Drowning in the Waves.

Day 10: Food surplus is starting to run low, no motivation to get into the car and drive. Several boxes of cup of noodles will suffice, one box of Easy Mac stands alone.

This is what Matthew Sanders life had come to, he thought as he wrote down in his journal. The sink was full of dishes he had yet to put in the washer and clothes were laying about everywhere on the floor. He never really used to clean or buy groceries, Val would always do the deed while he played video games or wrote music. This was his down time, a few months break before the band released their new album and headed back out on tour. Usually on breaks Val would cater to him, solely because she missed him but also because she felt as though he would do the tasks mediocrely. She never really did have faith in him when it came to a lot of things, especially his fidelity.
Matt felt as though he was going insane. All his friends had girls and usually that kept them pretty preoccupied, therefore he was alone most of the time. His cell phone barely rang and a majority of the time, the only people he talked to were on Xbox Live.

Wake up
Work out
Take a nap
Make lunch (Anything microwavable)
Xbox
Repeat.


That was his routine but sometimes he would switch it up, like pretending the ground was lava and jumped on furniture or instead of an inside workout, he would take a run. His runs would come with the slightest hope that he would meet up with Reese, the nanny next door.
Their meeting was so casual, he was afraid that she wouldn't ever bother with him again. But every day he watched as she stretched her long legs out on the grass then take off with that stroller, her hips swaying seductively as if she knew he was watching.
Okay, now you're really going crazy Sanders, Matt thought to himself.
Sure enough, the garage door opened right on time, 3:30 everyday.
But this time she wasn't in running clothes. She had on grey sweater material pants that reminded him of MC Hammer and an old beat up Atreyu shirt. Her long brunette hair was down and in natural waves, almost frizzy. She kept rubbing her nose. Jason was following her as they walked out of his line of sight. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. He swung open the large oak door with a smile.
"Hello," she croaked. She was clearly sick.
"Hi," Matt said back meekly but his eyes glanced down at the eight year old boy. He was bouncing with excitement.
"This is from Mrs.Roberts. She heard about our little encounter and wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood." Reese held out a cellophane neatly wrapped plate of cupcakes.

Cupcakes will prevent a trip to the grocery store indefinitely, he thought to himself evilly.

"Thank you," Matthew smiled and took the plate graciously.
"Reese said if I asked nicely you would let me have one." Jason chirped and Reese pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.
"Even better, why don't you come in. We can grub out on the couch and play some COD."
Jason squealed with excitement. He pushed his way passed Matt and jumped onto the couch.
"I'm really sorry," Reese laughed. "As I told you before, we have some social issues to work on."
"Don't worry about it," Matt chuckled and pulled the red ribbon from the plate. "I was just like him as a kid. If you know what you want you just have to be aggressive towards it," he spoke in almost a flirtatious way that made Reese blush. She thought she had just misconstrued the connotation and didn't know why she was even blushing in the first place. "Where's the baby?"
"Lucy is with her grandparents, she was a premie, born with a weak immune system so no matter what, they never take a chance when someone is sick. I don't want to get you sick either so do you mind if I just leave J here with you and I go run for an hour."
Matthew was almost shocked, she was so trusting and she barely even knew him.
"I googled you." She said in a matter of fact tone. "I know you're some rockstar so if shit goes down," she referred to Jason, "You're ass goes down with it." With that threat she turned on her heels and marched back into the Roberts home.
Matt looked from the open door back to Jason, he was waiting eagerly on the couch. The kid didn't even notice the articles of clothing that were vomited around him or the food scrapes he was sitting on. Surely, there would be lays stuck to his jeans when he got up.
Matt smiled to himself, he could use company, even if it was an eight year old boy.

Reese grew up in a somewhat conservative home. Her father was a loan officer and her mother worked at Ralph's to help pay the bills ever so often. They lived moderately, being considered middle class. But in Orange County, "middle class" held a stature higher than one would think. The salary figures to be even considered for that class were close to six. 80,000-100,000. Living moderately was the key phrase.
Reese was never really popular in high school, not because she was considered "weird" but only because she was never really known.
Freshman and sophomore year were quiet but it wasn't until her junior year that she started to become "rebellious," In the terms of her mother. She died her brown hair even darker and pierced her lip, it was cool then. She was listening to bands like the Deftones, AFI, and the Misfits. She was drinking behind grocery stores and throwing up in the hallway when she came home at midnight. She got her first tattoo in a friends garage. "Fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" was etched in pretty script on her skin just above her hip bone. She never fucking regretted that tattoo.
Her parents had enough when they saw it. They sent her to live with her uncle and his family in Huntington Beach.
"He'll be more lenient with the lifestyle you choose to pursue." He father said emotionless as they sped down the 405.
Uncle Tom was an outdoors man, he loved hiking and surfing and snowboarding. His knuckles were tattooed with EEAT SHIT.
"Two E's for the hell of it," he would always laugh, beer in hand. Punk in Drublic, a NOFX, reference was inked on his neck and tattoos nearly covered his whole body. He owned his own automotive repair shop and helped out with a local skate shop by the beach. She didn't even know how her father was related to this man. When she was fourteen years old, for her birthday he bought her a brand new Deftones record, Adrenaline. She never had the chance to listen to it, he father snatched it right up and put it in his closet so she was never corrupted. One year later she found it and it changed her life forever.

Reese attended Huntington Beach high for her two final years with her only claim to fame that Tom, the home town hero, was her uncle.
It took her awhile but she got her life on track, that's when she attended UCI, grew her normal hair color in, and took out the lip ring.

"I'm back," Reese smiled, her body slicked with sweat as she stood in the door way of Matthews house.
The two boys weren't playing video games anymore. The stereo was on full blast with heavy metal music. Jason was on the coffee table pretending to shred on his air guitar while Matt was hysterically laughing.
"Am I interrupting?"
"Oh!" Matt was startled and quickly went to shut it off. "Sorry, was just showing the kid my band."
"This is you?" She was surprised. It sounded almost like Metallica. Matt nodded confidently.
Reese looked around his home for a moment. It was a mess, there was even boxers hanging on a few awards he had shelved.
"Interesting," she mumbled. "You sound vaguely familiar."
"Really?"
"Yeah, do you have older stuff or no."
"We do!" He laughed and went to the large media center. "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet was our first album, do you want me to play it?" He out it in before he could get a response to his rhetorical question and skipped to track 8, An Epic of Time Wasted. He watched her closely as she listened when suddenly her face contorted and she cried out.
"Holy fuck!" She almost laughed and covered her mouth as Jason shot her a glare. "No shit," she whispered. "Do not tell me Brian Haner plays guitar for this band."
"Yes!" Matt was surprised she knew.
"That kid was in my junior year math class and alway bragged about how awesome his band was and yadda yadda and he forced me to one of your guys shows at some shitty ass bar. No offense, but this was the only song I liked on that album! I tutored Brian!"
"No way, you went to HB High?"
"Yes, it's all coming back to me now!" She paused. "I remember you! You used to hang out with that really talk kid that always wore an orange Kimono and had spiked hair-"
"Jimmy!"
"Sullivan, that's right. I used to have the biggest crush on that kid, he was such a freak. He would stay over at our house a lot. I can't believe I didn't recognize all of you!"
"We need to pull a year book or some shit." Matt laughed, this was some six degrees of separation type of shit. He couldn't remember her though. He tried with all his night to find those beautiful blue eyes in his memory but nothing was there.
"Tom Berry, you know him?"
"I fucking love Tom! Me and that old man drink at Johnny's and talk about old fucking music."
"That's my uncle." That still didn't spark a memory of her, only of Tom. That was the coolest guy he had ever met. He would buy beer for him and Brian and let Jimmy stay at his house when he had nowhere to go.
"Are you doing anything tonight?" Matt asked. "Wanna come to Johnny's with me?"

Matt waited in anticipation as he saw the salt and pepper haired man pull up in a convertible Porsche, just another car in their collection he's seen. A few minutes later, the ill Reese made her way next door. Her hair was a mess and her clothes looked like pajamas but she didn't give a shit. She never really did when it came to outside appearances.
"Ill drive," Matt smiled and locked the door behind them. Matt made his way to the passenger side and opened the door for. Reese raised a suspicious eyebrow at him.
"A gentleman never lets a sick woman work." She just laughed and climbed into his black Truck. As he turned the ignition a fire lit in Reese's stomach. For a moment she was a little nervous to be in the car alone with a stranger. The fire burned brighter as she stared up at him. His stature was so much larger than hers. He was muscular in a perfect manner that screamed domineering and teddy bear all at the same time. His hazel eyes twinkled in the starry night sky and the beanie that was no on his head pulled back his perfect brown hair. She gulped as he met eye contact with her at a red light. She watched at his hands eased around the steering wheel and his bottoms lip sucked between his teeth for a moment.
His smirk, she almost moaned.
He turned away the moment she felt her cheeks grow hot. His state was intense and she felt that intensity up her knees.
The park was in park in no time and Matt climbed out before she could even unbuckle her seat belt. He had the door open for her with a sweet smile plastered on his face.
"Stop being nice," she mumbled jokingly.
"Like I said Reese, a gentlemen never lets a sick woman work."
The two walked into Johnny's. The ska music was loud as they took their seats at the bar.
"Sanders!" Someone shouted. The man waddled over with a beer in his hand, it was sloshing from the glass and his speech was slightly slurred. "Who's the pretty lady!" He grabbed her hand and kissed the top of it. Reese snatched it away quickly and wiped it on her jeans.
"This is Reese, my neighbor...kinda." He winked at her.
"Hello Beautiful, I'm Johnny."
Reese shot him a smile and turned to the bartender. "Jack and Coke."
"My kinda woman!" Johnny howled.
"Short shit, get out of here. Go home to Lacey!"
"Yeah, yeah.." Johnny trailed off and wandered back to the pool tables.
"That's Johnny, he plays bass in the band. He wreaks havoc."
"Ah, I see," Reese smiled and casually sipped from her glass. "So tell me M.Shadows," Matt almost cringed as she said it. "How's it feel being in the presence of someone who witnessed your first show ever." She grinned.
"Pretty damn awesome."
That intense stared joined them again. Matt's hazel green eyes were glued onto Reese's baby blues. He wanted to touch her, to feel the warmth of a woman again.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Matt turned to face Jimmy Sullivan, he towered above the two as that sat on the barstools.
"Jim!" Matt smiled, "This is the girl I was telling you about, Tom's niece."
"Trust me, I remember you." Jimmy winked. "I knew you looked familiar when you waltzed into Matt's garage a few days ago. My, my, little Reese grew up!"
"All those nights you used to terrorize me," Reese shook her head and wagged a finger at him. "You could never remember which window was the spare bedroom and you would fall on your drunken ass on my bed."
"And you never let me sleep in it with you." He frowned like a puppy dog.
The group just laughed.
"Sanders, you better be buying this woman's drinks all night!" Jimmy wrapped his arms over their shoulders and call out for a round of shots.
"To old memories!" He shot her a smirk and they all downed them together.