🍓🍓🍓

୨⎯ "𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒙 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆" ⎯୧
⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : the only exception- paramore
ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

And that was the day that I promised
I'd never sing of love if it does not exist
But darling, you are the only exception
You are the only exception

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .

Matt lets himself into the quiet of the Aces' house and subtly looks for anyone who's not Gemma. He rounds the corner to the kitchen finding no sign of Avery, Jade or Josie and heads straight for Gemma's room, stopping at her door when he hears her soft singing on the other side. Matt smiles to himself and turns her door handle as quietly as he can so he doesn't disturb her.

What he finds is Gem sitting on her floor, guitar in hand, headphones on and microphone set up in front of her. He leans on her doorframe and watches her as she plays peacefully, singing a song that he doesn't recognise. When he figures that him standing and watching her in silence is getting creepier the longer he does it, he raps his knuckles on her wall twice to grab her attention.

She opens her eyes and looks up at him through her bangs that don't fit into her ponytail and smiles "You didn't tell me you were here yet"

Matt shrugs his shoulders and strides towards her "Didn't want to disturb you. Do you do anything other than play guitar?" he asks teasingly.

Gemma's face falls flat "You know I do. I've just been writing a lot recently and wanted to record a demo to show the girls"

He nods thoughtfully and sits down, leaning back on his hands and letting his legs spread out in front of him "Can I hear what you're playing?"

She purses her lips and awkwardly scratches at her right eye "The song is... for you?"

"Yeah well, most are these days" He smirks.

She rolls her eyes and mirrors his position, moving her microphone out of the way and letting her guitar fall and rest on her stomach as she leans on her hands behind her "No like it's for you. I wrote it when we weren't speaking and it's kind of like an explanation? I guess? I don't know, I was just trying to put my thoughts into words and I ended up with this"

Matt nods thoughtfully "I would like to hear it, if you're up for it"

"The girls haven't even heard this one yet"

He grins wide "So I'm special?"

Gemma squints her eyes "I'm not serenading you"

He twists his face "That's literally your job?"

Gemma smiles crookedly and tilts her head, like she's trying to convince him with just the look on her face that he's wrong "I don't serenade people. Serenading and performing are two completely different things" she rolls her eyes "You can hear the demo I've recorded?"

"Okay" Matt smiles and twists his lips ad Gemma hands him her phone and a pair of headphones for him to put on. He puts the headphones on his ears and adjusts the way they're sitting on his head before pressing play. A light, simple acoustic melody begins to play as Gemma starts to fidget across from him and he can see her begin to not know what to do with herself.

"I don't even remember how it started
Something you said must've set me off
My words are bullets, and you're my favorite target
This isn't what I wanted, but I can't drop the gun"

Matt presses his lips together and twists them to the side as Gemma's voice fills his ears. He already feels a heavy weight in his chest because of the raw emotion in her voice being amplified, something that probably wouldn't be as noticable if you weren't looking for it.

He crosses his legs as the last line of the verse before the chorus rings out "Just so you know, I'm sorry"

Matt smiles at her padding around her room as the chorus begins.

"I'll send you love bombs after the war
Even though I know they don't work anymore"

He nods his head to the lyrics and listens closely, taking them in and looking at Gemma with intention. She's less fidgety as she tidies her space and makes herself busy, all while attempting to avoid Matt's gaze completely.

"I'll wave a white flag after the storm
I promise I've calmed down, I'm not manic like before"

He can tell the song is personal and if he's being honest, it feels like he's looking directly into her brain, like she's just opened up herself for him to see. He doesn't take it lightly. The conversations they've had over the months have allowed him to get to know her like no one else, has allowed him to see a completely different side to her that the public doesn't.

"So you lift the rug and I'll sweep the glass
And we can pretend like this never happened
Love bombs after the war
Even though I know they don't work anymore"

The recording ends and he takes the chorus in for a moment. He knows she's talented and good at her job but hearing a song that she wrote especially for him makes him feel a different type of way. Matt removes the headphones, places them on her bed next to him and watches as she walks back in the room. At some point she'd walked out and left him to think whatever he wants to think, out of boredom or fear? he doesn't really know.

She sees him sitting with his legs out and returns back to her spot opposite him, crossing her ankles and looking at him expectantly. He shrugs his shoulders as carelessly as he can.

"You know I think you're an amazing songwriter Gem"

Gemma huffs "Yeah but it's not like, that wasn't really the point of me showing you the song?" she says it like she's second guessing herself and she cringes.

Matt quirks his eyebrow "You don't even sound sure of why you showed me the song"

She puffs her cheeks and picks at a stray string at the top of her socks "No I know why I wanted to show you, I just want you to know without me having to say it out loud"

He smiles "Okay, but I want you to be able to say these things to me without fear of being judged or whatever"

Gemma cranes her head back on her bed to look at the ceiling and wordlessly places her crossed ankles on top of his sprawled out legs "I just want you to know that I'm sorry for it all and that I know things won't change overnight." She looks at him as he taps her ankles "And I also know that I haven't exactly made your life easy. You, Nick and Chris don't like being in the drama and I feel like that's all I've brought into your life"

Matt nods along and pushes her ankles off him choosing to instead slide along her hardwood floor and up next to Gemma, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her in "Gemma I don't care. Nick, Chris and I can take care of ourselves and make our own decisions. What fans or random people say doesn't concern me because they only see what we want them to see, no one knows the full story but us. The 'drama' that you're talking about doesn't really exist to me anymore"

Gemma stops and stares at him, a moment to really look at the person Matt is. He smiles kindly at her and she's hit with a realisation that has her heart beating straight out of her chest. Unintentionally her eyes widen and a look of concern crosses Matt's features "What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing is wrong. I'm all good" Gemma scrambles for a response as he watches her with skepticism, choosing to let her have her moment as he picks up his own phone to look at the time.

"Chris just texted me asking where I was because Josie was gonna come over to ours and then bring us here, should I leave and then come back orrrr...?" Matt drags out his words questioningly and Gemma shrugs.

"No point, Tell Chris you'll meet them here"

Matt nods his head and responds to Chris before getting up from beside Gemma and walking towards her door "I'm getting something from the kitchen, want anything?"

She's snapped back into reality at the sound of his voice and nods her head "Can you grab me my bottle of gatorade? it's in the fridge door"

He nods and steps out, accidentally shutting the door with a click. As she's left to herself her thoughts become daunting and her stomach fills with butterflies. When she had written the song she hadn't even thought about the implications behind the lyrics or the title and now that she's really thinking about it, she doesn't know whether to run and hide from herself or from Matt.

She stands, shakes out her legs and has a staring contest with herself in the mirror.

She is so fucking in love with Matt Sturniolo.

And she's so fucking screwed.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

gemmaevans

gemmaevans you'll never guess what i've been up to 💫

view all 2,300 comments

user NEW MUSIC NEW MUSIC

user holy shit

user IM SO EXCITED

matthew.sturniolo ohhhhh yeahhhhh
gemmaevans ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhh
user MEMMA
user HELLO

jadeyfrench 😯

averypicketttt 🫣🫣

josiegordon they aren't ready!!
christophersturniolo who's they?
josiegordon leave me alone 😐

nicolassturniolo AHHH

iimlxst loved the chorus :>
user OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
user MALCOLM???
user aces x lxst collab when

💌
YOU AREEE THE ONLY EXCEPTIONNNNN

anyways hi it's been almost 10 days and i'm srry hope you still love me but I took a much needed break for myself but here I am hehe.

I said that there's only 20-ish chapters left but considering the fact that they aren't even dating yet idk how true that is 😐 is that too long for a fanfic?? bruh idk this book is like the same length as the first harry potter book (I looked it up and estimated based on my words per chapter hehe) which is fucking CRAZY TO MEEEE

I also just wanted to say that I absolutely do not mind if you take inspiration from my books! but please give me credit or a heads up, I work hard on my writing (as I know you guys do too) and all I ask is to be notified, ya know?

thank u for reading and i hope you're having a good week as always <33