Tales from the Intermediate (gxg)

Chapter 3

Matt's room was enough to make Charlie dizzy. His maximalist ways led to there not being a single inch of negative space throughout his bedroom. His walls were plastered with posters, whether it was of superheroes, villains, movies, bands. One wall of his bedroom was covered in shelves from the floor to the ceiling, filled with all kinds of trinkets and action figures and comic books. From what could be seen of the walls, they were painted a dark blue. It was just the same as it was when they were in high school, if not even more cluttered now.

Matt Demerson sat at his desk which was covered in various papers. Some of it was a comic book he had been working on for years now, and some of it was homework from the local community college he went to. The purple light from his lava lamp reflected on his glasses as he pushed them up from sliding down his nose. Matt was smart. Like, genius smart. He actually graduated as valedictorian of the class, right above Charlie who was happy to be second under him. Matt deserved it. He oozed knowledge wherever he went, whether it was physics or comic book heroes. Although Matt was as confident as a tadpole, Charlie always respected him. He had an interest that he put all his time into—even if it was something like comics. She could never say the same for herself.

Even though Matt was incredibly smart and vivaciously passionate, he lacked in confidence. It was like he was given so many talents that he just didn't have room inside him to be courageous. That was why he went to community college. Matt could have easily gone to a prestigious school on a full ride, but the thought of leaving his room terrified him. The thought of stepping outside of his comfortable little place in the world made him tremble in fear. Matt knew nothing of himself, truly. He knew only of what he loved—science, comic books, movies, games. He spent a lifetime making sure he knew all he could about the things he loved so that he would never have to come to know himself. He filled up his surroundings with things he loved so he wouldn't feel the emptiness inside him. It worked.

"No fucking way," Dani exclaimed when Charlie told them that she had seen none other than Farren Chase.

Dani Solis was sat on Matt's bed which was still as twin-sized as it was in high school because he "needed space in his room for more merch". She was holding a deck of purple tarot cards in her hands and was still shuffling them into each other when Charlie broke the news. As her over-eyelinered eyes were fixated on Charlie who sat in an orange bean bag in the corner of the room, a card popped out of the deck and fell face-up on the navy blue and white gridded bed.

"Holy shit," Dani exclaimed, bringing the card up for Matt and Charlie to see. "La muerte!" Of course, the card that Dani held up had DEATH written in all-caps across the bottom, with a picture of a knight on a horse carrying a flag. "The bitch is bringing death to us!"

"I don't think that card implies literal death," Matt said, pushing up his glasses again and squinting at the card from across his room.

"I don't think you know shit," Dani fired back, putting the card carefully back into the deck as Matt rolled his eyes. Turning back to Charlie, Dani asked, "So is she moving back for good?"

Charlie pondered this as well. "I can't tell. She said it's an 'extended visit' or something like that. She was acting... weird."

"Weird for Farren?" Matt butted in as he swayed side to side in his desk chair that squeaked obnoxiously.

"I mean, yea," Charlie began, "Weird because she was... nice."

"It must be the end of the world," Dani said dramatically. "Nice? Farren? Farren Chase? Nice?!"

Charlie shrugged and threw her hands up in the air before running one through her brown hair. "She was just... I don't know. Whatever Farren left four years ago definitely did not come back."