Hi people! First off I would like to thank Hailey Egan, slashdlite and Blazing Glory for their reviews! Hailey Egan, Thank you so much! Also hopefully I can answer some of the questions soon! =D! slashdlite, that's true. ;) Blazing Glory, Thank you for the advice =D!!! HUGS
Also thank you for everyone who read the chapter and enjoyed it! I hope you enjoy this chapter!!
Jeff kept an eye on Matt during lunch. Not sure what else to do. He was scared to ask Matt but at the same time he was scared to ask their Dad…was there any way to win this situation?
Gil noticed how Jeff was tossing his food around on his plate more than putting it in his mouth.
"Everything alright?" He asked Jeff.
"Yeah." Jeff nodded.
"Then why aren't you eating?" Gil asked. This got Matt's attention.
"Well…" Jeff paused. "I guess I'm not all that hungry." He shrugged.
Gil gave Jeff a strange look.
"Okay then. Try to eat something anyway though." Gil told Jeff.
"Okay Dad." Jeff nodded and stuffed some food in his mouth and forced it down even though his stomach was a wreck because of his nerves.
XXX
After lunch Jeff ran outside again to get Shannon.
"Jeff over here!" Shannon called. He was standing next to the fort.
"Hi!" Jeff said.
"Did you ask him?!" Shannon asked sounding a little bit worried but also excited.
"No." Jeff looked at the ground.
"Why not?" Shannon asked.
"I already told you." Jeff mumbled. "Can we go inside my house? It's burning out here."
"Sure." Shannon shrugged. "Hey! Would you ask Matt if I went with you?!" Shannon asked.
Jeff bit his bottom lip. "I don't know."
"I'll go into his room with you and everything!" Shannon told him. "I promise I won't leave unless things get bad then I'll get your Dad!" Shannon promised.
"It's worth a shot." Jeff shrugged but on the inside he was completely nervous. What will Matt do? Will he lie? What's even the truth?!
Shannon raced back to Jeff's house Jeff behind him.
"What are you boys doing?!" Gil asked.
"Just going up to Jeff's room." Shannon told Gil.
"No running." Gil told them.
"Okay Dad!" Jeff told him and walked with Shannon.
"Shannon I don't think this is a good idea." Jeff whispered since they were outside of Matt's door.
"Jeff you said yourself it's worth a shot." Shannon whined. "The least he can do is lie."
"Or get really mad!" Jeff told him.
"Well if you don't ask him then all you can do is spend forever guessing." Shannon told Jeff. Jeff bit his bottom lip unsure if Shannon was right or not.
"Like I said if it ends bad I can get your Dad and he can straighten it out." Shannon told Jeff.
"I don't want to do it." Jeff mumbled.
"You know you do." Shannon glared at Jeff.
"Why do you want to do it?!" Jeff asked him.
"Curiosity-."
"Killed the cat." Jeff finished.
"That's why I'm not a cat now come on!" Shannon urged.
Before Jeff could answer Shannon (without knocking) opened Matt's door but stopped dead in his tracks.
"What?!" Jeff asked but then walked in and gasped.
Matt was on his it seemed like he was reading his book…without the sweater on.
XXX
Matt lay on his bed sighing. Taking off the sweater again it was burning even inside!
Don't look at the cuts and you'll be fine. Matt thought to himself, grabbing his book that was beside him and started reading.
He couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong with Jeff. He was acting strange during lunch. He felt a little bad for not working on the fort but as hot as it is INSIDE, OUTSIDE must be terrible. He most likely would have passed out in his sweater. He prayed tomorrow would be colder.
His reading was interrupted by all of a sudden someone opening his door without knocking. He gasped when he saw Shannon with Jeff behind him.
XXX
Jeff stood frozen. He couldn't move…just stare at Matt.
Matt jumped up and wrapped the blanket around himself which was pointless since they already saw him.
"What are you-you doin-doing in here?!" He managed to gasp out from his heavy breathing out of panic.
Jeff tried to talk but nothing came out. He glanced at Shannon who was unable to talk also. "What happened to you?!" Jeff managed to gasp out.
Matt felt tears in his eyes…it happened everything is ruined. All of the work he put into hiding the marks the days he was sweating trying to build the fort and nearly passing out…all went down the drain so fast.
"Well?!" Jeff choked out.
"My-my Da-." Matt could hardly talk. There was no use in lying. What was he going to say? He felt tears rushing to his eyes begging to come out all too fast.
Jeff saw Shannon go to the door. "I'll get your Da-."
"No don't please!!!" Matt yelled after him.
Shannon froze in place.
"Please don't let him know! My old 'parents' used to do it! When I would get into trouble." Matt gasped out. Mainly out of fear that if he didn't tell them something they would go get Gil and then he would have no idea what to do.
Jeff couldn't believe it. Why would a parent burn their own kid? Why would they hurt their own kid? It was all screwed up and twisted in Jeff's mind. They were sick to do that to Matt.
"You need to tell Dad." Jeff told him.
"What?! No please." Matt told them.
"Dad can help though!" Jeff told Matt. "Dad can do something!"
"Like what?!" Matt yelled. "He can't take it back and neither can I!"
Jeff had no idea what to say. I'm sorry? They all of a sudden seemed like pointless words. Matt was right, it seemed like there was nothing Jeff or Gil could do in Jeff's mind. It's not like they could travel back in time to make sure it never happened.
XXX
After a bit they were all standing there except maybe a little calmer. (Well as calm as you can be in a situation quite like this!)
"So this is why you wore the sweater?" Shannon blurted out breaking the un-easy silence between them.
Matt nodded.
"You should just tell your Dad." Shannon told Matt. "Then you wouldn't have been burning out there."
Matt rolled his eyes. If only it was that easy. He thought.
"Why did you lie about your shoulder?" Jeff asked.
"Why do you think?" Matt asked back at him. He was completely exhausted from this.
"Because you thought we would tell Dad?" Jeff asked him.
Matt shrugged. "That was one of the reasons."
"What where the others?" Shannon asked.
Matt sighed. Today was like a bad nightmare that he just wishes he could wake up from. This was going to be a hard thing to explain.
Believe it or not…this actually could be considered the real beginning of this story. ;) As confusing as that might be its true. Anyway hopefully this was a more exciting chapter. I might have sadly rushed it a bit but this IS one of the longer chapters! Hope you enjoyed it! =D
