Matty's first night out of hospital was always a hard one. He always had to test every way out of the house, to double check there was no way out, or any way for anyone else to get in. That was as much of Matty's problem as his eloping- the fact he constantly thought people were trying to break into the house. It constantly put him on edge, which just fuelled his delusions more.
After giving the house a once over, at least the rooms he could get into, he relaxed onto the sofa, which is where Cat found him when she returned from the pharmacy after school. "Hey Matty- it's Cat!" She called out as she slowly, ever so slowly, opened the front door. "Am I okay to come in?" She checked. It was annoying when he said no, because she had to call her mom to let her in instead.
"Catty!" Matteo ran over, pulling the door open himself to let his little sister into the house, confirming to her that he knew she wasn't at intruder.
Quickly, Cat kicked the door shut behind her. Sometimes Matty used this time to make a break out of the house- but usually only if someone was walking past at precisely the wrong time. "Welcome home Matty!" Cat smiled at her big brother, accepting the hug her brother just pulled her into, squeezing her tight and lifting her off the ground. "Too tight! Too tight!" She squeaked, tapping his arm until he put her down.
"How was your day at school?!" He asked, wide eyes studying his little sister, still confirming to himself that she was in fact there.
This was what it was like with Matty. He could appear 'normal' just with a few quirks to everything he did. It was like he knew how he needed to act, but couldn't quite do it. His hugs were a touch too tight, his eye movement a tad too jarring, his voice a tad too loud. 80% of the time this is how he was, intense but okay. It was that 20% where he acted like he was being pumped with electricity straight from the mains. When he punched walls or tried to climb into them; when he couldn't ignore the impulses and the delusions that plagued his every day.
"It was good!" Cat replied, clutching her bag close to herself as she very suddenly realised there were 100 new tiny ritalin pills at the very top of it. "I had acting class, music, maths- the normal!" She said.
"How was Jade, and Beck, and Tori, and Robbie, and Rex, and Andre, and uh others?" He asked, again all too quickly and a little too loud.
"They're all good too!" Cat smiled at her brother, slowly edging her way up to the stairs, eager to drop off her bag. "I'll go get changed into my comfy clothes-" She came up with an excuse. "And we can watch TV together okay?"
"Okey kokey!" Matty replied, nodding quickly back before running over and hurdling himself over the back of the sofa. "I'm watching Spiderman!"
"Nice!" Cat smiled at him, before turning and running up the stairs. He was so going to try climbing up walls again tonight if he continued to watch that. "Mom, Matty is watching Spiderman on the TV." Cat reported to her mom as she walked past the office and towards her bedroom.
"Oh sugar tits!" Cassy got up quickly and ran from the desk and down the stairs, hoping to convince her son to watch something else.
Cat shook her head, unlocking her bedroom door. First things first, opened the pill pot and took one of them quickly. They weren't instant action, but Cat swore she could already feel them working as the 3 day headache started melting away. Next, she put her them away, properly, in a new hiding place. Hopefully this wouldn't stop her from remembering to take them.
After getting changed into something a little comfier, Cat made her way back downstairs to see Matty. The TV had since been changed to a cartoon show- something he was less likely to try and recreate, a bowl of popcorn on his lap that Casandra had clearly used as a bribe to allow her to change the channel. "Back to normal" Cat thought as she sat beside him, her Mom taking this as a cue to go back upstairs and to her work.
"Tell me about your day Catty!" Matteo urged, pushing the popcorn towards his sister as an offering of sorts. "About Hollywood Arts!" He always wanted to know about her school specifically. He'd never been one for the arts, even before he got ill. He was the sporty one and Cat was the artsy one, but he loved his little sister's singing so much. Whenever he was really ill her singing was one of the only things that would get through to him, that would bring a smile out of him during a particularly bad withdrawal, or a new drug that took away everything about his personality. He was a complicated boy, but at the end of the day he was still just a boy- a boy that loved his little sister dearly.