Page 62 of Am I the Only One

“How has he been?” I ask, knowing I’ll get the honest truth from her. She’s close to my age and has a genuine heart for this job, unlike most of the other people who work here who let things fall through the cracks.

“Not good. He’s been very irritable and upset, but I spent some time with him earlier, and he kicked my butt at checkers more times than I can count. He seemed to enjoy the distraction,” she tells me. “He was excited when he found out you were coming. His bag is already packed.”

“It’s quieter than normal,” I note when we enter the residential wing.

“It’s movie night. Everyone is in the rec room.” When we reach his room, she gives a quick knock on the open door as we step inside. “Matthew, look who’s here.”

He stands from the small desk and nearly knocks me over when he hugs me. “Hey, buddy. I heard you are being a trouble maker,” I tease.

“He broke my Legos.” When he steps back, he’s visibly upset. “He touches all my things!”

“They said you kicked a hole in the wall.”

“It was his fault. I came back from playing outside, and he had broken the Lego airplane I had just finished building.”

“Did you have fun building it?”

“Yeah, but now it’s destroyed,” he fumes.

“True. But now you can build it again and have more fun,” I say, trying to add a silver lining.

“Ugh! You don’t get it!”

“Okay. I’m sorry.” I give up trying to defuse him. “What do you say we get out of here?”

“What if he touches more of my things?”

“Don’t you worry about that, dear,” Maggie tells him. “I’ll keep my eye out.” She grabs his duffle bag and hands it to him. “You go and have fun with your sister. Don’t worry about what’s happening here, okay?”

“But—”

“No buts. You heard the woman,” I say as I hold out my hand for him to take. “Come on, let’s go. I have a surprise waiting for you up front.”

“What surprise?”

“Let’s go and find out.”

When we step into the lobby, Luca stands. My hand still holds Matthew’s, and I feel a tinge of protectiveness when I introduce them, having never exposed anyone to my brother so honestly.

“Matthew, this is my good friend and roommate, Luca.”

“Hey, Matthew.”

Matthew doesn’t respond, which isn’t unusual. He’s always very awkward around strangers and doesn’t fully understand social cues, so I have to help him out. “Can you say ‘hi’ to my friend?”

“Hi.” He then turns to me and says loud enough for Luca to hear, “He has a hole in his jeans. Poor people have holes in their clothes.”

I stifle a laugh because Luca is far from poor, but Luca doesn’t miss a beat when he responds, “It’s the style. You buy them like that. It’s called distressed.”

Matthew twists his face, and the expression is priceless. “It’s weird.”

“It isn’t weird,” Luca defends. “We’ll take you to the mall while we’re here and prove it to you.”

“Come on. Let’s go to the hotel.”

“His hair looks hard,” Matthew says, again, not understanding that he shouldn’t talk about people right in front of them.

“Be nice,” I tell him before Luca adds from over his shoulder, “You’re deflating my ego, Matthew.”