CHAPTER TWENTY ONE !
[ real life ]

❝ STARING PROBLEM ❞

📂﹖﹕𓂃𐩐💻

ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ

when they reach the bathroom, aurora drops matt's hand and he closes the door behind them. "okay sit," she immediately tells him, pointing to the toilet.

he blinks, not moving, so she sighs. she grabs him by the shoulders and pushes him in front of the toilet, forcing him to sit down by the grip she has on his shoulders. "so aggressive," he murmurs.

she rolls her eyes, letting go of his shoulders and moving in front of the sink. "do you know if they have a first aid kit in here?"

"probably?" he answers questionably. "check under the sink."

she checks under the sink and finds it, instantly reaching for it. she closes the cabinet doors and stands back up. she begins looking through it to find what she'll need and notices matt staring at her in the corner of her eye. "stop looking at me," she tells him without glancing in his direction.

he immediately sighs in response, leaning back on the toilet. "alright," he says. "guess i'll just stare at this wall then."

"yeah, you do that, you fucking weirdo." she doesn't have to look at him to know he rolls his eyes in response.

"okay, i can't look at you or the wall without being shamed," he says, glancing back at her. "what am i supposed to look at?"

"i don't know," she responds, leaning towards him and grabbing his bruised hand without saying anything about it. she glances over it for any blood and when she doesn't find any, she lets go of it and lets it fall to his lap. while she's still leaned towards him, she looks to his face and notices they're definitely a tad close and that he's got this weird thing going on behind his eyes. "you've still got the ceiling and the floor. try that," she tells him before moving away and back to the sink.

she begins to pull out a box of sterilized wipes when she notices matt staring at her again. she turns her head to glance at him. "you're looking again."

"i know."

she gets a weird feeling in her stomach from how he's looking at her so she focuses back on the sink counter. she opens the box of sterile wipes and pulls one out. it's covered in the disinfecting liquid so she knows it'll probably sting.

she walks over in front of him, his eyes staying on her as she does so. "this will probably hurt a bit," she tells him as she grabs his hand.

"i'll be fine," he responds.

"okay," she sighs.

as soon as she puts the wipe over a spot of raw skin on his knuckle, he kisses his teeth. she immediately takes it off his skin. "shit, is it that bad?"

it feels as if she's pouring acid over his wounds.

"oh no, i'm fine," he shakes his head after seeing her slightly worried expression.

"okay..." she says, continuing to rub the gauze over his open wounds. he manages a straight face, focusing on auroras face instead of the pain.

he glances over her features, noticing the slight furrow to her eyebrows as she concentrates on tending to his hand. he watches as her lips twist to the side when she brings his hand closer to her face to take a better look at the damaged skin. a bit of her hair eventually falls in front of her face and for some reason, he debates on leaning forward to push it back into its original place. she quickly tucks it behind her ear before he can think on it for too long though. she suddenly takes a step away, not letting go of his hand as she leans over the sink to grab gauze. he finds himself glancing at her hand holding onto his.

he's not like... staring or anything. he's just bored.

she grabs the gauze and adhesive tape this time. he again, silently watches her as she slowly begins the process of spreading gauze to cover all of the wounds  and taping it down. she glances up at him for a second, noticing his staring and speaking up. "so," she says. "do you have any other places i need to clean or anything?"

"no," he answers after a pause. "we didn't fight. i just punched him."

"cool," she gives a short nod, unsure of how to respond.  "did you like... say anything to him or just walk in and punch him?"

he rolls his eyes at the weirdly worded question. "no, i didn't just walk in and punch him," he tells her as she looks up at him. "we talked." he shrugs.

"what'd you say to him?" she immediately asks, far too curious about the whole thing.

"what's with all the questions?" he asks another question instead of answering hers.

"i'm curious," she answers with a shrug. "so what'd you say to him?"

"can't," he answers.

"can't?" she questions.

"can't tell you," he continues his answer further.

auroras eyebrows instantly raise but before answering, she glances down at his hand. she decides it's covered with enough gauze and grabs the supplies she used with her one free hand. she takes a small step away, again not letting go of his hand when she reaches back to the counter. matt instantly notices it for the second time, his eyes looking down at the touch.

she comes back from the sink, this time with wrapping bandage. "why can't you tell me?" she asks once she's directly in front of him.

"don't feel like it," he shrugs.

she looks up from his hand to narrow her eyes at him. "that's such a childish response but alright," she sighs, focusing back on his hand and beginning to wrap it with the bandage.

"you're one to talk about childishness," he responds with a roll of his eyes.

she shakes her head as she finishes wrapping his hand. once she's done, she looks at him with a tight-lipped smile. "so sweet to me, aren't you matt?" she says sarcastically.

he just hums in response, noticing yet again that when she grabs the bandages and steps away to put them up, she doesn't let go of his hand. she doesn't even need to hold it for anything anymore. so, this time he speaks up, "just really love holding my hand, don't you?"

her head turns to him so quickly that he almost gets whiplash. she looks over to find that he's right, she's still holding onto it. she immediately drops it and turns back away from him. "absolutely not," she says, closing the first aid kit and bending down to put it up. once she straightens back up, she doesn't look at him. "didn't even realize."

"yeah i'm sure," he nods, pressing his lips together to hide the smile threatening to form. she turns around once to glare at him before opening the door and walking out while he's still in the room.

he just sighs, standing up and walking to the mirror. he fixes his hair that had gotten a tad out of place and glances over his bandaged hand before walking out.

when he walks into the hallway, he spots chris at the end of it leaning against a wall. his eyes widen as soon as matt comes out of the bathroom and he immediately comes sprinting up to him.

matt is already groaning at whatever this conversation is gonna be.

"i fucking knew it!" chris exclaims once he reaches his brother, pointing a finger at him to further prove his point.

"what?" matt questions.

"you and rory!" he enthuses, dropping his hand and instead crossing his arms.

matt rolls his eyes at his brothers enthusiasm, not even denying anything and just raising his bandaged hand up. "she was helping me with my hand."

chris pauses. "oh."

"yeah..." matt awkwardly says, slowly bringing his hand back down to his side.

"congrats on punching cameron though," chris brings up, a grin forming on his face. "i knew you were gonna do some shit like that as soon as you said you'd get her charger."

"yup. i always knew cameron was an ass," he shrugs, raising his eyebrows when chris' lips twist to the side. "what?"

"i mean... you were right about cameron, yeah," he says, pausing for a moment before continuing. "but we all know that's not the actual reason you didn't want her with him."

matt's eyebrows begin to furrow. "what?"

chris sighs before explaining, "you literally only started hating cameron because aurora was paying attention to a guy that isn't you."

matt narrows his eyes at him, instantly sensing what he's up to. "i'm not doing this," he says before passing by him and beginning to walk away.

chris turns around to see his retreating brother. "just admit it, bro!" he calls out as he continues walking away.

hours later, it's dark outside.

raven, venus, and nick are all sharing ravens bed to sleep on. nick literally lays across the end of it like a dog. matt is upstairs as well, claiming the one couch by the staircase to sleep on.

chris and aurora claimed the living room. chris took the big couch while aurora got stuck with the love seat.

of course, chris is asleep, which really pisses aurora off. see, they had planned to wait for everyone to fall asleep and then sneak off to the backyard to go night swimming.

now, he's asleep while aurora is wide awake.

there's no way she's going night swimming by herself. it's not fun at all without someone else. there's not a lot left of summer though, and it's nice outside. she has a lot on her mind and she loves the smell of summer air.

so, she slowly gets up from the loveseat and creeps towards the kitchen, sneaking looks at chris to make sure her steps don't wake him up. once she reaches the kitchen, she walks over to the sliding doors and slowly opens them. as soon there's a small, just big enough space for her to fit through, she slides through and quickly shuts it behind her.

she sighs happily, taking in a huge breath of air and glancing around at a few fireflies. she absolutely loves summer.

she walks over to the edge of the pool and slowly sits down, instantly allowing her feet to fall into the chlorine water.

after a few minutes of sitting there and staring up at the stars though, thoughts she's been avoiding begin to swarm through her head.

first of all, cameron. what the fuck?

she's been obsessing over this guy for a literal year and all it took was a few shitty comments for her to gain a complete and total ick for him? yeah, he's a shitty person, but considering how strong auroras obsession was, she would've thought she'd excuse his actions for a while longer. she got over him so quickly and she's not sure why.

she's also now realized he probably just wanted to get in her pants. definitely, she thinks, thinking back to how his hand would not stop sliding up her hip when they kissed.

she wonders where matt punched him and if it's gonna bruise or not. she hopes it does bruise to be honest.

along with the thought of matt punching cameron, she thinks about how ridiculously stubborn matt is. they were literally getting along earlier and all aurora wanted was for him to admit that he does care about her but no, even after she confirmed that she cares about him, he wouldn't do the same. what's the big deal? you can hate someone and still care about them.

she finds herself replaying something chris had said earlier. he's recently had this weird idea that her and matt like each other and it never really got to her because it's just a dumb theory. this though, this was sticking to her. "it's already happening," he had said. what does that even mean?

she's cut off from her own thoughts when she hears the screeching of a door. she instantly turns her head in that direction, finding matt. he comes outside, looking at aurora as he closes the door behind him. "what the fuck are you doing?"

literally what the fuck.

"am i not allowed to sit here?" she responds with a sarcastic question. "i feel like you attack me for breathing."

he rolls his eyes and begins walking over to her, her eyes watching him as he does so. he stops once he's next to her, looking down at her with a shrug. "maybe if your breathing wasn't so annoying i wouldn't."

"okay wow," she scoffs, looking up at him. "why are you even out here?"

"bored," he answers simply, beginning to sit down next to her. his legs come into the water and she notices that there's not much space between them from how close he sat but presses her lips together to refrain from speaking on it. "i was gonna look for something to eat in the kitchen and i saw you out here so."

she just nods in response, looking in front of her instead of at him.

"why are you out here?" he asks, not having looked away from her even though she isn't looking back at him.

"chris and i were gonna night swim but the bitch fell asleep," she answers, looking back over at him as she talks. "i like how the air smells though so i came outside anyway."

"you like how the air smells?" he repeats, his face scrunching up as he talks.

"yes," she rolls her eyes, looking back in front of her instead of at him. "it just smells better during summer."

"there's like five days left of summer," he deadpans.

"thanks, matt," she says sarcastically, still not looking at him. "i know."

he doesn't say anything else, just continuing to look at her. aurora notices it in the corner of her eye and a weird feeling begins to pile up in her stomach. she glances at him for a second, him returning the eye contact easily, before turning away again. "you've got a real staring problem today, you know that?" she says eventually.

"i know."

her breath hitches for some reason but she collects herself and looks back at him. "you should fix it then."

he doesn't respond, still staring at her with that same look she can't figure out. she sighs and looks away again. she just can't hold eye contact with him tonight, it's so weird.

she instead, glances around her and notices a couple fireflies. she stares at the bugs glowing and then disappearing, all popping up in different places when they glow again.

matt watches aurora as her eyes light up looking around her. he knows she's looking at different fireflies but he can't find himself to look away from her, finding her face more appealing than the glowing bugs around them. she's unguarded, no walls up like they usually are. she seems more open, almost vulnerable. he's got this weird feeling as he stares at her, glancing over her features one by one. he feels different.

"i love fireflies," she speaks into the silence between them. the air feels tense but she decides to ignore it. when a few seconds pass and matt doesn't respond, she dreadfully looks back at him. "what?" she asks, finding him still looking at her without saying a single word.

"nothing," he finally responds in a quieter voice than she had expected. his tone is light and it has auroras eyes softening.

she doesn't look away this time, deciding on returning his staring that just won't stop. the air around them seems heavy and she feels as light as a feather.

the two fall into an even quieter silence if possible as they stare at one another. aurora is as confused as ever about whatever is going on right now but refuses to speak on any of her questions, not wanting to let go of the comfortable moment yet.

a long few seconds pass and she's itching to look away, to back down from whatever this is, but forces herself not to. as she debates giving into the urge of breaking away from this, she swears to god she sees matt inch just a tad closer to her. she thinks she's absolutely hallucinating until she catches him do it again.

soon enough, after just a short moment, matt is a way shorter distance away from her. he's leaned in closer to her, the closest she has ever been to his face. she watches in a trance as his eyes glance down to her lips so quickly you could miss it just by blinking. she finds herself sitting there in anticipation for him to just break the distance already but when a couple more outstretched seconds pass, she realizes he's looking back at her and waiting for a reaction. he doesn't want to do anything without her sharing the same desire, she realizes. she debates within herself for an even longer few seconds.

ultimately, she leans in. as soon as she does, he breaks the short distance between them.

there's at least a million different thoughts running through auroras head as she kisses matt fucking sturniolo. somehow though, her heart is going ten times faster than the thoughts swarming around her mind. her stomach is so full of feelings of butterflies that she's sure there's got to be an entire fucking zoo down there.

it's a slow kiss between the two, full of feelings completely unexplainable to aurora. matt's hand comes up to reach her face, his thumb resting against the edge of her jaw as the rest of his fingers touch the start of some of her hair.

the movements between them begin to speed up so matt eventually breaks away from her to catch a breath of air. once he's pulled away, he opens his eyes to see aurora do so as well. her eyebrows are furrowed immensely, trying to process what's happened.

the two stare at each other again, each with parted lips, and matt decides he needs to speak now or he probably never will. "i do care," he admits quietly, referencing multiple conversations they've had before.

auroras lips part even more from his words, trying to comprehend what he's said. him speaking though, snaps her back into reality.

she suddenly glances around at their surroundings, blinking repeatedly as she realizes what the fuck just happened. matt watches her as she suddenly takes ahold of his arm, his hand still resting on her face, and pulls it down so his hand will fall. once it has, she suddenly scoots away from the edge of the pool, her feet coming out of the water as she backs away from him. she stands up abruptly and begins to walk away.

matt turns his head to watch as she walks to the door, opens it, walks inside, and closes it behind her without saying a single word. he doesn't stop her by grabbing her wrist, he doesn't chase after her, he doesn't even call out for her. he just watches her leave.

💌

so.......

idek what to say tbh.

this chapter was so long help

um.

matt's perspective next chapter

.......

bye?

<3
jaden