23

irl

matt wakes up in the middle of the night from a dream. he sits up in chris' bed and rubs his eyes. he uses his phone flashlight to find his way to the bathroom.

tiredly, he pees and washes his hands, flicking the lightswitch off. from muscle memory, he finds his way to his bedroom in his half awake state.

the door creeks open and he uses the brightness of his lockscreen to find his bed.

he sees kaia sprawled out on his bed, the blankets half on her body, half on the mattress, and he stops in his tracks.

he watches her for a moment, admiring her beauty but also knowing he needs to leave the room.

she grunts and rolls over in bed, still asleep but now facing matt. he studies her face like it's the last time he'll ever see it, and forces himself to turn around and leave.

he makes his way back to chris' room and falls back asleep there, thinking of her.

"kids! school!" jimmy shouts from downstairs.

matt and chris wake up at the same time, and nick is already awake downstairs.

since nick is already ready for the day, he walks upstairs to wake kaia up.

"kaia. babe, you gotta get up for school." nick nudges her gently.

she grunts and turns over in the bed.

"kaia." he softly shakes her again.

"i'm getting up, mom." she mumbles.

"i'm nick, not your mother." he laughs.

she is half awake, and once she registers what he just said, she jolts up.

she looks around the room, and at who's bed she's in.

"fuck." she covers her mouth.

"it's fine. he's in chris' room." nick laughs again.

"he's here?!" she whisper-shouts.

"he insisted on coming home early last night." nick says.

"nick. i'm not ready to talk to him. yesterday was an adrenaline thing." she sighs.

kaia rubs her face and runs her fingers through her hair.

"james." she mutters.

"don't worry about him. he's out of the picture." nick comforts her.

"you don't get it, nick. i thought he was the one. now i'm never gonna fall in love." she huffs.

at that exact moment, matt and chris walk past the bedroom and matt's ears perk up when he hears what she said.

"why do you care so much about falling in love? you're about to turn 18, you're still so young." he says.

"i know. i don't know why this is such a big deal to me." she shakes her head.

"how about you drive us over to your house to get your clothes, then we go to school and i'll stay with you the whole day. i will punch james again if i have to." he suggests.

"you punched him?!" kaia shouts in surprise.

from downstairs, chris and matt are eating breakfast and both laugh when they hear kaia discover that james got beat up.

"still wish i was there last night." matt says, taking a bite of his cereal.

"i think it's best you weren't." chris adds.

"why? what even happened after he left?" matt asks.

"mom got her to unlock the door and they hugged on the floor, then she left and i went in there to sit with her and she fell over on my lap and started crying again. dude, i almost started crying, too." chris explains.

matt rolls his eyes and keeps eating.

"what, matt? that i hugged her?" chris looks at matt.

"no, nothing." he shrugs, an accusitory tone in his voice.

"are you seriously jealous that i hugged her when she was crying?" chris asks.

"not jealous, you two just seem close." matt rolls his eyes.

"it's not like that, matt. you know i like chloe. you need to talk to her already for the love of God." chris laughs.

"talk to her already? yesterday was the first time in months and it didn't even count." matt sighs.

"you have some serious jealousy issues. like, the whole time her and james were together, you acted like a total psychopath." chris says.

"i don't know how to describe it. everytime i see them together, this heavy pain washes over me and i can feel it in my chest. it's like, not even something i can control. i just want what's best for her." matt replies.

"okay, well you need to work on that. if you ever want her back in your life and to be her friend, you're gonna have to get used to seeing her with other people." chris advises.

"i know, i just don't get why it can't be me." he responds.

"matt." chris looks at him.

they both laugh and clean up their breakfast mess. kaia drives nick and herself over to her house to get dressed properly for school.

nick helps kaia pick out a nice outfit, then he waits in her room while she showers and gets ready.

he notices the pile of matt's clothes still in the corner of her room, and sends a picture of it to matt. all he gets in response is "fuck off".

when kaia is done and leaves the bathroom, she sits down on her bed with nick and opens her phone.

she sees her instagram and deletes every picture and post with james, then unfollows and blocks him on everything.

nick, matt and chris already did.

she facetimes chloe and her and nick explain everything. chloe is speechless and in shock almost the whole time.

they end the call with saying they'd pick her up on the way to starbucks, and exchange i love you's before hanging up.

nick hops in the passenger seat of kaia's car and they drive over to chloe's house. she gets in and has hundreds of questions for kaia, especially about sleeping in matt's bed.

they get their regular order from starbucks and head to school.

kaia parks far from where matt would be, and they all head inside.

"call me if he does one damn thing." nick says to kaia and chloe, hugging them both and leaving as the bell rings.

the two girls walk into english and don't see james. oh well. they sit down and figure he's late, but honestly hopes he doesn't show up.

10 minutes go by, no sign of him. 20, 30, 45, an hour, no james and only 10 minutes left of class.

"what do we do about the spare with matt? what if he thinks i'm ready to talk to him?" kaia nervously asks chloe.

1087 words