Chapter 3: the realization
Matt took his steps inch-by-inch, five seconds an inch. Why did his mother have to take so long on every aisle of the grocery store? It took her ten minutes to pick which avocados were ripe and which were not, then it took her about an hour to walk down an aisle that didn't even have anything she wanted, she just wanted to make sure she wasn't missing anything. He just happened to be pushing the cart, and that was no fun cause he had to go the same speed she was going.
"Mom… can we please hurry up?" he moaned.
"Oh Matthew, don't be so selfish!" she gave him a smack on the hind.
"Mom!" he frowned. How embarrassing. "Why cant I just wait in the car?"
"Stop complaining." She gave him the "mean-mother-look" and he shut up. "Why don't you go get the milk down the dairy aisle, and that will speed things up." She offered. Matt happily agreed and skipped down the way. Along his skipping, he accidentally ran into a man with a cart. A huge collision happened and Matt was on top of the man and all his groceries.
"I'm so sorry…" he gulped as he looked down at the man that he was on top of. He propped himself up on his hands and looked at the man who seemed suspiciously nervous. "…Here." He quickly got up and started throwing all the groceries into the basket again. Strangely enough, the man got up, looked around at all the on-lookers, and darted off out of the grocery store.
"Hey wait!" Matt called after. "What about your groceries?"
"Matthew…" his mother was standing behind him with her hands on her hips.
"(Gulp)"
"Matthew, you go and put back every single food item from that cart exactly where they go." She ordered. He dare not refuse.
It took about 20 minutes for Matt to go all around the store and return all the odd food items back to their shelves. Once he had reached the bottom of the cart, he found something that didn't belong to the store. "What's this?" he curiously picked it up and examined it. It was a small metal box.
"Matthew," his mother found him and dragged him o the front door. "Come on, we need to get going." He shrugged and followed with the metal box tucked underneath his coat. What was it and how was he ever going to find the man and return it again?
After he had finished putting away all the groceries in his house, Matt's cell phone began to vibrate and he found that he had just received a text message. He excitedly ran up the stairs and hopped onto his bed to read it.
It was four days since Christmas, and he was hoping it was from Inez whom he hadn't seen yet. Yes, it was!
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"Hey matt, just saying hi! What are u up to?"
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He quickly hit the reply button, and a series of text messages took place between them.
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"just got home from shopping, u?"
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"at jacki's house. She says hi."
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"hi jacki. So, when am I goin to c u again?"
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"soon? Haha. Jacki wants you to come over now."
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"I should! Its boring as ever over here. I have something 2 show u."
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"what is it?"
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"I don't know… where r u guys?"
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"do u want to meet up? Lol, jaks wants u 2 come here"
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"can I? This is weird."
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Matt toyed with the metal box in his hands as he waited for the next message. There was something so odd about it!
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"what is weird?"
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"the thing I am going to show you"
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"jacki says come over"
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"…where? That ok with her mom?"
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"yes, cause you go to church."
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"haha…ok?"
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"she lives on 170th, you know wher that is?"
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"off turner st.?"
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"yes"
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"yeah, I kno wher that is. What number?"
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"2398"
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"awesome, ill walk."
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Matt closed his phone and hopped down the stairs with the box hidden inside his coat.
"Going to go visit a friend, Mom!" he called after her as he ran out the door.
"Don't be gone late!" she called back before he ran out of earshot.
The run wasn't far, but Matt did notice something unusual on the way there. There was a small limousine that seemed to be following him, but he figured it was just paranoia. Once reaching the address, 2398 on 170th, he walked up to the door and rung the doorbell. Nothing happened for a moment, but then he heard excitement tumbling down the stairs and girls talking behind the door.
"Hello?" he knocked again. "I can hear you guys."
The door then opened and the two girls stood there with smiles beaming on their faces. Matt smiled politely.
"Hi Matt," Inez showed him inside. "You remember Jackie, right?"
"Oh yeah, hi Jackie." He nodded. Suddenly the two giggly girls started to seem dangerously familiar to him. "Jackie… Jackie… Jacks…" he mumbled to himself. "…Nezzie?" he lifted his head and stared at the two girls. "Oh wow."
"What?" they both curiously waved their hands in front of Matt's eyes, which seemed lost somewhere.
"Uh…" he recovered and smiled. "Sorry, weird day." They both laughed and showed him upstairs to Jackie's room where they hung out for a little while. Finally, when Matt thought it proper, he took out the metal box from his jacket and told the girls the story. Inez, who looked most interested, took the box from his hands and examined it.
"Have you opened it?"
"No, I tired… I can't." he shrugged.
"Hmm…" Inez curiously turned it over and over as she examined it.
"Oh no." Jackie rolled her eyes. "Inez is going her 'smart girl' thing again. Always so fascinated with things no one understands."
Matt popped up in surprise. "That's just too familiar…" he whispered. Both girls stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
"Are you okay, Matt?" Jackie asked. He didn't answer but kept thinking. His eyes wandered around the room and then settled on a picture frame of three kids with their arms wrapped around each other.
"Wait a second…" he narrowed his eyes then quickly got up and grabbed the photograph. He couldn't believe it… but everything was suddenly clear. Matt looked up at them and grinned.
"What is it?" Jackie was confused, but Inez caught on quickly.
"Oh my goodness." She threw her hand over her mouth.
"What?" Jackie excitedly slammed her fists on her bed.
"Jackie…" Matt held up the picture in front of her face. "Who is the boy in this picture?"
"Oh that's my friend Ma--…" she cut herself off as sudden realization happened. "Matt…' her eyes went wide and then she suddenly tackled him onto the ground with a hug.
"WHOA! Jacks!" he laughed and pushed her off. "Calm down… I only just realized!" he stood up and straightened his shirt.
"Matthew!" she shrieked. "You have blonde hair! It's so cool! What happened?" she felt his hair.
"Uhh…" he moved her hand away. (that was a little weird). "My hair is naturally blonde, it was dyed that color, remember?"
"Oh…" she laughed. "I never believed you!"
"I know…" he scratched his head and looked over at Inez who was sitting on the bed in shock. "You alright, Nezzie?" he smiled at her.
"Yeah…" she slowly spoke but smiled, still a little confused. Matt walked over and sat next to her.
"Yeah, no wonder I didn't recognize you! You both look so different!" he shook his head.
"Different?" Jackie sat next to him.
"Yeah, you both look a lot older."
"Well, duh!" she slapped him on the leg. "You are the one who looks most different! I can't believe how handsome you got!" she winked. Matt blushed. Okay, that's weird… it's starting to seem like she likes me…
Matt's suspicions were correct; Jackie did have a major crush on him. Not that she didn't have it in the first place, but It was a lot bigger now that she actually knew him… especially since she had a huge crush on his before when they were eleven. The problem with was… Someone else had a slight crush on him too, and that happened to be her best friend.
…
Sorry it is so short, the next will be longer… but sheesh… it is 3 in the morning!
What is the box? And what's going to happen next?
I dunno, I'll sleep on it, haha…
R&R!