48

irl

everyone takes turns visiting kaia. they all hug her, and willow clings to matt like a leech when they leave the visiting room.

matt refuses to leave the hospital, and kaia's mom also wants to stay with her. she says goodbye to everyone and marylou and jimmy agree to take willow for as long as needed so kaia's mom can stay with her.

it takes a few minutes to convince willow to say goodbye to matt, she doesn't wanna leave him but he promises to come home and see her tomorrow.

nathan and chloe both sleep over at the triplet's house so chloe can drive them all to school as matt won't be there.

matt tells kaia's mom a bit more about himself, mostly things that have happened since after they weren't talking.

he tells her that they started dating a few days ago and kaia's mom is overjoyed. she gives matt a huge bear hug and carefully hugs kaia.

they stay with her all day, but kaia's mom eventually falls asleep in the arm chair.

matt sits on the side of the bed with her and they stay up late talking.

"i thought you would've told her by now." matt laughs.

"no, it didn't really come up."  kaia shakes her head.

"well, she seems happy about it." matt shrugs.

"yeah, she likes you." kaia nods.

"that's good. your mom is so sweet, and having to take care of willow all the time must be hard on her." matt says.

"she has lots of help, everyone i know absolutely loves willow, so, it's not too much work for her." kaia shrugs.

when she raises her shoulders, she gets a pain in her ribs and winces, holding the cast.

"be careful." matt laughs.

"don't laugh at me, i'm injured." kaia rolls her eyes.

"yeah, with the same attitude." he smiles.

kaia playfully smacks matt on the arm and they stay up until a little past midnight just talking.

kaia falls asleep, so matt properly covers her with the blanket, and sits down in the other visitor chair her mom wasn't sleeping in.

he eventually manages to fall asleep in the uncomfortable chair, and they're all awoken in the morning by doctors coming to check kaia's vitals.

matt walks down the street to buy himself, kaia, and her mom some tacos for lunch.

they sit together and eat the food, kaia's mom thanks him endlessly.

around 2pm that day, they say goodbye to kaia and promise to come back and visit everyday until she's out.

kaia's mom drives to matt's house thanking him for everything the whole car ride there.

they walk in the house together and willow is playing dolls with nick and nathan.

"mommy!" willow runs up to her and she swoops the child up into a big hug.

"nick showed me how to give barbie a haircut!" she excitedly says.

she sets her down and looks at the pile of doll hair and safety scissors on the floor next to 3 demolished barbie dolls.

"what happened?" she laughs.

"we walked down the road and bought cheap barbies from cvs to cut their hair." nick explains.

"sounds like you had fun, baby." kaia's mom smiles at her daughter.

"i did! and nicky's mom made us popcorn last night and i stayed up late and watched a movie." she brags.

she smiles and grabs willow's personal things from around the room.

willow runs and jumps into matt's arms, he spins her around in the air and she giggles.

"can i stay again mom? i wanna play dolls with matt." she asks happily.

"we have to go home, willy. dad is coming to get you tomorrow morning." she frowns.

"oh." she pouts.

matt starts tickling her belly and she starts laughing, forgetting that she was sad.

"i'll take you to the car, okay?" matt asks willow.

"ok, fine." she rolls her eyes.

willow says goodbye to jimmy, marylou, justin, nick, chris, chloe, and nathan.

matt carries willow out to the car and puts her in her carseat while kaia's mom packs her things in the trunk.

she hugs matt goodbye and thanks him again, willow waves out the window as they drive away.

he goes back inside and laughs as nick figures out how to use a broom and sweep up the hair.

matt sits on the couch next to chris, chloe on chris' other side, and nick and nathan on the other couch.

they turn on a movie and matt looks to the empty spot next to him.

"it feels so weird that she's not here." matt says, frowning and tapping her spot on the couch.

"she will be in a few weeks." nick reassures him.

"i know, but it feels so wrong hanging out without her, you know?" he looks at nick.

"trust me, i get it. there's an odd number of people and i hate it. she makes movies so much more fun." nick agrees.

"it's only 3 weeks." chloe laughs.

"maybe 4." he retorts.

"either way." she rolls her eyes, resting her head on chris' shoulder.

"coming from you, you two are never apart for more than a day." matt says.

"not true." chloe argues.

"yes, true. i'm just surprised you don't miss her." matt replies.

"of course i miss her, i'm just not oogly moogly in love with her like you." chloe jokes.

"whatever, man." he rolls his eyes.

through the whole movie, matt keeps glancing over to kaia's seat, wishing she were there. he can't ignore the urge to text her, but her phone was demolished in the crash.

he thinks about what to do, and he goes online to look at how much her phone model costed.

kaia hates apple phones, she insists on having samsung. she doesn't mind airpods and some apple products, but absolutely not the dog shit fuck ass phones.

a new phone of the exact same kind she had was only a couple hundred bucks, he decides to order it and give her a gift basket when it arrives.

nick and chris both make fun of him and call him a simp for buying her a phone, but he feels an overwhelming amount of guilt for making her wait in the car, so he buys the phone anyway.

he gets it 2 days later through amazon prime, he buys all her favourite candies and a few mini stuffed animals to put in her basket, along with the phone and her favourite flowers, pink tulips.

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