Unsaid III
*Dom more than aware of that this was going to be a long afternoon.*
~~~
Matt lay onto his bed, staring down on the picture before him. It was lightly yet so harsh painted with blue ink, quick drawings that formed the profile of boy. He found himself unable to stop stare at it and still he didn’t understand why so. When he had painted it on the train earlier that day it had seemed so natural. No carefulness, no embarrassment, no erasing; just natural moves with the pen, forming the slender profile that was set in front of him. Matt was convinced that the boy, Dominic, never wanted to see him again. ‘He must been thinking that I was acting like a fool’.
“Bastard.” He cursed to, and about himself. That he could never act normal for once. It always began with that he started to ramble unstoppable when he got nervous, and then suddenly just turning quiet, tongue swelling in his mouth and refusing to let a word out. And this was exactly what had happened on the train. But what he wondered the most was why did he even get nervous for? The thought that he was attracted to Dominic had struck him many hours ago and popped up in his mind still. But thinking that he eventually could be in love...? He didn’t even believe that himself, even if he was aware of that sudden panic in his chest when he saw him. Head feeling twice as big and the fear in his heart that he couldn’t name.
His deep thoughts was interrupted by a loud, high pitched barking from outside and Matt walked to the window to have a look. He saw a little girl on a swing, long, wavy blonde hair flying in the wind, laughter ringing into Matt’s ear even though the distance. There was a puppy Golden jumping under the swing, desperately trying to get a hold of it, finally giving up and settled down on a bench beside an elder figure. This had its back turned against Matt so all he saw was a blonde tuft sticking up. He called something to, what Matt assumed was his sister, and she answered something back. The boy stood up and walked to the swing, slowing it down only to push it, increasing its speed. The little girl started to scream with laughter and Matt rested his forehead against the cold glass. Sometimes he wished he had a younger sibling as well. Of course he loved his elder brother, but it wasn’t the same. Paul didn’t want to go out in the park and play, really. And he was quite the few years older, so Matt was used to keeping himself away most of the time when he was little and Paul still an unbalanced teenager. He returned his gaze to the playground, where the little girl was now actually screaming with fear, the puppy jolting around happily.
“Stop it!” The little girl pleaded screaming. “Stop it Dom, stop the swing!” The boy laughed and stopped the swing immediately. And it was when this one looked up, in the direction of where Matt was standing that Matt saw who it was. It was him. Him. Dominic. He was just considering going outside and greet on him, when he heard his grandmother call on him.
“Matthew? You’ve got phone.”
He sighed. “Yeah? Who is it?”
“I don’t know.”
Matt knitted his brows and went downstairs to take the call. Maybe Dominic just had to wait until another time.
Dom felt his heart beat faster each second and he couldn’t handle the stress that rushed through his body anymore.
“Nellie, let’s go home now. It’s getting late. I’ve got home works to do and you have to go to sleep.”
The latter wasn’t really true; it wasn’t that late yet. It had took him a while to realize that he was right now at the playground that Matt had spoken about, and Dom had been extremely aware of every move and every step he took ever since. What if Matt actually watched him now, or worse; what if Matt came out any second?
“Seriously Nellie, come on now!” there was a desperation in his voice that the younger girl wasn’t able to understand, but she obeyed.
“If I can take Hay’s lead.” She muttered.
Dom gave his little sister the lead and they left the playground. As they walked past the old detached house that Dom, for some reason, had always been fond of he looked up on the door, making him gasp. Why he hadn’t realized before, he couldn’t understand, but the plate on the door simply read: Bellamy. Dom automatically looked up to the enlightened window on the second floor, and was he imagining? A short, tiny slender figure sat on the windowsill and looked down on him. The boy lifted a hand to gently wave and just when Dom was about to do the same his sister called on him.
“Dom! Come on Dom, hurry up!” Nellie and Hay was running down the street, laughing as well barking happily.
Dom had a last look up on Matt and nodded before running after.
It the next morning, oh well late morning, Dom woke up with a fur ball in his face and a thud onto his feet.
“Wassat?” He moaned, pushing the weight from his face, realizing that it was the cat.
“Wake up, boreDom!!”
He moaned again, this time because of the frisky tone of his sister’s. God, how he hated people being alert in the morning.
“Mum told me to wake you up, we been waiting with the breakfast. Dom, wake up! I’m starving!”
“Yeah, yeah gimmie a minute would you? And maybe you could start with moving off my feet as well.”
As he came downstairs, not bothering with changing to anything else but a t-shirt and boxers, he found his family already gathered around the table.
“Morning there” his father greeted, just as friskily. “What did you do up all night long?”
“I wasn’t up that late, was I?” Dom muttered and settled down on the kitchen couch.
“No, not if you disregard that it was at four o’clock in the night that it was still enlightened in your room when I was up taking a glass of water.” His mother teased.
“Shush, I was actually doing my home works.”
“On a Saturday night? Wow Dom, you’re really going into it.” Mr Howard laughed, slapping his son’s head playfully.
Dom had always been fond of having such young parents as he had, though they were only nineteen-twenty when he was born. That was why he also got a young sister compared with his own age, which he was underneath it all very happy for.
“Chris called before.” His mum said suddenly. “When you were still sleeping.”
“Yes, yes I got that dig mummy.”
“He said he was going to come over later.”
“I thought he had a friend coming over this weekend.” Dom said surprised.
“Well, he didn’t tell me anything about that.”
Speaking of the devil, it knocked on the door and the question was who was being the fastest to the door; Nellie or Hay.
“Chris!!” Dom smiled to himself as he heard the happiness in Nellie’s voice, as he knew how much she loved him.
“Hey Nellie.”
“Hi there.” Dom almost choked his tea as he heard another, low unknown voice from the hall. Chris there wasn’t alone?
Just as his brain was working high speed, Chris showed up in the kitchen with Nellie on his arm; yet another figure hidden behind.
“Hi Chris!” Mrs Howard greeted just as happily.
“Hey folks! Sorry to disturb this... early in the morning.” Chris winked at his blonde friend, this one rolling his eyes in reply. “This, everybody, is Matt. He’s visiting Teignmouth for the weekend.”
Dom heard himself gasp and felt his hand freeze upon the tablecloth as Chris took a step aside to reveal Matt who had been hiding behind him. As he didn’t seem to be as shocked as Dom self, he assumed that he had already figured out that he was going to his place.
“Hi there.” His parents greeted and Mrs Howard asked if they wanted to stay for a cup of tea. As they said they’d gladly do, Dom was suddenly very aware of his lack of clothing and did his best to slip under the table and hide as much as possible of his bare legs. As his dad noticed this he smirked devilishly, probably thinking that Dom had only himself to blame for the bad habit of his to not get dressed in the mornings. Even if people kept talking Dom thought it was the most embarrassing moment in his entire life, and the only thing he could think of was how the hell he was supposed to sneak upstairs without revealing himself. Seemed quite hopeless, he sighed within himself.
“So Dommers, we were actually coming by to ask if you wanted to join us on the home ground?” Chris said, looking at his best friend.
Dom knew so well that he spoke about the football match today between Teignmouth and Rixdale and he had actually looked forward to this match for many weeks, but suddenly he felt slightly unsure. Was it because of Matt?
“I don’t...” he squirmed uncomfortable on the couch. “I um...” He received a cocked eyebrow from his dad. “Maybe I...” ‘God, I must stop ramble now or I will make a fool out of myself even more’. “Yes sure.”
Chris shone at this. “Great!”
As the eternally long breakfast was finally over and Chris was dragged into the living room by Nellie, and Matt was helping Dom’s parents with gathering the breakfast, Dom rushed himself out of the kitchen and ran upstairs; silently hoping that Matt hadn’t looked his way.
He washed himself quickly and changed his clothes. Just as he pulled a sweater over his head, Chris came into his room.
“Hey, I hope it was okay I brought Matt with me.”
Dom laughed derisively for himself over the bizarre question. But of course, Chris was always being as sweet as possible to make sure that everything was ok. That was probably why he was, oh so, loved by everybody’s parents, Dom thought. That, of course, including his own.
“Yes I guess so, yes. Actually I... um, Matt and I sort of... already met.”
Chris looked surprised; why wouldn’t he? “You have? He didn’t tell me.”
Dom’s turn to look surprised. “Really? Yeah, we met on the train.”
“That’s freakish.” Chris laughed. “So it’s ok then?”
Dom swallowed and smiled unsurely. “Of course.”