// C H A P T E R S E V E N T E E N //

"Hey," George said to Matty, it didn't sound like a happy greeting...more like a what the fuck are you doing here greeting.

Matty took a seat on the couch, waiting for George and I.

"Uh, you guys hungry, or thirsty, or anything?" I asked. I couldn't bare the awkwardness anymore. I had to get out. I had to escape. I wanted to run out of my own house and just leave those two there with the company of just each other.

"No." George said, taking a seat beside Matty and sitting back in his seat what looked miserably.

"I could go for something." Matty said.

"Could we go for something later I kinda need to talk to Katie." George said.

Matty looked at him, confused.

"Would you like to talk to her privately or can I stay here and starve comfortably?" He asked.

"Privately, please." George smirked.

"Everything is alright?" Matty asked, sighing as he rose from the couch.

George nodded as Matty went back upstairs to my room, shutting the door as if he lived there.

"Did he sleep here or something?" He asked.

"What? That's not your business." I said, speaking lowly in case Matty was listening from upstairs, it wasn't that hard to hear.

"Fine I'll just ask him." He shook his head, "I just came over to tell you I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" He asked.

His jaw dropped, he pushed his hair back to find something to do other than blow up on me. I got a little scared.

"What else?!" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You act like you can't even look at me when you came over yesterday, you barely talked to me. Then you stormed out of the house on me...what the hell?" He held out his hands, in request of an explanation.

"You're sorry for that?" I asked.

"Yes,"

"I should be sorry for that, okay. Not you, I'm sorry."

"What?" He sighed heavily.

I didn't know. I had no idea what. I shrugged, "I don't know, I haven't got a clue. Okay-"

"One day I'm the bad guy the next you are? What is wrong with you? There's no winning,"

"I don't know okay?!" My voice raised slightly without me thinking. I didn't know what was wrong with me, maybe my period is coming soon or something. I typically never thought I had the symptoms PMS, but maybe I just didn't talk to enough people to notice.

"You know what, maybe you really are a lunatic. If you're aware and cautious of it, then I should be too and get the hell out of here." He sighed.

"Excuse me?" My heart dropped, I couldn't believe what I was hearing from him. I never expected him of all people to talk to me that way. Maybe Matty if he'd gotten mad enough, but not George...never George, "Fine, just go then!"

"I am!" He swung the door open, I ran straight to it and slammed it shut as he made his way out.

Matty came walking downstairs, confusion written still all over his face.

"What the hell just happened?" He asked.

"You can go too if you want." I sat down on the couch, crouching down and burying my face into the palms of my hands.

I cried into the blackness of my hands, hearing the door open. Matty went outside, was he actually leaving? I didn't have the strength to remove my face from my hands. I could only cry into them at that moment. I felt paralyzed. How could someone use your biggest weakness against you?

I knew that back home I had the worst time socially because everyone knew my past and present. When I came here, I thought I would escape that. I thought I could start over, fresh...no one knew me, no one knew my problems, or what was wrong with me. Once again, I was back in the same position, the same circumstances.

The door opened again, then shut.

"Look, he's just upset that you were treating him like he'd done something wrong. He'll forgive you soon, trust me." Matty's voice grew nearer. I didn't want him to see me. I hated to cry in front of people. I felt weak all over again.

"He thinks I'm a lunatic, and I am one." I said, trying to wipe my face before he could see it. The tears seemed endless, and formed puddles as they collected in the bags which crying had created.

"You're not." He said, "he doesn't really think that. He's just pissed off, that's all."

I looked at him, feeling disgusting.

"Matty, you're the only one who thinks I'm not. Okay, George does. I think my dad does...and then whoever doesn't just hates me."

"Who hates you?" He challenged my statement.

"Everyone!"

"Who is everyone?"

I thought quickly, "Adam hates me now." I raised an eyebrow.

"He does not." Matty laughed, "he almost did."

"Oh that's great." I said sarcastically, ugh, you sound like your dad, Katie.

"Like I said, George is just pissed off. I'll talk to him when I get home. He's done moving all his stuff out of his other apartment and now we're officially rooming together. You're bound to come up in one of our conversations...if not plenty...he brings you up a lot." He said, almost as if realizing a fact. If we were in a cartoon, there would be a little lightbulb shining over his head.

"He does?" I asked, reminded of how he wouldn't stop talking to or about me yesterday.

Matty nodded, "shit," he sighed.

"What?" I asked. He continued to stare at the wall, deep in thought, "I wish I'd thought about this sooner..." he said.

"What?" I asked again, begging for the answer.

"I think George probably likes you...with all the girls he likes he talks about them a lot." Matty said, his hand propped under his chin.

Well I'd thought of that.

"Well if he did he doesn't like me anymore." I said.

Matty looked at me as if I were an idiot, his faces intimidated me. You could know just how he felt about something you said right after you said it by his facial expressions alone.

"Katie, you don't just stop liking somebody because you're mad at them. If anything you go crazy thinking about them and even more crazy wondering why the fuck you like them even more even though they pissed you off." He said.

"Well I wouldn't know people never like me!"

"But you've liked people before, I'm sure. No one goes through life without feelings. You try to act like you do but you don't."

Why the fuck did this guy even see a psychologist at all? He could figure out every single aspect of a person's personality, and break down every problem and find it's solution.

"I have some things to do today, I should get going." He stood up, "I need my jacket." He headed up the stairs, going to go get it. I stood up too, waiting by the door so I could see him out.

I looked outside, wondering why the sun always came and went around here. Sometimes it peaked through the clouds, and sometimes it hid away...all in the course of just one day.

He came back down, swinging it around himself and slipping his arms through the sleeves.

"What are you doing tonight?" He asked, taking out his box of cigs and placing one in his mouth as he put the box away and adjusted his jacket to comfort.

"Nothing," I said, wondering what came next.

"You know that park we always pass when we're driving to my house?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Meet me there." He said.

I opened the door for him, "what time?"

He looked to the top of his head, thinking on a decent hour, as he walked out. "Eight."

"At night?" I asked.

"Yeah."

I stared, hesitantly.

"I'm not gonna kill you and throw you in the bushes or anything." He rolled his eyes.

"Alright, alright." I laughed, shutting the door as he made his way to the car, lighting up his cigarette.

I could only feel guilty each time I looked at that silver rental. I still wondered where his car was...but that was something we still waited to know.

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I could actually hear the nature of the city...sort of like back home. Few crickets, birds finding their way to their nests...the only thing making it hard to feel at home was the whipping of the wind. I closed my jacket, looking at the time. It had been almost an hour since I had arrived...and still no sign of Matty. It was dark and the park was nearly bare. I could have been kidnapped and murdered by sitting on the bench alone in the mist of it all.

I called and called and called him, no answer. I started to feel worried, but I didn't let it take over my entire mind.

The grass crunched beneath my feet as I stuck my phone back into my pocket, something continuously told me to call my dad and have him pick me up, rather than to walk home...but I enjoyed the night, strangely enough. During the night, it felt like the entire world was on pause...just still. And I could think more clearly, see more clearly, and feel more clearly...even in the dark.

I jumped as someone passed me, I didn't realize anyone was around in the first place. I thanked God that it wasn't anyone trying to bother me. As soon as I did the figure turned around.

"Katie?" He asked.

I couldn't see the face but from the voice I knew who it was.

"George?"

He walked over to me, "what are you doing here?" He asked.

I took a deep breath, gathering up the strength to talk to him, rather than just walk away. "Matty told me to meet him here...but he hasn't shown up." I shrugged.

"Really? He was home when I left. He told me he wasn't doing anything tonight...maybe he forgot or something."

Were we seriously conversing as if we had no history or past at all? Maybe people here were different, than the people back home. If I were back home, no one would say a damn word to one another until someone apologized or took the full blame, all over again.

"I've been calling him." I said, letting off a hopeless sigh.

George looked around, slowly turning his head up at the sky. I followed, my eyes wandering to the light between the trees of the stars that shined down. It was beautiful...and could even be romantic.

"Did Matty know you'd be here?" I asked, my eyes going back to him.

He shook his head, no. "I never come here, I just wanted to clear my head...think...all that. I didn't tell him I'd be here."

I nodded.

"Oh did you think..."

I laughed a little.

"No, no, he didn't set this up. I seriously don't ever come here." He shook his head even more, laughing with me.

"I'm sorry, Katie." He said slowly.

I stared at the button detail of his denim jacket, and the fuzzy fur around it's collar that I wondered if was real or fake.

"I forgive you." I said, finally looking back at him, "I'm sorry too."

"No, like I'm really sorry." He emphasized.

I giggled, I couldn't help it. He was goofy in a way, and so shy about everything, "I'm really sorry too." I mimicked.

He smiled slightly, taking a seat on the bench. I sat down beside him.

"So what's going on with you and Matty, anyway?" He asked.

I shrugged, was it okay to even talk about it?

"It's weird." I said.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

I guess it was.

"We agree on nothing, yet have everything in common in the most difficult way." I shook my head, trying to figure it out as I spoke.

He nodded, "well, that's Matty."

I felt guilty, I didn't want to talk about Matty and me. I turned it over on him, "what about you and that...chick?" I asked.

He laughed, "that chick is just a friend. Her boyfriend broke up with her and all that. I had to be there for her." He said.

What if he was lying? I trusted almost no one. But what if he also wasn't? That was the sweetest thing...now I felt bad for being so upset about it.

"Oh." I finally said.

"I'm about to go home, do you wanna stop by? See if Matty's there? Learn some drums," he teased, referring to my absolute refusal to play any instruments.

"Sure." I said. Getting up and following him to his car.

The wind blew harder, almost knocking me down. I always wished I was a bit taller and a bit heavier, the wind could basically carry me away entirely if it wanted to. George turned around, opening his jacket and letting me in it a bit beside him.

"You're so small don't get lost." He laughed.

He unlocked the doors, quickly as we approached the car. I got in and shut the door behind me. He started up the car and turned on the radio, automatically going to a rap station of some sort playing ASAP Rocky.

I put on my seat belt, driving with George was pretty different from driving with Matty. George actually put on his seat belt, for starters.

------------------------

As got out of the car I noticed the silver one in the driveway. Clearly Matty was home. I waited for George before approaching the door, then followed him to it.

"Well he's obviously home." He said, taking out the keys and opening the door.

I started to think of all of the worst possible things. Did he get his hands on anymore of those stupid baggies of drugs and have an OD? Did someone kill him? No...thats unrealistic...but possible.

I shut my inner-self up as I walked in the house after George, shutting the door behind me.

"Matty?" George looked around, lifting up a trench coat from the couch...it was a women's trench coat, and the amount of perfume on it you could smell a mile away.

He set it back down and looked at me, "I have no idea." He said.

I took a seat on the couch as George made his way to the back rooms. He came back out more quickly than expected, I looked up at him. He looked as if he'd seen a ghost.

"Wanna go back to the park?" He asked quickly.

"Uh...no."

"Wanna go get something to eat?" He asked.

"No, what's wrong why are you acting like that?" I laughed.

The sounds of constant moaning and whimpering came from the bedrooms. I froze in my seat, trying to hear more clearly, just in case I was wrong. I had to be wrong.

"Let's go to the cinema!" He said loudly, walking over to me.

"George, who's in that room?" I stood up.

"I don't know." He said.

The noise stopped.

The door opened slowly,and there was Matty of course. He peaked out of the door, then his head disappeared back behind it.

"OH IT'S YOU GUYS, UH," There was a bang, "SHIT," He had clearly ran into something.

He came out of the bedroom, just jeans, no shirt. Not even socks, or shoes. He was the worst at hiding anything, or at least at that moment.

"Yeah...she was at the park waiting for you." George said.

I made my way to the door, disappointed. I knew he was in that room fucking someone. After all the things he had said to me at my house, and after putting his dishonest lips on mine.

"Hey Katie wait,"

I turned back around, "Matty, just go back to whoever you have in that room. I don't need to hear it." I said.

George looked at me sympathetically. I felt like an idiot.

"It's nothing-"

The bedroom door opened, my eyes widened, my jaw dropped.

"ELAINE?!"