Kickflip | bxb

nineteen: the homecoming

"Thank you for picking up your room, Matteo," Mom said, beaming at Matt. "And I didn't even have to ask. You're becoming such a responsible young man."

Sucking in a sheepish laugh, Matt scratched at the back of his head. The scrapes on his skull were healing, and it had been a full day since his last splitting headache. He had been starting to worry he was going to have to deal with those forever.

"Did you ever get around to asking Quinn to come by like you said you were going to?" Mom went on. She was up to her elbows in flour, making pasta based on her mother-in-law's family recipe. It never came out quite the way it did when Angelo's mother made it, but her children always loved it anyways.

Matt was sitting in the chair at the phone table, picking at the peeling scabs on his right elbow, feeling the strange sense of disorientation he had suffered intermittently since he broke his skateboard. "No," he muttered, twisting his arm to try to look at his own elbow. The rough edges of the thick, crusty scabs were coming free reluctantly to reveal tender pink skin beneath.

"Oh, that's too bad," Mom went on thoughtfully. "I think Frederico would have loved to meet him. Maybe another day, then. Oh, my, I'm running late, aren't I? What time is it?" In response to her own question, she peered up at the clock on the wall. Sunlight slanting through the window above the sink turned its glass face to glittering gold, and she had to tilt her head to see through the glare. "Oh, dear," she murmured. "I should hurry. Your father and brother will be home soon. Did you mow the lawn like your father asked, Matteo?"

"Yeah." Sighing, Matt let his arm drop.

"Good, good." Mom frowned, her eyes far away as her deft fingers kneaded pasta dough. "Is your sister home?"

"I dunno," Matt muttered.

"Please check, will you?" his mom ordered.

Reluctantly, Matt pushed to his feet and ambled over to the bottom of the stairs. "Angie!" he shouted.

"Matteo!" his mom scolded. "Just go up the stairs and talk in a normal voice, please."

Reluctantly, Matt trudged up the stairs to knock on his sister's door. There was no response, so he twisted the knob and slid the door open an inch, slitting his eyes against the blaze of pink within. The room was quiet and empty.

Returning to the kitchen, he slumped back into the chair by the phone table and told his mom, "She's not here."

"Oh, that girl!" Mom exclaimed, frowning. "I told her to be home this afternoon! She hasn't seen her brother in a year and instead of listening to me she's off with that Ryan, who is too old for her--" She slammed a pot onto the stove, water sloshing over her fingertips. "I swear, since she met that boy she has been nothing but a thorn in her mother's side—"

Matt pulled his fingerboard out of his pocket and ollied it listlessly off the thick yellow phone book, tuning out his mom's rant as his mind drifted off to think about Quinn.

He hadn't reacted well to the revelation that Quinn had stolen the money from the store. He had simply stared at Quinn in shock while Quinn had stuttered out a clumsy explanation followed by a clumsier apology, thin lips pulling thinner and pale face going redder the longer Matt hadn't replied. At the end, Quinn had turned away, muttering, "Maybe I'll see you around." Then he had left, and Matt had stood there stupidly until Logan shouted at him.

Jenn hadn't shown up at all, so the viewing party had ended up being a strange assortment of people: Matt and Logan, Everett, Lauren, and Faisal, surprisingly, who seemed to know that Jenn wouldn't be there but had expected to see Quinn. Luckily Lauren and Faisal had quickly bonded over a shared love of horror movies, Logan had somehow managed to talk to Lauren like she was a real person, and once they put the X Games on there was no shortage of conversation and laughter.