I pulled into the Charlottetown Mall parking lot and spotted Matt near the bus stop. I quickly pulled into a nearby parking spot and Matt got into the car.
"G'day, Matt," I said as he slid into the seat opposite me.
"G'day, Tim," replied Matt. "You able to reach Seb? I wasn't."
I frowned. I knew Seb could be out of touch for days at a time, but this wasn't like him to not reply.
"Did the message say read?" I asked.
"No, which is unusual," said Matt. "Normally he reads them even if he doesn't reply."
"Let's head to his house and get him then," I said. "He has no job, girlfriend or motivation to leave the house. So, the odds are he's there."
Matt nodded and I put the car in gear. Soon we were headed to Cornwall where Seb lived with his parents and younger sister Lucja.
We soon reached his house and parked My car in the driveway. We got out and walked up to the front door. I rang the doorbell and a few seconds later Lucja opened the door.
“Hello,” I said. “Is Seb here?”
“Yes he is,” replied Lucja cordially. “Come in while I go get him.”
We stood in the small porch area while Lucja headed up the stairs to Seb’s room. A few seconds later we heard the sound of them arguing.
“We’d better go see what that is,” said Matt. “If they’re arguing we could be here for an hour.”
We went up the stairs to Sebs room and arrived in the doorway just in time to hear Seb say, “Well it’s not like I can argue with that. But this is beside the point! My toenails are GREEN!”
“Seb’s toenails are definitely green,” agreed Matt. Who’d taken everything in with a single glance.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I said. “But it looks like Seb is up now.”
“Going for a new look, Seb?” Matt nodded towards Seb’s toenails. “Sorry to say, but I doubt those will help you get any girls.”
“I don’t want to hear about romance from you, Odysseus.” Muttered Seb grabbing a pair of socks and putting them on.
“Don’t mock Matthew,” I said. “He’s approaching his record of four months without a tragic romance.”
“Can’t you two ever have a normal conversation without randomly hurting my feelings?” asked Matt as he put me in a headlock. “We’ll head downstairs. Seb, put on some proper clothes and meet us in the car.”
“In the car? Why?” asked Sebastien as he stooped down to pick up his change of clothes.
“Hey, you may or may not have said something like, ‘we are always welcome at your place.’” I said as I struggled in vain against Matt’s headlock. I may have forgotten to mention that Matt was a fisherman’s son and had spent his whole life hauling around hundred-pound lobster traps and was scarily strong even though he didn’t look it. “We’ve got some important news,” I continued even though I didn’t know what the news was. “So, we thought we’d pick you up and head to our usual spot to discuss it.”
“You broke into my house for a superfluous reason like that?” grumbled Seb as he led us out of his room and downstairs. “If this important “news” is that Matt has found himself a new girlfriend I’m gonna leave you guys with the bill.”
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