Page 25 of Fierce-Matt
“I wasn’t the smartest girl at the party,” she said. She could make fun of herself like so many others did. It was better to play along than show you were hurt.
“Anya was so upset when she got home,” her mother said. “We told her repeatedly there weren’t any bears in Charlotte. We didn’t know what she was talking about until I called your mother.”
She wanted to snarl but held it back causing her nose to scrunch up instead. Her mother didn’t seem to get the hint to not skip down memory lane.
“I didn’t know that,” he said. “I had a bad habit of playing jokes on my siblings. Phoebe got the brunt of it.”
“And her friends,” Anya said.
She’d never forget that night.
Five girls getting to sleep in the pool house for the first time. She’d always wanted to do it and Phoebe’s parents had said no. That they had to stay in the house.
But Phoebe argued that since Matt and Ben stayed out with their friends at fifteen, they could that night too.
It would have been better if they hadn’t.
Right when the lights went out around midnight, they heard noises outside. Then a garbage can was knocked over.
She was terrified someone was going to come in and attack them.
One of their other friends said it was a bear. She believed that joke because it wasn’t only Matt who thought she was naïve.
Shewasnaïve back then and people took advantage of it.
The door opened to the pool house, then something gross-smelling filled the air and they all screamed and ran around the room looking for lights.
By the time Phoebe’s father appeared, there was nothing there and he calmed them down and they went into the house where she felt safer. She kept asking if it was possible for bears to get into houses.
Like an idiot of course.
The next day she’d told her mother what happened. Her mother called Phoebe’s mother to clear up the confusion and she was later told that it was Matt playing a prank.
It’d scared the crap out of her that night. For weeks, even months later, she had to be the butt of jokes at school that she believed a bear was in Phoebe’s backyard.
Some even called her Yogi.
“Poor Anya. She had nightmares for a few weeks that animals were going to get her in her sleep,” her mother said.
“Mom,” she said. Her patience button had been popped. Matt's eyes bulged out, his mouth was agape and his shoulders stiffened.
Her mother laughed, not aware how appalled Matt appeared. “Don’t feel embarrassed. It was funny in a way. I think it had more to do with your brother always making you jump at home.”
She snorted. “Don’t remind me.” She turned to Matt. “You’re not the only boy in my life that used me as their form of entertainment.”
His face flushed too. “Don’t blame Matt,” her mother said. “Boys will be boys. Your brother was twice as bad.”
“And he never grew up and took responsibility,” her father said. “That’s why he moved away. He couldn’t be a man and do what was right.”
Things were going to take a turn for the worse fast. “I think we’ve finished here,” she said. “Have we, Matt?”
He cleared his throat. “We are with your parents,” he said. “If you can stay for a few minutes?”
It wasn’t her preference, but she wouldn’t argue in front of her parents. “Do you need help, Mom?”
Her father stood up. “Help with what?” her father asked. “I’m taking your mother to lunch.”
She smiled. “Good. Enjoy it. Mom, I’ll talk to you later.”
