thanked him over and over again.
Alfred seemed to be taken aback by the sudden hug but got over his surprise quickly enough and hugged her back. Matt's heart did a small little flutter he didn't understand as he watched Alfred assure his mother that there really wasn't any problem with their arrangement. Matt would indeed be taking some of his workloads from his shoulders.
"I brought us some lunch from the cafe down the street. I also brought sugar. I can get milk from upstairs."
The three enjoyed the lunch, the sandwiches were tasty, and the coffee even more so.
Sam had taken a great liking to Daphne and snuggled into her lap while she scratched behind his ear. They talked for another hour before Daphne bid the two men goodbye. She smiled a grateful smile when Alfie said she could visit anytime she wanted.
The store was silent as Alfie gathered the takeout containers and threw them into the paper bag.
"I like your mother," Alfie said as he threw the trash into the trashcan under the counter. Matt smiled as he looked out the window. "Yeah, I couldn't have asked for a better mother." Matt noticed a sad look flash across Alfie's face and put two and two together.
Alfie's mom was no longer in the picture. There was a story, but he didn’t press him.
Chapter Four
The day finished. Alfie gave Matt some money for food as he had to go back to his apartment. Matt sat on the couch, eating Chinese takeout while flipping through channels to find something to watch.
Now that he was alone, he had the time to examine where he was at the moment. How he went from homeless to having a roof over his head, a job he could use to pay for his studies, and whatever else he needed. Alfred Xavier Bailey really was a walking miracle to him. The man had every right to be mad at him, to hate what he no doubts the memories he brought back.
Sitting back, Matt sighed as he stared unseeingly at the ceiling. He remembers it well enough that it comes to him like flash photography.
The moment the skinny blond boy walked into the classroom, clearly from a different culture and a book under the arm. He smiled at the class and introduced himself. His British accent was a stark contrast from all the American ones around him. He was polite and had a cheerful disposition that made all the girls swoon.
It came out that Alfie was gay on the first day. A girl, a pretty cheerleader Matt couldn't care enough to remember the name of had come on strong. Alfie was like a deer caught in the lights of a truck as he looked down at the girl.
He stammered an apology and said in that pretty British voice of his, that he could never return any feelings she had as he was gay. The girls in the school had taken it up as a challenge for a few months. It soon became apparent that Alfie wasn't interested in any female in the school.
It only took a few days into Alfie's being at the school to become the target of the football team's bullying. They started off in small ways, in no way homophobic but merely to taunt his person in other ways. His lean frame, his British accent, and the things that confused him about America and his style of dress that was that of a dapper young man.
It was nothing that should have been bullied about, But, what the football team didn't like, they made the rest of the school dislike as well. It merely took a few weeks for Alfie to be ostracized. He sat alone at lunch and stayed until the middle of football practice to go home.
When it turned out that Alfie was smart enough to be the valedictorian of the class, the bullying went from calling him an “outsider” to a “nerd.” They stole his backpack, books and even went beyond to sabotage his projects to the point that Alfie's parents had stepped in.
The problem was that Alfie gave as good as he got. When he was paired with someone from the team that didn't pull their weight on a project, Alfie would go to the teacher with evidence that would get that player a low grade. He threw insults back at the bullies, most times more witty and “snarky” than what the football players could ever come up by themselves.
The boiling point came down