Gratitudes part 3: Matt, who wore a miniskirt to prom

My childhood friend Eric lived in a yellow house at the end of a cul-de-sac. We spent our summers and after-school evenings playing video games (SNES, later N64), ping pong, and street hocky. We blasted the Mortal Kombat soundtrack on CD and played tackle football in the back yard. Young and indestructible, we never donned helmets or padding, but wore our bruises proudly. Eric had a neighbor named Matt, a regular kid, but two years older than us. Matt was lanky and tall and, owing to the age difference, generally beat the crap out of us at any of the physical games we played. He was always nice about it, though, and we enjoyed our time together. In retrospect, I find the overall lack of drama to be quite surprising, although I thought nothing of it at the time. One September, Matt started high school, and things began to change. We still played football, even rougher now that we were older and stronger, and Matt started inviting new friends that he'd made in his new school. They…