Best Friend's Little Brother
Chapter Four
Author's Note - This is it folks! After this chapter, this story id finished, at least for now. I may do a follow up story, but I'm not sure yet if I have the time to put in to it that a good story would require.
Matt stared out across the sea of people packed into the club in front of the stage. He could make out most of the faces since the lights had not yet been dimmed for the light effects, but the one face he wanted to see was still nowhere in sight.
"Matt, you ready?" He nodded to Tony who started counting off the first song and with that they plunged into the set list. Matt lost himself in every song that they played for the next hour or so, but still looked for her face in the crowd between each song. It was much harder to actually make out any faces with bright colorful lights shining in his face and quickly moving around the room before actually lighting a certain spot. He was glad when they took a fifteen minute break after an hour and a half of playing, both because he was drenched through with sweat and because the lights were brought back up.
"Hey Matt, after the break we've only got three songs left until your last one."
"Thanks for the reminder, not that I have been able to think about anything else other than how quick we're getting to that song. I swear we've never played an hour and a half so quickly." Matt replied with a nervous smile. As the moment drew closer, he was getting more and more nervous and anxious. He could not wait to sing the song to her, but at the same time he was scared to death that it wouldn't work out right. Even after hearing her in Lizzie's room a few days ago, he was worried that it was all something he had imagined and that he was about to really do something stupid and embarrassing.
He set his guitar down and stepped off the stage, heading directly for the bathroom to throw some water on his face and hopefully calm his nerves. He scanned the faces as he walked through the crowd, but never caught sight of the only pair of eyes he was interested in having stare back at him.
Miranda, sitting with Lizzie and Gordo towards the back of the club, saw him step off the stage and excused herself to go find him. She just hoped that when she did find him she wouldn't also find him with a girl. He had not done anything yet for her or any girl during the show and she was really getting nervous that she had gotten worked up for nothing. She spotted the top of Matt's head just before he slipped into the bathroom. Deciding it was just as good a place to catch up to him as any other, she stood outside the bathroom door and waited for Matt to come back out.
After more than ten minutes passed she started to get worried and impatient. Noting that no one else had gone in the bathroom since Matt and that after ten minutes he was surely the only person left, Miranda cautiously opened the door and walked into the men's restroom.
She scanned the room for a few seconds and decided that while this restroom was at least better than the one she followed Gordo into years ago at the Italian restaurant, she was glad to be a girl. Even a well maintained guy's bathroom held nothing on a girl's.
When her eyes settled on Matt leaning over the sink splashing water on his face, she forgot about anything other than him. She watched him cup his hands under the faucet again before bringing them to his face and running any access water through his already sweat drenched hair.
"Hey you." She wasn't sure why of all the possible word combinations, she choose that one, but there was no taking the clumsy, nervous greeting back. Matt had already spun around with a very shocked expression on his face.
"Umm, Miranda. . .you do know you're in the wrong bathroom right?"
Suddenly realizing that she had nothing to say, Miranda felt a small panic rising in the back of her mind. Why had she gone in there, she knew there had been a perfectly justifiable reason when she opened the door, but now her mind was drawing a blank as to what it might have been. Finally she found a word. "Yeah."
"Okay. . .well as long as you know. . ." Miranda was finding it hard to concentrate on anything other than how cute Matt looked when he was completely confused and taken off guard.
"I followed you. . .and waited. . .but you took so long." She only hoped that didn't sound as creepy to him as it had to here after hearing the words fall out of her mouth.
"Oh." If there was more Matt wanted to say, he never got the chance. At that second the door flew open and Tony charged in holding himself like a two year old trying to hold it in.
He looked back and forth at Matt and Miranda before throwing a questioning look at Matt, then shrugging and running to the furthest urinal. "Don't mind me, just taking a pee. Hey that rhymed. Sweet!"
"Oh my God! Are you peeing?"
"Well what the hell else am I supposed to be doing in front of a urinal. I'm not the one in the wrong bathroom. If me peeing in the designated area offends you, maybe you and lover boy here should find a better place to admit your feelings. . .to. . .each. . .other. . .oops." He could tell from the look on Miranda's face and the signals coming from Matt's hands that he had said too much.
"Right, well I'll just be going back to the stage then." Tony opened the door and looked back in before leaving. "Sorry bout that. Oh and Jon wanted me to tell you we're back on in three minutes, which would be less now cause that was before I pissed and all. . .yeah."
Matt shook his head in disbelief at his friend, unable to speak. It was now him and Miranda alone again in the men's restroom at a teen club.
"Well, that was fun." Miranda said to break the silence. "Is he always that. . ."
"Yes, whatever you were about to say, yes, he is always that." Matt smiled over at her, deciding to make the best of the opportunity being given to him. "Well, this wasn't exactly the way I had planned on letting you know how I feel, but I guess it will have to work. Makes for one hell of a story someday though. My parents have a very boring story of how they met, nothing at all as good as what we can tell. . ." Matt stopped himself from rambling just in time to keep himself from finishing the thought out loud, but he knew it wasn't hard to fill in the blanks on that one.
Miranda smiled at him and giggled. "Wow, I thought I said some weird things when I got nervous, but I'd say you jumping to what stories we'll tell our kids pretty much beats anything I could possibly come up with."
Matt blushed, but returned the smile and laughed lightly at himself. "Sorry about that. But I am really nervous."
"What do you have to be nervous about? You already have a pretty good idea of how I feel about you after what you heard me say in Lizzie's room." She walked over by the sink to stand in front of him.
"Well, true, but still I was worried that you might have changed your mind or something. Or maybe it had been some other Matt or who knows what. I've never had much luck with this area of my life, so I've learned to remain skeptical until I know something's absolutely real."
Miranda stepped a little closer to him, closing the gap between them to almost nothing. "Then let me help you out. I really, really like you and I am falling for you, hard." She moved her head closer to his and swallowed against the lump rising in her throat. "I can't help myself. I keep falling faster and faster and all I want to do right now is kiss you."
Matt swallowed against his own bursting emotions and leaned in himself towards her. There was now nothing separating them but their clothes. "I am falling just as fast and just as hard. And I would definitely kiss you back."
Miranda smiled at his words before removing the final space between them by connecting their lips together briefly. They stood frozen in place, neither pulling away or seemingly able to even if they wanted to.
"I liked that." Matt said after a few more moments had passed. "What would you do if I caused that to happen again?"
"I'd help you."
Again their lips connected, but this time it was not briefly. The kiss was soon deepened by the passion they shared for each other and the thrill of new born love. When they were both out of breath they finally broke apart, Matt leaning on the sink counter for support and Miranda leaning back against the closest wall.
"Matt, feel free to cause that to happen again anytime you want." They shared a smile, but before anymore could be shared, they were again interrupted by someone entering the restroom.
"Matt! We're going back on, what are you. . .oh." Jon looked back and forth between Matt and Miranda, much as Tony had done, before breaking free of the shocked trance and remembering his urgency. "Congratulations I guess, well I'm assuming the lipstick all over your face means something good anyway. Hurry up though, we've still got five more songs to get through tonight." Again they were left alone in the men's room.
"I guess I'd better get back out there."
"I guess." Miranda replied, wanting nothing else but to keep Matt alone in a room with her at the moment. "I'll be watching you."
"I was hoping so." He smiled at her again, making her knees feel the weakness again from his kiss. "I've got a surprise for you on the last song, though now it will be much easier to sing."
Miranda kissed Matt on the cheek for luck then followed him out of the men's room and returned to her seat with Lizzie and Gordo.
"Where'd you go to? I was about to come look for you incase you'd gotten lost or something."
"Lost? Lizzie, you're the only person I know that could actually get lost in a teen club." Miranda rolled her eyes playfully at her best friend before turning her attention back tot he stage as the band started playing again. As before, her eyes never left Matt the entire time.
After four songs had come and gone, Miranda was feeling anxious again. Only now there was no nervousness or worry about anything happening that wasn't going to make her happy in some way. Matt had just kissed her, told her he was falling for her too, she really didn't see anyway for the night to get any better or worse.
She watched Matt finish off a bottled water before stepping back to the microphone and nervously run his hand through his drenched hair, slicking it back with sweat. "This next song is for M.S. Someone told us it was one of your favorites, and I couldn't think of a better way of asking you a simple question."
Matt stepped back from the mike and with a quick count off from Tony the song began. Immediately Miranda recognized the song and looked over at Lizzie with a knowing smile. "I'm guessing it had to be you that told him about this song, since you're the only one who knows of my love of all thing Something Corporate."
Lizzie just shrugged and smiled in response. Miranda turned attention back to Matt as he started singing the words, she mouthed them along with him.
Maybe when the room is empty
Maybe when the bottles full
Maybe when the door gets broke down
Love can break in
Maybe when I'm done with thinking
Maybe you can think me whole
Maybe when I'm done with endings
This can begin
If you could be my punk rock princess
I could be your garage band king
You can tell me how you just don't fit in
And how you're gonna be something
Miranda felt the thrill from their kiss surge through her again as Matt's voice pushed the words in to the air, surrounding her with his energy in a way. The rest of the words faded into nothing as she focused completely on the singer and the sound of his voice. Maybe Lizzie was right after all. Maybe this was love, or at least could very easily be.
Miranda remained lost in the world of Matt McGuire long after the song ended and the club emptied. She was only pulled back into the world by a hand placed gently on her shoulder.
"Hey you." Matt repeated her greeting from earlier. "Thinking hard?"
"Huh? Oh, no. I was just. . .lost. . .in your voice." She stood up and turned to face him, noticing that her table was void of Lizzie and Gordo. "Where'd they go?"
Matt smiled at her, leaning in and kissing her cheek before answering her question. "They, like everyone except the band and Tony's mom have gone home. You've been sitting here in a trance for over half an hour."
"Really?" Miranda was truly surprised to hear that. "See what you do to me?" She teased Matt, returning the kiss, but avoiding his cheek and placing her lips on his.
"Hey you two, not that I'm not happy and all, but Matt needs to get over here and help tear all this crap down so we can get out of here."
"Jon, do me a favor and be too busy to notice me for a while." Matt flipped off his friend in response to the gesture given in reply to his words.
"Do you guys always act like that with each other?" Miranda asked him quietly in his ear as they walked towards the stage, hand in hand.
"Of course, but it's all out of love. We all know that none of us really mean anything by it." Matt began unhooking cords, with Miranda helping where she could. Eventually everything they could possibly squeeze in was loaded back into Tony's car and they were standing in the back of the club.
"All right you two. I'll go dump all of this at the house and then come back to take you home if you want."
"That's okay bro, I think we're gonna walk home. It's not really the far anyway, so I'll see you later, okay?" Matt stepped away from the car as the engine started.
"Whatever lights your candles. It was nice meeting you Miranda, and I'm sure you'll get to see plenty of me. Not sure if that's good or bad for you though. . ." Tony smiled goofily at them both then drove off.
"He's a pretty cool guy." Miranda said as she and Matt began walking down the well lit sidewalk in the direction of her home. "They all were."
"Yeah, even though they can really get on my nerves like no one else I know." They walked in silence for a few blocks, sharing occasional glances and smiles with each other. "Thanks."
Miranda looked over at Matt, a little confused with what the thank you was for. "For what?"
"For falling for me."
"Oh. Well, in that case, thank you for falling with me."
Matt looked over into Miranda's eyes, staring deeply in to their depths. "I'd fall with you anywhere I had to, as long as I know we'd be together when we landed." She returned the gaze, along with a sincere smile. They walked hand in hand all they way to her house, where they spent twenty minutes trying to say goodnight, neither wanting the dream to end, just in case that was all it was.
The song used in this story was Punk Rock Princess by Something Corporate off of the cd- 'Leaving Through The Window'