I really do love you.
Rufus
11:14 AM
I called Aimee. Of course, there was that initial shock of, “Holy shit man, you’re alive?!” But other than that, it went pretty okay. There was no screaming, no yelling, no arguing about Peck. What would I have to argue with her about? In the past, her and Peck would have severely bothered me. That’s not me anymore. Mateo somehow helped change me in ways that I can never thank him enough for, in a day.
Mateo.
I have to talk to Mateo. I’m sure he’s feeling all sorts of different kinds of shit because of this. I walk towards the room, but before opening the door, I hear him speaking with someone. I know it’s bad to eavesdrop, it was an accident! I wasn’t just gonna walk in..
Anyway, while he’s talking, I hear my name.
“ I kinda have to talk to Rufus.” He says.
There’s silence.
“About us. I wanna know if I was just some one night stand because he was lonely and knew he was gonna die anyway.” He sighed.
I back away from the door and head back into the kitchen. I pace as thoughts race through my head. Is that what he truly thinks? I wonder if it has anything to do with what I said about Aimee.. I dunno. I have to let him know that that’s not true. I don’t feel anything for Aimee… honest.
11:26 AM
Mateo gets off of the phone, walking out into the living room. I walk out from the kitchen..finally.
“How’d that go?” I ask.
“It went.. A lot better than I expected. She didn’t threaten to rip my head off, which was surprising. What about you and Aimee?”
I shrug. Even though it went well, I really don’t want him to get the wrong idea. “It went okay.”
“Just okay?” He frowned.
Despite what he may think about Aimee and I, he wanted it to go well for us on the phone. He’s so selfless.
“Yeah. We didn’t talk about much.. I’m sure it’ll be better later though! We’re gonna hang out and pretend nothing went wrong. She’s telling the other Plutos, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
Mateo smiled, his face lit up, too. “I’m glad that you’ll be able to see them again.”
I nodded.
There was a second of silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was peaceful. In that moment we both got to just absorb each other's presence, knowing that we didn’t have to worry anymore.
Not long after, the silence is broken by Mateo.
“Rufus?” He asks, looking towards the ground.
“Hm?” I know what this is going to be about.
“What does this mean for us? I mean, what are we? Was last night just a like.. Way to make sure that neither of us would be lonely on our last day?”
I shook my head. “Of course not! I wouldn’t do that to someone. That’s cruel.”
“So you do like me?” He looked up, his face was no longer tense and worrisome looking.
I moved closer to him. “I more than like you.”
He leaned his head on my shoulder. “I more than like you, too.”
“Well, that settles it!” I kiss his forehead. “That’s another thing that we have to tell people.”
Mateo grinned, “Wouldn’t it be fun to see how long they could go without noticing that we’re a thing?”
My eyebrows squish together, I form a smile on my face. “That’s evil, Mr.Torrez, but I’m down.”
Once again, there’s a comfortable silence. I love Mateo, and he knows that. He loves me, too. I never thought that getting a call from Deathcast could result in me being so EXTREMELY happy. I know that one day, we’ll get that call again, but until then, I’ll enjoy every second I have with him.