Hey guys! Thanks for all the lovely reviews and for the follows :D They are muuuch appreciated. I just need to warn you that as much as I'd love to update every single day there just isn't enough time in the world so updates won't be as frequent as I would like but I hope y'all are still satisfied!
And for all you suffering that there is no MattxJessica to be found...
IT SHALL BE NO MORE!
...Lol anyways
|Chapter 2-Bliss at Dawn Pt.2|
Description: Matt was out of the mines. Jessica was safe and Emily had made it. He still longed for that warmth though. It was all a part of the routine now.
Routine was a key part of every single humans life. You wake up, eat breakfast-in Matt's case, chocolate cereal puffs-take a shower, brush your teeth, head out the door, and then the school routine begins. Some people didn't have as many routines as everyone else, but everybody was stuck in a routine.
It was hard to settle back into his. Matt was happy, so happy that everyone had made it alive...Well, with the exception of Josh unfortunately. Matt was informed that Josh had indirectly caused them to go through that hell, but it wasn't his fault. He had no idea.
The teen shook his head, trying to rid thoughts off Josh, putting the acceptance of his death off for another time. He and Josh weren't exactly the closest friends in the world, but they were friends. He wouldn't forget that.
It had been a month since the incident. Mike had gone to school first. He had a strong mentality and was able to digest and move on the situation as he settled back into his daily life. Matt was proud of him for that. Mike had plenty of responsibilities and upheld them even after such a traumatic experience, even though he was still mourning Josh's death and coming to terms with the situation.
Matt had followed, of course. He really didn't want to, but his team needed him...But really, the team didn't matter. He just hoped that if he followed Mike's example and started going to school again, the others would feel strong enough to follow.
Surprisingly-and yet unsurprisingly at the same time- Sam had gone to school a week after Matt had. It wasn't so much the horror that hit her so hard, it was more Josh's death. But, like Sam does, put on a strong face and was the shoulder to cry on for Ashley. Well, and Chris. He was crying a lot too.
Ashley probably was the worst off. Her experience wasn't as...bad, per se, but that's how Ashley was. She was a feeler, of course. Take somebodies depression and then multiply it by two, and then you would have Ashley. Not to mention that, going in, she was horrified by horror. To experience it? It must have been awfully...awful.
Actually, maybe it was Chris who was worst off. Josh was his best friend. They were buddies, they did almost everything together, from Josh cheating off of Chris during tests to driving around together, just shooting the breeze. To lose somebody that was such a key factor of your life had to be...awful.
That was all Mat could say. Awful.
Chris had eventually gone to school, and Matt assumed he did not because he wanted to-obviously-but so that Ashley would have the courage to go to school. Ashley didn't follow.
The next to go was Emily. It had taken some coaxing from Matt-but he never forced her to do it. That would be a shitty thing to do-but she eventually worked up the courage to go. Matt had gotten over to her house and sat next to her for hours while she sobbed, and sometimes, Matt would join in. It was a good release.
But Emily had been rather cold as of lately. And truthfully, Matt didn't blame her. Everyone was a little on edge since the incident, so she just needed time on her own. Matt did.
Finally was Jessica. Like Ashley, she was still at home. Since she had been seriously injured she had to stay home for a couple weeks to recover. She was still emotionally drained. All of her sentences had breaks and pauses in them, and the majority of the time, they didn't really make that much sense.
Everyone had experienced panic attacks and night terrors. Matt's had been dying down, but on off days he would wake up in the middle of the night, thinking he was still walking around in those mines. Mike had tamed his pretty quickly, though when he did have them, they were horrifying.
The worst ones came from Sam and Ashley. Sam was pretty broken, and it was hard to watch, since she was trying so hard to be strong in front of Ashley and Chris. Her attacks were often and intense, alike to Ashley's. Except, when Ashley had an attack, Sam was always there. When Sam had an attack...
Mike had been helping her out the most. Chris and Ashley were too unstable to do too much support at the time, and since Mike had recovered faster then the others, he had been helping Sam. He was also scared for Jessica's mental state, and had set up some sort of volunteer type thing for people to go and help out Jessica when her parents were at work.
Mike tried to be there as often as he could. But when he couldn't, it was normally Matt next. Matt assumed it was because he had been with Jessica through most of the experience, so maybe getting through it with him would be easier. If Matt couldn't make it-which wasn't often-then, surprisingly, Emily would go.
Jessica and Emily were best friends once. You know what they say. A bond can never be broken, only cracked. But all cracks healed.
But Matt felt broken.
Broken and battered and beaten and left to die.
But nobody would know that.
Matt looked at the clock in the classroom. People had been watching him for a while, now. Now as much as when it had been his first day. Matt guessed that they had been informed, to some extent, of their situation.
Obviously not all of it. If they had been, they would have been giving Matt a look telling him he was crazy for believing in monsters.
Maybe he was crazy.
The bell ringing caused him to sharply intake. Loud noises could do it for Matt. On the first day he had yelped, but he had now toned it down and prepared himself for when the bell would ring. It was all he heard in the mine.
He slipped his backpack around his shoulders and rushed out of the classroom. He had Jessica duty today, since Mike was busy with student council things. Mike had been really thankful that Matt was doing this.
Matt didn't say 'your welcome' or 'no problem'. He usually just stuck to staying:
"Don't thank me. I would have done it anyways."
It wasn't meant in an arrogant or malicious way. And Mike appreciated it. He was done begging. He had done too much of that-in his mind of course-during the situation.
He slipped into his car and started it up, the engine roaring to life. He flinched slightly at the noise, forcing his heart-rate down as he pulled out of the school parking lot, heading towards the nearest fast food place to pick up something for Jessica.
After grabbing some food he drove straight to Jessica's house, thinking of what he would do when he got there. Probably get his homework done or something along those lines. Maybe read a book. Matt hadn't done something like that for a long time.
He would most likely stick around till twelve or something. He had to make sure Jessica fell asleep and then didn't have a night terror. Sometimes he would stay later if he was too worried. One time he had stayed the whole night.
He pulled into the girls driveway and exited his car, closing the door behind him with Jessica's house key in hand. There was one key shared across the group of friends, well, more Matt and Mike really.
He entered the house and locked it behind him, perking his ears to see if he could hear Jessica shuffling around or watching television. When he heard nothing, he assumed she was lying in bed. She wasn't asleep, of course. She usually just...stared.
He sighed, dropping his backpack on one of the sofas in the living room before he jogged up the stairs. He walked down a hallway and took a left, entering Jessica's open room.
There she was, lying in her bed. The covers were over her, but she was sitting up straight, staring at the wall like he had predicted. Her breakfast sat on the nightstand to her left. Nothing had been eaten.
He walked over to her slowly, not wanting to startle her as he waved to get her attention.
"Jess?" He called out softly. The girl nodded, keeping her gaze on the wall. It was frightening.
He set the bag of fast food on her nightstand next to the plate of breakfast. He picked that up and shook his head in defeat.
"Jess you have to eat." Matt spoke with a pleading tone. "Don't you want big muscles like me?" Matt joked, chuckling lightly. It was silence afterwards. "I'll be back in a second, I'm just going to take this plate downstairs." Matt explained as he headed towards the door, plate in hand, hoping that once he came back Jessica would be back to the flirty, obnoxious, and rather brash. It had slightly annoyed Matt, but it was true.
You never know what you have until it's gone.
Just as he was about to exit, he heard Jessica softly call out to him.
"Matt..." Matt's train of thought stopped as he twirled around immediately, walking over to Jessica.
"Yeah?" He wasn't really too sure what to say in this type of situation. Usually, when Jessica said something-which was rare-she would stop the sentence half way. It gave Matt hope every time that slowly, but surely, she was recovering.
"...C-can...we...Can we watch a movie?" Jessica asked shakily. She wasn't on the verge of tears or anything like that. Just...scared.
Matt nodded, picking up the fast food bag with the same hand that was holding the plate. It was quite a bit to balance, but it was a necessity, since Jessica never moved from her bed. This was a breakthrough.
"Of course." Matt grinned warmly, reaching out his hand to the girl in the bed. She paused for a moment, the only noise in the room being their soft breathing. Slowly she pulled one of her hands out from under the blankets and slowly reached it over to Matt's hand. Once she made contact, she didn't flinch or anything-which Matt was thankful for-and eventually grabbed it. Her grip was loose and soft, so Matt moved carefully so that her hand wouldn't slip away.
She eventually was standing. Matt felt useless as she pulled herself out of the bed, wondering what type of emotional trauma could send somebody through something as inhumane as Jessica's new routine was.
...Well, he knew what type of trauma it took. He had experienced it.
The duo walked at a slow pace, Matt making sure that Jessica's knees didn't buckle or something along the way. Her mental state wasn't all that great, but with all the skipped meals and her staying cooped up in her bed, her health must have been pretty off as well.
When they made it downstairs Matt watched as Jessica took a seat on the sofa, pulling a blanket over top of her as she snuggled in. He reluctantly let go of her hand to set the bag of fast food on the coffee table. Afterwards he walked into the kitchen and put away the breakfast dish, dumping what hadn't been eaten into the garbage.
He walked back over to Jessica, taking a seat next to her.
"So what do you want to watch?" Matt asked, knowing it wouldn't be anything along the lines of horror. She stared for a few moments, this time at the television screen, and Matt was worried that he had lost her again.
But then she turned to face him, an unreadable expression her face.
"Something...s-something happy Matt." Matt nodded, not surprised by the request. He stood back up from the sofa and walked over to the television. There was a cabinet that contained all of the DVD'S, so Matt opened it up, fishing through it for something 'happy'. It was pretty generic so it shouldn't have been much of a problem.
After he picked a film about some sort of talking hamsters on their journey to fight the evil hamsters (1) he inserted it into the DVD player and turned down the volume a bit so that if there was any loud noises they wouldn't be to obnoxious.
Though the movie sounded pretty unappealing, he was looking forward to sitting with Jessica. She was moving today. Finally got out of her room. It was a relief that brought him total bliss.
He took his seat back on the sofa, Jessica keeping her eyes peeled on the screen, barely acknowledging his presence. It sort of bothered him, but at the end of the day, if Jessica was happy so was he.
He reached over and opened up the fast food bag, pulling out two hamburgers and bottles of water. He left his own food on the table, mentally preparing himself. Getting Jessica to eat was going to be a challenge.
"Hey Jess, I got you a hamburger." Matt began, holding the burger in his hands. She didn't respond, still watching the movie. He knew she could hear him. Why didn't she want to eat? How did that help anything?
Or maybe, she really couldn't hear him...
He unwrapped the burger and held it in front of her, hoping she would take it.
"Please Jessica, you have to eat. I don't want something bad too happen to you." Matt pleaded. "For Mike? ...For me?"
After a few moments Matt had given up, but before he could set the burger down, Jessica grabbed it from his hands. She took the tiniest bite Matt had ever seen. Then she took another tiny one. Slowly she was nibbling away at the burger, still keeping her eyes on the screen.
Matt sighed in relief, thanking his lucky stars as he grabbed his own burger and took a large bite.
It was hard sitting through a good hour of colorful hamsters communicating with different animals, but it was tolerable. Jessica had eaten her whole burger, much to Matt's relief, and had even drunk some of her water. She must have been starving.
"...Why?" Jessica's voice had caught him off guard. He set the water bottle down, the one he was currently chugging, and wiped his lips.
"Why what?" Matt countered, confused by the girl's question. She peeled her eyes away from the screen, looking at the floor.
"Why do you come over?" Jessica asked, a small tone of curiosity evident in her voice. Matt's eyes widened, surprised that she would ask that.
"To be with you, of course." Matt mentally kicked himself. That sounded wrong. "Uh, I mean, to take care of you..." Matt trailed off, scratching the back of his neck, hoping he didn't sound like a total douche.
"I can take care of myself." There was no malice behind her voice, so Matt didn't really understand the point of the conversation. But the fact that there was a conversation is what made him happy.
"I know you can." Matt explained. "But, sometimes, we all need to be taken care of." He took another sip of his water, keeping his eyes on Jessica, wondering if she was going to reply or not.
"So whose taking care of you...?" This question caught Matt off guard. He leaned back onto the sofa, wondering about how he should respond.
"...Someone will eventually. After I take care of you, it'll be my time to be taken care of." Matt concluded with, happy with his word choice as he took another swig of water.
"I will." Jessica deduced, laying down so that her head was seated on his lap. Matt almost choked on his water, shocked by the close proximity of the blond. But a smile did find itself across his features, happy that...
He was just really happy.
So they sat and finished off the shitty hamster movie. And even when it was over, they both just laid there while Matt watched television and Jessica slept on his lap. He couldn't stop his eyes from flickering over to her every few seconds, checking if there was a frown or a scared look on her face.
But she slept soundly, and Matt was thankful for that.
Maybe...
Maybe everything was going to be okay.
Truthfully I'm not super happy with this chapter. The next oneshot will be a new 'story' and then I'll continue this later.