══✿══╡°˖✧✿✧˖°╞══✿══
IRL and insta
══✿══╡°˖✧✿✧˖°╞══✿══

Leanna swirled her cup full of Sprite, watching the contents inside move. She's flattered that Nick cared enough to throw her a birthday party, but currently she's sitting on the boys' couch bored as fuck. Lea feels like an outsider at her own party, her friends are socializing in the living room and all she can do is watch. Chris is talking to Elmer when he glances over at the couch. Lea is staring rather intently at the bottom of her red solo cup. He can tell that Leanna is uncomfortable, she's somewhat hunched over and one of her arms is crossed over her chest. Too distracted to contribute to the conversation at hand, Chris excuses himself to check on her. He's standing in front of her now, but she's still captivated by her drink.

Chris clears his throat and points to the seat next to Leanna, "Is it cool if I sit?"

"Yeah, of course," Lea answers, moving down to make space for the boy. Chris sits down carefully next to the blonde. There's a moment of silence before Chris speaks again.

"You're not having fun?" Chris already knows the answer. Lea's been sitting by herself for most of the party. He'd hate to have her exclude herself from her own party because of whatever is going on with Matt. Currently, they're on the opposite sides of the room with Matt talking to Nick.

"No, I am."

"You're a terrible liar Lea," Chris chuckles to himself while leaning back on the couch. Lea turns her head to Chris and guffaws. She brings the cup to her lips and finishes off her Sprite.

"I don't want you to be sitting here all by yourself at your birthday party," Chris gestures to the partygoers, "These people came because they love you. They're gonna miss you when you leave for New York. Although I know I'm great company, you should spend your last day with your friends, not alone on the couch."

Leanna knows he's right, she has been throwing herself a pity party. She's been too caught up in her feelings with Matt to appreciate the effort Nick has put in to host.

"Yeah, you're right. I'll go talk to some people." Lea gets up and sets down her empty cup on the table beside the couch. She sees Lilith across the room and waves at her, knowing that her cousin will want to catch up.

"Thank you, by the way. You give pretty good pep talks."

Chris laughs, his smile bright, "No problem, Lea."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"I'm gonna miss you so much," Lilith says. She and Leanna are sitting on the stairs of the triplets' house. Leanna rotates her body towards Lilith and she can see her cousin's teary eyes. It breaks Lea's heart that she'll be away from Lilith for four months.

Leanna knocks her knees against Lilith's, "Hey, I'll be back before you even know it." Lilith smiles softly at her cousin, wiping the tears that have fallen. Lea rests her head on Lilith's shoulder, taking in the moment with one of her favorite people. In all honesty, Leanna is terrified of leaving Somerville. She's grateful that her aunt in New York is willing to take her in for the four months, but all her friends are in Massachusetts. The fear of being forgotten is immense. She fears her absence will cause no significant impact on the triplets. More specifically Matt, but that's not something she's ready to think about. Lea sighs deeply, she's realizing now that she's thirsty and is also craving some of the chips left in the kitchen.

"I'm going to the kitchen, do you want anything?" Lea gets up, stretching her arms over her head. She sees Lilith shake her head 'no' before walking down the steps into the Sturniolo kitchen. Leanna grabs one of the extra solo cups on the island and fills it up with water. At the same time, Matt enters the kitchen holding Leanna's birthday gift. He's been waiting to have a moment alone with Leanna to give her her gift. There's a lot he wants to say and he'd prefer for them to be the only ones in the room when he says it.

He's rubbing the hand that isn't holding Lea's gift against his pants, "Uh, hi."

Lea's back stiffens upon hearing Matt's voice. She closes her eyes and prays to God that this is some kind of sick joke. Leanna turns around to find that her prayers were not answered— her ex-boyfriend is in fact, in front of her.

"Hi." Lea's tone is laced with hesitancy. Matt takes a step towards the island and sets the gift bag down. Leanna can see Matt's lips moving but she's far too distraught over the fact that Matt got her a birthday gift to really hear what he's saying.

"—and I'm really sorry for what I said the other day. It was unfair of me to call you selfish for pursuing a really cool opportunity. You're not selfish, you're one of the most selfless people I know. I was a huge dick and I am genuinely really fucking sorry Lea. I know you told me you didn't want to be friends but I bought you this gift anyways because I—" Matt's looking away from Lea now, trying to muster up the courage to finally confess that he's still in love with her. However, the words 'I love you' feel like lead in the boy's mouth. His heart is pounding as he rubs the back of his neck as a way to self-soothe. Matt is trying to regulate his breathing but it's still coming out in shaky, labored breaths. Lea's legs move instinctively towards Matt.

"Matt? Can you look at me, please?" Lea's worried now, Matt's eyes are still averted. She's contemplating calling Chris or Nick to come over to calm him down. However, she knows the boys' phones are in their rooms and she really doesn't want to leave Matt alone in this state. Leanna gingerly touches Matt's cheek to direct his gaze back to her. Matt's eyes soften when his eyes meet hers.

"Can you try to match my breathing?" Leanna asks. Matt nods and tries to copy Leanna as she's inhaling for four counts and exhaling for eight. A minute passes by before Matt's breathing is leveled. He's now hyperaware of Leanna's hand that is still resting on his cheek.

"Do you wanna open your gift now?" He's pointing to the gift bag sitting idly on the island. Leanna's hand drops from his cheek and Matt misses the warmth it brought. She's opening the bag and removing the pink tissue paper hiding the gift. Leanna reaches inside to grab three packages of Strawberry Mentos.

Leanna is smiling softly at Matt, "You remember my favorite candy?" She's opening the first package and popping one in her mouth. Leanna remembers when she and Matt first started dating in 2018. After their first date when Lea told him that her all-time favorite candy was Strawberry Mentos, Matt had begun to buy a package of the candy every time he went to the gas station to store them in his room. Not to give to Leanna, but rather to eat them so when they kissed he'd taste like them. That's what Leanna loves about Matt: how he's deliberately kind. To repay him, Lea had stashed up on root beer gummies, they weren't her favourite but she knew he'd be pleasantly surprised when he kissed her.

"I don't really think I can forget anything about you," Matt's scratching the back of his neck as he watches Leanna open the candy.

"Oh."

"There's one more thing in the bag."

Leanna reaches back in the bag to find a velvet box. She gets a sense of a déjà vu as she opens the box. Inside held the necklace that Leanna had wanted. It's a gold chain with a circular Rose Quartz crystal as the pendant. Since Leanna didn't have a job, she'd been saving some money she did get here and there for the necklace.

"Holy shit," Leanna whips her head in Matt's direction, "How'd you know this was the necklace I wanted?"

There's a glimmer in Leanna's eyes and Matt is absolutely captivated by her. The birthday crown Nick had placed on her head makes Leanna look like a princess. Leanna's smile is big and all Matt can think about is how beautiful she looks in his kitchen.

"We were talking and you mentioned the store. I checked it out and then I bought it for you."

"Thank you so much!"

Matt tells her not to worry about it and suddenly the two are engulfed in silence. Matt shoves his hand in his front pocket, feeling for Leanna's birthday card that he wrote. He knew that he probably wouldn't be able to outright tell Leanna his feelings (although he's glad he did try), so he made her birthday card a failsafe. The card— which is really more of a lined piece of paper from one of his notebooks—had explained everything: the reason why he broke up with her and why he kissed her in her kitchen a couple of weeks ago. He really did dump out all his feelings on the page, hoping that it would be enough to get Leanna to understand why he did what he did and how much he regrets it.

"Lea?" He's moving to bring the card out, he can feel that this is the moment. The moment where he can finally get Leanna back. Leanna hums in response, waiting for him to continue.

"I wanted to—" Matt's interrupted by Alahna bursting into the kitchen.

"Hey, we wanna take group photos, so come on!" Alahna exclaims.

"Yeah, we'll be there in a second." Leanna turns back to Matt as Alahna leaves the room, "What were you saying, Matt?"

Matt is shoving the card back into his pocket, faking a smile, "Just wanted to say good luck in New York, I know you'll do great."

Leanna thanks Matt before leaving the kitchen with the gift bag, with Matt trailing behind her.

@LEANNALAWSON JUST POSTED!

leannalawson:

liked by lilithlawson, alahna111, and others
@leannalawson: thank u to all my amazing friends for the early bday celebrations i will miss u guys when im in NY ❤️

nicolassturniolo: LEA I WILL MISS U LITERALLY SO MUCH U DONT EVEN KNOW
╰─▸ leannalawson: STOP ILY TY FOR THROWING ME THIS PARTY I LOVE U

lilithlawson: already crying tbh
╰─▸ leannalawson: lil im begging u do not do that ur gonna make me cry

christophersturniolo: gonna miss u lea, good luck in NY ❤️
╰─▸ leannalawson: ty chris gonna miss u too !!

matthew.sturniolo: hope u have good time in NY

comment liked by leannalawson!

user349: wait is she moving to NY?
╰─▸ sturniolofan1029: no, she said on her tiktok that she's going there to make music!

alahna111: please ft me everyday im not even joking
╰─▸ leannalawson: stop u know i will 😭

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

the bday party chapter is finally here! Matt's gift was partially inspired by Strawberry Mentos by Leanna Firestone btw

matt is always getting interrupted when he wants to tell lea something poor guy

WE ARE ON TO THE NY PORTION OF BOOK, this part is really important for lea and her character so im very excited

THE NEXT PART IS THE ADDITIONAL CAST

until next time!!