Failure To Communicate
Grandma/Matt, Post-Who Do You Think You Are, PG13, 589 words, Title from House
Grandma sits in her chair and watches Matt go back and forth from his room to the kitchen. Every 5 seconds, back in, back out. She isn't sure what to make of it. He'll be alright, she supposes.
--
He's up every morning making her breakfast. Doesn't really talk much either. Just makes the food and says his goodbyes.
She eats her breakfast alone. Every day she decides that she's going to ask him what's going on when he comes home from work or practice and every time he does, she always forgets. She's left pondering for close to a half hour every night before she goes to bed what she forgot to do that day, and she can't for the life of her figure it out.
--
She hears him stumble inside the house after the football game. And the night after that. And the night after that. He's piss drunk each time of course. She leaves the bottle of aspirin on the kitchen table the next morning and doesn't say a word about it. She doesn't want to lecture him about drinking because she knows that's not the first time he came home drunk, and it won't be the last time either.
--
Grandma's sitting on her chair after dinnera few nights later. Matt once again heads back and forth from the kitchen to his roombefore she sees him grab his coat from the closet. Now she really has to say something.
"Matthew, honey, you alright?"
"Yeah, Grandma, I'm fine. Just going out for a little while." She senses an attitude in his voice, but isn't quite sure of it, so she says nothing about it.
"Okay, don't come home too late."
"I won't." And he's already out the door.
Grandma sighs to herself as she hears Matt speed off down the street. She worries that he might get into trouble if he isn't careful. But she knows he's a good kid and that nothing will happen. So she decides not to get herself worked up over it and goes back to watching TV.
--
She gets the call a few hours later while she was sleeping. It was Tami Taylor on the other line. Matt was involved in a car accident earlier that night and was at the hospital. Tami isn't sure where he was going or where he was before then, but he was drunk. Lost control of his car and slammed the passenger side right into a telephone pole. He was able to call for help before he passed out.He luckily only escaped with bruised ribs and cuts all over his body due to the shattered pieces of the passenger side window flying right into him.
She freaks out and immediately gets herself together before Coach comes and picks her up.
She walks into the room Matt is in and begins to cry once she sees him. How did this happen? Why did she let this happen? Why couldn't she see that there was something wrong? She always knew when Matt was upset and was always there for him when he needed her. So why wasn't she there now? She would never stop blaming herself for it (until everything was okay again. Then she would forget about it).
She sits next to him and holds onto his hand. He wakes up slightly from his sleep and says he's sorry. She tells him it's not his fault. That everything is going to be okay. Like she always does. Matt believes it too. Like he always does.