42

irl

while watching movies on the couch with everyone, kaia films a tiktok of herself lip syncing to "mr loverman" by rick montgomery, matt's face just out of frame as she's laying against his chest.

it's pretty obviously him, even his necklace is clearly in the video. at the end, she turns the camera to chloe sitting next to her with the caption "hard launch". risky, but funny.

matt does the same thing with the song "woman" by harry styles, the very top of kaia's hair showing beneath him lip syncing, and showing chris to his other side at the very end with the same caption.

obvious enough without having to say it; kaia's last actual hard launch on social media obviously did not end well.

after a couple hours, kaia tells matt it's time she should be going home to see her mom and because she needs a good sleep for her first day back to school.

kaia hugs chloe goodbye, because her mom is just gonna pick her up later. then she hugs chris, nick, and nathan. lastly, justin, marylou, and jimmy as her and matt leave the front door.

kaia hops in the passenger's seat of matt's car and he puts his seatbelt on, turning the keys in the ignition as the most recently played song starts from a cd nick and kaia had been listening to earlier.

the song plays and there's a brief moment where matt and kaia make eye contact as he puts a hand on the back of her headrest and turns around to back out. the song? deja vu by olivia rodrigo.

kaia bursts into a fit of laughter and folds her body forward, holding her head in her hands while she laughs hysterically, matt completely clueless.

"what are you on about?" he chuckles, stopping once on the road.

"do you know what this song is called?" kaia asks.

"um, i don't know. driver's licence?" matt asks with a small laugh.

"nope. deja vu. and where are we?" kaia asks again.

"my... house?" he grows more confused.

kaia rolls her eyes and hops out of the car, runs up to the driveway, and puts on a mini one man show of her arguing back and forth with an imaginary person.

matt leans out his window to watch her in amusement, suddenly realizing what she was referring to, and he, too, began laughing.

"kaia! c'mon!" matt shouts at her from the car.

"i'm just saying." kaia shrugs, walking back to the car.

she hops in, closes the door, and puts her seatbelt back on.

"you done?" matt asks sarcastically.

"yes." kaia dramatically rolls her eyes.

"if i make up the lost kiss in the driveway this time, will you stop worrying about it?" matt offers.

"actually, yes. i would." kaia nods happily.

matt laughs and pulls back into the driveway in the same spot where the argument took place.

kaia leans over the center console and pulls matt into a deep kiss, she holds the sides of his head in her hands as his hands make their way to her waist, pulling her to sit on his lap in the driver's seat.

she settles herself sitting there kissing him as his hands crawl under her sweater and up to rub her back. she accidentally honks the horn with her back and they both jump.

kaia is startled out of the kiss and turns her head around to look at the front door while her hands are still holding matt's face.

chris peaks his head out the front door as he was walking by to see why someone just honked randomly in their driveway, much to his surprise when he sees kaia hunched over matt in the same seat, obviously doing what he had assumed.

"kaia! gross! stop kissing my brother!" chris shouts, slamming the front door as he turns away.

kaia and matt both laugh, slightly shaking their heads in embarrassment. matt closes the space between their lips one last time as she was already holding face, she lifts her body up with the kiss as he scooches up in the seat, pulling her towards him.

she giggles and breaks the kiss to peck a small one to his lips, climbing off and back into her seat.

"i love you." he leans his head against his head rest and stares into her beautiful eyes.

"i love you, too." she smiles.

"don't say too, it sounds like you're just agreeing with me." he shakes his head.

"okay, sorry. i love you, matt." she corrects herself.

"thank you, that's better." he smiles, placing a quick kiss to her lips as he backs the car out of the driveway for real this time.

he begins the drive to her house and she, as always, rolls her window down to enjoy the breeze.

"done stressing about the argument now?" he asks playfully.

"yes, very. now i have a much better memory in place of it." she nods.

"good." he laughs.

the music plays and the two enjoy the time together, stealing passing glances when they both look away from their own windows at the same time.

halley's comet comes around more than i do. but you're all it takes for me to break a promise, silly me to fall in love with you. i haven't slept since sunday, midnight for me is 3:00 a.m. for you. but my sleepless nights are better, with you than nights could ever be alone, ooh ooh ooh. i was good at feeling nothing, now i'm hopeless. what a drag to love you like i do, ooh ooh, ooh, ooh.

once matt arrives to kaia's house, he parks in her driveway and she unbuckles her seatbelt. she leans over the center console, gives him a quick kiss, and goes around to the back of the car to get all her bags from the la trip out of the trunk.

matt gets out of the car and helps her carry her bags inside.

"kaia! i missed you." her mom gives her a massive hug.

"matt, didn't expect to see you, welcome back." kaia's mom smiles, giving him a hug as well.

"nice to see you, miss wright." matt nods.

"he's just dropping me off, mom." kaia says to her mom.

"okay, that's fine. sure you don't want food, matt? we haven't talked in a while." kaia's mom smiles.

"no, mom. he's okay." kaia smiles and pushes matt out the front door, closing it and stepping outside with him.

"thanks for everything." kaia smiles, looking up at matt as he laughs and pushes a strand of hair out of her face.

"i love you." he whispers, kissing her on the porch.

"i love you, matt." she says through the kiss.

"i should probably get going." matt sighs.

"i'll text you. no, you text me when you get home safe, okay?" she suggests.

"i will." he nods and kisses her quickly one last time, walking back to his car and waving goodbye as he drives away.

will you kiss me on the porch infront of all your stupid friends? 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.

1216 words