CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT !
[ real life ]

❝ IN THE DARK ❞

📂﹖﹕𓂃𐩐💻

ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ

"no. shut up. i am so angry with you right now. i'm so-"

"i regret nothing."

aurora chucks a pillow right at kingstons head.

"what the fuck is up with you and pillows today?"

the trio from earlier all sit in elijah and auroras living room. luckily, their parents left for the day to try and go on a date night and revive any of their dead relationship. it's 7pm now and the triplets and everyone are coming way later than expected. lacrosse practice went on extra long because of the game coming up and chris demanded they went out to eat afterwards as a treat so they're only on their way now. it's literally already dark outside.

aurora is currently holding a grudge against kingstons smug, nonchalant self. see, matt and aurora had obviously been doing this thing where they didn't address anything that happened while they texted and kingston here, he just had to change that.

before aurora could even quickly text that it was kingston, venus was on her phone again. she's assuming matt deleted the message really quickly or something like that because of how normal her texts were.

kingston picks the pillow up off of the ground where it bounced off of him and holds it over his chest. "i'm just helping you out, dawg," he glances at aurora, grinning a bit at the word dawg because yeah, it's a funny word.

"i don't need your help, dawg." she rolls her eyes before groaning and covering her face with her hands. "he literally read it and didn't respond. that's so embarrassing oh my god."

"aw," elijah teases, laughing with kingston for a second. "look at you caring about what he thinks."

"shut the fuck up," aurora shakes her head as she uncovers her face.

elijah rolls his eyes and before he can even respond, the doorbell rings. aurora furrows her eyebrows as she starts to get up. "did you guys lock the door?"

"yeah," kingston shrugs. "thought it'd be funny, i guess."

aurora blinks before turning around and walking towards the door with a sigh. kingston and elijah glance at each other before getting up as well and following shortly behind her.

"AURORA!" a yell that definitely belongs to chris is heard on the other side of the door before aurora unlocks it and opens it. five figures soaked with rain are revealed and aurora almost grins because it's kinda funny.

"it's literally pouring and your doors locked?" chris questions with a shake of his head, wiping some droplets under his eyes off before shoving past her inside. aurora rolls her eyes. "what the fuck?"

"you were waiting on my porch that is covered by a roof but okay," she sighs as everyone walks past her to get inside.

"yo kingston, what's up, man?" she hears chris greet but loses focus as matt is the last person to walk inside.

"hi, matthew," she speaks up, giving a tight lipped smile when he pauses from where he was walking past her.

he's already rolling his eyes at the use of his full name. "hi, aurora," he returns the gesture before taking a step back as she closes the door. he glances over her before tilting his head slightly. "you sober now?"

"obviously."

"well," he narrows his eyes at her before giving the same right lipped smile she gave him. "i couldn't really tell by your texts earlier. silly me."

auroras face falls just slightly from what she hoped wouldn't be mentioned, glancing over at kingston who is listening and holding his hand over his mouth to prevent from laughing. she holds in an eye roll and glances back at matt, tilting her head as well. "yeah, you're just so silly, aren't you?" she says sarcastically. "i am sober."

"huh," he just says. "what a shame. kinda liked you better drunk."

she blinks. "die."

he grins. "anddd there she is," he says sarcastically.

"oh my god," raven exclaims, matt and aurora both turning to her who is already looking at them. "you guys are back! how fun!"

the two both sigh at the exact same time, them instantly turning to one another with a weird look once they do so.

"stop copying me," aurora immediately says.

"i'm not 'copying' you, you just happened to sigh at the exact same time as me, you fucking weirdo."

aurora just shakes her head. "you wanna be me so bad."

"what. that doesn't even make sense. how does that even-"

"guys," venus interrupts them, her nose scrunching up as she looks around slightly. "is something burning?"

auroras eyebrows furrow before after a moment of realization, her eyes widen comically. she looks to elijah and they both share the same look before turning to kingston. "you were supposed to watch my fucking rice!" aurora shouts.

kingstons eyes widen. "oh shit."

and in five seconds, kingston, elijah, and aurora are all racing to the kitchen. the rest of the group all share a look before following behind them.

"well," kingston says once they've made it to the stove and he tries moving the rice stuck to the bottom of the pan. "it's not that burnt."

"it's literally fucking black," she deadpans, taking the utensil from him and scooping out some rice from the bottom that is, in fact, black.

"well, if you add enough like.. seasoning-"

kingston just stops talking when she glares at him and picks up the pan full of burnt rice. she walks over to the trash can and bangs it against the surface until it's all gone.

"okay so i guess that's a no on the-"

"kingston," aurora interrupts with a tight lipped smile. "you're testing my patience today."

he just sighs and shuts up. chris stands with an amused smile, having to cover his mouth to refrain from laughing. matt next to him though, does not cover his mouth. he laughs openly.

aurora pauses from where she was putting the dish in the sink and turns to him. "did you just laugh?"

"what if i did?" he shrugs carelessly.

see, the rest of the group would assume matt just has a death wish because of how angry aurora gets all the time but then again, he hates her.

what matt loves though? he loves not actually talking about how he kissed the girl last week, he loves acting like he wasn't here yesterday for half of the night to make sure she was okay, and most of all, he loves making her angry.

he loves watching the way her face twists up with annoyance, how a red tint of frustration spreads over her cheeks, and how her voice grows just a tiny bit deeper when she yells.

"matt, you think you're so funny but you're actually-" she begins.

"ha," he cuts her off, watching the way she's instantly scoffing in response.

"you're not even-"

"haha," he cuts her off yet again.

aurora takes in a breath before talking again, now in a fake calm tone. "you keep going and i swear to god-"

"what?" he cuts her off for the literal third time as nick sighs so loudly from next to them. "what are you gonna do?"

she narrows at her eyes intensely at him, a small moment of silence growing between them. they basically have a stare off that has everyone around them groaning until aurora finally opens her mouth. "i-"

a sudden bright flash that comes from the kitchen window has everyone pausing, including aurora who was in the middle of talking, and turning their head in that direction.

"shit. was that lightning?" raven frowns as elijah and chris walk over the window to peek outside.

"oh definitely," elijah answers, sharing a glance with chris as they look out.

"fuck," matt groans, aurora already dropping whatever they got into earlier and taking a step away. "i hate driving in storms."

"yeah, plus we still have to take venus and raven home," nick frowns, glancing at the couple for a second then at matt. "should we just go ahead and go before it gets too bad?"

"i guess so," matt sighs, beginning to speak again before clamping his mouth shut as loud thunder is heard. everyone shares a glance before matt opens his mouth again. "fuck."

"woah," kingston says, a very easy tone to his voice compared to everyone else. everyone turns to him because of his lack of concern. "this is like some horror movie shit."

"kingston," aurora just sighs and shakes her head, walking over to him.

matt glances at her as she does so before running a hand through his hair. "we should probably go now," he tells them even though his voice makes it clear he wants to do anything but that.

aurora frowns. she knows matt already has really bad road anxiety and with the weather right now, he'd have to drive on slippery wet roads in the dark which she knows he is not a fan of. so, before she can think on it too much, she opens her mouth. "you guys can just stay here until the storms over."

matt instantly looks over at her, clearly relieved from not having to drive but not wanting to show it. "really?"

"yeah," she shrugs. "it's no big deal. our parents won't be home tonight anyway." she glances over at elijah who nods in confirmation.

"well, alright," chris says before anyone else can. "i know mom will be okay with that," he glances at nick and then matt who both nod before turning to raven and venus. "what about you guys?" once they nod as well, chris turns to kingston. kingston gives a short 'yah' and chris sighs. "cool."

"yeah, it shouldn't be too long anyway," venus shrugs, earning a few nods from anyone.

right after she's spoken though, everything suddenly goes dark.

"there's no way," elijah just says and aurora can hardly even see him anymore. chris and elijah are only slightly visible because they're next to the window and the small amount of light from yard lights outside shines on them.

"this is so sick," kingston whispers from next to aurora and aurora frowns because she can't even see him anymore.

"kingston, what the fuck? where'd you go?" she sighs, literally moving her hands out to the side of her to try and find him.

she can hear him chuckle before he says, "over there," and pushes her in another direction.

she ends up bumping into another body and groans. her hands come up to their shoulders as she's shoved into them to prevent losing her balance from the sudden collision. "kingston, i swear to fuck-"

"not kingston, you idiot," the person says as they reach down and rest their hands on her hips to gently shove her off of them.

"oh great," aurora mutters as she, for some fucking reason, recognizes the touch before the actual voice. "matt."

"aurora," he responds simply.

as they stand there in the dark, she realizes that oh, they're kinda a little close. she'd say it's an unusual amount of closeness for them but after this past week, she's not so sure. she suddenly realizes from this that she still has her hands on his shoulders. she clears her throat slightly and removes her hands, the movement seemingly having matt realize his hands are still on her hips as he removes them as well.

"omg," nicks voice whispers, a little close to aurora that tells her he's definitely still standing next to matt. "matt and aurora could be like... kissing right now and we wouldn't even know."

aurora is clamping her eyes shut with a groan as elijah chuckles from next to the window. "that's funny for such a bigger reason than yo-"

"eli!" aurora interrupts. "shut the fuck up."

she knows he's probably about to respond with something that would just expose her even more when suddenly, there's a new lighting that gives them the ability to actually see around. the first thing aurora notices is oh, she's still closer to matt than she originally thought. they both look at each other first in the new lighting and aurora quickly adverts her eyes, clears her throat, and takes a further step away from him. matt doesn't do or say anything, just watches as she does so.

everyone eventually turns their heads to find kingston shining a phone flashlight. once everyone's eyes are on him, he grins. "crazy idea," he starts, pausing for a dramatic moment of anticipation before continuing. "hide and seek in the dark."

no one responds immediately, they just glance at each other to consider the idea. when no one seems to object, chris is the first to grin. "well, let's get some fucking flashlights and do this shit."

💌

chuckling bc i know what's coming and u don't (well mak does but that's besides the point)

this is lowk a filler chapter again bc nothing RLLY happened but i swear next chapters are so fun

<3
jaden