12

irl, messages

the bell rings and james, chloe, and kaia all stand up to leave class. kaia fell asleep at the end so she puts in her headphones to listen to music to keep herself awake as they walk to the library.

they all sit down in their regular corner of the library, chloe and kaia sit together in the bean bag chair kaia and matt always used to sit in together.

"are the triplets meeting us all in here?" james asks chloe, kaia is distracted and can't hear the conversation over her music.

"ummmm, i'm not sure actually. could you ask nick?" she asks.

"yeah, for sure." james pulls out his phone and chloe shifts her attention to kaia.

she nudges kaia, and she takes out one headphone to hear her.

"do you know if they're coming here? did you tell nick not to bring matt here?" chloe whispers.

"fuck. no, i didn't think about it." kaia sits up.

"hey, it's fine. he's asking nick right now. don't worry about it." chloe reassures her.

"oh, okay." she leans back in her seat nervously.

"what are you listening to?" chloe asks kaia, trying to distract her.

"original cardigan. i love this version so much." kaia smiles.

chloe turns her head and sees the triplets enter the library.

"they got here before he could answer my text." james says.

kaia turns her head towards where chloe and james were looking and her stomach drops.

nick and chris see kaia and immediately stop in their tracks, slap a hand to their mouths, and look over at matt who looks like he just saw a ghost.

kaia and matt make eye contact and the gravity of their shock and emotions make turning away almost impossible.

"dude, i'm sorry, i had no idea they were here." chris says to matt, trying to get his attention.

kaia's hearing fades out and she only hears the music in her one headphone. she feels nauseous, and she just stares at matt while focusing on the song.

i knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss, i knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs. the smell of smoke would hang around this long, cause i knew everything when i was young. i knew i'd curse you for the longest time, i knew i'd wish you would've changed your mind. i knew you'd miss me once the moment died, i knew to love would be to lose my mind.

kaia looks at chloe like she's about to throw up, unsure of what to do. she can't move and doesn't know what to say. she knew seeing him was gonna be hard, but she didn't know how much of a physical effect he was gonna have on her.

chris keeps tapping matt's arm to get his attention, and when kaia looks away, he finally realizes chris is trying to talk to him.

matt turns around and walks out of the library with a hand cradling his stomach, chris follows.

they stop in the hall and matt looks furious at chris.

"dude, what the fuck?!" he whisper-shouts at chris.

"i didn't know they were in there! we go there everyday, my mind just blanked!" chris defends himself.

"bro, i fucking froze. i just humiliated myself! how did you not think that she would've already been in there?" matt berates him.

"you had equally the same chance of remembering, if not more. don't blame me!" chris argues.

"what am i even supposed to do for my spare now? i can't just sit in the library with her, where am i supposed to go?" matt asks.

"i don't know!" chris shrugs, throwing his hands up.

matt glares at him.

"james doesn't have a spare right now, he's probably just waiting until the bell. you could go hangout in his class." chris jokes.

matt punches chris' arm a bit too hard.

"dude! i'm sorry, it was just a joke!" chris shouts at him.

"not a very funny one." matt glares at him.

chris laughs and dodges another punch from matt.

"i'm gonna go sit in the car for an hour and a fucking half. go have fun." matt rolls his eyes and walks away.

chris walks back into the library just as the bell rings, he sees james stand up and start walking towards the door.

"hey, chris. is matt okay?" he asks as they approach eachother.

"long story, i'm sure someone will tell you soon. you don't wanna be late for class, most of the teachers at this school suck." chris warns him.

"yeah, i've heard. see you later, man." james fists bumps chris as they keep walking.

he sits down in a chair next to nick and sees kaia curled up in a ball, chloe holding her and trying to help her calm down.

"sorry, kaia. it didn't even cross my mind that you guys would be in here. i'm really sorry that happened i swear it won't again." chris tries to apologize to her.

she wipes her face with her sleeve and sits up, pushing the hair out of her face.

"it's okay. eugh, i hate crying at school." she laughs as everyone watches her.

"sure you're okay?" chloe asks, rubbing her back.

"yeah, you guys wait here, i just need to step out for a minute. i promise i'm fine." kaia stands up and insists chloe doesn't need to follow her.

she walks slowly at first with one hand on her stomach and the other covering her mouth, then she starts to jog when she realizes she's gonna throw up.

the nearest garbage can is outside the door near the parking lot so she runs out the doors and leans over the garbage can to throw up, holding her hair in a ponytail.

matt is sitting in his car listening to his and kaia's playlist. he swore he's gonna try to stop thinking about her, but seeing her in the library in that chair brought back memories and he needs her comfort, if not actually her, then atleast her music.

as he's listening to the songs, he looks up when he hears someone run out the front doors. he sees that it's kaia and slumps way down in his seat so she can't see that he's out there.

he sees her throw up and his first instinct is to run after her and hold her hair, but when he realizes he can't do that anymore, he decides he'll just have to hide from her.

it pains matt to see kaia in pain and not be able to help, but he knows that if he tries to force their friendship back, she will DEFINITELY never speak to him again.

she finishes throwing up and crouches against the wall outside. he sees her check her phone for a few seconds, then stand up and walk towards her car.

once she's out of sight, he sits back up in his seat and rests his head on the steering wheel, sighing. their playlist is still playing.

if you kiss me, will it be just like i dreamed it? will it patch your broken wings? i'm only 17. i don't know anything, but i know i miss you.

kaia sits in her car and rumages through her glove compartment for gum. she chugs some water to flush the flavour of vomit and tosses a piece of the mint gum in her mouth.

from the angle of the parking lot, matt can see kaia's car, but she can't see his. he watches her and feels like crying, but he keeps telling himself time will solve everything and he just needs to wait.

he changes the music to his and chris' playlist to stop thinking about her, and he scrolls through tiktok to wait until the next period.

almost every video he sees is fan edits and clips of kaia with sad music. all the comments on the videos are just people spreading rumours about them "breaking up" and he's sick of it.

this is one of the parts of being a youtuber that matt hates. the constant shipping and rumours and theories about every aspect of his life. nothing can just be private.

kaia isn't even in that many of their videos. maybe 1 vlog a month at most, but it's enough that everyone loves to edit her. he used to love it, seeing videos of the fans showing their love for her made him happy, now it's hard to avoid.

kaia takes a bunch of deep breaths, calming herself down in the car. after a couple minutes, she decides she feels well enough to go back inside.

matt sees her leave the car, and he slumps down again to hide and make sure she can't see him.

she walks towards the school and looks back at the triplets van and frowns, thinking about matt and how she's probably never gonna be in the van with them again.

she turns her head back towards the school and matt sits back up after she's gone inside.

kaia walks back to the library and awkwardly smiles at everyone when they all watch her sit down.

"you okay?" nate asks.

"yeah. i threw up outside, but i'm fine now. i had water and gum in my car." she nods.

chris makes a face like he's really thinking about what kaia just said.

"what?" kaia looks at chris.

"nothing." he shrugs.

chris pulls out his phone to text matt while everyone is talking.

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chrizz 😎are you still in the van

munch 🤓yea why

chrizz 😎did u just see kaia throw up outside

munch 🤓no fucking way she saw mewhat did she say

chrizz 😎no she didn't see youshe just said she threw up outside and went to her car i figured you might've seen if you were out there

munch 🤓phew 😓yea i did see her i hid when i saw her

chrizz 😎gotchahow are you doing

munch 🤓fineschool is gonna suck for the rest of the yearatleast we're almost done

chrizz 😎yeah iki can't wait to be done school and make better content for youtube i know this is gonna be a real career for us

munch 🤓it will be 🙏one button i won't press :○grind mode off

chrizz 😎bruh 💀ur so corny 😭

munch 🤓the hussle never stops christopherwe will be on mount rushmore one day

chrizz 😎ummmmm okaysure buddy

munch 🤓i'm not listening to youhater 🤚

chrizz 😎whatever you say weirdoread 9:45am

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1777 words