"Do I?" the ginger boy in front of her said, raising an eyebrow, leaning against the door frame with arms crossed.
Y/n shook her head disapprovingly. She stepped out of the front door and managed to elbow him aside causing him to stumble over.
"Wha-"
"You were too cocky."
He got up rubbing his side, "Jesus, sorry?" He grabbed onto the little ledge where her mother kept the plants, to try and steady himself.
"So what do you want to do?" She asked, snorting at the mud that was now on his hoodie. The weather was considerably better and less welcoming of rain. It was so pleasant, that even an introverted person like her couldn't resist to go outside.
"I was thinking we could just walk like last time again. Except maybe on the field behind the house instead of on the street?" He suggested slowly diverging from the concrete sidewalk to a rock path on top of an entrance to a drainage opening.
Y/n nodded along and leaped across the rocks. She ended up sliding on a particularly slippery one but Matt threw out an arm and latched out to her elbow, pulling her up.
"See I'm being a nice person. I didn't shove you to your death." He huffed, and continued walking to the grassy area.
"Oh come on, that was different, you wouldn't have died!" she yelled to him in front of her. She ran, but a lot less quicker now, to try and catch up with him.
"Ok wait, you said I had good timing, how come? Did like something bad just happen?" He asked, looking behind his shoulder to her.
Y/n face fell a little before looking up and quickly muttered, "Yeah its fine. Its just..." she let out a deep sigh, "My friend Alex started this youtube channel and he lied about when he started it."
Matthew stared at her for a good 20 seconds.
"I- no, that sounds weird. What I meant was that Alex has been my best friend since I was seven so we're sort of obliged to be part of everything first you know? So I wanted to be the first subscriber and like to all his videos. His first supporter pretty much. But he already had 102 subs by the time I found out and now I'm really pissed about it." she said, clarifying it.
Matthew slowly nodded but she could still see the skepticism behind it.
"Ok, that sounds extremely lame-" she started.
"No, its ok, but I hope nothing bad happened right? I mean yeah it sounds sort of dumb to me but I'm sure it feels different for you. Its not like you exploded. I'm sure he gave a valid reason. " he reasoned, walking along next to Y/n, hands in pockets.
I'm sure he gave a valid reason. It's not like you exploded...
She laughed.
But you're so GOOD at everything that you do
"Oh you would be surprised," sighing for what felt like the millionth time. She stopped in her tracks.
"God, Matt, you know what he said? He said he wanted... me to be proud of him. He wanted me to be happy that he was sort of successful at what he wanted to do. He said..."
She looked at him, her lips pressed tightly.
"Matt, he said I was good at everything I do and that he wanted to prove that he could do something that I would encourage him to. And I yelled at him and shoved him away just because I was so self absorbed with the fact that I... don't know, wanted to gatekeep being his first supporter in each and everything?
You probably think I'm a dickhead and an absolute ass because when I say what he said out loud, I feel so horrible," she groaned into her hands.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw that Matt was looking at her with a disapproving look. "Look, I don't think you're a dickhead, but that WAS a dick move. I understand your possessiveness I guess? But good friends are only great if they can trust the other. They don't have to share each and every single thing with you."
"But how am I supposed to trust me if he doesn't tell me anything?" Y/n blurted out, not being able to control herself.
"This is what I mean. He is his own person who can do what HE wants to do. You have to trust him with his own decisions." he said, his eyebrows raised and his hand still on her shoulder.
They both noticed that and Matt went red and quickly removed it. Y/n grabbed it back and laced it through her own.
"Its fine." she took a deep breath, "Thank you. I think I understand what you're saying, and yeah I should definitely apologize."
After stopping for a second she asked the boy next to her, "Do you want to meet Alex?"
Matthew looked at her incredulously, "Wha- what? No! Do you realize how that would look like?"
Y/n paused, waiting for a response clearly not getting what Matthew was getting at.
So he continued, "Ok so imagine, you're him. He tries to show you something he's proud of. You end up blowing up and get into a fight. Then you COME back, with another guy he's never met and you expect him to be fine with it, happy-go-lucky?"
"First of all, what the fuck is happy-go-lucky? Second of all, yeah. I really don't see the problem."
Matthew sighed and dragged a hand thorugh his hair. "Lets say Alex just told you to fuck off and then comes back all happy to apologize but he has a cute girl next to him for some reason. How do you react?
"How would I know if she's cute? We don't videocall?" she countered, still clearly confused as to where this was going.
"Wha, you don't video call your best friend? I- never mind that's not the point, Just a random girl then, how would you react?" he said tapping his fingers in mock impatience.
"Um I would probably say hi and then proceed to embarrass Alex by exposing him. Then make a bunch of dirty jokes and pout about how he probably lost his V-card earlier than me. We have a bet for 10 dollars, so I'd probably be down about losing it.
Matt shrugged, "I'm sure I can help with that."
Y/n stood there, processing what he said, when her jaw dropped for a bit. Matthew smiled shrewdly and slowly closed it with one finger tracing it along her jaw. She went a little red before sputtering out, "HEY, woah, I'M the one who makes the dirty jokes here."
"You are unbelievable. I can guarantee you Alex wont react that way to seeing another guy."
"Yeah, well if you do THAT he will-"
Matthew shook his head slowly and crossed his arms again. He noticeably changed the subject, "It looks like its going to rain again, do you want to come inside my house?"
"Dios mio, I don't want my ten dollars today-"
"Get your mind out of the gutter, do you want to get wet out here or do you want to, I don't know, play monopoly inside?"
"Am I not going to get wet anyways?" Y/n tittered. "Based off of what you were implying..."
"Ugh I get what you mean by the dirty jokes now. And which one would you prefer anyways? Your half of a brain cell probably can't function enough to figure your way back home."
"You have a half brain cell because my house is literally two seconds away."
"Exactly, only someone with half a brain cell wouldn't know the way back."
"That- wait that actually kinda makes sense." Y/n paused, thinking about what he said. "HEY but I wasn't agreeing with you!"
Matthew just shrugged and pulled her with the still intertwined hands through the rock path again and into his front yard. And not surprisingly, the sprinklers were on.
"I called it," Y/n said in disbelief as she saw the waterworks. "I actually fucking called it."
Matthew just shrugged and tenderly disconnected his hand from hers to knock on the door. Just a couple moments later, a very tall and stiff postured man opened the door. He was dressed in a sweater with dark blue jeans tucked into boots. He was holding a cup of coffee as well and his other hand: the doorknob. Y/n was accustomed to his face but she only noticed the similarities between Mr. Spore and Matt then. They both had the same vibrant blue eyes and the many freckles, though Mr. Spore had considerably less. And he didn't have the fluffy ginger hair Matt did. She gave a polite wave and her mouth tilted up at the corners ever so slightly. She didn't really like doing so considering he wasn't a smile inducing person anyways.
Mr. Spore on the other hand, made no welcoming gesture or anything. His eyebrows tilted slightly at the sight of Y/n but he just muttered a low come in, and went back inside to his office where he was typing on a computer very aggressively and taking the occasional sips of coffee.
"So this is my humble and temporary abode," Matt beckoned to her. The house was around the same size as hers, but the entrance way into the living room and straight from the front door was circular and tall which made it seem a lot bigger. The soft pitter patter of the rain began to intensify and hit the windows with a satisfying plink giving the spacey area a nice ambience.
"I actually really like it, but uh I'm not really in the mood for a house tour. Why don't you just show me your room?" Y/n asked, looking around and wondering where his room was. She noticed small kickknacks everywhere, but it didn't really feel like a family home, which she supposed made sense. After all, Mr. Spore did live by himself and Matt had just moved in.
"Oh yeah sure, follow me." He led her to the right side if the house and into a small hallway. His bedroom was parallel to another's and she noticed that there were bright pink bedsheets on them. Matt saw her questioning look and clarified, "Oh that's my sisters room, she's 9. She's currently at a friends house so be glad she isn't here."
Y/n nodded and followed him into the bedroom. There were multiple boxes littered across the floor, only a computer was set up on a small table with a study light, some sports and tv show posters across the walls, and a keyboard propped up against a floor to ceiling window.
"Sorry about the mess." He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. Y/n waved him off and looked up at his AC/DC poster instead.
"Don't sweat it, my room is way messier so I'm used to the clutter." She replied, gingerly stepping over a cardboard box with a ceramic pot in it. Matthew sat in the chair next to a computer and pulled up another plastic one next to him. He gestured on the seat, motioning for her to sit down but she decided to stand up anyways, leaning her frame against Matt's chair instead.
He immediately pulled up YouTube, clicked on the search bar and stared at Y/n, expecting her to say something.
"Why are you looking at me?" She questioned, looking back at him. Matthew have her lopsided grin.
"Do you seriously think I'm going to go without seeing Alex's content? It's always been on my bucket list to be his what? 104th subscriber now?"