wash it all away

 

Matty had learned a lot over the past few months at his part-time job at the mega grocery store. He'd gone through changes too. He wasn't that kid he started out as. Of course, no girlfriend as of yet.

Honestly, he knew he was too shy and the girl he thought he might go out with when he started there, was pretty much a hopeless case. It turned out she wasn't worthy of him and well, she didn't even show up for work by the third day. Anyway, she was in deep with her own circle of friends. There wasn't a nerdy bone in her body, after all. Actually, by now he'd forgotten her name and hardly remembered anything much about her. She no longer worked at the grocery store.

And then somewhere in the midst of the pandemic, Iona showed up as a ray of sunshine. Yes, he was certain he wanted someone like her in his life.

1. She was so easy to talk too.

2. So positive about everything and everyone.

3. She made the day so much better, even with mandatory masks.

If this was what love felt like, he wanted it. But he knew it wouldn't be with her. After all, she did have a boyfriend. And he worked at the grocery store too.

So Matty safely watched from a distance. Of course, he wanted to ask Iona a lot of questions, but Matty was the quiet type.

"Oh, you're the brooding type," His wise with girls middle school brother Kevin told him.

"What?" Matty winced who still played video games with him just because they were brothers.

"Yeah, you always have been."

 Kevin told him that the first time he met him which wasn't all that long ago when they were both foster kids. "You acted like you were too great to be here."

"I did not," Matty winced harder thinking he was ready to get into a fight with him, but they'd only use pillows because neither did that sort of thing anymore.

"Um, it seemed that way to me," Kevin shrugged.

"Well..well, you couldn't even decide on what you wanted your name to be," Matty reminded him that he was no piece of cake, himself.

"Don't change the subject," Kevin put down his controller. "You never said much of anything. Maybe that's why you have so many girl troubles."

"What?" Matty couldn't think what he was getting at. He squinted harder as if nothing good ever came his way. "What girl troubles? Nobody likes me."

"Oh really, I don't see that," Kevin opened his eyes wide. "I see girls looking at you all the time. You just never look down."

Matty couldn't help but crack into a laugh. He shook his head, no. Of course, he was never looking down either. Maybe he was missing something, but he highly doubted it.