matt Blog and Journals

| Death Note | The Swan Song; Chapter Four: Romance [Matt]

Five days ago you had encountered some...troubles. You had gotten into a fight with a girl, and her cronies decided it would be a good idea to beat the living shit out of you. Needless to say, your two black eyes were still recovering, the cuts were scabbed, you were still having respiratory problems, and you still had many unanswered questions.

The girls had been expelled from Wammy's after Roger consulted Watari with the situation, and Watari gave an immediate, unbiased reply. The girls had to pack their bags and leave for a new orphanage. It made you feel a bit guilty that they had to go to a less...well, superior orphanage, but then again...your black eyes, cuts and whatnot were telling you otherwise. You'd have a kind heart 'till the end.

You had been excused from classes, and were scheduled to return to classes tomorrow depending on whether or not it still pained you to raise your eyelids. You were confident in the fact that you'd be spending another day - or more - sitting on your bed with absolutely no human contact. Great.

You groaned as you rolled around on your bed, trying to find a comfortable spot to rest. You found yourself in a curled position, but quickly lowered a leg, then decided your pillow wasn't fluffy enough. You sat upright, fluffed your pillow, and rested on your back. You then rolled to your side, found yourself in a curled position, but quickly lowered a leg, then you decided your pillow wasn't fluffy enough...

You could safely say that it had been a bit...repetitive...today.

Of course, as soon as you found yourself in a comfortable position, someone had softly knocked on the door. You groaned inwardly, but got up to answer it regardless.

You inhaled sharply when you felt a keen, knife-like stab near your heart. It was like that every time you got up. So, obviously, you refrained from getting up as much as possible.

With a hand carefully placed under your breast, you opened the door. You inhaled sharply again when you felt the stab, and you clenched your eyes shut. That too hurt, though, seeing as your eyes were still having a bit of trouble getting rid of the bruising. "Sorry..." you breathed. "It only seems to happen...when I try to stand up..."

"Sorry about that, I just wanted to see how you were doing."

You opened up one of your eyes to see the familiar face of your favorite red-headed gamer. "Matt, you can have a seat..." you offered as you took baby steps towards your bed. You eased yourself down onto the mattress, and then carefully leaned to the left to lie on your side. When you were relatively comfortable, you opened both of your eyes. "Sorry again, the only way I can get comfortable is if I'm lying down."

"Don't apologize," he waved, shaking his head. "I...should be the one apologizing."

You stared intently at the boy, awaiting his every word.

"I've been a real asshole. I'm not one to care about image, and I never have. I don't know why it got to me earlier...I felt really bad, because...I know you trust me. You really shouldn't put any faith in me though," he laughed, scratching the back of his neck, "I'm just a lazy dude. I don't give much thought to anything, and I'm sorry if it seems like I don't care...because that's really not the case-"

"Who...stood up for me the other day?" you interjected, wrapping yourself in your blanket as you watched him sit down on your rolling chair.

A light pink dusted Matt's cheeks, and he looked down at his feet. "That...was me."

Even though it physically hurt you, you raised your brows and lids to resemble that of a deer in the headlights. "You? But, why?"

Matt scoffed, "I'm not that mean! Geez, give me a break. As soon as those lies started spouting out of her good-for-nothing mouth I knew I had to do something. You're my friend. It seemed like that right thing to do."

So he's not annoyed by me? I'm his friend?

...Friend.

That's right. Just...friends...

"Thanks," you smiled.

"No problem," he smiled back. "Well, I guess I'll see you in class tomorrow..."

Your face contorted in confusion. "You're not in any of my classes..."

Matt's face did the same. "What? They didn't tell you?"

"Obviously not."

"Well, Roger bumped you up into a class for the higher level kids. He said it had been 'long overdue' or something like that. Mello's in that class, too."

"O-Oh..." you frowned. "I'm not really looking to succeed L..."

"Neither am I, but I somehow managed to be ranked third..." Matt shrugged and walked for the door. "Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow."

You nodded absentmindedly until he closed the door.

Suddenly you felt the need to ice your face to make sure you'd be in tip-top shape for tomorrow.

~*~

You groaned groggily as someone persistently knocked on your door. "Come in," you growled, wincing as you sat upright on your bed.

The door opened slowly to reveal Roger. He walked in, sat on your computer chair and rolled himself towards you, mumbling something about how it was far too early for him to be doing something like this. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so great..." you groaned, lowering your head onto your palms as you heaved a sigh.

Roger sighed, also, "So you don't think you can make it to class today?"

"See you in class tomorrow," Matt smiled and waved as he shut your door.

"I want to at least try," you looked up at him, nodding miserably.

"You don't look like you're too enthused about going to class," Roger stammered, placing his palm on your forehead.

"I'm not sick, Roger, I'm in pain," you growled, smacking at his hand.

Roger quirked a brow, a little agitated that you were being so rude this morning, but he guessed he couldn't blame you. He'd be rather cranky if he'd gotten beaten up by three girls, too. Especially since it would be humiliating, seeing as Roger is a grown man. "Right, sorry," he apologized, standing up as he wiped his hands off on his slacks. Children are just full of germs...

"Well, you better get ready if you plan on getting to class on time. We already placed your advanced placement books in your locker. If I'm not mistaken, your classroom is now B-206. It's located on the second floor. I do believe Matt offered to walk you there this morning, so you may want to stop by his room before you go off to your locker. Good luck," Roger mustered a not-so-enthusiastic grin as he walked towards your door. As soon as he closed your door behind him, a displeased frown replaced the grin. "Why couldn't I have chosen a job where there were no children within a 5 mile radius of the work place?" he shook his head, walking towards his office as he dodged the small children darting past him.

You groaned, combing your fingers through your hair. "Better get ready, then."

~*~

You looked like a mess. Sure, your clothes were perfect, your hair was perfect...but your face...

The bruises on your face were still apparent, and the cuts and scabs were all too noticeable. You knew you were either going to have people giving you unwanted sympathy, or you were going to be bombarded with rude jokes and hypotheses on how you obtained the nasty discolorations. Still, you were willing to endure the not-so-playful jabs at your well-being. You were willing to do so because you hadn't seen Matt in what seemed like forever.

Well, technically, I saw him last night. But that doesn't count! We barely even talked...

You made your way down the hall, trying to ignore the snickers and whispers surrounding you. You stood tall and relaxed, seemingly uncaring to those who were ogling you.

You weren't going to be a pushover anymore. You weren't going to be that girl that everyone used and walked on. Those days were over, and it took you two black eyes to realize it was time to stop being so nice to people you didn't know. Sure, you'd always be a nice girl (you'd hoped so, anyways), but from now on you'd only be that way to people who deserved it.

You breathed deeply before rapping your knuckles against Matt's door. Fumbling could be heard from the other side of the door, and you sighed, smiling. "C-Coming!"

A moment later, Matt swung the door open, breathing heavily. "Sorry! I woke up late this morning...just got out of the shower."

"I can tell," you laughed as you twirled a piece of his dampened red locks in between your fingers.

Matt laughed (albeit nervously), "Well, do you want me to show you the class?"

You nodded happily. You turned on your heel and bobbed up and down on your toes. "We need to stop by my locker first. Roger put my new books in there and it'd be pointless to go to class without my books."

Matt nodded absentmindedly. He shook himself from his thoughts and went to stand beside you. Wordlessly, you both began walking for the lockers. You noted how awkward it was, and frowned a bit. It was never awkward like this before...I wonder what's going on...

"Is something wrong?" you gazed up at Matt, whose focus was currently fixated on his shoelaces.

"Not really..." he lied, still incapable of giving you eye contact. "I'm just a little...tired."

"Ah..." you nodded, also gazing down at your shoelaces to avoid the rude looks people were giving you.

~*~

"Class dismissed."

All the children eagerly got up from their seat and dashed for the door. You, on the other hand, took a bit longer to put away your supplies and carefully place them in your book bag.

"Hey," Matt tapped on your shoulder. You pivoted your head to look up at Matt. "Did you pay attention...at all?"

You scoffed, "Of course I did!"

You gave a knowing sigh, "Do you need help?"

"Yeah..."

You smiled, "Sure, I'll help. But one has to wonder...since when did you care about receiving good marks?"

"Well, I plan on working with Mello in the future - he plans to succeed L, you know - and I want to be of some use to him."

"Ah, right, so what time should I go over?"

"Around 6-ish, I guess."

"It's a date," you smiled, but your face paled soon after you realized what you had just said. "N-Not like that, though! I mean, it's a study date. You know, I'm your tutor-"

Matt waved you off, laughing, "Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it. I know what you mean."

"Stop blathering over each other, for god's sake. We have work to do, Matt," Mello growled, pulling at Matt's oversized shirt.

"R-Right! The project! I'll be there in a second..."

~*~

You frantically kneaded your shirt, trying desperately to get every wrinkle and stain out of sight. Inhaling a deep breath, you stepped forward and found yourself in front of Matt's door for the second time that day.

Why am I so nervous? It feels like I'm about to puke. Matt is a really good friend of mine, and for some reason...I felt nervous around him all day today...

Those girls must have given me some serious nerve damage...

You rose your fist to Matt's door and knocked gently. "Come in," came his reply. You inhaled once more before opening the door and poking your head in. You smiled softly (trying to lessen the pain as much as possible) and waved before slipping your whole body inside in the room.

Matt smiled, waving as he signaled you to sit in the sofa-esque chair beside him. You eased yourself onto the comfy seat and smacked your palms against the arm rest. "Alright, where to start...?"

"Proofs, probably. I wasn't paying attention and I don't quite understand the whole 'Angle, Side, Angle' thing."

"Gee, who were you staring at the entire time?" you teased, opening your book up to the proofs page.

"Tch. I don't like anyone in that class, trust me. I was playing my Gameboy the entire time."

Your heart rate dropped a bit when you heard that, but you quickly changed the subject to proofs to cover up your hurt. "Proofs are Geometric tools used to prove two triangle's similarity or congruency. For instance, because of the triangle sum theorem, Angle Angle [Or AA] is used to prove similarity because in every triangle, all three angles add up to 360 degrees. So, if you already know the measurements of two of the angles the other is guaranteed to equal the same thing. Are you following?"

Matt nodded, suddenly feeling drowsy already.

~*~

"Now, if the sides have a single dash through them, it means the sides are equal. So, under 'Reason' you would put 'given'."

Matt nodded, blocking out your words. He was too busy staring at the movement of your lips to pay attention to what you were actually saying. Unbeknownst to Matt, all of this staring had made him tempted. He began slowly but surely moving his face closer to yours - inch by inch. You continued chattering away, completely unaware as your index finger ran along the text of the book. You occasionally looked up at Matt, but not frequently enough to notice he hadn't been paying attention to anything you were saying.

"So, if you have a side with a single dash adjacent to a side with a double dash, you know those sides aren't congruent," you paused, feeling a slight draft. Your eyes dragged upwards, only to see Matt's eyes closed and centimeters away from yours. You resisted the urge to shriek or jump up in shock, and sat there, stunned.

Your heart thudded in your chest, your eyes wide and your swallows thick. Matt opened his eyes briefly to stare at your lips, consciously realizing what he was about to do. He then closed his eyes, and his dry, chapped lips brushed against your own. Still in a state of shock, you only sat there, eyes still wide and heart still racing. After he actually began kissing you, you found your eyelids fluttering to a close, and you instinctively placed your hands on his shoulders, pulling him forward. You had never kissed anyone before, so the only experience that you had was what you had seen in the movies.

...It seemed to be working well for you. Though, you never imagined your first kiss to be so damn painful.

Mello walked through the door. He wasn't necessarily shocked by what he had seen, but he cringed nonetheless. "I leave for ten minutes..."