Chapter Text
Matteo wasn’t one for books but he had somehow finished the one he bought at David’s bookstore in two days. He had actually kind of liked it. He saw himself a little in Patroclus. He felt his father didn’t love him, even more so recently. Matteo had checked to see if his dad had at least read the text he had sent.
A wave of anger passed through him after seeing that his father had indeed read the message. What kind of father didn’t reply to his son?
He had to do something before he thought about it too much. So, he went back to the bookstore. On the bus there, Matteo listened to music to keep his mind off of his father.
Ten minutes later, Matteo walked through the door and heard the sound of the bell above him that was already so familiar to him. He looked towards the counter at the back of the store and saw David. It seemed like whenever Matteo was there, he was always working.
David looked up at the sound of the door. “Couldn’t resist me, huh?”
Matteo felt his cheeks heat up and David went back to whatever he was doing behind the counter. Did he just flirt with him? Matteo couldn’t tell and he also couldn’t remember if David had been this coy the last couple of times he had been there.
‘ Or maybe he was like this with everyone. You really aren’t special,’ he told himself.
He walked around the store, more familiar with what genres were in what aisles now. Still, he had no idea what he was looking for. In all honesty, he had just come to distract himself, which had started to work.
“Do you need help again?” David shouted to him from the other side of the store. Even though Matteo was sure he was the only one there besides David, he still looked down the aisles, just to make sure the question had been directed towards him.
“Uh, yeah, thanks,” he answered as he walked over to where David was.
“So, I’m guessing you read Song of Achilles ? Did you enjoy it?” He was now leaning on the counter and his eyes were bright with interest. Matteo had only seen David’s eyes at a distance before now. They were a buckeye brown and he wanted to get even closer to admire their beauty.
“Uh, yeah. It was good.”
“Good.” He thought that the small smile on David's face had been lovely. He actually thought everything about David had been lovely so far.
“I know of some other books that have a similar feel to them if you’d like. Or if you want, I could recommend different genres .” Even though David’s sister owned the bookstore, Matteo knew David didn’t just work there for that reason. He could tell that he was a gigantic nerd and probably read a lot in his free time.
“I mean, I’d be fine with either. I just need a distraction.”
“Well, that doesn’t help. Got any interests?”
“Um, aliens? Or space in general, I guess.” Matteo said. David’s eyes sparked.
“We’ve got plenty of books with aliens. Per my request.” He walked out from behind the counter and motioned for Matteo to follow him as he walked down an aisle.
“I think this book is one of my favorites.” David said as he pulled out a book labeled Year Zero . “It’s about how the entire cosmos has become obsessed with Earth music ever since ‘year zero’ or 1977. The universe racks up so much debt to Earth that, instead of paying it off, they plan to destroy the planet. A couple of aliens go down to Earth and talk to a copyright lawyer named Nick Carter, and they go on a bunch of adventures and stuff.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“It is,” David laughed. The bell chimed and a woman called for David. He handed Matteo the book, “I’ll be right back if this book doesn’t interest you, this whole aisle is space-related.”
Matteo walked down the aisle and picked up books at random. The further he got down the aisle, the older the publication date was. He picked up a book called Lagoon , which was published in 2014, and read the back cover.
It said,“Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor's latest novel, is a swirling writhing cross section of life in Lagos, Nigeria as aliens make contact for the first time ever. It doesn't go smoothly — a fact which allows Okorafor to bring to life a fascinating view of Lagos in all its contradictions.”
“Find something you like?” Matteo jolted backwards when David spoke. He hadn’t noticed him standing behind him. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s okay, and yeah. I think so.” Matteo answered. “I think I’ll get both books.”
“Sure,” David said as he walked back to the counter. Matteo followed him and set the books down so David could scan them. “Do you want me to put these in a bag for you?”
“Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks.” Matteo handed David the money for the books and noticed him put something on the inside cover of Year Zero . He didn’t think anything of it.
David smiled as he handed Matteo the bag of books. Their hands touched for a moment and Matteo had suddenly felt warm inside. Even after they were no longer touching, he felt the ghost of David’s touch.
“So, see you around, I guess,” Matteo said. In his attempt to leave the store as nonchalant as possible, Matteo tripped over his own feet. He stumbled over and nearly fell onto his face. David laughed behind him.
“Are you okay?” He asked as Matteo stood up off the floor.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Everything is still intact.”
“That’s good.”
—
Matteo woke up the next day to a text from his father. He should have been relieved that his dad had finally answered. Instead, his head started to come up with what terrible things the text might have said. His palms started to sweat and his heart was in his throat. He wanted to know what it said but he was scared. Rather than ripping the bandaid off like he should have, he picked up one of the books he had bought the day before.
It was strange. Before recently, he would have lit a joint and enjoyed the numbness it gave him. That was before Jonas had told him that it was becoming a problem. He had denied it at first but after awhile he had realized he needed help. It was difficult in the beginning, but now he had a handle on it. He hadn't smoked since six months ago.
Matteo opened Year Zero and was about to start reading when he saw something. Taped to the inside of the book was a yellow post-it note. On the note, there was a doodle. It depicted a blushing figure with eyes covered by hair. It didn’t have much detail but Matteo figured it was supposed to be him. He smiled and turned the page to start reading.
He tried to focus on the book, but he kept thinking about David. How he had taken the time -even if it was only a small amount- to draw him. No one had ever done something like that before. It was sweet. So that’s how he found himself scrolling through Amira’s Instagram followers, looking for a David.
He didn’t have any photos of himself on his page. It was all photos of paintings or sketches that he had done. Matteo liked a few he thought were the best -which was hard to decide because they were all so good- and followed him.
He hadn’t expected David to follow him back, much less him DM him after he sent a ‘thank you for the drawing’.
“You’re welcome. How did you find my instagram, though. Are you stalking me?”
How was he supposed to answer that? Had he been stalking David? If he had been, he hadn’t tried that hard. It didn’t take him long to find David. Amira didn’t follow a lot of people.
“Uh, no?” He typed, “at least I don't think so?”
da_vid.gif: Do you like the book? (13:01)
matteohno: haven’t read it yet (13:09)
matteohno: got distracted (13:10)
David didn’t answer right away. Matteo had assumed that he had lost interest. He probably had better things to do anyway.
da_vid.gif: sorry, phone died (13:50)
matteohno: it’s all good (13:52)
matteohno: so when did you get into art? (13:54)
da_vid.gif: started when I was maybe 10? I had a lot of anger as a kid and I guess that’s how I expressed it (13:55)
They ended up talking until David said he needed to go do something. Before, Matteo just thought that he was a cute guy he met and that it meant nothing. Now, after talking to him and getting to know him better, he had a full-on crush.