Love Bite: a bruise or bruise-like mark caused by the kissing or suckling of the skin, usually on the neck or arm.
Matthias was enraged. He muttered curses under his breath as he stalked home, ready to spend the rest of the rest of the day sulking in his room.
How could Lukas be so idiotic? Mat was already embarrassed; he didn't need the punk blaming it all on him. They both knew full well the way Lukas was in that state, and Matthias realized even then that Lukas had put the blame on him to keep himself from feeling guilty.
He couldn't help but wonder how Lukas was feeling now. Matthias wanted to believe Luke was was hurt, and maybe they could find some way to make this work out, but really, Lukas wouldn't give him the time of day.
And Matthias wasn't ready to experience heartbreak of that scale.
Finally arriving at his house, Mat wrenched open the door, continuing his long, angry march into the house.
"Matthias?!" he heard his mother call frantically.
Oh, right, he was skipping school. He'd forgotten about that part. "Fuck..." His mom was going to kill him, Matthias was sure of it.
Said mother appeared a few seconds later, looking about ready to murder poor Matthias. "Where where you last night?"
Well, Matthias figured anything would probably he less incriminating than the truth. "I- I, uhh-"
"I told you to be home by midnight," she interrupted, calling him out on his bullshit before he could even make an excuse, "and you show up halfway through the school day. You have thirty seconds to explain yourself."
"No comment." Anything his mother came up with would get him in less trouble than the truth, to be honest.
His mother huffed. "Fine then. You're grounded for the rest of the month. No friends, no drums, and no phone."
"Of fucking course," Mat replied, rolling his eyes. Completely and utterly done with this standoff (his second one of the day), he turned to walk up the stairs.
She grabbed his arm, stopping him before he could leave. "Hand it over."
Biting his lip, he took his cell out of his pocket and shoved it over to her. "Take it."
"What's with the attitude?" she asked, putting the device in her pocket. "You're not typically so aggressive."
He sighed. "I'm in a bad mood, alright? I've had a long day is all."
But his mother had stopped listening, seeming to notice something. "What's that?" She rested a hand on his neck.
Matthias flinched. Oh, Lukas had not given him a hickey.
"Is that a hickey?"
Shit. "Uh, maybe?"
"Matthias, did you really break curfew to sleep with a girl?"
"Would you believe me if I said 'no'?" Because, technically speaking, he hadn't — he'd broken curfew to sleep with a boy, which was a completely different ball game (so to speak).
She deadpanned. "Probably not."
Okay, now Matthias was depressed, angry, and embarrassed. It was kind of hard to scowl, pout, and blush at the same time without looking like a five year-old (or maybe Emil), so he decided it was in his best interests to leave before his dignity was entirely stripped from him. "Well, I'm going up to my room. Don't bother calling me down for dinner."
His mom shrugged. "Your loss."
"I'll take my chances." And with that, he disappeared into his room for the night.
Lukas was totally prepared to go about his typical schedule the next day. He'd done fine for himself before Matthias had come into his life, and he would do just fine for himself now that Matthias was gone again.
And so he thought to himself as he walked into his AP calculus class.
Everything was normal. He was fifteen minutes early for class (as per usual), he had a nice hot cup of coffee to get him through the morning, his seat in the corner of the room was open, and there was Matthias sitting right next to him... Wait...
Matthias was sitting right next to his seat.
Not. Okay.
"Please move," he said through gritted teeth, shooting Mat his most deathly glare. Surely, the other boy would be nice enough to-
"Already sitting here," Matthias replied unsympathetically, returning Lukas' gaze with an equally furious stare. "Find another seat."
Lukas was caught off guard by such a cold response, but managed to keep up his façade nonetheless, crossing his arms over his chest. "I've sat here since the first day of school. You move."
"Why's it such a big deal?" He rolled his eyes. "There are twenty-three other desks in the room; take one of those."
"If it's no big deal to you," Lukas bit back, "then why don't you move?"
Mat let out a growl, and stood up. "Fine! Have it your way!" He stalked off to the opposite corner of the room, taking a seat in the front.
Class started a few minutes later, but neither could concentrate. They were far too busy giving each other dirty looks and trying to stealthily piss each other off.
When Matthias got up to sharpen his pencil in the back of the classroom, he was sure to shove Lukas on his way. Lukas returned the favor two minutes later on his way out the door to get a drink.
The worst of it was when the teacher asked Matthias what the answer to one of the problems on the board was. After giving an incorrect response (much to the surprise of the rest of the class), Lukas raised his hand, subtle and sly grin on his face.
His answer was, of course, correct. He looked at Mat, who banged his head on the desk before mouthing, "shut the fuck up" to him in reply.
"Mat, your math teacher called today," Matthias' mother announced as he walked through the door.
He walked into the kitchen, got himself a can of soda, and turned to go to his room without so much as a glance in her direction. "So?"
"He said," she elaborated, eyes boring into Matthias' skull, "that you got a C- on your last test."
Mat shrugged. "And?"
"That's the first grade below an A you've gotten this year."
"Don't wanna talk about it!" He yelled, already in the hallway.
And for the second time that day, Ms. Andersen found herself using physical force to keep her son from running away from her.
"Is it that boy you hang out with?" she queried, genuinely concerned. "Is he a bad influence on you?"
Matthias glared. "Don't. Want. To talk. About it."
"Watch your tone," she said.
"Watch your tone," he repeated in a high-pitched falsetto that was probably meant to be some lame impression of his mother.
That wasn't what she wanted to hear. "Okay, that's it. I'm adding another week to your sentence."
"Go ahead." He wrenched his arm from her grasp, and started walking away again. "It's not like I have a social life, anyway!"
"I'm also getting you a math tutor. Your teacher said he could set an appointment up with another student."
That stopped him in his tracks. There was only one person in his calc class that was doing better than him, and he was not ready to be tormented by Lukas again. "But Mom-"
"Do you want to be grounded until you graduate?" she threatened.
"Not really," he spat.
"Then I recommend you listen to what I'm saying." Her face fell slack, and her voice grew more calm. "Matthias, you've been really closed off lately. I'm worried about you."
"Well, maybe I'm just tired of being here." He winced even as the words left his tongue. That wasn't what he'd wanted to say.
His mother stared at the ground. "Mat, I know I'm a bit much sometimes, but you know I wouldn't be able to handle-"
"I know, I know," he interrupted, backtracking as quickly as he could. "I'm sorry. I've just had a long day, okay?" He wrapped his arms around her, trying his best to assure her he had no intentions of leaving (as deceitful as that was).
After a bit, they both pulled back, and his mother's eyes met his. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He winced. "Not with you."
"Mat!"
"Look, I appreciate the gesture," he replied, "but you're my mom. This is the kinda thing I need to talk out with someone my age — which would be a lot easier if you'd let me talk to my friends, by the way."
There was a neat of silence. "Oh. I guess I understand. It's just hard to-"
"Trust me?" he finished. "Yeah, a lot of people have been saying that lately. Kind of makes me wonder just how inept I really am."
"Honey, that's not what I meant."
The bite in his voice returned. "Oh, really? Then prove it."
"Fine." She pulled something out of her pocket, and gingerly placed it in his hand. "Here's your phone back. You're still grounded for two weeks."
"What? Really" Sure enough, his phone was in his hand. "Oh my god, thanks, Mom!"
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't leave me again," she said dismissively.
"Got it." He started to walk off again.
"Oh, and Mat?" She called when he was halfway up the stairs.
"Yeah?"
"No more girls, okay? Not unless you're in a relationship."
He had to smile to himself. "That won't be a problem, Mom." Girls would never be a problem.
Boys, on the other hand?
Well, Matthias didn't know how that would work out.
That night, Lukas lay on his bed, listening to the soothing sounds of the Sex Pistols and trying not to think of Matthias as he finished his AP Chemistry homework.
There was a knock on the door to his room, barely loud enough to be heard over the music. "Hey, Luke?" Emil's voice was muffled by Johnny Rotten's overwhelming support for anarchy in the UK, but it was loud enough that Lukas couldn't ignore it.
He sighed. "Yes?"
"Are…" He stuttered, sensing the frustration in Lukas' tone. "Are you doing anything right now?"
"Nothing important. Why?"
"I wanted to talk about yesterday. Can I come in?"
Silence.
"Uh, I brought coffee," he added in shameless bribery. "And doughnuts."
That was good enough for Luke. "For god's sake, what are you doing out there? Get your ass in here." He turned down the music enough for conversation, and set aside his textbook.
Emil opened the door, holding a tray of the promised coffee and doughnuts. "How did I know that'd win you over?"
"Shut up," he replied, eagerly grabbing one of the mugs and taking a sip of the bitter drink.
He shrugged. "Just trying to lighten the mood."
"Is that even possible at this point?" Because, really, they were discussing a one-night stand Lukas had had with a mutual friend of theirs.
"I guess not," he admitted, sitting next to him on the bed. "So, what exactly happened – y'know, after you woke up."
"It's stupid."
"No," he countered, resting his hand on Lukas'. "It's not."
"Well, I guess both of us were uncomfortable."
"Like that wasn't totally obvious," Emil scoffed. "What did you guys say to each other? I bet Mat was a dork about it."
"He's a dork about everything," Lukas pointed out. "Even fighting, seriously. Were you listening when he referred to the Mandelbrot Set in an insult during lunch?"
"Yes! That was gold... But really, what happened next? How did you react?"
He bit his lip. "I tried to make it seem like no big deal."
"Even though it was."
"Yeah."
Emil decided to move the story along. "Alright, so he was uncomfortable. What made him quit the band?"
"I may have insinuated that it was his fault," Lukas said with a wince.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. "And do you see how that might have fucked things up?"
"Now I do."
"And do you see how pretending to be mad at him now might just make it worse? Instead of, say, telling him what happened? Or maybe apologizing?" There was no way the two would get anywhere if Lukas kept this silly act up.
"Like he'll want to be friends with me either way. His experiment failed, remember? He proved I have no redeeming qualities."
"Would you stop fucking saying that? You know it's not true."
Lukas deadpanned. "Name one good thing about me."
"Well, you kept me off the streets, for one," Emil shot back, almost offended Lukas didn't realize that.
"I had to."
"No, you didn't. You could've just given me over to some orphanage or kicked me out or something, but you kept me." His voice cracked embarrassingly, and his cheeks went red. "And you managed to keep the entire household running as a fourteen-year old boy."
"Yes, by illegal means," Lukas countered. "I kind of screwed that up too. What horrible type of guardian sells pot for a living?"
"I didn't turn out that bad, did I?"
"No, but-"
"Then why should it matter? Sure, your means of income are a bit sketchy, but that doesn't mean you failed." It wasn't like Emil was smoking pot or some idiocy like that (not that there weren't good people who did smoke pot). He had turned out just fine with Lukas as a guardian.
Lukas bit into one of the doughnuts. "Alright, so in my entire existence, I did one good thing. Your point?"
"You care about people." Emil held his gaze. "You can try to argue all you want, but I know you care about me, and I'm sure you care about Matthias as well."
"I guess," he admitted, voice barely above a whisper, "but he'll probably never know."
"And why do you think?" Emil replied with his mouth full of doughnut (which was very attractive, by the way) "You need to tell him how you feel."
"But… What if I don't want this?"
"Don't you?" he asked.
Silence.
"I… I don't know." His voice trembled, like he was about to cry. "Everything's happening so fast, and it's so different… What if I end up not liking it?"
"Maybe you could just stay friends for a while," Emil suggested.
"What?"
"Well, maybe if you just tried be friends a bit longer, you'd see if your feelings are genuine." He took a languid sip of coffee. "You should also probably learn to trust him more. It's just Mat, he's not gonna hurt you."
"But-"
"I know, I know. Trust issues, I get it. Why don't you just try? What's the worst that could happen?"
"Oh, I don't know." Sardonicism crept into his tone. "Maybe we could have a drunken one-night stand, then get into a giant argument."
Emil smirked. "Then it can't possibly get any worse, can it?"
"I suppose."
"So try then! Just apologize, make amends, and if he takes you back you can work it out together."
"Do you think he will?" Lukas asked, genuinely curious. "Take me back, I mean?"
"Mat? Probably. He needs to know you're not going to shut him out again, though." Seeing as Emil wasn't much of an optimist when it came to things like this, he was probably right if he said it would work out.
"Alright, so I won't shut him out then." Easier said than done, but Lukas would manage."
"That's the spirit..." He trailed off, suddenly concerned. "Lukas?"
"Yeah?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Are you smiling?"
"No," Lukas said even as his grin grew wider.
There was hope yet.
"Hey man you disrespecting me?
Take him out
You gotta keep 'em separated"
~"Come Out and Play", Smash, The Offspring
