While Matthew half-heartedly ate his breakfast and Nancy's toast had popped up from the toaster, Mike asked, "Do you like those grapes, Holly?"
As Nancy started to make her way over towards the toaster, Nancy asked, "Hey, Mom, I was thinking about staying the night at Stacey's tonight? We were gonna have a girl's night. Romantic comedies, do our nails, gossip..."
With a smile on her face, Karen said, "Sure! That sounds like fun."
It was then that Matthew picked up his knife and pointed it at one of his eyes, Matthew asked them, "You know what else would sound like fun?"
After the others turned their heads to look over at him, Matthew repeatedly made a stabbing gesture at his own eye, which got Karen to quickly look over at Ted, who was simply drinking his coffee without a care in the world.
Then, with a sigh, she said, "Matthew, no."
The most Matthew did was roll his eyes at his mother, while Nancy asked Holly, "Toast? No?"
* * *
With his headphones and Ratt's Round and Round playing on his walkman, Matthew had only just started to open his locker, only to let out a sigh when it was suddenly slammed shut in front of him.
With a blank look on his face, he turned towards his right to see Valerie staring up at him with a scowl on her face.
With a tilt of his head, he said to her, "And a hello to you too, Val." When she didn't respond, he crossed his arms over his chest as he asked her, "How am I doing today? Well, I'm doing great, thanks for as—"
It was then that she quickly grabbed him by the front of his jacket and asked him, "What the hell is your problem, Matt?"
Matthew replied, "Yeah, you're gonna have to be kind of specific, if you're gonna be asking me what my problem is, 'cause I have many problems, so..."
While ignoring his words, she asked him, "Why'd you pull a knife on Billy yesterday?"
With a scoff, Matthew forcefully removed her hands from his jacket and asked her, "That's what this is about? You don't like that I pulled a knife on your fucking boyfriend?"
Valerie told him, "He is not my boyfriend."
With an eyebrow raised, Matthew replied, "No?" When she only shook her head, he asked her, "Then why do you give a shit about what I do to him, huh?"
She said to him, "I give a shit because that asshole is my stepbrother and the last thing I need is him being given a reason to start shit with me or my sister."
With a nod of his head, Matthew said to her, "Hmm." After a couple seconds of silence, he asked her, "Well, Val, anyone ever tell you that your stepbrother's a piece of shit? 'Cause that one is a real piece of work, I'll tell you that."
With a shake of her head, she asked him, "What the hell are you talking about, asshole?"
With a feigned pout on his face, he asked her, "Oh, your big, bad stepbrother didn't tell you?" When she only shook her head, he said to her, "What a shame. I guess he didn't wanna give you another reason to hate him some more, huh?"
When she still didn't respond to his words, he told her, "That asshole cornered me at my own car and was gonna punch me in the face, all because of the shit I said to you outside the 7-11. And you know something? He would've done just that, if I didn't pull that fucking knife out on him. So, tell me something, Val. Was that a justified reaction, or was I simply just overreacting? Because I'd really like to hear what else you could possibly say that would sound anything similar to defending your douchebag of a stepbrother."
After letting out a sigh, she said to him, "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I'm just under a lot of stress and I wanna make sure that he doesn't just take his anger out on my sister. That's all."
After a moment of silence, he let out a sigh before he went to grab her arm, only to stop when he remembered how she reacted the last time he tried to grab her.
Then he nodded his head over towards the front doors to the school and said to her, "Come on."
After watching him start to walk away from her and over towards the front doors to the school, Valerie started to quickly walk after him as she asked him, "Where are we going?"
As he faintly heard the sound of Ratt's In Your Direction starting to play on his walkman, he told her, "We're heading out to get you something to calm your nerves."
* * *
While watching Matthew simply lie on the bench to the table with his hands folded behind his head, Valerie asked him, "What makes you think he'll show? I mean, it is the middle of the school day, Matt."
With a scoff, he asked her, "You really think he gives a shit about what time it is? I mean, the guy's repeating his senior year. I don't think he really gives a rat's ass about what time it is, so long as it means he gets to make money from selling to someone."
Valerie asked him, "And-And you're sure that he'll show? He won't just leave us sitting out here in the cold?"
With a sigh, Matthew said to her, "Nope."
Valerie asked him, "How-How do you know?"
It was then that she heard a voice tell her, "'Cause the last time Wheeler wanted something from me, he broke into my van at, like, ten in the morning and hung out in there until I was let out of school for the day."
While Valerie jumped and quickly turned to look at Eddie Munson, Matthew let out a groan before he said, "Jesus Christ, Munson. How much longer are you gonna fucking hold that shit over my head? It happened, like, a fucking year ago."
Eddie only chuckled to himself before he made his way over towards the table as he said, "I gotta say, Wheeler, I wasn't expecting to see you here ever again, what, with the way you've been avoiding me for the past year."
While watching Eddie walk over towards the empty side of the table, Matthew replied, "I don't know what you're talking about, Munson. I'm not really one to avoid people, you know."
With a snort, Eddie said to him, "Sure you aren't."
It was only then that Matthew quickly sat up on the bench to the table and looked over at Eddie with narrowed eyes and a scowl on his face, only for his scowl to fall from his face when he saw the grin that Eddie had on his face.
After clearing his throat, Matthew told him, "I'm not here for myself. I'm just here for Val." When Eddie only tilted his head at Matthew with an eyebrow raised, Matthew said to him, "Don't look at me like that, Munson."
With an even bigger grin on his face, Eddie simply raised his hands on either side of his head, while Valerie simply looked between them with furrowed eyebrows.
It wasn't until Valerie had sat down beside Matthew that Eddie looked over at her and asked her, "What do you want this time? Something different, or the same shit I got you from the last time we talked?" After watching Valerie simply glance over at Matthew, who looked like he would rather be literally anywhere else at that exact moment than at the same table as them, he asked them, "Alright, what's going on here? Is there something happening that I don't know about? Are you, like, a thing now or...?"
It was then that Valerie and Matthew had simultaneously yelled, "No!"
After seeing Eddie only raise a single eyebrow at them, they shared a look with each other before Valerie cleared her throat and said, "No, we're not a thing. We're just, um—" After seeing the way that Eddie was now looking at her, she said, "Yeah, I don't know what we are, but we are definitely not a thing. No way."
Not long after she said that, Matthew started to chuckle to himself with a mere shake of his head before he said to himself, "Jesus Christ."
Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a couple of twenty-dollar bills and handed it over to Eddie, who asked him, "I take it you're still stealing money from your old man?"
With a nod of his head, Matthew said, "Yep."
After shoving the twenty-dollar bills into his pocket, Eddie asked, "So, what do you guys want, huh, Wheeler? Coke, heroin, acid, weed? Or are you guys thinking of something else?"
While making sure he didn't look over at Eddie, Matthew said with a nod of his head, "Yeah, weed's fine."
After looking between the two sixteen-year-olds, both of whom were on edge for entirely different reasons, Eddie simply nodded his head.
And although he might not know Valerie as well as he knew Matthew Wheeler from the small encounters he had with the Wheeler boy before Matthew had simply gone out of his way to avoid Eddie, he knew that something had her on edge, just like something had Matthew on edge.
But instead of asking if either of them were okay like he wanted to do, he simply gave them what they needed and watched as they walked away from the table and were quietly talking to each other.
Well, more like Valerie was quietly talking to Matthew and Matthew was occasionally nodding his head to whatever she was saying to him.
And from what Eddie had seen, Matthew wasn't paying that much attention to whatever Valerie was saying to her.
If anything, it seemed like he was in his own little world.
But, of course, it wouldn't be until Matthew had turned his head to look back at Eddie and saw the repeating senior watching them that he quickly turned his head, and his entire body was now tense.
Then Matthew quickly pulled out one of his cigarettes and put it in his mouth and then took out his lighter before he lit his cigarette with it.
And while Matthew had eventually taken the cigarette out of his mouth and let out a sigh as he watched the smoke come pouring out of his mouth, Eddie simply stood from the table and started to walk away from it with his little case of drugs in hand.