It's been over a week since Aaron and Mathéo's fight and they still aren't on talking terms. The former hasn't even tried to apologize and has pretty much decided to just avoid the latter completely. Aaron has really taken the stalker's advice about Mathéo to heart as he's now convinced that the normal may be secretly in league with UDAP. Sara reaches out to the latino to get him to forgive her boyfriend for what he did to him, but he ignores her totally 'cause he doesn't want anything to do with the girl nor her egotistical lover.

Apart from his ongoing beef with his two classmates, Mathéo still has something else bothering his mind, a dinner to be precise. Every year in the middle of Fall, Aldéric (Mathéo and Lyam's dad) organizes a family dinner at their house where he invites his mother and sister all the way from France to spend an evening with them, but it never ends up being as cozy and welcoming as intended. Don't get me wrong, the people on the nuclear side of the teen's foster family are amazing to him and treat him like one of their own, but the same can't really be said about the extended portion. Normally, Mathéo brings Aaron along as emotional support so he doesn't have to sit alone and take their shit all night, but considering the two's dispute, he's going to have to find someone else to come with him, and he knows just the right person to meet.

"Do you have any plans for tonight by any chance?" Mathéo asks Laura as they study together at the school library.

This massive hall of books has quickly become these two teens' preferred hiding place during their daily school lunch breaks to escape from all the socializing taking place in the cafeteria. They both just rather stay alone in the library where barely anyone in the school goes to and enjoy each other's company, platonically of course. There's just something so calming and peaceful about it.

"No, I don't. Why do you ask?" Laura responds to Mathéo's question a bit confused by his sudden interest with her after school itinerary.

"I just need a plus one to my family's dinner tonight and I was wondering if you would like to go. Aaron normally follows me to these kinds of stuff, but you know why that won't happen this time," Mathéo explains.

"Is it like a date?" the brunette blurts out the question at the top of her mind. Something like attending family dinners sounds like what a couple would do and the two aren't like that, at least the Latino boy doesn't see her that way. "As friends, I mean."

"If you want to think of it like that, I guess, but I assure you it's not as nice as you think. The Badis are an amazing family to me, but their other relations aren't such great people. They're just always so frustrating and I think I'll feel a bit more comfortable if you were there with me. What do you think? Will you come?"

"Well, if you put it like that, I can't really say no without feeling like a bad person."

"Thanks a lot. I'll send you my address and the time."

* * * *

It's already 9pm and the dinner has long since started, but Laura still hasn't arrived, which causes Mathéo to wonder if she changed her mind last minute without informing him. Sitting around their large round dining room table are Aldéric, Joséphine, Louise (Aldéric's mother), Ambre (Aldéric's sister), Lyam, Kate and Mathéo. Between the Latino and his foster mother is an empty seat for Laura, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be occupied tonight. For some annoying reason, the grandmother and aunt repeatedly use that fact to make passive-aggressive comments about the adopted family member while knowing fully well that he can tell he's being mocked.

A few minutes later, a yellow taxi drives up to the Badi residence and Laura rushes out of the back seat. She nervously rings the door bell, worrying that she may have come too late. She tried to arrive on time, but Nathaniel delayed her with his unending ramblings about not trusting Mathéo enough to let his little sister go to his house on her own in the night. Laura just hopes the dinner is still on and that she didn't just let down her only friend the moment he needed her.

"I'll go check who's there," Mathéo uses the sudden ring of the doorbell as an excuse to leave the table and he quickly gets up before he's insulted even more. He opens the door without asking any question and he's instantly elated when he beholds the sight of the lovely brunette standing there. "You came."

"I'm so sorry I am l-" Laura doesn't get to finish her apology before the boy unexpectedly hugs her tightly.

"It's alright. I'm just happy you're here now."

Now brimming with a lot more joy in his heart, Mathéo leads Laura into the dining room where everybody is and directs her to her chair beside him. She politely greets everyone at the table before taking her seat, and this strangely irks Louise and Ambre.

"Is this how badly this family's morals have fallen? So, now you just let this stranger's child bring random girls into your home to fornicate and you're not even the slightest bit concerned, Joséphine. I've always doubted your maternal instincts, but it's as though you're not even trying to prove me wrong at this point," Louise ridicules her daughter-in-law with an expression of disgust and anger on her face. "You should just turn this house to the boy's personal sex ring while you're at it. I pity your actual son."

"My mom didn't do anything wrong. I'm not 'fornicating' with anyone, and even if I was, I won't be so disrespectful as to do it in their home," Mathéo defends his mother. "Laura and I aren't even dating, talk less of having sex."

"So, you're not even denying it. How shameless! You might show your parents that nasty attitude, but don't think for a moment you can be rude to me," Louise furiously snaps at the boy. She wasn't expecting him to actually talk back at her and she wants to put him in his place for doing so.

"Don't you dare speak to my son like that, Louise! You can talk down on me as much as you want for not being the perfect wife to your son, but you have absolutely no right to insult Mathéo. He is our child whether you like it or not," Joséphine warns her mother-in-law. "You can find your way out if you don't want to be here."

"My mother is only saying the truth. Aldéric, how do you even feel comfortable raising some unknown child? I've googled his biological parents before and they're full-on psychos. He could be like them," Ambre forces herself into the argument to give her idiotic opinion as always. "He might even be like the next Ted Bundy for all we know."

"Could you two just not criticize Mathéo for one night? Like my wife just said, he's part of our family and he always will be, regardless of whatever baseless hatred you have towards him. Let's just all sit and enjoy dinner," Aldéric steps in to end the matter.

As the four adults at the table dispute among themselves, Lyam quickly notices the melancholic look on the face of his younger brother sitting beside him. It must be really hard for him to just sit here while their grandmother and aunt diss him so vehemently as if he's not a human being. The blonde decides to take up his big brother mantle by giving him some comforting words.

"No los escuches. Eres parte de esta familia no importa lo que piensen (Don't listen to them. You're part of this family no matter what they think)," Lyam whispers into Mathéo's ear. Lyam may not be as fluent in Spanish as his brother, nor does he have a perfect accent, but he has been taking classes in school long enough to sufficiently communicate in the language. None of the other Badis understand Spanish, so speaking it to each other is their own little way of talking in secret. "Todo lo que dicen nuestra tía y nuestra abuela es una tontería (Our aunt and grandma are just saying nonsense)."

"Gracias por decir eso. Me importa mucho (Thanks for saying that. It means a lot)," Mathéo genuinely responds, but his facial expression doesn't change. His brother's words just aren't enough right now. "I don't think I'm feeling too well. I'm just going to go to bed," the boy lies as he stands up and leaves the dining room.

Aldéric and Joséphine realize how sad their son must be after all the affronts he has been forced to listen to within the short time the dinner has been on and decide to leave him be instead of forcing him to stay. After watching all that unfold, Laura finally gets to understand what Mathéo meant when he called his extended family frustrating. She knows now why he needed emotional support for tonight and she's not going to let him down.

"I should probably go check on Mathéo," Laura tells the family sitting at the table before excusing herself from the room. Louise tries to slam the young girl for worrying about the boy, but everybody just ignores her.

Laura follows Mathéo's steps and finds herself in front of his room door. She knocks on it twice and asks for permission to enter, but when she doesn't receive a response, she lets herself in anyway. The brunette enters the room and it turns out to be a lot like she imagined. A bit smaller than what she's used to, but still within her expectations. There's a medium sized bed at one end with a desk and laptop sited beside it. The four walls are all painted cream and are decorated with posters of his favorite anime (Blue Exorcist) and celebrities he stans-like Slimane and Rosalía.

'Where is he?' Laura wonders as she doesn't see Mathéo here, but then she hears it. There's a sound of someone punching a wall coming out from behind the door leading into the guy's bathroom. She takes a moment to consider the possibility of her accidentally seeing something she can't unsee if she just barges in there, but she still does it anyway.

Laura opens the door and walks through it, and she finds Mathéo angrily hitting the wall so hard cracks have started forming on it. Fortunately for her, he's still fully clothed. The Latino hears the door swing ajar and he turns around to see the brunette standing there. The look on his face in that moment is a mix of anger, shame and shock. Laura immediately notices the tiny blood stains on the spot Mathéo punched and realizes his knuckles have been injured due to how much force he employed.

"You're injured, aren't you?" she asks him with her concern noticeable in her tone.

"What are you doing here?" Mathéo tries to dodge the matter with another question as he hides his bleeding hand behind his back. However, Laura remains adamant as she comes closer and drags his arm to get a better look at his wounds.

"You shouldn't just ignore injuries like this, they could get infected if left untreated," the girl warns him while gently rubbing her hands over the knuckles to heal it. Within the blink of an eye, they are restored back to normal.

"I'm sorry for burdening you with all this. I bet you regret coming now," Mathéo apologizes to her.

"Not at all. I'm happy I'm here and you're definitely not burdening me. You don't deserve all that hate you're getting from those racists. What is their problem anyway?"

"It's not about the color of my skin for them, at least I don't think it is. They just hate the fact that my parents adopted me. They believe since I'm not their blood, I shouldn't be in their family. Lyam always tells me not to listen to them, but that's not so easy to do when those two keep on screaming how much I repulse them to my face. Those two are so annoying I honestly feel like strangling them to death at times."

"Maybe you should just focus all your attention on the people who do love you, like your parents, your brother," Laura takes a short pause before sheepishly adding, "me. Platonically, of course. I love you platonically."

Mathéo can tell the sincerity of Laura's words from her voice alone and doesn't bother resisting his burning desire to hug her. She's taken aback when he suddenly pulls her into a tight warm embrace that sends a tingling sensation round her body. He doesn't take notice of it, but she even starts blushing.

"Gracias Laura. Puede que no lo notes, pero tu amor significa mucho para mí (Thank you Laura. You may not notice this, but your love means the world to me)," Mathéo whispers his words of gratitude into her ears as a little smile forms on his face for the first time this entire evening.

Laura doesn't understand a single word of Spanish, and thus doesn't comprehend what her friend just told her, but she knows what 'gracias' means and decides to respond by saying, "thank you too." She doesn't want to ruin this touching moment between both of them by asking him to translate and just hugs him back.

Unfortunately for these two teens, this emotional scene is soon cut short when the boy's mother abruptly walks into the room. Mathéo and Laura immediately pull away from each other's embrace once they notice Joséphine is staring at them. The two awkwardly look at her without saying anything 'cause they know what she's probably thinking was happening between them.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you two's couple moment, I just wanted to check up on Mathéo," the mother apologizes genuinely.

"No, it wasn't like that, Mrs Badi. Mathéo and I aren't a couple, I was just trying to cheer him up," Laura attempts to explain to Joséphine the real nature of the hug she just saw, but the woman's face makes it quite clear she's not convinced.

"Oh. If that's the case, I'm sorry for assuming differently." Joséphine comes closer and hugs her son tightly. "How are you doing, my love? I'm sorry about what your grandmother and aunt said to you. They have absolutely no right to speak to you that way."

"Thanks mom. Don't worry, I'm okay. At least, I'm feeling much better now thanks to you and Laura," the boy assures his adoptive mother. "Could you give us a moment mom? We'll join you guys in the dining room in a minute."

"Okay, take as much time as you need," she agrees and gives him a motherly peck on his cheek, but before she exits the room, she whispers something into his ear. "Also, you do know that your father and I won't have any problems if you two were actually in a relationship? She looks like a nice girl and we'll support you no matter what. We allowed Lyam go out with Kate, so you're not going to be an exception."

"I'm fully aware, mom. You don't have to worry about that," Mathéo can't help but laugh as he responds to his mother. It's one of the few times he has truly smiled all night.

Joséphine hugs the boy once again before granting his request by leaving him alone with Laura in the room. The brunettes face is still red like a tomato out of embarrassment. She's afraid that her friend's parents now look at her as some sort of promiscuous friend with benefits.

"I'm sorry for what my mom said. I've never brought a girl home before, so she's just a bit ecstatic I'm making new friends," Mathéo apologizes to Laura as they both stand alone in the bathroom. "You must be feeling really embarrassed around me right now."

"You don't have to apologize. I'm pretty sure my brother would make even worse accusations if I invited you to have dinner with us," the brunette assures him. "Shouldn't we head back to the dining before your grandmother and aunt start accusing us of secretly making babies just to spite her?"

Laura's question immediately causes the boy to burst into laughter, considering how accurate it is. Louise and Ambre are probably already concocting more 'theories' about her adoptive grandson. After all, that seems to be the only thing those two women know how to do.

"Yeah, we should," Mathéo responds as he struggles to stop chuckling. "Let's go."

* * * *

Another hour goes by and the family dinner comes to a close. Still feeling angry about being cautioned by her own son, Louise doesn't wait an extra minute before leaving with her daughter. Also, after helping out with the dishes, Lyam steps out to drive Kate home. Soon after their exit, Laura's Uber arrives and Mathéo offers to walk her to the cab, but before they even cross the door, Aldéric and Joséphine interrupt them.

"Before you head out, Laura, do you mind if my wife and I have a word with you?" the boy's father asks the girl unexpectedly. "You can wait for her outside, Mathéo. We won't take long."

Obeying his guardians, the Latino teen makes no objection and just walks out the door. Laura is a bit tense about their sudden request to speak with her. It might not show on her face, but she's worried they might want her to stay away from their son 'cause they're convinced she's a bad influence on him or something like that.

"We wanted to thank you personally for everything you've done for Mathéo. You clearly mean a lot to him," Aldéric says to her and his expression of gratitude is far from what she was expecting.

"Thank you, but I can't really take credit for anything. If anything, Mathéo has done more for me than I've done for him," Laura responds modestly. "I should be the one thanking you, not the other way around."

"So modest, exactly like he described her," Joséphine comments with a laugh. "It's good to finally put a face to the name."

"Sorry, I don't understand what you mean." The brunette is very perplexed by the woman's last statement.

"Don't tell Mathéo we told you this, but he talks a lot about you. Ever since you saved his life that awful night, you seem to have taken an important part of his heart. Apart from Aaron, we've never seen him care so much about any of his friends from school," the father reveals and it takes Laura by surprise. Knowing that the Latino feels like that towards her makes her feel weirdly good and warm inside. "It's been nice talking with you. You can go to your taxi now."

The girl politely wishes the two adults good night before leaving through the door and rejoining Mathéo. He walks with her to the yellow taxi in the driveway without bothering to ask for details about her discussion with his parents. Before he leaves her to enter the cab, he gives her one last hug for the night and astonishes her with an unprecedented kiss on one of her cheeks.

"Have a good night," Mathéo tells her with his normal charismatic smile.

"Uh... Yeah, I will," Laura stammers with reddened cheeks as she enters the car's back seat and shuts the door without adding anything else.

The brunette can't help but wonder if the boy's last gesture was supposed to be an admission of romantic affection for her or just another one of his confusing antics, like how he used to cuddle up with her when they were stuck in the hospital. Regardless of the question disturbing her mind, the driver starts the vehicle and drives away without further delay. I guess Laura's just going to have to continue waiting for the day that Mathéo clarifies his feelings about her.