Matthew Perry-Benson
A little more than an hour ago...
Matthew paced back and forth along the sidewalk, only a block away from the cafe he was supposed to meet the mysterious person. For some reason, he was feeling more nervous than anticipated. His palms were sweaty and his heart was pumping much faster. He could feel the adrenaline building up, he didn't feel very good about sneaking behind Vanessa's back.
Just go in, see who's there, see what they want, get out.
He repeated the mantra over and over and started walking up the sidewalk of the sketchy area downtown.
They said they would be wearing all black... I'm sure they could recognize me already.
At a distance, he spotted a man in a dark jacket entering the building. He picked up his pace, keeping his eyes on the man. When he entered the cafe, the little bell rang overhead.
He cleared his throat, the man turned and gave him a dirty look. A tag sticking out underneath his jacket read the words "Dr. Johnson, M.D."
Matthew made a mental note. Not Unknown.
He looked around the cafe, people were chatting everywhere. The bell rang overhead again and a young woman came in, almost bumping into Matthew.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," she chuckled and looked up at him, straight in the eyes.
Matthew glanced to see what she was wearing for a quick second.
The woman noticed, her cheeks going red. "Gosh, what's wrong with you!" And made distance with herself.
Matthew looked back at her face. "N-No that's not what I was-"
"Is there a problem here?" The doctor man had turned and was now in front of Matthew.
"This creep was checking me out!"
"Really?"
Matthew shook his head. "No, you see, I was supposed to meet up with someone here and-"
"Yeah, he did! I saw him!" Another lady got up from her seat nearby and interfered.
Matthew felt embarrassed.
"Listen, pal, we don't take kindly to creeps like you, get out!" The man quickly grabbed his elbow and gripped tight.
Matthew tried wiggling out of his grip. "No, you see, I'm supposed to see somebody here and-"
"Get out!" The man pushed him, heaving Matthew's body into the side of the door, leaving Matthew's forehead banging into the metal ridge.
The man shoved Matthew out. With his vision going slightly blurry and the ground spinning below him, Matthew took steady steps to a bench he found by the park only across the cafe.
When he finally sat down, he uncovered his hand from his head, seeing the smudged blood covering his palms.
"You have got to be kidding me," he sighed, leaning slightly forward as the world stopped spinning.
He took deep breaths, trying not to think about what had just happened.
"I should have just come to them," he said out loud, regretting the texts he had sent to this person.
Guilt started to rise in himself, he was pretty sure he would get in serious trouble if anyone knew about this. He didn't even know what to tell Vanessa.
Vanessa...
He quickly pulled out his phone, clicking to view the previous texts he had with 'Unknown'.
Unknown: to us, it'll be a secret exchange of information. to others, it'll look like a couple on a 'date'.
Wait a minute... there's no way Vanessa is behind this...
But the possibility that it was made Matthew's mind light up and dim at the same time.
What on earth is she doing this time?
~~~
Present Time
"Whoa, everything alright?" Bourne stared as Matthew walked closer.
"No... I don't think so."
"What's wrong, P.B, shouldn't you be resting? Hey, what happened to your forehead?"
Matthew kept walking down the hallway with him, looking down. "Nothing, I'm just very confused... nothing is making sense."
Bourne stopped at the door to his office, looking Matthew in the eyes. "You should be at home, I don't expect you to be here. I told you, everything is fine."
"That's the thing, sir. Nothing's fine."
Bourne kept looking at him with his eyebrows furrowed. "What's on your mind?"
Matthew lowered his voice, folding his arms across his chest. Down the hallway, Vanessa poked out of her office with the most flustered face.
Bourne caught what he was looking at, then opened the door to his office. "Come in, let's chat."
~~~
M. Bourne
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, you're telling me you've been in contact with the Unknown person?" Bourne paused in his pace as a very tired and pale-looking Matthew slouched on the couch.
"Well... yes, more or less."
"And you think it was all a setup?"
Matthew sighed, a mash-up of frustration and gibberish combined came out.
"Alright, calm down, we'll figure this out. Are you sure it was Vanessa?"
More frustrated noises came from Matthew. Bourne wasn't sure if he should laugh at him or go run down the hall to get medical help.
Matthew eventually ran out of breath and leaned his head back, shutting his eyes hard. His breathing was heavy and his hand reached his side, almost squeezing his fist closed.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Bourne stared at him for a minute more, he was contemplating on whether Matthew had hit his head too hard and now was making things up.
"Just need to lay down for a bit," but his face scrunched up, his eyes still closed. His fists tightened until his knuckles turned white.
Bourne looked at him for a moment. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
He walked towards the door, watching Matthew the whole time.
"What's going on?" Vanessa was standing there, trying to see inside the office.
Bourne stepped out and closed the door behind him.
He lowered his voice. "I don't think he's doing well."
"Yeah, me neither. He came into my office pretty much accusing me of being the unknown number texting him a bunch of things."
"Yeah, he was just telling me about how he was supposedly meeting up with unknown."
"Wait, what?" Vanessa looked around, making sure nobody else was listening to their conversation. "By himself?"
Bourne nodded. "Apparently he thought it was you, too."
Vanessa shook his head. "That's insane. Why on earth would I be doing that?"
Bourne shrugged. "I don't know."
"Wait, you don't think I would actually do something like that-"
"No, no, no, all I'm saying is who knows? Things are getting a lot more complicated, I mean, anything is possible."
Vanessa shook her head. "Yeah, I guess. I'm going back to work on those documents."
A sudden cry for help came from inside Bourne's office. In a rush, Bourne opened the door wide as a hurting Matthew was half on the floor.
Vanessa ran to him, quickly grabbing ahold of his elbows. She turned to Bourne, in her calmest voice possible.
"Call an ambulance."
Bourne didn't waste time, he went straight to his phone and dialled 911.
"You're going to be okay, just breathe..."
~~~
Unknown
"What's going on?" She entered the room as more people started crowding the door to Bourne's office.
"It's Matthew, I need to go with him, make sure this place doesn't collapse."
She nodded. "Of course, sir."
The paramedic team carried Matthew off, Vanessa and Bourne right behind them. As she watched them go down the hall, she could only think of a few things.
Poor Matthew... the man doesn't deserve this.
She turned and shooed the employees away, making sure they all departed and nobody was in sight. Instead of closing the door to the office, she entered. She smiled as she headed over to Bourne's desk, shuffling through the mass pile of papers.
At least now they all have a good distraction, and I can get what I need.
A/N
if u rly don't get who's the unknown person at this point, I'm just super disappointed in you.
i might also change the title picture ^^^
hope u enjoyed tho :D