CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE !
[ real life, imessage ]

❝ HOW YOU GET THE GIRL ❞

📂﹖﹕𓂃𐩐💻

ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ

another class period is almost over, just fifteen minutes until the bell rings, when auroras phone begins to buzz.

matt glances over to her phone on the ground next to her and then her face against his shoulder, her mouth open slightly agape. he blinks once before looking away and back down to her chromebook on his lap, not taking a chance to ruin the serene quietness in the atmosphere.

the laptop is playing gravity falls. she was originally watching mean girls on the device but her airpods died practically as soon as her eyes close. she just groaned and turned it to him slightly, muttering that he could put on whatever the fuck, just to make sure there was somewhat of noise. he nodded, moving it to his lap and quickly settling on gravity falls. the volume is quieter than he'd prefer but he refuses to accidentally wake her up.

it's when her phone begins to buzz repeatedly that matt finds himself glancing back to it. aurora begins to move slightly in her sleep and he sighs. he narrows his eyes at his phone, silently pleading for it to shut the fuck up. he notices it looks different than before, the cameras on the back look a little bigger. did she get a new model or something...? anyway, his thoughts are cut off when it buzzes again.

aurora moves a little more and matt accepts his fate, groaning internally. god forbid he gets to enjoy a silent moment with aurora not screaming about his mere presence.

he looks down to her peaceful state before ruining it by nudging her slightly. "ror—aurora," he corrects himself with a cough when she flinches slightly, opening her eyes as her eyebrows furrow. "your phones blowing up."

"oh," she mumbles, blinking a tad and raising her head from his shoulder. she sits up, in a daze, and all matt can really focus on us how cold his shoulder instantly feels. she glances at the gravity falls playing quietly momentarily before turning and grabbing her phone.

matt awkwardly glances to the chromebook, not wanting to invade on her personal space or whoever's texting her. once she grabs her phone though, she resituates and leans down to rest her head back on his shoulder. matt stiffens momentarily, glancing down at her. she's unbothered and still obviously tired, now texting on her phone lazily.

matt doesn't mean to, he seriously doesn't, but he glances to her phone.

his eyebrows raise a tad when he realizes it's her mother texting her and he knows he should look away, but he glances over the texts sent and what auroras typing in response.

her mother is mentioning that she got a notification of auroras absence in class and is not happy. aurora is typing a response bringing up how it wouldn't be a problem if they stuck to original plans of what the day entails. so, matt really, really, really doesn't mean to speak, but he does. "your moms not taking you to the cemetery this year?" leaves his lips before he can second guess himself. he had already had the feeling but for some fucking stupid reason, he had to voice an ask of confirmation.

aurora instantly frowns and not only pulls her phone away from his view, but also sits up and straightens from where she was resting against him. she doesn't even look at him and attempt a response, she just continues texting while she's turned away from him.

matt frowns also because how is he seriously this stupid? he begins to back up his question hesitantly, "i didn't mean to snoop. i'm sorry."

aurora pauses for a moment before sighing quietly. her fingers freeze from where they were typing and she looks up, not at matt, but to the bookshelf across from them. "you say that a lot," she speaks in a soft murmur, and matt almost wishes she was quiet enough for him to not hear the words. she glances back down at her phone afterwards and clicks a button, then turning her phone off and resting her head against the bookshelf behind them.

matt bites on the inside of his lip for a second, trying to come up with the words. eventually settling for a quiet, "i mean it."

he's taken off guard when she whispers, "i know." her eyes are on the ceiling instead of him, as if she's afraid to glance in his direction. "i just don't want to talk right now, not today."

matt's eyebrows scrunch together just a bit. does that mean she wants to talk some other time? he doesn't ask it because the timings not right and he respects her, instead he says, "okay." he glances over her tired state, growing quiet for a moment before asking a simple, "do you want me to go?"

does he want to go? absolutely not. will he if that's what aurora really wants? of course.

"no," aurora is quick to respond, matt blinking in surprise as she actually turns to look at him now. her eyes are soft and matt hasn't gotten to experience that softness from her in a while. he almost wishes he could capture it with a camera right now to look back on it later when the softness is gone again. "can you just..." she trails off for a moment and matt is as patient as ever in the time she takes to continue. "stay here without talking?"

matt is already nodding before he even fully realizes what she's saying. when he realizes what she's saying, he nods more. he just nods. he nods, he nods, he nods. yes, yes, yes. all the words he really needs to hear is 'stay' and just yes, always yes.

aurora seemingly glances over his features which just makes matt's heart melt because hey, this time being so painfully far apart from her has really taught him how much her just looking at him means. she then softly nods her head once in response to his own nodding and leans back to rest her head back down on his shoulder. as soon as her chin lays on him, it's like the earth is peacefully turning on its axis again.

he glances down at the girl as she lets out a small sigh of contentment and closes her eyes. his heart beating out of his chest, he ever so hesitantly raises his arm. after a prolonged few seconds of debating within himself internally, he puts it down and over her shoulders, immediately waiting for the world to crumble from the extra touch. the world doesn't crumble though, and he looks to aurora, waiting for her to give him a dirty look and shove him away, but she doesn't. she instead just cozies further into him it seems. his heart practically sighs of relief.

auroras quick to fall back asleep and matt silently watches gravity falls while mindlessly twirling a strand of her hair around his finger. it's peaceful and matt wants to live in the moment forever instead of facing the harsh reality of how she's actually still angry with him.

another bell rings and matt wakes aurora up. she mumbles something about skipping until lunch, tells him he can go to class, he doesn't, he stays, and she falls back asleep.

eventually, matt and auroras skipping fun is over when the lunch bell rings. matt woke aurora up five minutes in advance and she actually stayed awake this time, even looking a bit more refreshed and not near as exhausted. he shuts off gravity falls and she gathers her stuff, matt awkwardly handing her the chromebook. she takes it and then the two just.. silently walk to the cafeteria.

when they make it to their usual lunch table, everyone's already there. aurora sits next to venus and matt heads for his usual seat across from her since ross has so graciously taken the privilege of sitting next to her away from him.

but wait.. speaking of ross, where is that blonde shithead? matt looks to the empty seat next to aurora where ross is usually seated. he glances at kingston sat at the end of the table, ross' empty seat, aurora, venus, and raven on one side of the table and makayla, matt's empty seat since he's standing, and nick and chris. no ross.

so, he walks in between where makayla is leant forward to talk to kingston at the end of the table and whispers, "where's ross?"

kingston and makayla both look at him in surprise. they share a look and then glance around before kingston ultimately shrugs. "honestly haven't got a clue, bro."

"oh no," matt says in seriously the most monotone voice ever.

kingston smirks at him in amusement from his tone and suddenly leans forward to shove his arm lightheartedly. "yeah, take the chance and go sit with your girl, dawg."

matt rolls his eyes as if that is a completely absurd thing to say before doing exactly that and subtly walking around the table and sitting down in ross' seat. aurora glances over at him but doesn't say anything to get him to shoo, instead being pulled back into conversation with venus.

matt sighs happily to himself and looks over to kingston and makayla to find them giggling at him. he just shakes his head and glances over at chris wiggling his eyebrows and nick nodding his head encouragingly. he facepalms.

he ends up falling into easy conversation with kingston and makayla and it's the happiest he's been in a while, living in peace next to aurora. having a seat next to aurora.

auroras engaged in conversation with venus and raven and even though he's not even involved with it, it makes him happy because she's happy on such a shit day. she even glances over at kingston, makayla, and him when someone says something out of pocket. every time they make contact it's like he's on cloud nine, he swears to god.

every thing feels easy, as if it's returning to normal.

he's laughing about something kingston said when his eyes subconsciously glance around the cafeteria and he notices a lot of people all looking in a general direction. his eyes slide away from kingston and makayla and follow everyone else's general line of vision and finds what they're looking at.

his lips are immediately twisted downwards when he notices ross walking in this direction, a large portion of the cafeteria watching his every step.

what the fuck does he have a poster for?

auroras feeling normal, content even, as she talks to venus and raven. they're going on about some funny tiktok trend they've seen recently and aurora is laughing for once. matt's presence is also right there next to her and even though she hasn't actually talked with him how she needs to, it's comforting.

she feels a couple peoples eyes on her back for some reason and wonders if she's being a little loud but she doesn't really care about what anyone thinks. she just continues talking to her friends.

when ravens eyes shift elsewhere and her eyes widen though, she begins to get a little questionable. venus notices and follows where she's looking, her eyebrows shooting up. aurora is now definitely questionable, turning around in her seat instantly to look for what they're staring at.

she notices all the people staring at her, everyone around the table staring with the weirdest faces ever except for matt who has never had such a more obvious scowl on his face before, and ross. she notices ross. ross and the poster in his hand.

there's some cringey homecoming quote on the poster that aurora doesn't read fully because homecoming quote? she glances at the wide grin on his face, like he's extremely proud of this and all the people watching them from their own lunch tables.

she feels frozen in place. she had just begun to feel at ease and now all eyes are on her.

how the fuck do you reject someone with everyone watching? why did he have to make a big scene with a proposal type of thing?

aurora bites on the inside of her lip so hard it almost bleeds, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. it's not the beating she gets from matt, the type of exciting beating. it's the anxious beating, when everyone's fucking watching you.

everyone's waiting for her to answer his clear question of if she'll go to homecoming with him and the longer she's silent, the more anticipation it creates. ross' face begins to falter more as time goes on and she doesn't know what the fuck to do.

she just realized she needs to end things with ross and thought she'd be able to go through one more day with him so she doesn't have to do anything harder than just fucking existing on this day but no. now he's put her in this dilemma.

she glances around at all the pairs of eyes watching her from around the gigantic room and takes in a deep breath.

yes in public, no in private, she thinks.

say yes now, tell him no as soon as everyone else returns to minding their business.

so, she nods. she does the smallest nod ever but still obvious even nod for multiple people around them to sigh of relief. she saves ross from the embarrassment without actually speaking. she can't speak it.

ross though, ross opens his mouth.

"what?" he questions.

how the actual fuck can he not see that she just nodded? why the fuck does she have to say it?

aurora takes in another deep breath and ignores the concerned looks she's receiving from all around the table. she wishes she could ignore the way matt's eyes are practically burning a hole into the side of her head. she refuses to glance in his direction, it's for her own good.

"yes," she speaks quietly, almost ashamed. the word is clear though, finally fucking clear enough for ross to get.

his face lights up because seriously, of course it does. he steps forward, setting his poster down on the table momentarily. he genuinely has the nerve to lean over matt, practically hovered in front of him, and reach aurora. aurora makes the mistake of glancing over at matt as ross hastily kisses her cheek while leaning past matt and oh my god, if looks could kill. his eyes are so narrowed they've become thin slits and his jaw is so clenched it looks to be on the verge of breaking.

ross pulls away with a grin, slipping out a quiet, "thanks 'rora," as he steps back and stands straight like it's no fucking big deal.

like auroras face doesn't drop so fast it looks like she's seen a ghost.

like every single person at the table doesn't turn their heads in matt's direction.

like he didn't use the one nickname for aurora that has always only been matt's.

'rora, 'rora, 'rora.

every single person at the table is staring at matt with the most concerned look plastered on their face. matt can't even focus on the sincerity behind their expressions because his ears are practically ringing.

yes, aurora had said to ross' corny ass homecoming proposal. 'rora, ross had called her.

two simple words that are driving him over the fucking edge.

everyone is looking at him with an anticipation of sorts, waiting for him to snap, waiting for all hell to break lose.

he doesn't though. his jaw is about to fall off of his own fucking face because of how tight it's clenched and there's practically holes in the tables from how hard he's glaring at it but he doesn't snap. he keeps it all in.

he keeps it in because he's not ross. he's not a fucking asshole. he knows what fucking day it is for aurora. he knows aurora, way better than this corny ass guy does.

aurora hates school dances, aurora hates corny shit, aurora hates attention on her when she's upset, aurora hates all of this.

so, matt isn't mad at aurora. he's not mad at her for saying yes to ross even though his heart is practically in his fucking ass because of it. he's not mad at her because he knows what day it is for her and that she hates attention on her in times like this. he's not mad at her because ross called her 'rora.

he's mad at ross. he is absolutely fucking fuming. he has this insane urge to use his face as a punching bag until his fists are black and blue and covered in red. but he doesn't. he doesn't, he doesn't, he doesn't.

he's holding every thing in so aurora doesn't have to and it's driving him fucking insane. he feels like he could break at any moment. he is genuinely losing his mind.

he can't take anymore of it, can't take being around ross and his cocky ass grin any longer. he stands up from his seat as everyone watches, wide eyed and all like they expect him to begin screaming. he just walks away though. he walks away from the table and the fuck out of the cafeteria.

he walks to the library. the fucking library.

he sits where aurora and him had sat earlier, literally just thirty minutes ago and attempts to regain his cool.

it's an insane contrast, the thirty minute difference. he was so calm, so at peace with aurora by his side earlier. now he's a fucking wreck, taking in deep breaths to try and control his overwhelming anger.

he sits there and yknow what? he skips two more classes because he fucking deserves it for keeping in so much anger within himself.

he's breathing evenly again when his phone pangs.

📂﹖﹕𓂃𐩐💻

ⁱᵐᵉˢˢᵃᵍᵉ

king 🤔 ; kingston
rory's lover boy 😍😍 ; matt

king 🤔

rory's lover boy 😍😍
huh

king 🤔
idk u obviously need help and this was the first thing that came up on spotify

rory's lover boy 😍😍
what the fuck are u even talking about kingston

king 🤔
with rory bro.
u keep moping and shit and i rlly thought u were finally gonna actually do smth after that shitshow but u just left ???
how is leaving like smth isn't a big deal gonna help get her back dawg.

rory's lover boy 😍😍
i'm not thinking about how to get her back rn bruh
it's a hard day for her why the fuck would i ever push our personal matters onto her when she's already got so much shit to deal with

king 🤔
woah???
see what u said right there was such bf material like it really shows you care
idk why u can't say something like that to her
or why u didn't before the big 💋 with the 👩‍🦰😷

rory's lover boy 😍😍
ur going to drive me crazy

king 🤔
okay but all i'm doing is rooting for u 2 cmon
i'm just trying to help
like i'm not saying u need to get her back get her back today
i'm saying u need to show her ur still there yk
like don't just sit around and glare at ross all day go talk to her and tell her u wanna be there for her during hard shit like this

rory's lover boy 😍😍
okay and i actually really do appreciate you for trying to help and shit
but she doesn't like to talk to people on days like this
& i'm pretty sure if i tried i'd just make things worse than they alr are

king 🤔
oh nahhh
what r u talking ab bro
like were we not both in the same library when she was legit sleeping on u ??

rory's lover boy 😍😍
she was tired

king 🤔
yeah and seeking comfort in u u fucking idiot

rory's lover boy 😍😍
yeah well that was before she told ross she'd go to homecoming w him

king 🤔
😐😐
see there you go w the whole ross hatred without actually doing something ab it

rory's lover boy 😍😍
k and i'm once again not gonna do something about it when it's alr a shitty day for her and she definitely doesn't need jealous shit from me rn lmfao

king 🤔
ok sorry that jealousy part just caught me off guard
like remember when u were heavily denying that shit
it's so funny
look how far you've come bro

rory's lover boy 😍😍
so far 😐

king 🤔
u fr lack energy matt
but anyway
i'm telling u don't even worry ab ross like seriously ur stressing too much over him for no reason

rory's lover boy 😍😍
wdym

king 🤔
just trust me
i used to be friends with the guy so i know him
and i am friends with aurora so i know her
you've got nothing to worry ab fam.

rory's lover boy 😍😍
nothing to worry ab when he's literally taking her to homecoming?????

king 🤔
bro.
ur a fool if u really think that's gonna happen

rory's lover boy 😍😍
idk
seemed pretty real to me in the cafeteria

king 🤔
blah blah blah 🗣️🗣️
that's all i'm hearing from u rn matt

rory's lover boy 😍😍
wow
always so fun talking to u kingston

king 🤔
yeah yeah
now go think of how ur gonna get ur girl back and show her ur actually there for her

rory's lover boy 😍😍
👍👍

💌

i just crave chaos sry guys

also just wrote like 99% of this while my friend is asleep #grindneverstops will not be proofreading rn bc that's too much work

also i need u guys to know that u said u aren't forgiving matt until u see tears and i'm taking that so fr

next chaps are 😭😭🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗 and then there's like two 🤬🤬 and then it's 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗 again until idfc is complete 😣😣 scary i know

<3
jaden