Chapter 12
"Logan's in juvenile?" Matt couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew Logan since middle school, so he figured that his friend would never go as far as pulling out a gun to rob a store. Why would he go to such measures?
Zoey sniffled, unable to respond to Matt's question. Peter was the one to answer Matt as he rubbed Zoey's back in a comforting manner. "Yeah. Apparently, he took his dad's gun and robbed a store. As soon as he left, the police arrested him and placed him there."
"But..." Matt gasped. "Logan's nice! He'd never do something like that!"
"We're in shock too, Matt," Peter said, his eyes filled with sadness and his mouth drawn into a line. "We knew Logan since elementary school. We couldn't believe he would go to such drastic measures."
"Wh-why would he do something like that?"
"We don't know..." Peter closed his eyes as he whispered that. "All I remembered was he grew up in an awful environment: uncaring and abusive parents, living with no food on the table...I understand why he'd do something like that to get himself and his sister out of that house, but that doesn't mean he should go the criminal route! There are other ways to handle it!"
Matt felt tears welling up in his eyes. He understood the whole situation now: Logan didn't tell Matt about his household, so he figured his life were rainbows and roses. Apparently, Logan grew up in a bad environment to the point he had to become a criminal to get the money to escape.
There was one thing that bothered him though: what happened to the toys Logan borrowed from him?
"What about the action figures he got from me?" Matt asked.
Zoey and Peter stared at him, their eyes widened. "You let him borrow some of your figures?" Zoey gasped.
Matt nodded. Zoey and Peter cringed as they looked at each other, not wanting to tell Matt the bad news. Not wanting to delay the inevitable, they turned to face their friend with sorrowful expressions.
"The police found them in Logan's bag," Zoey explained as she tried to hold back even more tears. "They were broken from the holdup."
"WHAT?!" Matt cried so loud that the other students overheard it. "S-so I can't get them back?"
"..." Zoey and Peter turned to each other again, their frowns intensified. Peter was the one to speak up. "We're not sure. I'm sorry, Matt."
"Wh-what..." Matt gasped, tears beginning to form in his eyes. He realized what a big mistake he had made: giving away his prized possessions to the one he thought was a friend of his. Now, he wouldn't get his toys back, and there was nothing he could do to get them back.
"I'm sorry, Matt..." Zoey hiccuped. "We wish we could do something..."
"Me too, Zoey..." Matt was the one to join in the comforting, even though he needed the comfort as much as Zoey. "Me too..."
"Matt, we need to talk."
Matt gulped when he heard his mother's serious voice. Looking up from his pizza, he immediately backed down when he saw Maria's serious expression. Her eyes were lowered, and her mouth was drawn in a line, indicating that she was disappointed. He had no idea what he had done wrong, but whatever he did, he was prepared for it.
"I heard from Zoey and Peter," Maria began. "Logan stole your toys? And he's in juvenile for robbing a store?"
Matt hesitated, not sure how Maria would react if he told the truth. Of course, he knew she wanted him to be safe, but he hated to be scolded. "Y-yeah..." he squeaked out.
"I figured why there were sirens at the store when I went grocery shopping yesterday," Maria sighed. "Matt, I know that Logan's your friend, but he's dangerous to hang out with. I'm sorry to say, but you can't go near him again."
Matt's eyes widened when Maria said this. His heart began to beat quickly, and sweat formed on his face. While Logan was in juvenile for what he had done, that didn't mean he couldn't be his friend anymore! "But Mom—"
"I'm sorry, Matt," Maria's expression changed into a sorrowful look. "But he's dangerous. What if he tried to hurt you? If he robbed a store with a gun, I'm sure that he'd go as far as murder! I'm sorry...I know he's your friend, but—"
"SHUT UP MOM!"
Maria jumped when Matt screamed. She placed her hand on her mouth, shocked to hear Matt raise his voice to his own mother. "Matt! I know you're upset, but—"
"It's not fair at all, Mom!" Matt cried, tears beginning to pour down his face. "First you gave birth to me with Asperger's, now I can't be friends with Logan?! Why?!"
Maria's eyes widened, her heart breaking in two. Of course, him reacting to not being friends with Logan was natural, but when he cried out that she gave birth to him, she grew more shocked. "Matt—"
"I wish I was never born, Mom! Why did you marry Dad?! Why did you let me be born?! Because of my Asperger's, I'll never fit in at ALL! No one wants me because of it!"
Maria gasped, and before she could say anything, Matt ran out of the kitchen and into his room. Slamming the door shut and locking it, he jumped in his bed and sobbed in his pillow. First his mother had to give him Asperger's, now she made him stop being friends with Logan. His mind raced with thoughts of not being able to fit in school, or worse, not be able to get a job thanks to his Asperger's. He hated it. He despised himself with all his being. Why would he be born with such a condition? What did he do in his life that he deserved this?
"...Matt?"
Matt knew who was talking, and he simply ignored it. His toys watched their friend cry his heart out, all of them hurt from seeing him in such a state. They all overheard the conversation him and Maria had, and they wanted to comfort him, but Matt was in a much worse state when it comes to his Asperger's, so they decided to let him cry.
It felt like an eternity to Matt when he cried, but eventually, he calmed down. Sitting up on his bed, he sighed to catch his breath from sobbing. He wanted to talk to someone, but he didn't feel like talking to his toys at the moment, nor to his mother. He didn't feel like talking to his friends either, since he was still torn up from having to break his and Logan's friendship.
An idea popped in his mind then, and he grabbed his English binder and pencil. Opening the binder to where he last stopped in his story assignment, he began writing, albeit his handwriting was a bit messy along the way.
Master Hand froze, feeling the cords digging in his fingers. The Hand gasped in pain, unable to move further. Attaching the strings was a blue, humanoid man, with large wings that weren't attached to his back. He held the cords tightly, an evil grin on his face as he controlled Master Hand.
Matt stopped writing for a moment, and he placed the eraser of the pencil on his mouth in deep thought. What to name him...he thought. During the last few days of his depression, he felt that this character could be a symbolism of how he was feeling.
He then remembered: a few days ago, he had a meltdown over learning about his Asperger's possibly being taboo. With a small smile, he wrote down the name of the main antagonist:
TABUU.
Two weeks had passed, and Matt had gotten his story assignment back from Ms. Grille. There were marks on the typed paper that was stapled in the front, though they weren't corrections at all.
Instead, they were words of praise, saying how creative the Subspace Emissary was, and Ms. Grille even gave Matt ten extra points for adding the new word, "taboo", in the story, albeit it was spelled in an interesting way.
Matt's grade total was 110 out of 100. The teen smiled widely, happy to see such a high score on his assignment. In fact, almost all of his classmates didn't reach that many points on their stories. He looked down at Luigi, who in his mind, gave Matt a thumbs up. To Luigi, at least Matt felt much better about his assignment, so hopefully it would bring him back to much higher spirits.
"Great job, Matt."
Matt jumped when he heard a voice beside him, and he turned his head to see James, who had a smile on his face as he held his story assignment in his hands. Matt gulped, now remembering that he had been avoiding James for a while.
"Ah! J-James..." Matt squeaked, looking down at his paper. "I-I'm sorry I've been avoiding you the last few weeks. I've been in a...rut, yeah...that I didn't feel like seeing you or anyone till now."
"Hey, it's fine!" James spoke cheerfully. "I understand!" He looked down at Matt's paper, and his grin turned wider. "What did you do that made Ms. Grille give you ten extra points?"
"Oh, I used a couple of the new words she wrote on the board two weeks ago," Matt admitted, shrugging. "She loves my story, and she even gave me praise on it!"
"Congrats, Matt!"
Matt smiled when he heard Wayne's voice. He turned to face his new friend, and the other boy gave him a thumbs up. "I'm sure the rest of the year's gonna be a breeze to you! I couldn't think of a good story myself!"
Matt simply chuckled, glad that he had good friends. Though he still kept his Asperger's a secret from James, and he recently asked Wayne to not reveal his condition yet until he felt he was ready.
Come to think of it...he wondered how Zoey, Chelsea, and Peter were doing?
On the weekend, today was Matt's birthday. Maria invited all of his friends to his party, and each and every one came on time. All of them held wrapped presents in their hands, smiling at the birthday boy. Matt felt like he was on top of the world. After thanking each and every one of his friends for coming over, he spotted Zoey, Chelsea, and Peter. Peter and Chelsea had been chatting away, though Zoey was the one to notice Matt.
"Hey, Zoey," Matt greeted.
"Hey, Matt," Zoey greeted back, her smile on.
Matt returned the gesture, though he was still thinking about how Zoey was feeling when he avoided her. Besides the fact that he came to check on her and Peter when they heard the news of Logan, he hadn't spoken to them for a while. He felt terrible, ignoring his friends over what he was thinking. However, he didn't want to reveal his Asperger's yet, so he immediately apologized instead.
"Zoey, I'm sorry for avoiding you. I understand that you're mad, but—" Matt gulped.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Zoey reassured him. "I'm sure that you needed time for yourself. I saw how down you were the last couple of weeks, so we decided to leave you alone until you're better."
Matt smiled at Zoey's kindness. Despite how sensitive Zoey was, she was still understanding of Matt, even putting her feelings aside for his sake. He blushed, wanting to hug her and whisper in her ear a thank you…
He shook his head, trying to get the fantasy out of his head. Lately, his crush on Zoey continued to grow, and every time he saw her, he became...excited, thinking of many fantasies of him wanting to take care of her, to hold her close and to even kiss her. However, he kept all his feelings to himself. He shouldn't feel like this. Zoey was his best friend, and to him, he didn't want it any other way.
After a few minutes, Matt finally blew out the candles. The party each had a slice of chocolate cake and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and they all chattered as they enjoyed the cake and ice cream.
When Matt was handed cake with vanilla ice cream, he stared at the plate in disgust. His ice cream was touching the cake.
"Mom..." Matt groaned.
Maria looked down at the plate, and she blushed, totally forgetting that Matt didn't like his food that way. "I'm so sorry, Matt! I'll give this to Zoey. I'll make another plate for you. The cake and ice cream needed to be separated, right?"
Matt nodded, and Maria handed the plate to Zoey before she went to grab two separate plates.
After the eating, it was time to open the presents. To Matt's surprise, each of his friends had brought one gift. Zoey was the only one to have more than one: she had two, which were both small.
Zoey was the first one to give Matt her two gifts. Matt studied them, wondering what were inside them. Without hesitation, he opened them. Inside, to his shock and delight, was a Roy action figure. The redhead wore different clothing, unlike his previous counterpart, with blue pants and blue armor. His headband was much longer than the last Roy.
The other one he opened was a man wearing white karate gi, with a red headband tied around his forehead. Matt had no idea who he was, but by the tag, his name was "Ryu" from a game called "Street Fighter".
"I still felt bad when Principal Taylor broke your Roy toy back in middle school, Matt," Zoey spoke. "So I bought this Roy from Ebay, along with Ryu."
Matt had a wide grin on his face, and he hugged Zoey tightly. "Thank you so much, Zoey! I love them!"
Zoey chuckled, holding Matt back. Upon realizing what he was doing, Matt immediately let her go, his face redder than it was.
Next came Peter's gift. When Matt opened it, he was surprised to see two toys inside: two characters by the name of Bayonetta and Corrin. He grinned; he heard of Corrin from the Fire Emblem series, but he never heard of Bayonetta. He grabbed Peter's hand and shook it, thanking him for the amazing gift.
Up next, James' gift. Matt immediately opened the wrapping, and inside, it was a Mega Man figure. Matt's grin grew wider, and like a kid, he jumped up and down from excitement.
"You like it? I figured you'll like the Mega Man series," James commented with a chuckle.
"Thanks, James! I love it!" Matt cried in an excited tone, to which the others laughed softly.
Up next was Chelsea. She handed him the gift, and Matt opened it, revealing Pac-Man. Matt's eyes twinkled in delight, and he hugged Chelsea tightly, thanking her profusely. Chelsea simply giggled as Matt let her go, staring at the Pac-Man toy.
Last was Wayne and his little brother, Adam. Wayne and Adam picked up their present together and handed it to Matt. While Wayne watched Matt open the present, Adam was jumping up and down, his smile growing by the minute.
Inside the box was a young man with spiky blond hair, with an extremely large sword behind his back. He wore strange clothing, along with long, black boots, and the toy had a serious expression on his face.
"WOW!" Matt cried. "Who is that?!"
"That's Cloud Strife," Wayne said. "My brother here loves Final Fantasy, so he decided to find another Cloud toy as a gift for you."
Matt felt like he wanted to scream from happiness. This was the best birthday yet. He grabbed all of the gifts he got and held them tightly, his smile so wide the others swore it could escape from his face.
"Thank you everyone! I love them all!" Matt cried in a loud voice. No one didn't bother telling him to stay quiet; today was his birthday after all, and they wanted the birthday boy to be happy.
"So what should we do today?" Zoey asked.
"Let's play some Nintendo games!" Matt cried, still holding his toys close. He wanted to play with them with all his friends, but he decided against it; he was seventeen now.
With that, the group of friends gathered around the television, and they let Matt pick out a game to play. With so many games he owned, Matt wasn't sure which ones he wanted to play. Ultimately, he decided to play Super Mario Sunshine, and the group took turns playing the Gamecube game.
To Matt, he felt like he finally fit in with all his friends. But at the same time, he still felt that if his Asperger's was revealed, they would all leave him.
Constructive criticism is welcomed!
Also, I've been getting low on ideas on this story, so I was wondering: should I take a few days break to get my mind back on this story? Or continue? I know that I left it off on chapter 8 for months, so I don't want you guys to wait again, but at the same time, I don't want my story to be mediocre because I'm low on ideas...I'm pretty much playing by ear at this point up until the ending (which I planned out before I wrote this)...let me know in the reviews! Or, if you have any good ideas and want to share, either share it via review or PM! I'm willing to listen :)
