Page 20 of I've Walked Where You've Been
“Me too. Thanks for, you know. Inviting me.”
“Yeah, no. It was awesome. I just…I guess I just wanted to apologise. I’m not sure I’ve actually done that before? For, like, how absolutely shitty I was to you for so long.”
Ethan frowned. “Let’s not—”
“No, come on. When you said all that stuff about making decisions together—I know things have changed. Like, I know we’re both trying, but…Iwasshitty. You can’t deny that. And I know that we were little or whatever, but…it’s so amazing, all the stuff you know. That you read about and remember it, and that you like all that stuff. I…I guess…I never thought of myself as a good, like, student or whatever. I hated sitting still, I always wanted to be out and running around, and I didn’t even consider that you wouldn’t like that.”
“I mean, like you said. We were kids.”
“I know. But still. We weren’t kids for the last…five years? Four? Or even longer, really. Like, Carly was super into that stuff and didn’t like doing anything active. I just. I think I decided to dislike you because you made me feel dumb and I just wanna say…sorry for making you feel like what you liked wasn’t cool or something, or that you weren’t cool. You’re, like, the coolest person I know.”
Ethan was blushing bright red, shaking his head. “That’s blatantly not true.”
“Well, I think it is, so…there.”
Ethan laughed a little. “Well. Thanks. And—I pretty much did the same thing. The kids that normally were really active used to make fun of me, and when I found out that first day that you were one of them, I didn’t even want to try. I just assumed you’d be shitty if I wasn’t good at it, when…I think you just wanted me to play. Like, you literally just wanted to play, and I made your life hell for it. But, yeah. I’m sorry too. You’re…I mean, you’redefinitelythe coolest person I know.”
Matty snorted. “I guess we’ll just have to be the two coolest people on the planet.”
Ethan grinned. “It’s a great burden, but I think we’re up to the responsibility.”
“Hell yeah, we are.”
That night, Matty went to bed with the bond shining through him like the sun.
**********
Matty insisted that Ethan didn’t have to pay him back for the aquarium trip, but Ethan refused to listen.
“It’s not paying you back. It’sreciprocating.”
“Fine. But not to the zoo. It always makes me sad to see the monkeys in cages.”
“Just the monkeys?”
“And like the elephants and the big cats and the penguins and the—”
“You don’t like zoos.”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
“But the aquarium is kind of the same thing…?”
“I mean, yeah, but I knew you’d like it, so. It was cool.”
Ethan looked unsure but didn’t press him further.
It was a couple of weeks later when Ethan sprung the trip on Matty. “We’re going to Boston on Friday. Just so you know.”
Matty turned in his chair, looking at Ethan sitting at his own desk. “Oh, you’re just informing me of my location this Friday?” he joked.
“Yep.” Ethan didn’t turn to look at him, but Matty could hear the smile in his voice.
“Okay. For what?”
“It’s a surprise.”
Matty groaned despite the grin on his face. “Oh, come on! I toldyouwhat we were doing.”
