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Matt opens the back door and takes a dramatically deep breath. The smell of crisp fall air is one of his favorite things ever. He rubs his hands up and down the arms of his sweater a few times to warm them. It’s a pretty brisk day for it being early October. An idea pops into his brain and he walks quickly to the shed. He grabs a rake and walks back to the yard.
“Hey! What are you doing?” Chris asks curiously as he joins Matt in the backyard.
“I’m gonna rake these leaves into a pile so I can jump in it,” Matt explains.
“Can I jump in the pile?” Chris asks.
“Only if you help!” Matt exclaims.
Chris sighs, “Fine,” He walks to the shed and comes back with a rake for himself.
Matt and Chris start taking the leaves, checking every so often for any new spots they should start on.
“A leaf just landed on my head,” Chris says with a laugh.
Matt giggles, “Sometimes they fall into the hood of my sweatshirt and I don’t find them until I take it off.”
“Do you think this is good?” Chris asks after a while. He’s tired of raking and he’s surprised Matt hasn’t said so himself.
“A little more I think. See that small pile over there we can get some of those.” Matt explains as he gestures to the pile
Chris nods as he walks over to where Matt gestured. He rakes the small pile, slowly combining it with their original one.
“I think Dad will be happy we cleaned up the yard,” Chris mentions.
“Yeah, but we didn’t get all of the leaves,” Matt adds.
Chris shrugs, “We got a good start!”
“True,” Matt says.
“Let’s go put these rakes back so we can jump in the pile,” He adds a second later.
He and Chris walk back to the shed and put the rakes back. When they return to the pile it looks bigger than they remembered.
“This is gonna be awesome!” Chris exclaims excitedly.
“C’mon, let’s go!” Matt says as he races over to the pile.
Chris follows Matt and runs for the pile quickly. They both jump in, squishing the pile a lot. The sound of their laughter echoes through the pile. Chris jumps up, ready to go for another dive. He holds out his hand to help pull Matt up but he declines. Instead, Matt flaps his arms in a snow angel motion, making strange patterns in the leaves. Chris giggles before scooping up a pile of leaves with his hands and tossing it directly at Matt. Chris watches as the leaves float down onto Matt but Matt makes no effort to move. After a few moments, he decides to get up. He quickly realizes his hair has basically become leaves. Matt brushes his hand through his hair lazily, trying to get at least a few leaves off.
“Good luck,” Chris says with a chuckle as he looks at Matt’s hair. He ruffles it a bit and a few more leaves fall out.
“Any better?” Matt asks with a shrug.
“Yeah,” Chris says, although he’s lying.
They step off the pile and then begin kicking the leaves with their feet, in an attempt to reshape it. It sort of works but Chris has another idea in mind.
“Matt,” He starts.
“Hm?” Matt responds as he looks at Chris.
“Let’s grab a pile of leaves and then jump in the pile as we throw our pile up in the air,” Chris explains.
“Huh?” Matt says, obviously confused.
“We take a pile of leaves.” Chris starts.
“Uhuh,” Matt nods in understanding
“Throw it up into the air.”
Matt nods again.
“Then jump on the pile.”
“I understand now. But why is that a good idea?” Matt asks.
“Because it will look like it’s raining leaves on us!” Chris exclaims in excitement.
Matt thinks for a moment, trying to see Chris's vision.
“Sure, let’s try it.” He agrees.
They both grab a leaf pile as big as their two hands can carry. Then they position themselves in a way that they can jump on the pile.
“Three!” Chris starts.
“Two!” Matt continues.
“One!” They say in unison.
They throw their respective leaf piles as high as they can before jumping on top of the leaf pile. It works just as Chris imagined and he’s so happy.
Matt giggles as he flops down into the leaves. Chris joins him. Their laughter makes each other laugh at this point. Matt picks up a pile of leaves and chucks it right at Chris’s head.
“Hey!” Chris exclaims.
“Now we match,” Matt says with a genuine smile.
Chris giggles after deciding he agrees.
Matt’s so happy right now. He can’t even remember the last time he’s had this much fun with leaves. It’s like going back to his childhood when the three of them would all play in the leaves, except their dad or sometimes Justin would make the pile for them.
Matt sits up quickly, “Do you think Nick would want to do this with us?”
Chris ponders for a moment, “I’m not sure. Should we go ask him?” He asks.
Matt nods and they both stand up and head inside. They slide open the back door and step inside.
“Boys! You’re covered in leaves!” Marylou exclaims as she turns the corner to see Matt and Chris by the door. Matt’s sweater has leaves sticking to it and Chris’s fleece pajama pants have tiny bits and pieces of leaves all along them.
Matt and Chris exchange guilty looks, even though they know they’re not actually in trouble. They look themselves up and down, deciding Mom is being a little dramatic. They wouldn’t call it covered if it was them.
“Hi, Mom,” Chris says awkwardly.
“Mom, do you know where Nick is?” Matt asks quickly, trying to get to the subject.
“He went up to his room like maybe twenty minutes ago. He said he was going to lie down because he had a headache.” Marylou explains.
“Thanks,” Chris says.
“C’mon,” He gestures to Matt as he starts walking towards the stairs.
Matt and Chris climb the stairs and make their way to Nick’s room. Once there they knock softly before pushing open the door. After the door is open a crack they can clearly see Nick is sound asleep. He’s flat on his back with his covers pulled up to his chest, his favorite way to sleep.
“That’s okay, maybe another time,” Matt says once Nick’s door is closed and they’re out of earshot.
“Do you want to go back out?” Chris asks once they’re back downstairs.
“Not really anymore,” Matt replies honestly.
“Should we rake the pile into the corner by the shed so we can maybe use it again tomorrow?” Chris suggests.
“Yeah, good idea actually,” Matt responds.
Matt’s eyes go sad, “We only have three days left until we go back to LA,” He reminds Chris as he walks out the back door behind him.
“Hey, three days is a while! We’ll have plenty of time to do more fall activities.” Chris says as he slows his walk to put an arm around Matt’s shoulder.
Matt smiles as they walk down the steps.
They make their way to the shed, grabbing the rakes they had earlier to start fixing up the pile. Once they’re finished and the rakes are put away, they head back towards the house.
“Don’t you think we should try and shake some of these leaves off us before we go inside?” Chris asks.
Matt shrugs, “Yeah, I guess we should.”
They take turns shaking the leaves off each other's clothes until they’re satisfied with their results, then they climb the stairs and open the back door.
“That was really fun,” Matt mentions with a smile once they’re inside.
“Yeah, it really was.” Chris agrees.
Chris’s eyes go wide, “Matt,”
“What?” Matt asks curiously.
“Do you want to watch Halloweentown? I can make us some hot chocolate or there’s those apple cider donuts Mom got yesterday at the farmers market.” Chris asks.
Matt jumps with excitement, his feet lifting off the floor a couple of times.
“Go get in some comfier clothes and meet me in my room in ten minutes. I’ll bring the snacks.” Chris explains.
Chris has never seen Matt leave a room so fast. He’s not surprised as Fall is his absolute favorite season.
“Hurry up! I’m too excited! And I'm hungry for donuts!”
Chris rolls his eyes as he can hear Matt calling him all the way from upstairs. He thinks a movie and some great snacks are a great way to spend the afternoon with one of his favorite people on the planet.
“Coming!” He yells back to Matt.