74

irl

they stare at eachother and matt suddenly snaps out of it when he sees other people waiting to use the self checkout.

he pays for the drink and looks back at her one last time, seeing her standing still while willow wiggles around and tries to get out of her arms to see matt.

matt walks out of the store with his head down, quickly getting hit with the rain once he leaves the area with the overhead cover and walks towards his car.

once kaia's brain cathches up to the situation and she sees him leave the front door, she grabs the magazine out of willow's hands, quickly shoves it back onto a nearby shelf, and runs outside after matt with tears starting to form in her eyes.

willow cries for the magazine but soon stops when she sees matt. he hears willow crying from behind him, and stops walking.

kaia stops walking when he turns around, standing in the rain across the parking lot from her. she doesn't know what she planned on doing, but her feet did the thinking before her brain could.

they stand in the pouring rain, staring at eachother as willow manages to climb out of kaia's arms and run through the parking lot over to matt.

"willow!" kaia shouts at her, taking a step forward before stopping herself, a car zooming past.

"matty!" willow shouts, her arms reaching out to him.

he looks at kaia, then back down at willow who was standing right infront of him.

he picks her up, wanting her to be off the road and further away from cars, and to not slip in a puddle. willow has her hood up to shield herself from the rain, and matt looks down at her with a sad smile on his face.

kaia stands by herself about 6 or 7 meters away from matt and willow, his hoodie that she was wearing growing more and more wet. she noticed that the combination of the rain and the few tears that had escaped were making her mascara run, so she wiped her eyes dry with her fingers.

"go see your sister." matt whispered to willow.

"but i missed you! and so does she, all she ever talks about is you." willow giggles, speaking loud enough that kaia can hear her.

matt looks up to kaia, tears forming in his eyes when he sees her wiping her own tears.

"kaia, i-" he starts, but she interrupts him.

"i never should've left you, matt!" she spits out, her voice echoing with pain and sorrow.

"what? you don't have to-" he shakes his head.

"i do. i do have to apologize. please, just hear me out." she begins walking over to him in the rain.

matt sets willow down and she holds onto the pocket of his pants so she won't trip.

kaia stops a couple feet away from him and looks up, making eye contact with him.

"we were so happy, and too perfect. it scared me because every other relationship i ever had started the same way, and when i saw james everything just came rushing back to me and i didn't want to hurt you again and destroy our relationship just like everyone else. i always love too much and it's never received, so when we started dating and you loved me the same amount, i got freaked out." she explains through the rapid tears, wiping them away at the same rate they appeared.

"i should've fought harder for you, i let you go too easily and i'm so in love with you, and-" he starts, shaking his head and looking down at her.

"matt, i left you because i didn't want to hurt you even more, but i didn't realize that leaving would've destroyed my life. it's meaningless, all i do is cry all day and regret leaving you." she sobs, looking down at willow who was tightly hugging the side of his leg.

"i hate living without you, so fucking much." he spits out, breaking into a mess of tears as well.

"i love you, matt. please, please forgive me." she sobs even harder, opening her arms up to ask for a hug as they all continue to get soaked by the rain, now completely drenched.

he doesn't even think before pulling her into a hug as quickly as he can, his head buried in her shoulder and her's against his chest.

"yay!" willow shouts as matt and kaia cry into eachother, hugging as hard as they can.

matt laughs and he pulls away from the hug to look down at willow, kaia doing the same thing.

"finally!" willow giggles, earning a tiny nudge from kaia.

"i love you, kaia." matt speaks, kaia looks up at him from glaring at willow.

"i love you more. i just need you in my life, i can't do this anymore." she shakes her head, smiling and drying the tears as she continues to get rained on.

he stares at her face, nerves growing in the pit of his stomach. she notices him staring and starts blushing, looking away for a second.

"don't stare at me." she laughs, looking at willow to avoid the awkwardnes.

"why not?" he asks with a smile.

"i don't know." she shrugs, looking back at him.

they make eye contact, and after a few seconds, his eyes dart down to her lips, and she notices.

"just do it, already." she sarcastically rolls her eyes.

he smiles and immediately leans down to her level, connecting their lips in a desperate kiss. she starts to seperate her lips in disbelief when he pushes his against her's, she smiles and leans into the kiss, wrapping her arms around the back of his neck.

"ew!" willow shouts, looking away from them.

matt smiles against the kiss, his arms around her waist and pulling her closer by the sides of his hoodie that she was wearing.

she kisses him harshly, like he was locked on the other side of a glass wall and unable to touch eachother for years.

she runs out of air and pulls away from the kiss, he leans in one more time, not wanting her to stop yet.

he smiles after he is satisfied, going straight in for another hug once they lean away from the kiss.

she hugs him tightly and has completely stopped crying, holding him tightly for dear life.

"you have no idea how long i've been wanting to do that." he states, still hugging her.

"i love you so much." she whispers.

"i love you most." he agrees.

"can we leave? i'm covered in water." willow complains.

they pull away from the hug and look at eachother, matt picks willow up off the ground and she smiles and hugs him.

"would you stay with me tonight?" kaia asks quietly.

he doesn't speak a word, he just nods and smiles at her, still in disbelief that this just happened after months of not being able to talk to her.

"follow my car?" she asks.

"anywhere." he nods.

she smiles and runs through the rain to her car. matt runs after her, covering willow's head as she giggles and holds onto matt tightly so she doesn't fall while he's running.

she unlocks her car and matt buckles willow into the backseat, he stands up to see kaia on her phone.

"my mom said she went to bed, i have to put willow to sleep." kaia shouts over the loud rain.

"i'll follow you!" he answers.

kaia gets into her car and matt runs across the parking lot to his car. he starts the engine and buckles up, checking his phone to see that it just died.

"fuck." he curses himself, throwing his phone onto the passenger's seat and pulling out of his parking spot, following kaia's car out of the parking lot and back onto the main road.

they eventually arrive back at her house, and matt parks his car next to kaia's in her driveway.

he turns off his car and sees her run around to willow's side of the car to get her out, completely soaked by rain.

"go inside, i'll get her!" matt shouts over the thunder, approaching kaia's car.

"thanks!" she shouts, laughing and running inside.

matt laughs as well and grabs willow out of her seat, closing the car door and running inside with her, finally sheltered from the rain.

kaia kicks off her shoes, grabbing willow out of matt's arms and taking off her boots and coat as matt also takes off his shoes.

kaia scoops up willow and she yawns as kaia carries her upstairs, matt following close behind.

kaia flicks on willow's bedroom light and matt picks out some pyjamas for her.

kaia gets her dressed and tucks her into bed, her and matt both kiss willow goodnight on the forehead before he shuts off her light and closes the door.

they stand in the hallway, the only noise they can hear is the ceiling fan going in kaia's room.

"so, you wanna go to sleep?" she laughs.

"yeah, sure." he agrees.

matt follows kaia down the hallway into her room, closing the door behind him.

he shuts off the light and she uses the flashlight on her phone to make her way over to her bed.

she climbs under the covers and he does too, laying down facing her, and she shuts off her phone light.

it was only about 9pm, but kaia was tired and so was matt. the moon was shining through her bedroom window, and there was a shadow cast across their faces as they lay there, staring at eachother.

she breathes deeply as he reaches a hand up to push the hair out of her face.

"you okay?" he asks quietly.

"yeah. i just missed you." she nods, closing her eyes and enjoying his touch.

"me too." he agrees.

"i feel so bad about everything. i'm so sorry i left and i never explained myself, i just-" she starts explaining, but he hushes her.

"don't worry about it, we can talk about it in the morning. i just want to lay here with you." he smiles.

she nods and stops talking, she pushes his bangs out of his face and he smiles brightly at her.

"do you mind if i take my pants and hoodie off? i don't want to do anything, i just want to be more comfortable." she breaks the silence of their breathing.

"yeah, of course." he nods.

they both sit up and take their big clothes off, leaving the underwear. there was no sexual intent, just wanting to lay skin to skin to feel eachother's embrace after they've spent months apart from eachother.

she lays back down under the blankets and matt lays his head ontop of her chest, the other way around for once.

"this is gonna be my best sleep in months." he speaks against her skin, his arms around her torso and her arms scratching his back, one moves up to play with his hair.

"me too. i needed it." she agrees.

he feels her chest rising and falling, they both lay still to the sound of the fan and the feeling of their bodies pressed against eachother, their heartbeats in sync.

1885 words