Gen. 5.7-Matthew

It was senior year! I was very excited to be finishing up. My case load was pretty easy this last year so it left me time to do more exciting things. My buddy Levi and I had a war going trying to outdo each other with pranks.

He was pissed when he ended up with pink hair for a week, but he got me back by breaking into my room and putting the entire football team’s dirty socks and practice jerseys on my bed. I had a serious freak out moment that night as he stood there laughing his ass off. Luckily he was too drunk to realize I wasn’t acting just for dramatics.

After that, I sorta calmed down with the pranks. We still played around, but it was milder. Outside of school work, and the guys, I still hung out with Kia from time to time. We’d grown closer as friends since she came home with me after Feast Day break. She had also accompanied me home for Snowflake Day break. Mom and Dad got a little worried when she had one of her forgetful freak outs, and Dad again tried to talk to me about her aura situation. He was concerned there was something off about her. I admit she was a little odd at times, but so was I, I just learned to hide it better. Well most of the time that was.

Home life had changed a bit. Mom and Dad moved. They were having triplets so that was going to require a bigger house. There was a plot of land across the street that had been empty as long as Mom had lived in our little house. Mom wasn’t really keen on the idea of moving into town. Dad’s family owned a house on Cliff Road, but they both wanted a place that was theirs. It took Dad a while, but he managed to track down the owners of the land and they agreed to sale it to them. They got to build the house from the ground up so that it was exactly how they wanted it. It was strange to know that when I was going home, it wasn’t going to be to my childhood home, well not if I wanted to sleep under the same roof as my parents. Mom was keeping her old house. She didn’t want anyone else living in the place she’d had so many great memories, and I was happy to hear that. It was small and not fancy by any means, but it was where I grew up. It was my home and it was good to know that it would always be there.  Because of the building and mom’s pregnancy, my summer wasn’t as relaxed as I’d hoped it would be.

It did help that Kia came home with me for a few weeks. She had some time before her summer session started and she said she rather hang with me instead of going to see her father. Mom was on strict bedrest, being pregnant with triplets took a worse toll on her body than when she was pregnant with me. Dad and I played servant to her, Kia helped as well. I also spent more time at the store because Dad would rather be at home making sure Mom was alright. I didn’t mind time at the store since Mom kept asking me about my relationship with Kia. No matter how any times I told her we were just friends, she kept insisting I be careful because she felt Kia wanted more.

Mom went into labor early and it was crazy to see Dad look so worried. He was like a totally different man. Frantic and nervous, not the confident strong man I’d grown up with. In the end it all worked out. I was a big brother of three baby sisters. Lois, Lori, and Lola. They were so tiny since they came early, but kinda cute in an old lady, small person, wrinkly kinda a way.

Mom and Dad were good about flooding my phone with pictures of the girls while I was at school. Occasionally they even remembered to send me one or two shots of Klutz who had grown quickly. Another good reason for them moving, having 3 large dogs in our tiny old house was not ideal.

With the school year barreling towards the end, I started making plans for my relocation to Riverview. The sooner the better so I could give myself time to adjust. I’d already met with the staff at the store and it was running well. I hadn’t taken over all of the duties, but I was doing a lot more for all three locations since Dad had his hands full with the babies. Grandpa even spent some time helping out when he could. He may be a sports team owner, but he still had to be a good business man, so some of what he knew could be applied to the store’s operations.

To kick off finals Levi decided to throw a ‘we are almost out of here’ party. The keg and liquor was flowing, some of the chem students had teamed up with the botany students and the product of their collaboration was some herb that made the users extra…frisky. I liked to party like the next guy, but alcohol was all the mind altering I needed so I stayed away from the herbs. People were coming and going, hell I don’t even think I knew half of the kids that were here. One girl stripped down and started streaking, some guys were taking video, she’d have regrets in the morning. The place was crowded and it was starting to make me nervous. I needed to get some air. I wasn’t feeling so well, I think that last drink Levi had given me was some strange concoction he’d just ‘invented’ and it was not sitting right.

“Matt?”

I look up to see Kia. She had a cup in her hand, had she been here for a while? I don’t remember seeing her, but with all the people she could have been here who knows. One thing I did know was when she smiled at me she was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.

“Hey, Kia.”

I took a step and stumbled. Kia tried to catch me, but my body weight sent us both tumbling down. We both started laughing.

Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight and her smell…she smelled like fresh baked cookies. Or maybe I was just hungry, it was hard to tell.

“You’re pretty,” I said before leaning down to kiss her.