Sorry this chapter is shorter, but hopefully the content will make up for that. Just so you have an idea of the time, I'd say this takes place in February. Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think! :)
"What're you doing over here?" I jumped when I heard the voice before realizing it was Matt's. There was an assembly going on, and since that wasn't exactly my favorite thing in the world I'd elected to skip it. I went and sat in a corridor that they used to store extra chairs for the lunch room, since hardly anyone ever went over there. "Skipping an assembly to do homework?"
"Even homework is better than that. I hate being shoved in a room with so many people, it makes me nauseous. Why aren't you there?"
"Because you're not there." I smiled appreciatively at him.
"That's incredibly nice of you, but this whole assembly is because the hockey team might get a chance to go to state."
"Eh, I'm not feeling very celebratory at the moment." He sat down next to me, taking a drink from my water bottle.
"Oh yeah, how'd the whole custody thing go?" He sighed and I looked over at him, seeing the frustration on his face.
"Split custody."
"What? Didn't you get to talk there or anything. Say that you didn't want to?"
"Nope. It's not too horrible though, I'm at my moms Monday through Thursday, go to my dads after school Friday until Sunday night." I sighed at put my hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I know you'd rather live with your mom." He shrugged.
"How are things with your mom?"
"Surprisingly decent, actually. I saw her twice this week, both times she was sober, and one of those times she made me dinner." I looked over Matt and he looked excited.
"Gabs that's great, isn't it?" I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my arms on them.
"I mean I guess, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Soon this will be over and she'll go back to stumbling in drunk once a week."
"Hey," he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "You never know, she could be finally getting it together."
"Yeah, maybe." I knew that it wasn't true, but I didn't feel like trying to make a case so I kept quiet. "Did you buy that new stick over the weekend?" His grin got incredibly wide.
"I sure as hell did, it's great. I couldn't have gotten it without you, so I have you to thank for it!"
"You don't have to thank me. It was a gift."
"The best gift anyone's ever given me."
"Exactly. So be thankful I'm such a good friend." I looked over at him. "Want to sneak out? We can go ice skating or something." He shook his head at me.
"Wow, Gabriela Dawson, straight A student. Trying to sneak out of school." I shoved his arm slightly.
"Well do you want to or not?" He contemplated it for a moment.
"You're lucky I don't have practice today." I grinned and grabbed my bag.
"Yes!" Kelly cheered and pumped his fists, walking back towards Shay Matt and I. We were bowling, and he'd just gotten his third strike in a row.
"Yeah, we get it Kelly, you're winning." Shay said, arms crossed looking aggravated. Matt looked amused at it all.
"Chill Shay, it's just a game."
"Easy for you to say Gabs, you're in second!" I shrugged and got up to bowl. I managed to knock down 9 pins and went to sit back down.
"It's your go Matt." It was the last round and Matt and Shay both went. I ended up getting second, then Matt, then Shay. Kelly won of course to Shay's disappointment, and we payed and walked over to the small arcade, sitting at a table in the back and ordering pizza.
"So, Matt, you coming to that party next weekend?" Matt shrugged in response.
"How come we never get invited to parties?" Shay asked.
"I don't know but I'm glad we don't." I said, before taking a sip of my drink.
"Why don't you like parties?" Kelly asked.
"She doesn't like anywhere that she has to be shoved into a room full of a ton of people. I get it." I smiled at Matt appreciatively.
"You two should come though." Kelly said.
"We weren't even invited, and who said we wanted to go anyway?" Shay said haughtily. Kelly rolled his eyes at her.
"Well, I'm inviting you now. C'mon it'll be fun!" I looked over at Matt.
"Will you come?"
"Yeah sure." I looked over at Shay who seemed to be checking for my approval and nodded.
"Alright, we'll come, but there better be food."
"Do we have to go." I was sitting on my bed with Matt sitting at my desk. "I really don't want to anymore." He turned around to face me.
"What, too tired?" He joked. I felt nauseous just thinking about being at the party, and at this point, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea. I think Matt could tell that I was seriously worried, so he put his hand on my knees and looked me in the eye. "Gabs, what's wrong? If you don't want to go we don't have to." I sighed.
"I don't know, the thought of being there is just freaking me out."
"It may just be that you've never been to a party before." I didn't necessarily feel reassured and he grabbed out of my hands, rubbing his thumb along the back of it to soothe me. "Don't worry, if we get there and you hate it I'll drive you home right away." Despite the fact that I didn't feel any less nervous, I was more willing to get up and leave when Shay texted us she was leaving. Matt didn't let go of my hand until I had to get into his car and we were off. Matt rambled while I thought. I thought about how much he mattered to me, and how he made me feel really warm and happy inside. I'd never really felt that way about anyone before, and I was worried that I was starting to have feelings for him. Feelings he likely wouldn't reciprocate, feelings that would ruin our friendship. So I'd ignored them, until recently. I was hyper-aware every time he touched me, or when he looked at me pointedly whether it was to reassure or comfort me or to make me smile. Being alone with him made me nervous, because I was so comfortable talking with him that I was afraid something would slip. Nothing had yet, but I couldn't risk it. I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard Shay get in the car. We drove another 20 minutes or so, making small talk when we pulled up to a street with cars running all the way down it.
"This is it." Shay said excitedly. Matt looked over at me.
"You ready?" I sighed.
"Not really. Maybe it'll be fun though." I paused. "Let's get this over with."
I woke up and instantly felt my head aching. I groaned lightly, not wanting to open my eyes. Feeling an arm thrown over me I did though, and saw Shay sprawled out next to me on my bed. I closed my eyes again, attempting to go back to sleep when I figured there was no way I'd be getting more anytime soon. I gingerly pushed myself out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes, going to take a shower. After downing some aspirin I got in the shower. Attempting to go over what had happened last night had me come to the conclusion that I'd gotten so drunk, I could only remember bits and pieces. I remembered dancing with Shay, and talking to some kid named Peter. I remembered having a conversation with Matt as he drove Shay and I home, but what exactly we talked about was beyond me. Groaning I elected that I'd never get drunk again before rinsing the shampoo out of my hair and finishing my shower. After changing and brushing my teeth, I walked back to my room to wake Shay up. She'd flipped over since I'd left and was sprawled in the middle of the bed. I sat down next to her and shook her slightly.
"Wake up sleeping beauty." When I got no reaction I shook her shoulder again. Her eyes slowly opened, but once she saw me she closed them again and wrapped herself up in the blanket. "How're you feeling?" I asked her.
"Like I got hit by a truck. You." I let out a huff.
"The same. My head is killing me." She let out a hum before we settled into comfortable silence. "Do you remember anything?"
"Sadly, yes." She finally opened her eyes and sat up. "Kelly's going to be making fun of my dancing for the next week. The worst part is I think we were the only two dancing." I groaned. "Don't worry, it was mostly me. What do you remember."
"Not much." I yawned. "There's aspirin in the medicine cabinet, you can take a shower and borrow some sweats. I'm going to run to the corner store and get us some breakfast."
"Sounds good to me." I went downstairs and grabbed my wallet before throwing on boots and a coat to make the five minute walk to the corner store. I bought cinnamon rolls and some more aspirin, and headed back home to find Shay making coffee in my kitchen.
"That was a quick shower. Hey preheat the oven for me will you?" I put the rolls in the oven and sat down at the table taking a long sip of coffee before deciding on water instead. "I've decided I'm never getting drunk again."
"Me too. From what I remember you went nuts though, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I think I was just really stressed out and-" oh shit. I remember what my conversation with Matt had been about. "Shit. Oh god." I slouched down in my chair closing my eyes.
"Gabs what's wrong." I felt nauseous, and my head was spinning, but not from the headache.
"I screwed up Shay."
"How, what the hell are you talking about?"
"I uh," I paused and regained my composure, sitting back up. "I think I confessed my feelings to Matt." Her face went from confusion, to disbelief to smiling. "Why are you smiling?" I asked exasperated.
"Gabs this is a good thing! What'd you say?"
"What do you mean this is a good thing?!" I stood up and started pacing the kitchen. "This is a horrible thing! I basically just ruined our friendship."
"What did you say?"
"Uh, as far as I remember I sounded like a drunk middle schooler telling someone that the 'like like' them so. No it's not a good thing. Because there's no way he likes me and now it's going to be weird." I groaned. "Shay I fucked up."
"Gabs you need to chill okay. You did not ruin your friendship. You've just got to have a conversation with him! Tell him everything you told him, which I'm assuming wasn't bad, while you're sober and it'll be fine."
"Okay, for someone who overreacts a majority of the time, you're definitely underreacting right now." Shay sighed.
"Gabs stop pacing." I stopped and turned to look at her, crossing my arms over my chest. "I'm assuming the reason you're freaking out is because you think he doesn't feel the same way. Which is completely untrue." I opened my mouth to protest but she held her hand up stopping me. "As an outside viewer, trust me, I'm right. Look, just talk to him. He's not an asshole, he's your best friend. It'll be fine. Also check the cinnamon rolls, they're going to burn soon."
The good thing about having a parent who's always absent, is that skipping two days of school isn't a big deal. I could just call in and say I was sick. And since it's unlikely they'd think a straight A student was cutting school, it wouldn't be suspicious. Which was why I'd called in the school and said I was sick for the second day in a row, and was considering doing it a third. Avoiding Matt seemed like the best way to deal with this issue for the time being which was exactly what I was doing. I'd come to the conclusion that I did have feelings for him. Feelings which seemed to now be unavoidable which was strange considering I'd ignored them for a while. But I wasn't necessarily ready to confront him. So I instead stayed home, emailing my teachers to find out what work I was missing and taking a nap. I had dozed off on the couch when I heard the doorbell ring. Sitting up quickly I checked the clock, seeing it read 5:53. I cursed under my breath, knowing if it was my mother or Antonio they'd have a key. Getting up I walked to the door checking the peephole, seeing Matt standing there. Taking a deep breath I reasoned to myself that this conversation would have to happen eventually, and opened the door.
"Hey. Are you okay?" He walked in past me kicking off his shoes. All I could think about was my heart pounding in my chest.
"Yeah. Just didn't feel good." I closed the door and turned around to find him staring at me looking unimpressed.
"I know you're avoiding me."
"Why exactly would you think that."
"Well you're obviously not sick, and considering how weird you're acting right now my point is just being proven right now." I crossed my arms and started walking towards the couch, sitting down. He sat down next to me turning so he was facing me. "Can we talk about what happened Friday night." I let out a light laugh.
"That's exactly what I don't want to talk about."
"So you were avoiding me." I didn't respond and kept looking down at my lap. A few moments passed before he spoke up again. "Do you remember what you said to me?" I pulled my legs up and sat cross legged, turning to face him but not yet looking up.
"Yeah. Some of it. I'm sure you remember considering you were sober." Matt laughed.
"Yeah, you got really drunk." I finally looked up.
"Trust me, I know. Did you bring me and Shay here and get us into my bed?"
"Yup. Saving the day."
"Oh my hero." I sarcastically swooned. "I've decided I'm never drinking again, so don't worry, it won't happen again."
"I don't know, some parts were cool. You were extremely honest." I looked back down at my lap.
"Yeah, I don't know how cool that was as it was embarrassing."
"Do you remember what you told me?"
"Bits and pieces. You don't need to fill in what I don't remember by the way." I started playing with my necklaces.
"Quit being nervous I'm not going to bite you Gabby." I looked up confused. "Playing with your necklaces, it means you're nervous." I nodded and looked back down and we sat in silence for a moment. "Did you mean it?" From all the responses I'd been thinking of in the past day for all of the questions he could possibly ask me, I could only think of one.
"Yeah." It felt like forever had passed before I got a response.
"Is that not a good thing."
"Why would it be a good thing? I was drunk, and slobbering, and I ended up telling you I had a huge crush on you. It's embarrassing."
"No it's not."
"Maybe not for you but for me." It got quiet for a moment again. "Did I just ruin this? Our friendship, by admitting it wasn't me just drunk blabbering." He let out an annoyed huff and I looked up to see his expression and then he kissed me. I was sort of dazed at first, confused as to what exactly was going on. But I finally responded, letting my eyes close slightly and kissing him back. When he pulled away I opened them and we locked eyes for a moment and he leaned in again. He kissed me slowly, just soft sleepy kisses over and over. With my eyes closed I let myself take in everything, his hand holding my cheek, and how his lips were somewhat chapped. I felt warm inside, and my heart had stopped pounding. I let myself stop worrying about everything, and just focus on kissing him. After what felt like a minute he stopped and pulled away, bringing his hand down from my cheek. I opened my eyes to him staring at me intently. After a moment of wondering what was appropriate to say, I said what may have been the dumbest thing.
"So our friendship isn't ruined?" He snorted and leaned forward, wrapping his arms around me and hauling me over so I was closer to him. I brought my hand up to his face.
"No, our friendship is not ruined." I nodded, smiling at him.
"Okay, good."
He leaned in to kiss me again, and this time, I was ready.