Everything's Fine.

Chapter 4

Sam opened the gate leading to Mathew's house. There was still snow hanging from some trees and piled on the fence, but the roads and the driveway were shoveled clean of snow. The turf bounced a vibrant green up from the ground, but the rest of the yard was filled with dead trees and bushes, waiting for the warm rains of spring to revive them.

The stone pathway echoed under the sound of Sam's footsteps as he made his way toward Mathew's front door. In front of Sam, the house loomed, a three-car garage to the right and a full window on the left, displaying Mathew's spacious living room with a shedding Christmas tree inside. Sam knew Mathew's room looked over the front yard, but also knew Mathew was always too busy staring at a screen to look outside.

Sam walked up to the front door and hit the doorbell. He was looking forward to seeing all his friends this Saturday.

"It's open!" Sam heard Mathew shout faintly from above. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Hi!" he called, closing the door behind him.

Sam expected more voices, but he only heard Mathew's voice reply. "I'm upstairs in my room!"

Sam tucked his shoes into the shoe rack and made his way to Mathew's room. On the way, he passed by the opening to the living room. The tree stood next to the fireplace, and a few boxes lay around, half-filled with Christmas ornaments. It was an open living room, with the center of the room slightly lowered and surrounded by leather couches. The room was connected to the dining room through a large opening, which had another large window looking into the backyard, so that anybody standing in the middle could see both the front and back of the house.

Reaching the stair landing, Sam could see some of Mathew's family photos hung on the wall. Grabbing the wooden handrail with a glossy finish, Sam rushed upstairs, the tannish-gray carpet muffling the sound of his footsteps.

At the top of the stairs, Sam turned right and walked down the hall, entering the second door on the left. Mathew's room was painted a dull navy blue. His queen-sized bed sat right under the window that looked over the front yard, which had its blinds drawn, only letting in a little bit of the outside light. A small couch took up the right side of the room, and Mathew's desk took up the left side of his room. A dual-monitor computer sat on top of the wooden desk, currently shut off. The walls were sparsely covered with a couple of posters of some Esports teams. Next to the entrance, another door led into the attached bathroom, and next to that was the door that led into Mathew's walk-in closet.

Sam had been over almost weekly since fourth grade, yet he still felt the same twinge of jealousy every time he visited. The house was huge.

Mathew was at his desk, leaning back into his chair with his feet propped up on the desk. He was lazily browsing through his phone, looking up when Sam opened the door.

"'Sup dude?"

"Are your parents home? Where's everyone?"

"My parents are out shopping. Ray texted me five minutes ago saying he just left. He'll be here soon"

Sam had met Raymond Stone, or 'Ray', in freshman year, with the help of Mathew. At the beginning of freshman year, Sam was ecstatic when he realized he shared biology with Mathew. When he happily walked into biology on the first day of school, he found that Mathew had already met Ray from an earlier class. They both were sitting together and laughing together comfortably, so Mathew introduced the two to each other.

Ray was a 'dormer', one of the boarding students. His family lived in Northern California, a little outside of Sacramento. Sam had never been to California himself, but from the stories he heard from Ray, it wasn't much different from life in Paynesti. The only difference that Ray really did care about between California and Paynesti, was that Paynesti had a significant lack of In 'n Out Burger.