Chapter 5
Rufus
12:32 PM
Watching Mateo and Lydia is like watching a Disney film. The way they reconnected was almost magical enough to make me cry. That wouldn’t be very cool of me if I did. I stood and watched them from the doorway. Once Lydia noticed me, she was giggling like crazy, which in turn, made me giggle like crazy. It felt like we were both in on a secret that Mateo didn’t know about, which was mad funny.
All good things must come to an end, I guess. Mateo snaps his head back and sees me. I give him a small wave. For some reason, Lydia is still laughing.
“Is it really that funny?” Mateo asks while he starts to laugh with her.
Whenever he laughs, his nose scrunches up, which I find absolutely adorable..but that’s besides the point, yo.
“No.” Lydia snorts, almost falling backwards, “I’m just really, really happy to have you-” she pauses, “to have you two back.”
She shoots me a warm smile, I shoot one back. Mateo’s friends are my friends, Lydia’s important to Mateo, making her important to me. I’m glad she sees it the same way. I’m glad that I get the opportunity to get closer with her, too. She seems to have made a large impact on Mateo’s life, which is admirable considering how introverted he’s been his entire life.
I honestly expected the “you better not hurt my best friend” treatment from her, but I guess we’ve been through enough for her to gain my trust. I mean, to be fair, I’ve already proven that I’d stick with him through thick and thin, sickness and health, death.. Haha. All of that shit.
“Sorry for bothering you guys. I can leave if you guys want?” I suggest.
“Nah, you’re okay!” Mateo gives Lydia a look, which she returns. I’m confused.
“Yeah, you can stay!” She raises her eyebrows up and down at him..Seriously man, I’m confused.
“Uh.. Okay then. Knowing The Pluto’s- Aimee, Malcolm, and Tagoe, they’ll probably be here fairly early. No shame in that, though.” I chuckle and shrug at Lydia.
“To be fair, I had to get a babysitter for Penny, and the babysitter was available as early as… well, like 15 minutes before I showed up.” She yawned. “I haven’t gotten much sleep, either. I wanted to make sure I got here before I passed out.”
“You left Penny with a babysitter?” Mateo’s face grows concerned for an unknown reason. Isn’t leaving kids with babysitters normal?
She sighs, “Yeah. I don't usually do that, but today is important.”
“You haven’t left Penny alone at all since..” He quieted down.
“I know.”
What the hell are they talking about?
“Anyway, I was wondering if you guys wanted to go grab some coffee once the others arrive? It would be nice to go out and do something normal after everything that happened yesterday.” She changed the subject. I guess I’ll never know.
I nod, and so does Mateo. I think we’re both pretty tired, too. We were both up at different times of the night last night, making sure that the other was still alive. That’s horrifying..god damn.
We all turn to look at the door as we hear footsteps approaching it. There’s some muffled talking, but it’s way too quiet to make out.
“Dude, I’m telling you, this is where Aimee said to come!” A muffled voice says from outside the door.
“Why the fuck would Rufus be here?” Another voice responds, still muffled.
That’s definitely them.
“I think that might be Malcolm and Tagoe.” I yell out, grinning. Part of me is nervous just like Mateo was. What’s the worst they could do? Punch me? They’ve done that before. I know that they won’t kill me out of anger, I didn’t get the call. Unless the system glitched again. That would suck.
I open the door before they could ring the doorbell. These two, I swear to God. They’re always arguing, no matter what the situation is. Even if their best friend almost died yesterday.
“I’m fucking telling you-” Tagoe yells before he notices the door open.
When they both notice, they freeze.
“Jeez, don’t look at me like that.” I scoff. “You both look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“BECAUSE WE ARE?!” Tagoe’s screaming was now directed at me.
“HOLY SHIT, ROOF!” Malcolm rushed to hug me.
“I’m alive!” I hug him back. Tagoe joins in without making a gay joke. I’m proud of him.
Lydia and Mateo chat away, but I can tell they’re watching our reunion, just as I watched theirs. I think they’re just trying to not make me uncomfortable. Did I make them uncomfortable? ..Probs not. They were laughing. I shouldn’t overthink it too much. What I should be thinking about is the fact that I have almost all of my favorite people under the same roof, with the exception of Aimee. She’s probably just late. I’ll text her to meet us at the coffee shop. The guys let me go after a successful hug with absolutely no gay jokes.
“So what happened?” Malcolm asks, crossing his arms. He’s coming off like a concerned dad right now, and it’s really freaky.
“Dude, I have no idea. We just-” I look back at Mateo, remembering our little game of hiding our relationship until they figure it out. I can tell he’s holding back laughter. “Uh.. I just woke up, man. I literally just woke up.”
“So Deathcast was wrong? That’s crazy.. You know, we didn’t believe Aimee at first when she told us. Deathcast is never wrong.” Tagoe responds.
Mateo chimes in. “There’s a first for everything, I guess we were just the first false-deckers.”
Malcolm walks over to Mateo, greeting him. “Yeah, I suppose so. How’ve you been, dude? I’m sure this whole situation feels pretty fucked for you.”
I shoot Mateo a look, like, “Are you okay?” I know he’s not used to settings like this, hell, no one is, but especially not him. He shoots back a reassuring smile.
“Yeah, things have been rough. Honestly though, I’m just happy to be alive and well.” I can tell by the way he responds that he’s not lying; he’s okay.
It’s nice to see him get along with Malcolm and Tagoe, even if they haven’t spoken to each other all that much. There’s no tension with them at all. They probably don’t realize that Mateo and I are dating, but they definitely realize that he’s important to me. That’s all I want.
“Has Deathcast called you to like…confirm anything..?” Tagoe prods Mateo. Unlike the previous question, I can tell that this one makes him a little uncomfortable.
“Oh god no. I hope they don’t. I’m sure nothing will happen, to be honest, Roof and I will probably have to call them.”
Tagoe gives me a weird look when Mateo calls me Roof. It’s kind of like, “he calls you Roof?” And, “WE call you Roof.” At the same time. It’s weird. I don’t respond to this. I don’t think I need to.
“Enough small talk, you guys are being awkward.” Lydia says, resigning from her silence. “Can we PLEASE go get coffee? I’m so exhausted.”
“PLEASE.” Tagoe groans, “I didn’t sleep at ALL last night.”
“What about Aimee?” Teo asks.
“I’ll text her and tell her to meet us there.” I pull out my phone and send said text.
Everybody gets up and starts to walk out the door and down the stairs of the apartment complex. Mateo and I are the last ones out on purpose. As we walk out the door, I grab his hand slickly for a second.
“You did good with them, I know they can be a bit much, so thank you.” I whisper to him.
“They’re your family, of course.” He smiles.
I smile back. I let go of his hand before anyone notices. Mateo’s right, they are my family. But now, he’s my family too. I know that he was a little uncomfortable with the situation, but he did his best for me. He just keeps giving me reasons to fall for him further.