister, and Light, my friend."
Misa smiles at him. "Who are you?"
"Alec."
"Nice to meet you!" Misa glances over her shoulder. "B and Mello are with us too. Don't ask me why, B sort of just tagged along and forced Mello to come." Misa started calling Beyond "B" a few weeks ago and it stuck, so now everyone uses it. She claimed that Beyond was awkward to say, and once Misa makes up her mind on something she doesn't change it.
"Mello's here?" I ask, suddenly a lot more interested. I lean around Misa to look out of the window, and spot Mello outside, standing next to B and looking very annoyed. I wave, and his mouth curves up in a small smile.
Misa nods. "He hasn't said much, I think he's mad at B."
"B told him that he was coming with us whether he liked it or not, because he was going to 'turn into a cave nerd' if he didn't," Light explains in a somewhat amused tone.
"Yeah, he's evil." I glance at the clock. It's eleven AM. I work the mornings on Saturdays. "You guys should go. I'll be done in an hour."
"We'll meet you here, okay?" Misa says quickly, already heading back towards the door. I don't think anyone can talk faster than her. "Bye Matt! See you!"
I watch her leave, feeling sorry for Light, before turning back to Alec.
"Your sister is, uh…" he looks at loss for words.
"Hyper? Insane? A major flirt?"
He sniggers. "Sure. We should probably get back to work before Sheryl starts freaking out again."
I nod and go back behind the counter to start serving customers. I honestly like working here. Sheryl, Cecil, and Alec are nice, and the other employees are too. Plus, I get an employee discount and the coffee here is really good.
The last hour of work goes quickly, and I go the back room to grab my vest and hang up my apron.
"Bye, Matt. See you Monday," Cecil smiles at me, and I nod to her. Cecil is a lot calmer than her sister. She has square glasses and her hair is in lots of small braids, all pulled back and held by a hair tie.
I wave goodbye to Alec and pull my vest on when I get outside. I decide to wait by the café, leaning against the wall. I kind of want a cigarette right now, but I don't have any on me. I haven't had one in a week, and Mother hopes to keep it that way. She tried, and succeeded, in making it so I no longer rely on the calming nicotine. Well, I feel the absence of it. It's not too good of a feeling, but she picked up some meds to help me and crap like that.
So I don't need them, but I sure as hell want them.
"Matt!" I turn at the sound of Misa's voice. She waves from down the sidewalk and I straighten out. I walk over to them, hands in my pockets.
"Hey," I greet them. Beyond gives me a thin, creepy smile from behind Light and Misa.
"Hi, Matt," Mello says, stepping closer to me.
"I'm shocked, Mello. How did B got you out here?" I tease. Mello scowls.
"He threatened to pour jam on my stuff the next chance he got, and after last time I really don't want to risk that."
Beyond cackles. "It was priceless. I waited until he forgot about it and then, bam!" He claps his hands together. "I got it all over his backpack!"
"Everything inside was ruined," Mello grumbles.
"I see." We start walking, Misa chatting loudly to Light. Mello and me fall behind a little bit, talking.
"I didn't know you worked at Cecil's," Mello admits, stuffing his hands into his black sweatshirt.
"Yeah, I worked at a coffee shop back in America, so I figured it was a good idea. And I like the people there. They have quite the… interesting staff."
Mello nods. "Yeah. They've got some killer coffee though."
"Seriously," I agree. I look up at the sky, which is grey and stormy. "I get this strange feeling that it's going to rain."
Mello glances upward. "Gee, I wonder why?"
"Come on you two, lets get to the bus before it starts pouring on our heads!" Light calls.
"Why, scared that a little water is going to ruin your looks, Light?" Beyond teases.
"Shut it, B," Light huffs when we catch up to them. We barely make it to the bus stop before the rain starts falling, slowly at first but quickly building in power and speed.
I shiver in the chilly air, thankful that the stop has a roof overhead. Mello stands next to me, muttering something about crappy whether. My hair is a bit damp, but other than that I'm dry.
I find myself perfectly content to wait for the bus in silence, just standing with Mello out of the rain. Something about him makes me feel like myself, or how I could have been if I didn't have the past I do.
It's not a bad thing.
Mello POV
Matt stares out the bus window as we drive down the rainy road back to our neighborhood. His goggles are pulled down over his eyes. I haven't ever seen his eyes without the orange lenses over them, but I think that they are blue or green. It's hard to tell what they really look like when they're visible from behind the lenses. The goggles make it impossible to read the emotions in his eyes, too.
I wish I could see his eyes. There's something that compels me to reach out and lift the goggles off of his face. I don't, of course, but I would like to.
Over the course of a couple of months, Matt seems to have settled in better. He acts a lot more comfortable now, although he's still a bit shy. When he gets asked questions about America and what life was like there by curious students, he closes off and gives them the shortest, most non-descriptive answers possible. I've learned not to press the subject.
Another thing Matt doesn't talk about is his home life. I know that he and Misa live with their mother, and that their father left them before Matt was born, but that's it. Neither of them talks about their family or what they do at home. I don't press that subject either, but I find it a bit intriguing.
I would love to know more about Matt. I like Matt a lot more than my other "friends", who I'm honestly not that close to. When I talk to Matt, everything kind of comes naturally and I don't have to actually take time to think of something to say. We've had some pretty weird conversations, but it's fun. Matt is intelligent, pretty much on the same level as I am, but he's nice to talk to, unlike Near.
I hate that little bastard.
"Matt, the next stop is the closet to our house," Misa says from the seat in front of us.
"It is for me, too," I say. "I didn't realize we lived so close."
Matt looks surprised. "I guess we wouldn't know, Misa and I walk while you, Mr. Big-shot, ride your awesome motor bike," he says in a teasing tone.
I roll my eyes. "I told you, that thing is old. It was my dad's. "
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
The bus stops and the three of us stand. Light and Beyond's houses are further from the school. Misa waves goodbye and we exit the bus into the rain, which has lightened considerably. Misa and Matt go to head right, me left.
"I guess I'll see you later then," Matt says, brushing his wet hair away.
"Yeah. Bye," I turn and walk in the direction of my house, glancing back over my shoulder. Matt and Misa are heading away from me. I haven't been over to that side very much, but I know that it's mostly smaller homes over there.
That's one more little piece of information on Matt that I file away to remember at a later date.
By the time I get home, I'm nearly drenched. I pull my key out of my pocket and open the door.
"Ya doma," I call, shutting the door behind me and looking around for any sign of my grandmother. "Baba?"
I don't get an answer, so I walk through the house, sticking my head in the kitchen, living room, and bathroom in hopes of finding her. I walk to the end of the hall and find her bedroom door ajar, so I push it open. Baba sits on her rocking chair, wrapped in a grey shawl with Kata on her lap. The cat purrs softly as Baba strokes her white and grey fur. My grandma's eyes are closed, and her hair is down. She looks so peaceful.
"Baba. Ya doma." She opens her eyes and looks at me.
"Mihael... Akh, ty vesʹ mokryy!" she exclaims, and pushes Kata off of her lap as she stands. Baba hurries over to me and pushes me back through the door and into the hall. "Poluchite, poluchite! Pereyti sushitʹsya!"
"Ladno, ladno! Ya ukhozhu, ya ukhozhu!" I protest, stepping out of her way. She points to my room as she walks by, her long hair swishing. I grab a towel from the bathroom and slip into my room to dry off and change into sweatpants and a t-shirt, something that I refuse to wear anywhere else but home when it's just Baba and me.
I rub my hair dry and drape the towel around my neck to catch the remaining water. I pull the majority of my damp hair back messily to keep it out of my face and tie it up.
I don't feel like doing much, so I just lie on my bed with a book, reading by the pale light that comes through my window. After a few minutes, Baba raps softly on my door.
"Chto eto takoye?"
The door opens and she comes in with a steaming mug. The smell of hot chocolate wafts in the room, and I smile.
"Spasibo," I murmur as she hands it to me.
"Vam ne kholodno?" I shake my head. "Ochenʹ khorosho." She turns and leaves my room, softly shutting the door behind her. I take a sip of the molten chocolate drink and set it on my nightstand. I soon lose myself in the pages of my book, brought into the story by vivid details and an intricate plot. I'll only read a book if it was written by someone with an acceptable amount of intellect, and that is usually apparent in the first few lines of their writing. Two hours pass, but I don't put the book down until I've read it start to finish.
. . .
There's a big crowd at the bulletin board by the front office after school, all struggling to get a look at the latest assessment results. Last week, the entire school took a test, and now the top ten from every grade and the top thirty in the school are listed on the board.
"Outta my way," I snap, and instantly a spot opens up for me. The noise dies down a little as I walk forward, until I'm close enough to scan the list for the entire school. I couldn't care less about the top ten for my grade; I know I'll either be first or second depending on where Near is, and this should tell me anyway.
First, as always, is a tie between Lawliet and Light. They almost always get the same score, and they always come in first. Second is…
Near.
"Fucking little sheep!" I growl, and there's instantly a few inches more space around me. People know to give me space when I'm bested by Near again.
In fourth is Beyond, but I'm still looking for Matt's name. He has to be on this list, he's practically smarter that Beyond. Where is he? I finally see his name. He's twenty-first. I know he's better than that. Why did he get that number? Was he marking answers wrong on purpose? The test was pretty easy for me; it must've been for him too! I know him well enough now…
I turn around and stalk back to where Matt is waiting for me.
"Well?"
"Near got me again. Fucking sheep."
"So you're in third?"
"Yeah. Light and Lawliet tied first again, Near second, Beyond fourth. Funny, you got twenty-first. Pretty sure you're more like fourth or fifth, though." I watch him out of the corner of my eye, trying to gauge his reaction. He shrugs.
"I didn't expect to make that list. Unlike some people I know, I'm not a super genius."
"Right." I'm pretty sure you are.
Matt is absorbed in his game, as usual, as we walk towards the exit. I walked with Misa and Matt today, because my old motorbike was being difficult. Matt seems to have a sixth sense that keeps him from bumping into people and objects.
"Matt, put that away!" Misa scolds him, and he sighs. He doesn't put up a fight, though, and turns off his Gameboy.
"Fiiiine," he grumbles, keeping his hands in his pockets. Matt pouts at his sister, looking like a sulking little kid. It's childish, but kind of cute.
Right, moving on from weird thoughts.
Misa shivers. "It's chilly!"
Matt smirks. "That's why you need one of these, Misa. It's warm as hell."
Misa rolls her eyes. "Matt, that vest is weird."
"Actually, it's pronounced awe-some."
"Says the guy in stripes and orange goggles," I point out, teasing.
Matt laughs. "You're just jealous because I look frickin' hot in stripes. Only a master can pull them off," he jokes.
"In your dreams, Matt," I retort, but my eyes automatically flick over him. He really isn't bad. In fact he's got a pretty nice figure, from what I can tell. His vest covers his entire torso down to just below his hips.
I did not just check my friend out.
I shake my head slightly to clear it. Stupid Matt. That was an automatic response to what you said. Whatever. Misa's phone goes off, and she falls a bit behind us as we walk. I try to drown her yammering out, and when I succeed I realize Matt is absently humming a familiar tune. It takes me a minute to place it. It's not something I listen to regularly.
I frown and ask curiously, "Matt isn't that by Nsync or something?"
Matt stops humming. "Backstreet Boys, actually. Get Down," he corrects me automatically. Suddenly he blushes lightly and looks away. "Misa was listening to it."
I narrow my eyes, but shrug. I let him get a bit ahead of me before yanking the back pocket of his backpack open and snatching his iPod out.
"Hey, give that back!" Matt yelps, turning around and reaching for it. I hold it up, and because I'm a little taller than him, it's just out of his reach. I go to his artists, and start going through them. My face stretches into a smirk.
"I knew it!" I say triumphantly. "Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears…" I start cracking up. "Celine Dion?" I hand his iPod back, and Matt glares at me, but he slowly breaks into a smile and shrugs somewhat sheepishly.
"Uh, guilty pleasure?" he suggests, laughing and putting his iPod away.
"Well, at least you have some good taste," I tease. "I saw Nickelback and Green Day on there too. And a lot of video game titles."
"Okay, Backstreet Boys is not bad taste," Matt sniffs defiantly. I roll my eyes.
"Right." I glance at him for a moment, and we break out laughing again.
"Come on, boys! Hurry up!" Misa calls, one hand over her phone. We run to catch up to her, and she returns the phone to her ear. She walks fast even on the phone. She has that kind of model-walk you see in movies.
We get to the corner five minutes later, and Matt and Misa turn back towards their house.
"See you, Mellsy!" Matt says, an impish grin on his face as he uses the nickname I so hate.
"Shut up, Matt," I grumble. But somehow, the nickname doesn't annoy me as much coming from him.
"Sure thing, grumpy." I roll my eyes again and wave them off, turning on my heel in the direction of my home.
And that's when I realize I'm not even that mad about Near beating me. I didn't even have time to brood on it on the way here. I allow myself a small smile.
"Backstreet Boys," I chuckle. For some reason that escapes me, I find it hilarious.
Okay. I absolutely HAD to put the thing with Matt's music in there. I HAD to. I thought it up before I even started writing this story and it made me laugh. I don't care if EVERYONE hates it I'm keeping it!
Translations
Ya doma: I'm home
Baba. Ya doma: Baba. I'm home.
Mihael... Akh, ty vesʹ mokryy: Mihael... Ah, you're all wet!
Poluchite, poluchite! Pereyti sushitʹsya: Get, get! Go dry off
Ladno, ladno! Ya ukhozhu, ya ukhozhu: Okay, okay! I'm going, I'm going
Chto eto takoye: What is it
Spasibo: Thank you
Vam ne kholodno: Are you cold
Ochenʹ khorosho: Very well
Matt: Seriously? Britney Spears? I hate you.
Cloudy: Love you too. Well, no because you and Mello belong together.
Mello: *laughs* I never expected this from you, Matt.
Matt: It's not funny, actually. I would never listen to Nsync! Video game tunes yeah, but not Celine Dion and pother soppy crap like that!
Cloudy: How do YOU know that? You have all of five minutes in the anime and something like twelve panels in the manga, or so I've heard! And did you just call Backstreet Boys and Nsync soppy crap? *Glares with those menacing purple lines in the background, you know, the ones you see in anime and stuff when someone's mad or scared or something*
Matt: Shut up, both of you.
Mello: Look who's grumpy now!
Cloudy: OMG Mello I just realized that I haven't been depicting you eating chocolate enough! Gasp!
Mello: HOW AM I EVEN LAUGHING THEN?
*Bzzzzzzt* we are experiencing technical difficulties here at Live Action Rambling (L.A.R.). Our sincerest apologies.