mona lisa , chris sturniolo

6 | matthew the parent pleaser

♫ go away / tate mcrae ♫
☆
i should be on top of the world
but yet i'm right here
oh, 'cause every time you look at me it's not enough for you
it can't be fair to me

🍊 🍊 🍊

| real life |

real life

When I wake the next morning, sunlight is beginning to peek through Nick's blinds. Stretching my tight limbs out, I roll over to see Nick sprawled out beside me, one of his arms bent awkwardly above his head. Resisting the urge to laugh, I carefully slide out of bed.

As I close Nick's bedroom door behind me, the thought of having to visit my mother suddenly pops into my head and my body immediately feels ten times heavier. Sucking in a deep breath, I head to the bathroom to get ready for a day I am positive is going to play out less than ideally.

Due to the fact that it's only eight on a Saturday morning, I don't expect to see anyone awake yet, especially considering I can still hear the faint sound of Jimmy snoring through the walls. Yet, when I re-enter the kitchen, Matt is sitting at the kitchen counter eating a bowl of cereal.

"Morning, Bryn," Matt offers me a smile.

"What are you doing up?" I grab a peach out of the fruit bowl on the counter and slide onto the bar stool next to Matt.

"Nick said you decided to go to your mom's house this morning, and all of your stuff is still in the van so I figured I would drive over with you to help unload," Matt looks at me out of the corner of his eye, stirring his cereal absentmindedly. "But I can leave before you actually talk to your mom if you want me to."

I swallow harshly, tapping out an anxious beat against my leg with my fingers. "Okay," my voice is a hush of a whisper, my mind spinning. "I was planning to talk to her on my own, but maybe you could stay nearby?"

Matt reaches out to grab my jittering hand, stilling my unconscious movements. "Of course," his lips round in a gentle smile before he lets go of my hand and changes the subject. "I watched the best movie last night."

I grin, thankful for Matt's ability to understand exactly what I need.

The next half hour flies by faster than I would have liked, and before I know it, I am pulling into my mom's driveway with Matt following behind me in the van. I exhale shakily, staring at the large modern-style house in front of me.

The house I grew up in was small. My mom was earning her university degree when my brother and I were kids, so we were living off my dad's salary as a fireman. It wasn't a lot, but we got by.

My half-sister Lizzy, who is older than me by six years, spent half her time with her dad and the other half with us. We shared a room, but I never minded. I was always so excited when she came home.

Ethan and I were tight growing up, despite the three year age gap between us. Since my dad worked on call and was occasionally working outside of regular hours, and my mom spent most of her time on the nearby college campus, it was often just Ethan and I. Some of my favourite childhood memories involve the two of us building blanket forts in the living room, ordering pizza with the money left on the counter, and bouncing between watching movies that were family friendly staples and ones that were rated much higher than we should have been watching.

But the best nights were when my dad and Lizzy were both home with us, sometimes even the times when my mom was there too. My dad loosened my uptight mother in a way that no one else could, and I never heard her laugh more than when we were all together. We would be playing some stupid board game that my dad would always cheat at, and my mom would get so annoyed, but she would smile the entire time she was scolding him. I can't remember the last time I saw her smile.