I made it to Chapter 10.

Words cannot express.

Haaaaa~

Enjoy Chapter TEN! OHMEHGAWD. –pops champagne-

"So wait, because of this, you're sure Antonio goes to Penns Marion?" Matthew held the paper in front of him, still studying the picture. Gilbert took his tray over to the trash and threw it all away.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Gilbert still had a grin plastered on his face, and he began counting the reasons. "The signature on the wall, it was painted the same exact day we did ours, it all adds up. It is him."

Matthew was pretty sure that it was Antonio also, and had to admit he was a bit relieved.

"So, now that you know where Antonio is, are you going to try and find him?"

Gilbert took a French fry from Matthew's little pile of food and ate it. "No…not right now. I have to think of a way that I can meet up with him without causing attention. And hopefully I can be more prepared than I was with Francis…"

Matthew tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow. Sure the car ride over had been slightly hectic, and Gilbert hadn't looked too happy when he had come back, but still… "What happened with Francis?"

Gilbert looked up as if he realized he had said that out loud. He shook his head and grabbed another fry. "Nothing."

Matthew found a weak spot. "Hmmm…it doesn't seem like nothing…"

"Well, you're crazy." Was all Gilbert said, and he stood up. "Come hang out with me."

Matthew's eyes widened for a second, and his heartbeat seemed to become really loud all of a sudden. He tried to act normal. "See? There you go, ordering me around again."

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "Just shut up. I'm bored, and I have no one else to hang out with." He walked toward the exit, and Matthew followed him.

"But what about all of your friends? Aren't you super popular, or something?"

Gilbert laughed bitterly. "What friends? You mean the ones that got sent away?"

Matthew stopped, "Oh. I-I didn't mean—"

"Don't worry about it." Gilbert said as he opened his car door. He stepped in and sat down, taking his keys out of his pocket. Matthew stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. Wait, so was Gilbert serious about wanting to hang out with him? Should he just get in the car? Or wait, should he ask if he can get in the ca—

"Why are you just standing there?" Gilbert was giving him a weird look.

"O-oh, uh—"

"Get in before I run you over." Gilbert rolled his eyes and started the car. Matthew hurried over to the passenger side, and got in.

"Um…" Matthew paused, not really sure of what he was going to say. "This car is really…big."

"Of course it's big, why do you think it says 'XL' in the name?" Gilbert said to Matthew like he was talking to someone slow. And Matthew had to admit that he hadn't really said the smartest thing right there. Gilbert continued. "No, I hate this thing. It is too fucking big. I'd rather be driving something like a Camaro or Mustang. That shit is fine. The only thing I like about this car though, is the bass."

"I see…" Matthew was having a hard time keeping up with the car names. If it weren't for the Transformers movie, he wouldn't have known what a Camaro even was. One type of car that he knew a lot about however was trucks. And that was just because Alfred would recite trucks name all the time like it was nothing. Because more than anything, Alfred wanted to own one of those Ford f250's, all to himself.

"You know, why did you want me to stop at that coffee place the other day?" Gilbert asked, as he turned onto an avenue in the uptown part of the city. Here the streets were one way with three lanes, giving the driver more freedom to push the boundaries of driving a bit.

"Oh, well…" Matthew looked out the windshield, "I was, uh…getting a job application there."

"Seriously?" Gilbert raised an eyebrow and looked at him as they slowed to a stop at a red light. "A job? You?"

Matthew gave him an indignant look. "What? Do I look like I can't work?"

Gilbert didn't hesitate. "Yes."

"You should look at yourself." Matthew sneered out. He felt offended, but then again, Gilbert had a habit of doing that.

"Oh ho ho. Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. I do have a job."

This surprised Matthew. "You have a job."

Gilbert looked like he was pouting, "Okay, why does that surprise you?"

"Because you're…" Matthew made a movement with his hands like he was waving at all of Gilbert.

"Okay, you know what, don't answer that. But yeah, I have a job. It's just the fact that I hate it."

"Where do you work?"

"At my dad's auto mechanic shop. You know the one by the West entrance to the mall?" Matthew nodded. "Yeah, he owns that place."

"So, it's like a family business?"

Gilbert looked both ways before he turned onto a different street. "I guess. Ludwig works there too. He and my dad both work on the cars and stuff, since they're all into that shit, and I help sometimes. But you know, they have to have someone work at the desk to answer the phone calls and fill out the paper work, and they make me do that stuff…" Gilbert looked irritated.

Matthew understood. Well, at least the best he could. Between Gilbert, his father, and his younger brother, he was the one that was left to do the boring stuff. He hoped he wasn't treading on bad ground when he asked the next question.

"I'm sorry if this is personal or something, but if you hate it so much, then why do you work there…?"

Gilbert sighed. "Well, you see, that's where it gets complicated. I guess I'm 'paying' my parents back, and my dad thought the best way for him to punish me for getting in trouble at school was to make me work at his place. Of course, I'm pretty sure he didn't know he had already overdone it when he took away my cell phone and my mp3 too. But maybe that was his intention…" Gilbert looked like he was thinking about it, and then continued. "Either way, I'm only doing it for a few more weeks, or until I can pay him back. The only good thing about it is that my dad actually stays after the place closes with me to help me fix my car."

"Oh…" Matthew tried to swallow back down the jealously that welled up in him. He decided to change the subject about parents. "How badly damaged was your car from the accident?"

"Pretty bad." Gilbert looked sorrowful. "Some people that saw it happen said that it rolled like, three or four times. So yeah, it's all scratched up on the top, the one window was shattered, and the windshield is all cracked. A taillight was broken, so was a rearview mirror, and don't even get me started on the dents…"

"That sounds…really awful." Was all Matthew could bring himself to say.

"Yeah, it's awful. That thing was my baby. I nearly killed the guy when he refused to pay the charges."

Matthew noticed Gilbert was carrying on a pretty carefree conversation, compared to the last two times he had been inside a car with him. He seemed rather at ease. "Were you injured?"

"I had to get thirty stitches on my right arm because it got cut on some of the glass, and I had a concussion. But other than that, no."

"Wow, that's really minor. I mean, because of the—"

"I know what you mean, and believe me. When I finally remembered everything, I was surprised too. But I was a little glad, I guess. I mean, I could still walk and everything two hours after the wreck, but everyone was freaking out about me anyway. I hate it when people do stuff like that, and I tried to convince them that I was fine, but it didn't really help."

"I don't blame them." Matthew said quietly as he thought back to when Alfred had fractured his leg. Matthew had been scared half to death, blowing the whole thing out of proportion and practically convincing himself his brother was going to die from a broken leg.

He saw Gilbert look over at him, then back to the road, and there was silence for a moment.

"You know…" Matthew decided to break the silence, "You seem…calmer than usual. You know, when you're usually in a car…"

"Ahh…yes. My little PTSD, car style. Well, I guess you could say that I'm not as jumpy because I know that in this car, anyone that gets in my way, they have to deal with this big-ass-four wheel drive."

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "Um…that's very blunt."

"No kidding. I don't like sugar coating these kinds of things…" Gilbert looked out his window, as he pulled into a parking lot in front of a Supermarket. "…shit."

"What?"

"I am so not parallel parking this bitch." Gilbert said in a tone that reminded Matthew of a girl complaining when she doesn't get what she wants. Matthew scanned the lot and saw that indeed, the only spaces open were ones that required you to parallel park.

"What, did you fail that in your driver's exam?" Matthew teased.

"You shut up." Gilbert snapped. "Everyone always fails something."

"Yeah…I did rolling stops."

"Wow. And that's like, the one thing that everyone knows not to do in front of the teachers."

"Oh, but guess what? At least I can parallel park."

"You know what, fuck this." Gilbert said suddenly and pulled right into a handicap space. Matthew stiffened up.

"Okay, no. You said we wouldn't be getting in any trouble." Gilbert pulled the keys out of the ignition and looked at him.

"What are you talking about? We won't get in any trouble."

"Um. Look. This is a handicap parking place—"

"Uh, yeah. I know that."

"No, I mean, you could get fined for parking here. Last time I checked, you're not handicapped!"

Gilbert sighed, opened the car door, and hopped out, turning to look back in at Matthew, who was still sitting in his seat. "Okay, look. I have two reasons on why we won't get in trouble. One, look at the size of this parking lot. For starters, I don't think anyone is going to notice our car out of a million others, and two," He emphasized by patting his knee with the brace on it, "I have a very good reason! This is as good as being paralyzed in my books!"

Matthew unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car. "You're such an idiot. If we get in trouble, I'm going to also tell them that you kidnapped me. That would look real good on your records."

Matthew missed as Gilbert's smirk twitched slightly into a grimace at the final words.

"Well, you can imagine it all you want, but reality just called and says we most likely won't get in trouble."

Matthew looked up at the store. "What are we even doing here anyway?"

Gilbert shrugged. "Aren't you hungry?"

Matthew had to stop there. "Hungr—we just ate."

"Hmm…then that means I'm the only one with the serious case of the munchies."

"Wow, who even says 'munchies'?"

"The real question is, why are you so critical?"

"I'm not being critical. I'm just wondering why you never seem to act your age."

This caught Gilbert's attention. When they got into the store, he gave Matthew that odd look again he had so many times before. At this point, Matthew was able to decipher it a little. The look wasn't bad, but it still didn't mean that he didn't feel extremely uncomfortable when he would look at him like that. Matthew shifted slightly.

"What?"

Gilbert looked away, his voice oddly calm. "Nothing. You just remind me of my friend." Before Matthew could respond to this, Gilbert pointed toward one aisle of the store. "Get me some goddamn Doritos and a thingie of Mountain Dew. And some cookies or something. Nothing with nuts or raisins, I hate those."

"What am I, your servant?"

"Hey, I'm the one paying."

Matthew sighed and walked off toward the aisles as he mimicked Gilbert under his breath. He grabbed a bag of Doritos off the shelf and a liter of Mountain Dew, tucking it under his arm. As he walked back through the aisles looking for Gilbert, something caught his attention. A kid, around his age was walking up the aisle that held all the spaghetti. He stopped at one section, picked up a box of spaghetti and looked at it like he was scanning the ingredients on the back.

At first, Matthew thought it was Feliciano. He would often go off on a rant in class about how much he loved pasta. He looked almost sad as he stood there reading over the ingredients.

But then Matthew saw that it wasn't Feliciano. He had darker hair, and his face looked older. It was Romano.

Matthew stood in his place a second too long, and Romano noticed. He looked up from the spaghetti and glanced over at Matthew. Matthew raised his hand to wave, but decided against it when Romano fixed him with a fierce glare.

They stood there for a moment, Romano glaring at him, and Matthew uncertainly biting his lip. Had he done something wrong?

But only for a moment. Romano turned and stomped away around the corner. Matthew sighed in relief and realized that he had been holding his breath. Sure, Romano was the meaner of the twins, but Matthew had never actually been singled out by him before.

Even though he had been shaken, he decided not to think anything about it. He had heard Romano yell at a kid before simply because they dropped a pencil in front of his desk once. So the kid had a temper. He was probably that way to everyone, and Matthew was no exception. As he walked away to find Gilbert, he hoped that he was right.

"Yes! Finally!" Gilbert had driven them into the back roads, were the city became more rural. This section of the city was where most people farmed, and there were acres of untouched forests and meadows. Matthew expected Gilbert to keep driving down the road, but was surprised when he suddenly turned a sharp left and began driving through the grass instead.

"Uh, Gilbert? What are you—"

"Just hold on a minute. You'll see."

The trees opened up and Gilbert pulled out into a clearing, and Matthew saw what he was talking about. They were parked on top of a rather steep hill that gave away at the bottom to a large grassy field. On the field, several people were kicking a soccer ball back and forth.

"I knew I would find him here." Gilbert said, sounding victorious. He turned off the car, and opened the door.

"Find who?" Matthew said scanning the people.

"You'll see him," Gilbert said as he grabbed the top of the car and used his seat to boost himself onto the roof, "he's not that hard to miss."

Matthew got out of the car and looked up at Gilbert, who was now sitting cross legged. "What are you doing up there?"

"It's the best seat in the house! Bring all the food up here when you come up."

Matthew reached into the backseat and grabbed the two plastic bags, one holding the drink and cookies, and the other holding the chips. He crawled up onto the roof and handed Gilbert the stuff. Without hesitating, Gilbert ripped open the Doritos as Matthew settled in next to him. And Gilbert was right. It really wasn't that hard to find him.

"Isn't that your brother?" Matthew pointed toward the muscular person with blond hair crouching in front of a very old looking goalie net.

"Yup. That's Luddy. Ain't he so cute?" Gilbert said fondly and Matthew looked at him, then at Ludwig, then back at him.

"Uh…"

"You don't have to answer that, I was just joking." Gilbert untwisted the cap of the Mountain Dew and took a drink out of it. When he finished, he wiped off his mouth and handed it to Matthew. He hesitated.

"You can chill, I'm not sick or anything." Gilbert said when he noticed Matthew's expression.

"Well, I know, it's just that…" Matthew was slightly embarrassed that he was making a fuss over it, but well, Gilbert's mouth had been on that.

"Oh, stop being a baby. It's not going to kill you."

Matthew took the bottle from him and gave it a look before rotating it slightly, and taking a drink from the edge where Gilbert's mouth didn't touch it. He heard Gilbert laugh at him, and he glared back. It was just then that one of the people down below kicked the soccer ball into the goal and Ludwig dived for it, catching it before it could go in.

Gilbert was on his feet in seconds and to put it lightly, Matthew was shocked when he started shouting at the top of his lungs, "YEAH! GO LUDWIG! THAT'S MY BOY!"

In fact, he had shouted so loud, Ludwig and several other people's heads turned up toward the hill where they were. Matthew's face grew red in embarrassment.

"What are you doing?" He hissed as Gilbert sat back down.

"I'm just cheering on my baby brother." Gilbert grinned at him and reached into the bag of chips, taking a few.

"You're such a mean older brother. You're just trying to embarrass him aren't you?"

"Not entirely true. Even though he is one totally fun to embarrass."

Matthew looked back down at the field and leaned forward, intrigued. "Hey, wait. Isn't that Feliciano?" He pointed toward the familiar Italian as he tried to shoot the soccer ball into the opposing goal.

"Yes it is." Gilbert answered and they both watched as he managed to kick the ball past the goalie. Gilbert once again stood up and cheered, and Matthew watched as Feliciano ran over to Ludwig and they both high fived. Gilbert sat down and took another swig from the Mountain Dew.

"You know Feliciano?" Matthew was surprised.

"Of course I do." Gilbert said like it was obvious that he knew him, "Feli comes over to our house to hang out with Ludwig all the time."

Matthew still couldn't seem to match up Ludwig's serious attitude to Feliciano's unusually boisterous one. So he had been right at the school after all. Feliciano hadn't been talking about some other Ludwig. He had been talking about Gilbert's younger brother. But as he watched Feliciano score another goal ("GO FELI!"), and Ludwig jogged over to congratulate him, there was an aura about them that seemed to somehow fit. Even though their personalities were so different, they still somehow managed to be friends.

"You definitely don't see a pair like that everyday." Matthew decided to throw out there as the players all switched positions and now a kid with black hair was standing at the goal, and Ludwig was one of the defenders.

"Well, yeah, most people think that. When people see Ludwig, they expect him to be some Ex-marine or in a gang, or something. But then they see that his best friend is an Italian that skips around happily, and people just aren't so sure anymore. I guess I'm used to it, considering they've been friends for so long, it just doesn't really bother me as much, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess…"

"But more importantly, it's that no one really knows is that Ludwig is a really nice guy. Hell, when he was younger he used to pick up bird nests and put them back in trees, and every stray kitten he found, he'd try to keep it in secret so that our parents didn't know. He doesn't do stuff like that anymore, but he still thinks of others before himself, even though most people don't know it. His personality tends to make him unapproachable sometimes."

Matthew was staring at Gilbert, surprised by the way he was affectionately talking about his brother. Gilbert noticed him staring and he looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

"What?"

"Nothing." Matthew looked away, trying to hide the grin on his face, and reached into the box that held the cookies.

"Don't tell me nothing—Oh, hold on a minute. YEAH LUDWIG! YOU DEFEND THAT BALL!" When Ludwig turned to look up at Gilbert, Gilbert's face broke into a huge grin and he waved, "I LOVE YOU!"

Matthew could see Ludwig's face grow red all the way from up on the top of the hill. He shook his head and placed it in his hands. Matthew couldn't help it and he laughed. It was sort of funny, even though he felt sorry for Ludwig. He was thankful Alfred never did this to him.

The game went on for another hour as the players rotated positions after every goal, ("I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!") and Matthew's stomach hurt so much by the time the game was over from eating his fill of cookies and chips, and laughing at Gilbert as he continued to yell down at Ludwig.

But as the storm clouds began rolling in, and they could feel the first few drops of rain landing on their faces and arms, they decided to take cover in the car. Everyone down on the field thought the same thing, and they hurried to their cars and left.

"Well, that was fun." Gilbert commented as he started the car. The rain began falling heavier, and Matthew glanced down at the clock on the dashboard, his eyes widening in surprise. He had spent four hours with Gilbert. Four hours of absolute fun, as cheesy as it sounded. When they reached an intersection and they stopped for the red light, he heard Gilbert gasped, and then he was suddenly smacking Matthew on the arm to get his attention.

"What?" Matthew looked at him irritated, but Gilbert was smirking.

"Look at who's next to us." And he pointed with his finger toward a black Taurus that had stopped next to them. Through the rain, Matthew could just make out Ludwig on the driver's side and Feliciano sitting in the passenger sit. Both were oblivious to who was next to them, as Feliciano was talking energetically about something in the car. Gilbert laid his hand on the horn and beeped several times. Ludwig turned his head and his face went from confusion to absolute horror.

"I LOVE YOU, LUDDY!" And as the light turned green, Ludwig sped up the car, leaving Gilbert and Matthew laughing until they couldn't breathe.

"You're so…so mean…" Matthew gasped out and he began laughing again.

"Am not. I'm looking out for him. I am being the big brother any kid would wish for."

"I wouldn't want you as my big brother. God, all the therapy…"

"Well, you just don't appreciate the simple things in life." Gilbert turned on the radio, and suddenly the stereo was blasting out 'Bulletproof' by La Roux. If it got any weirder, Matthew watched as Gilbert beat his hands against the steering wheel and sang along to the song. Gilbert noticed the weird look he was giving him, and he turned to Matthew. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just a bit weird that I'm sitting next to some guy singing a song by a girl."

"Oh, come on, It's all I have! I don't really like this song, but because my dad took away my mp3, it's going to have to do. If it were up to me, right now we would be listening to Nicki Minaj."

"Okay, you said something about her on the phone. Who is she?"

"Nicki Minaj? She's my girl."

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "You're weird."

"Ha. You say that now, but go look up some of her music when you get home."

"Sure. Whatever." Matthew looked out the window as the rain continued to pour heavily down, and noticed in surprise that Gilbert was already pulling into his neighborhood. He remembered when Gilbert had dropped him off the night before and had commented on what a 'Bitching house he had'. Matthew tried to hide the disappointment that welled up inside his chest when they stopped in front of his house. He didn't want to admit it out loud, but it had been fun hanging out with Gilbert and he didn't want it to end.

"Thanks for the ride home…" Matthew said quietly as he moved his hand to the door handle.

"Wait a minute, shortie." Gilbert said and Matthew looked over at him. Gilbert was looking down at the floor, as the music played on. "Um…I'm free on Mondays and the weekend. And uh, yeah…there's a party going on this Saturday at Vash's house, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to…you know, come along and hang out with me there?"

Matthew had no clue in the World who Vash was, but at the same time, the mention of a party made him slightly nervous.

"Um, I don't know…"

"Aw, why not? Doesn't your brother hold parties all the time, or something?"

"Well, yeah," Matthew's eyes shifted, and he stared out the window, "But it's just that I don't really like them…"

"Oh, so you're not a party-goer?" Matthew shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, I can fix that." Matthew looked up at Gilbert's face and saw his trademark grin. "Just come with me, you'll have fun. It's not that bad."

Matthew placed his hand on the door handle. "I'll…think about it…" and he opened the car door.

"Wait." Matthew turned and suddenly the empty bag of Doritos was thrown in his face. "It's raining out there."

"Oh, thanks." Matthew threw the bag into the bag of the car. "I'll be fine without it." Matthew looked up and he grinned at Gilbert.

"Whatever then. Get wet, see if I care."

Matthew waved goodbye to Gilbert one more time before he ran up the stairs to his house.

"Hey, are you hungry?" Alfred asked as Matthew closed the door. He was lying on the couch, eating a huge bowl of ice cream.

"No thanks…" The site of all the ice cream made Matthew slightly sick. "I ate with a friend." And he started up the stairs, ignoring the sarcastic remarks Alfred threw at him. ("A friend? Wait, you have friends?")

He closed his bedroom door and grabbed a towel. As he dried off his hair, he reached under his bed and pulled out a plastic bag that was full of his clothing from last night. When he had gotten home, he had ripped off the clothing, thrown it in the bag and hid it away so that no one (namely, Alfred) would find it until he found a better hiding place. He reached in and pulled out the hoodie Gilbert had lent him. He had told him to keep it, but…

A blush went over his face and he stuffed the hoodie back in. What kind of person was Gilbert? He was a complete jerk, but at the same time…

Matthew sighed. Summer had just started, but he had a feeling it was going to be one to remember.

Oh YESSSSSSSSSSSSS.

YES.

Andddd…I was originally going to squeeze the party into this chapter, but so much shi—er, poopy hits the fan, that I decided it deserved a chapter all to itself :3

Thank you all for reading!

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