Chapter 3 - An Open Window

And this would be chapter 3 for all you lovely people ^^ Enjoy!

1) Okay, since nobody guessed it, the manga Matt's reading in chapter 1 is "Hands Off!" Go find it now.
2) Got a little more light shed on Matt's family situation here ^^ but there's more to it than what's in this chapter O_o
3) Since a couple of my friends have been a little confused about when this story takes place...it's semi-futuristic. The present year is about 2020.

~Sei-chan




Chapter 3: An Open Window

It was almost 9:00 when Matt unlocked the front door to his house and tiptoed into the foyer. It was already dark in both the hallway and the kitchen, so he assumed that his mom and sister had already gone to bed. They had always gone to bed much earlier than Matt ever could; he figured he must have gotten his "night owl" habits from his father.

He peeled off his jacket and hung it on the coat hook near the garage door and carefully untied his shoes. Normally he would have just kicked them off, but he was concerned about the noise he might make. Once the shoes were off, he groped in the darkness for the stair banister, nearly knocking a lamp over in the process.

After what seemed like ages, he had a firm grip on the wooden handrail and climbed the steps he knew so well: five up, then the landing. Turn a corner, and then up six more. He moved at a slow pace, wincing at every creak that he felt seemed louder than when he wasn't trying to sneak upstairs.

Finally he was up the stairs, and he was only a yard or so away from his bedroom when...

"Matt?"

Crap. He turned around, and even though it was still pitch-black, he knew that Velia had called out to him.

"Yeah, it's me, Vel."

The hall light clicked on, temporarily blinding Matt; he shielded his eyes for a second before looking up again. Velia stood at the other end of the hall, in her pajamas, looking rather upset.

"Where were you? Mom and I were really worried! Did you go over to Mag's house or something? You know Mom gets mad when you don't call before hanging out at a friend's house!" she said in an almost scolding tone. If he wasn't well-aware of the panic he had caused, Matt might have found it cute.

"No, I didn't go to anyone's house. I just wanted to clear my head so I took a walk," Matt replied. "I guess I...lost track of time."

Velia frowned and played with the end of her pajama sleeve. "Well, you still should've called. You know I worry when you don't come home." She sniffled a little and swiped at her eyes.

She sounds just like a wife who's worried about her husband not coming home. Matt's heart melted at seeing his sister so sad and walked over to her, hugging her tightly. "I'm sorry, Vel. That wasn't very smart of me," he said soothingly.

Tears were now flowing freely down her face. "I-I don't want you to leave like Papa did..."

That stung Matt. Their father had left them when he was eleven. Velia was only six at the time, and it had taken a huge toll on her. He even distinctly remembered her calling him "Papa" for five months afterwards; though he deduced that it was mostly based on the fact that he had been named after his father.

"I'm not going to leave. I promise. Okay?" he said, stroking her head fondly and making her look up at him. "Now smile, Vel."

She wiped at her eyes one more time before smiling a little. Matt grinned back and gave her a kiss on the forehead.


"Now get back in bed. You've got school tomorrow," Matt said jokingly, knowing full well that he did as well. Velia nodded and crept back into her room.

Matt turned off the hall light and got into his room, shutting the door behind him. shoot, I still have homework to do, he mentally groaned. Well, I'm not gonna be getting a lot of sleep tonight. Alex had better have some damn strong coffee for me tomorrow, otherwise I'll never make it through first period.


****

"Matt, you haven't been sleeping well lately, have you?"

Matt groaned and looked up from the pillow he had made out of his arms and his bookbag to see his (real) friend Caitlin looking at him worriedly.

"That, my dear, would be an understatement. However did you guess?" he mumbled, wanting nothing more than to sink back into the table and not wake up until next week. He didn't even care if the school janitors poked him with their mops.

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Well, for one thing, the dark circles under your eyes make you look like a raccoon."

"Or L," Matt suggested.

"No, MUCH worse than L." (1)

Alex reached their table and put the usual cup of coffee in front of Matt's face. Matt swiped at it clumsily, missing it badly enough that it almost fell over. "If I look like L, then give me something chocolate-frosted and full of sugar already."

"You want more sugar in your coffee, Your Highness?" Alex rolled his eyes. Matt mumbled something that may have been an affirmative response, but Alex just ignored him and took a seat. "Speaking of L, you have any Death Note on your persons?" He grabbed Matt's bag and started rummaging through it.

"I just got 8, Alex. Cut me some slack. It's twelve books and I'm short enough on cash as it is," Matt replied, practically inhaling the coffee. He glanced at the clock: 7:57. Three minutes before he had to drag himself to class. Just then, he heard Alex speak up:

"Hey, Matt, what the hell's this key for?"

Matt's head whipped up and he saw it. The brass key dangling from the thin red thread. The key that the strange librarian had given him yesterday. The library! I made that promise!

"Oh, it's nothing," he replied, thinking as fast as he could to create an explanation. "I...found that old key in our basement, and my mom said that she got rid of the trunk that it unlocked. I thought I'd keep it. It looks kinda old and cool." Then he shrugged, as if it were the simplest thing.

Alex raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Man, you have some freaky-@$$ interests, Matty."
Caitlin, however, didn't seem so easily convinced. She took the key from Alex and looked at it more closely.

"Where was the key?"

"On the floor of my dad's old office."

"...What were you doing in your dad's office?"


Matt hesitated, fearing that Caitlin had caught him. Even though he trusted her and Alex with this kind of secret more than he would have trusted Mag and the others, he wasn't sure if he could tell them this secret so soon. He was barely even sure if it had all really happened or not! Then again, the key was proof that it was true to some extent.

"Am I not allowed to look through my dad's things? It's not like he's using them or anything," he finally replied, actually feeling somewhat bitter.

Caitlin looked down a little, blonde hair falling in front of her face. "Oh, right. Sorry, Matt."

Matt smiled. "Don't worry about it. It bothers Vel more than it does me."

"You worry a lot about your sister. She having problems in school or something?" Alex piped up.

"No, well...not that she's told me about."

"I think if she'd tell anyone about her problems, it's you. She's fine."

"Y-Yeah..."

****

By the end of the day, Matt had gotten sick of hearing, "Mr. Reed! Sit up straight and pay attention!" from his teachers and was grateful to leave. He was surprisingly happy to be able to visit that library again. Something about it just...sparked his curiosity, and the same could be said for the librarian.

"Stefan..." he let the name slip past just once, as if committing it to memory. Or subconsciously telling the boy that he was going to be there soon. But it wasn't long before he realized that he should probably call home to avoid an incident like yesterday.

He left a quick message on his phone, saying he was going to stay after school to do his homework then walk home, and then opted to turn the cell phone off.

...and then proceeded to dive behind a nearby hedge when he saw Mag, Rave and Ezil walking out of the building into the school parking lot. It was Friday; Rave would probably be driving Mag and Ezil over to one of their houses today! And they'd probably go looking for him! Dammit dammit dammit... Matt chanted to himself as he ducked down as low as he possibly could. There was NO way he could use that library or staying at school as an excuse for them!

He managed to keep himself hidden behind the bushes (though he got some odd looks from the people walking down the sidewalk that was parallel to where he crouched) as Mag and the others passed by him, not suspecting a thing. He did, however, hear a fraction of their conversation.
"Hey, guys, you seen Matt today?"
"I saw him between periods, but he's not here now."
"Aww, it doesn't matter. He never comes with us on Fridays anyway."
The rest of their talk faded as they walked past Matt's hedge and towards the parking lot. Matt waited another minute or so before leaping up and making a desperate run for the Old Town Woods.
****

It was 4:35 when he glanced at his watch again. He had been walking in the woods for well over an hour and still hadn't found the library.

"Where the hell was it?" he asked himself through tightly gritted teeth. "Dammit, I should've made markers or something to remind me where it was!"

"Well, Hansel and Gretel used bread crumbs. Maybe you should use cigarette butts."

Matt practically leapt out of his skin at the second voice. Had Mag and the guys come after all and found him?!

"Kindly turn around, Mr. Reed. You're facing the wrong way."

It was Stefan! Matt whipped his head around and expected to see the young cat boy standing right behind him...but no one was there.
"Uh...St-Stefan?" The boy in question giggled a little at Matt's apparent confusion.

"You're halfway there. Now look up." Matt did so, and found Stefan perching on a tree branch, his tail waving gently behind him. He acts more like a cat than I figured, Matt thought with an amused grin. Stefan muttered a small "hmph" and leapt down from the tree branch, landing -- no surprise -- on his feet. "It's this way," he said, pointing off into the woods before walking in that direction. Matt just nodded and followed him

"I'm surprised you came out here, Stefan," Matt admitted. "I thought you didn't like me enough to look for me."

"Just because I hate the smell of those cigarettes you smoke doesn't mean I dislike you, Mr. Reed." The cat didn't even look back, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice. "You don't seem like the kind of person to forget something, so I was, in a way, waiting for you to get lost. You sure don't think these things too far ahead, for someone who..." He trailed off, glancing in some vague direction.

Matt raised an eyebrow at this. What had Stefan been planning to say after that? "Someone who what?" he hazarded a question. Even if Stefan was withholding an insult, Matt didn't care. He was oddly fascinated by Stefan, and curious about what could possibly be going through his head.

Stefan just shook his head a little hastily and replied with, "oh, nothing." And there was a long silence once again as they continued walking into the woods.

***

We've been here for a while, I should say something, Matt thought after nearly ten more minutes. He cleared his throat, startling the other boy, and asked, "So...can I ask why you decided to give me another shot at this?" He pointed outward (what he thought to be towards the library) to indicate what he meant by "this."

Stefan sighed and shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. You just seem...trustworthy, that's all. Most people that break in or use that window just use it as a place to drink beer without worrying about getting caught by their parents. They ransack the bookshelves, vandalize the books and tables, and just generally mess the place up," he replied, wrinkling his nose. "When I saw you...you came in, and you sat down and read. Nobody's ever done that before."

"You've never been...injured, have you?" Matt felt a small shiver course through him when the thought crossed his mind. If those people could do those kinds of things to books without remorse, what would they do to somebody like Stefan?

"Oh, no. When they come I just keep out of sight and clean the place as best I can once they leave. You're the first person to ever find me," the boy in question said. He frowned a little and clenched his fists, his claws digging into his skin. "They're disgusting degenerates. Like they care about anything other than being able to do those sick things without anyone knowing or stopping them."

The other felt his face heat up a little, knowing that he has befriended some of those "disgusting degenerates." Even if he didn't like them, he had sticky fingers for even pretending to do so.

"Okay, here we are," Stefan piped up, drawing Matt's attention. Sure enough, they were in front of the hill atop which the library resided. "Try to remember where it is next time, all right, Mr. Reed?" he quipped, smiling and jogging up to the library's front entrance.

Matt didn't bother making a retort and just followed him up the hill. He had made it to the front entrance when Stefan stopped him.
"Uh...aren't we going to go in?" Matt asked, somewhat confused. His bewilderment only increased when the librarian outstretched his arm and presented his palm to Matt in response.

"This is your first test, Mr. Reed," Stefan replied promptly, then asked, "do you have the key?"

A-ha. He's trying to get me before I even walk in the door. Matt smirked to himself and set his bookbag onto the ground, opening the flap to dig around a little. After pushing papers aside and fishing around the bottom, his fingertips grazed over the cool metal of the key.

"Right here," he said triumphantly, letting the key spin around itself on the red string. Stefan merely snatched the key from him and turned to unlock the library doors.

But Matt swore he saw the faintest smile graze the librarian's face. They strode through the large double doors and into the main hallway.

"It's still so dusty in here," Matt noted, coughing a little at the change in the atmosphere.

"It can't be helped, Mr. Reed. I dust these shelves a few times a week, and the dust keeps building up. It's probably due to the age of this building," the librarian replied, stopping at the doorframe connecting the hallway to the library. Matt stopped in his tracks as well, a little startled. Did Stefan see someone in there?

However, instead of recoiling, Stefan merely ran a clawed hand down the worn wooden column and sighed forlornly. "I can tell you...this place was spectacular when Old Town was around. People..." he bit his lip, Matt could tell from the side view, "people appreciated books more than the average person does today."

Matt couldn't help but sigh a little to himself. He knew that the librarian wasn't lying. Hardly any of his friends read for English assignments, whereas Matt would never skip a page. He felt a need to express this to Stefan; why he wasn't sure. "I've appreciated a good book ever since I was little. And I still do. Why do you think I'm here, after all?"

Stefan's hand stilled at Matt's reply. It had clearly caught the boy off-guard, and Matt was wondering if maybe he had said too much. Maybe he had offended Stefan by making an assumption that the librarian was criticizing his own choices?

But it was then that Stefan turned to Matt...

And smiled. This caught Matt off-guard as he felt his face slowly growing warm. Stefan only continued to beam at him.

"I'm glad there are still people like you in this world, Matthew Reed."

It was at this that Matt regained his control. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Um, my name isn't short for 'Matthew.'"

"Oh! I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay; people do that all the time." Truth be told, Matt hated when people assumed his name was Matthew, but he wasn't about to snap at the person who had graciously allowed him access to such a place.

Stefan blinked, and his ears twitched. "Then what is it an abbreviation of?" he asked. Before Matt could respond, Stefan blushed a little. "No, no, forget I asked. It's none of my business," he added cheerily.

"All right..." Matt wouldn't have had a problem telling the librarian his full name, but it seemed to make the polite and proper boy uncomfortable, so Matt let it slide.

Besides, the twitching ears combined with that blush just looked so cute...

***

"What did you decide on?"

"Julius Caesar." Matt sat down at a table with the play in hand. After his "Cigarette Search" had turned up no loose cigarettes or used butts (not even his lighter), the librarian had let him explore as he so wish. Stefan had been going through his almost ritualistic cleaning duties when he finally saw Matt emerge from one of the many shelves.

"Shakespeare fan?" he asked, halting his chores to stride over. Matt nodded.

"He was so far ahead of his time in his ideals and writing style. I haven't read too many of his works, but I read Hamlet in middle school and I was immediately in love," he said, snickering a little at how...surprisingly feminine he sounded.

"Well, we have his entire collection of plays, save for one copy of King Lear. But I doubt whoever borrowed it is going to be returning it anytime soon," Stefan replied, resting his arms on the table to look at Matt.

The teen cleared his throat. "Listen, Stefan, I can't thank you enough for allowing me to come here like this."

"It's no trouble at all, Matt. I'd rather it be you than some delinquent with no respect for literature," Stefan said, seething a little.

He really is biased towards people today, Matt mused. He wondered absently if Stefan was always like this, but continued, "Well, what I'm trying to say is...I'd be happy to pay you back in some way."

Stefan paled a little. "Oh, no! I couldn't ask you for that, Matt! It wouldn't be right, we hardly know each other!"

He grinned. "That doesn't mean I can't be a good Samaritan, right?" he glanced over at the broken window, his previous entrance into the library, where the wind was blowing through. "I know. I'll help you board up that window!"

"B-Board it up? I was just going to put a cloth over it or something..."

"That won't do a very good job of keeping out the elements," Matt replied knowingly. "Listen, I should be getting home. But it's almost the weekend. This Saturday, I'll go to the hardware store, bring back some tools, and I'll board up the window for you. All right?"

Stefan wanted to protest, but he knew it would be futile. Matt was hell-bent on using this as an equivalent exchange for access to the library. "...Are you sure? It would just be a waste of your free time."

Matt paused at this. But then he smiled again. "Stefan...this library is my free time now." He held up the copy of Julius Caesar. "May I borrow it?"

"Well, it is a library."

"Cool, thanks," Matt called back quickly before grabbing the key and dashing outside.

Stefan watched him go, still stunned by his words.

"This library is my free time now."

The words rang through his head as he walked up the stairs into his bedroom. "I can't believe he's so dedicated to an old place like this..." Stefan mused aloud to himself.

His eyes fell onto the large folder on the desk in his room. "Maybe he can help me with more than repairs..."

***

Oh, the mystery! And so early on, too o_o
Sorry for the delay on this chapter, I have no excuse T_T *kowtows to the readers* I promise I'll make time to write another chapter!

(1) I couldn't resist XD Matt, Caitlin and Alex are avid otaku; what can I tell ya? >_> oh, and if you don't know who L is... X_x

P.S. I apologize if I'm not writing the titles of the plays correctly X_x I can never remember when it's underlined or when it's italicized.

Julius Caesar © William Shakespeare

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