Matthew's New Room

Not everyone liked Matthew for his obvious romance with Julian, but most if not all people loved to watch his performances, so nobody felt like poisoning him or anything like that. Besides, many people there were just like Matthew, poor friends and relatives of the richer family members.

So, a few times a day Matthew had to work on polishing that butt-to-shoulders handstand that became Julian's favorite, torturing his still young and flexible spinal column to further secure his position (no pun intended) in fear that if this posture becomes any less eye candy he might get kicked from the house just as easily as he got in there.

He had to do a lot of contortion for Julian but it wasn't quite clear from the amount of attention he got in return if the rich boy liked Matthew as a friend or he was just excited to play with a bendy doll.

Sometimes Julian treated Matthew as his best friend and they'd walk through the seemingly endless garden that spread around the house, eating cream and holding hands. But on other days the amount of pushing on his poor spine reminded him of his early training days with his dad, the innkeeper, who dragged Matthew all the way from a mischievous and clumsy kid who'd often break plates and dishes or get back home all covered in dirt, to a skillful young acrobat who doubled the inn's daily income.

Also, being a country side boy, Matthew has no idea how to read and write, so all the books you can see here are actually art books with paintings and illustrations covering all corners of the world, all kinds of cultures and man-made masterpieces – Matthew loves studying them before going to sleep, dreaming to some day get off his own back and become a painter, maybe when his body's too old for contortion ^^