⟡ ݁₊ . 💒. 𝓛ET 𝓣HE 𝓛IGHT 𝓘N. . . ୨ৎ .ᐟ
( 005. ) ━━ ❛ later, homewrecker! ❜

the other woman will always cry herself to sleep
the other woman will never have his love to keep
💌
𝓣HE 𝓞THER 𝓦OMAN, lana del rey.

𝓥IOLA 𝓡USHES into debutante rehearsals loudly and out of breath, tripping over the legs of somebody's chair as she races to the back of the room to sit down at her assigned table. she can sense gloria — the CEO of the charity running the event — glaring at her through the back of her head. it makes her already regret coming here, and the rehearsal has barely even begun. viola is just really not cut out for this, and everybody knows it.

she's greeted with a bright smile by daniella anderson, a fellow debutante who viola got to know fairly well before she quit two weeks ago. daniella looks happy to have her back, maybe a little too happy considering the fact that viola only attended rehearsals for a week before she quit and she'd never spoken to the girl before then. despite that though, she's grateful to have a friend here.

the speed at which viola is able to tune out gloria's instructions is honestly quite impressive, and she instead finds herself thinking back to the barbecue at the triplet's house on the weekend. the look of utter disgust on matt's face, caused by the idea of escorting her to this stupid deb ball, is etched deeply into the front of viola's mind. it's been taking up pretty much all of her attention the past few days, and the thought always ends with her feeling like shit. it's not that she's basing her entire self worth on what matt thinks of her, for goodness sake, but when not one but two guys have made it clear that they'd rather do anything else, it makes viola think that there's something wrong with her.

"viola, is that you?"

the sound of another girl's voice snaps viola out of her thoughts, something she's actually quite grateful for. viola turns her head, now facing the five other girls sitting alongside her at the round white table. the only one not currently looking at her is daniella, who is instead giving another girl, evelyn, a pleading look. viola's not sure what's happened in the time she was zoned out to warrant this, though she's spoken to evelyn enough times at either school or deb rehearsals to know that nothing good ever happens when she opens her mouth. the girl is a total shit stirrer and practically fiends for gossip.

"it's me," viola shrugs in response to evelyn's question. to be frank, she's not sure why evelyn is even asking such a stupid question when it's clear as day that it's her... it's not like it would be anyone else, since none of the other girls at the table are brunette anyway.

evelyn clearly sense viola's bored tone, because she narrows her (unfortunately stunning) green eyes before mockingly tilting her head to the side. she pouts ever so sadly, feigning sadness as she speaks again, "i heard through the grapevine that you're dating matt sturniolo now. how does julian feel about that?"

"i don't give a shit," viola responds. her tone has a bit of bite to it, coming off a lot angrier than she intended. she's been trying her best to appear like she doesn't care about the breakup, but now that the sadness is slowly transitioning to anger, it's becoming harder and harder to hide from everybody.

evelyn clicks her tongue, giving her friends an amused look. "fair enough, since he's dating kirby now and everything," she agrees, much to viola's surprise. "now that was a shock."

"what a slut," another girl, cassidy, chimes in. viola furrows her eyebrows.

"don't call her that," she retorts, and cassidy scoffs.

meanwhile, evelyn just shakes her head and rests a hand on cassidy's shoulder. "of course viola would say that, cass," she says, now speaking about her as if viola isn't sitting at the table with them. "she's not really one for girl code either."

viola's eyes widen in shock and she gives both evelyn and cassidy, who giggle together, a confused look. she's so surprised by this sudden attack on her that she doesn't even notice daniella's grimace, and the way the black-haired girl's cheeks burn with shame.

evelyn runs her tongue over her top lip, now looking at viola viciously. her dark eyebrows are furrowed downwards as she looks viola up and down, before beginning to twirl a strand of her platinum blonde hair around her index finger. viola exhales frustratedly.

"what the fuck are you talking about?" she asks, causing cassidy to roll her eyes and smirk when evelyn chuckles at her question. viola wants to slap the smirk right off of the girl's face.

"you heard me," evelyn just shrugs. "you're obviously not gonna shit on kirby for breaking girl code when you're just as bad as her."

viola's mouth drops open a little, and she remains silent for a moment as she racks her brain, trying her very best to understand what the actual fuck this bimbo is talking about. she never broke girl code when she started dating julian, and if matt was taken, he would've told her... right?

subconsciously, she finds her gaze drifting over to kirby, who is sitting at the table at the very front of the room, thank goodness. at first glance, viola's heart pangs at the sight of the girl, the reminder that her ex-boyfriend will be escorting the gorgeous redhead at the ball instead of her. but then, she suddenly feels a wave of relief cascade over her; she's grateful that kirby's too far away to hear all the horrible shit evelyn and cassidy are saying about her.

"wallowing in your guilt, vi?" cassidy taunts. "it's a shame honey's not here to fight your battles for you. or maybe she just doesn't want to be seen with a homewrecker like you."

viola shakes her head in dismay. "you're actually fucking delusional," she tells the girl. cassidy's eyes widen in offense, and evelyn scowls at her.

"you know, lying about this is making you a worse person than you already are," she says smugly, clearly unable to hide the grin on her face. "at least kirby had the decency to wait until you and julian were broken up before she made a move."

daniella now finally breaks her silence, holding out a hand in attempt to silence evelyn. "c'mon guys, let it go," she says quietly. viola narrows her eyes.

"no, go on," she says to evelyn, deciding to completely ignore daniella and her pathetic effort to break up their bickering. "i wanna know the reason you and your airhead friends think i'm such a homewrecker." she says the last word mockingly, still in disbelief at these wild accusations being thrown at her.

evelyn clicks her tongue again, the smugness depicted on her face now becoming unbearable to look at. she then shoots cassidy and daniella an amused look. the former grins, nodding back at her, but daniella shrinks further down in her seat. viola doesn't get what her fucking problem is. they're not close enough for daniella to be this upset about them all ganging up on viola right now.

"the reason we think that is because it's true," evelyn shrugs. viola rolls her eyes, leaning back in her seat with a frustrated sigh.

"very convincing argument, evelyn, wow," she answers sarcastically. "you should really consider becoming a lawyer or someth—"

"pouncing on matt like that at the carnival, when he was literally there to meet dani, sounds a whole lot like homewrecker behavior, don't you think?" evelyn interrupts, and viola's jaw drops open immediately.

"yeah, especially considering you two are supposed to be friends," cassidy chimes in. daniella just shakes her head, her cheeks bright red now.

"we are—" viola starts, her mind so overwhelmed right now that she can barely think straight.

"then how could you not know that daniella's liked matt for almost a year?" evelyn questions. "you just go and kiss him like that in front of the town's biggest gossiper, practically trapping him in a relationship with you."

"i didn't trap him," viola argues, scowling at evelyn one last time before turning all of her attention to daniella. "dani, i didn't know he was supposed to meet you. he didn't tell me anything, i just thought—"

"it's fine," daniella interjects. viola frowns.

"no, it's not," she says, getting up from the table and beginning to storm out of the room.

"later, homewrecker!" evelyn calls from the table, earning her a chuckle from cassidy.

"go fuck yourself!" viola shouts back, flipping them both off. she doesn't even bother looking back to see their reactions, just needing to get out of there as fast as humanly possible.

daniella turns to the two blondes, frowning deeply at both of them. she doesn't think she's ever been so embarrassed in her life. "you two really fucking suck, you know that?" she says.

"are you fucking kidding me, dani?" evelyn retorts, crossing her arms. "we just stood up for you against that skank. you should be thanking us."

"she literally stole your man," cassidy adds. daniella sighs, shaking her head.

"he was never my man!" she replies exasperatedly, before taking a deep breath. when she speaks again, her tone is much quieter. "he was never going to be mine... he's been in love with her since he was like, eight."

evelyn's eyes widen. "what...?"

"forget it," daniella says, now also getting up from the table. as she attempts to leave the room, kirby grabs her wrist, her eyes filled with concern.

"are you alright?" the redhead asks. daniella just nods.

"i just need some fresh air," she replies. it's not entirely a lie. kirby just nods then, letting her go yet watching her sadly as the girl storms out of the room, just as viola did moments before.

𝓥IOLA 𝓕IGHTS back tears as she rides her stupid fucking bicycle home. her car broke down last week and she doesn't have quite enough money to take it to the shop yet, so she's stuck riding her fairy princess bike that she got in like, sixth grade, everywhere until it's fixed. she hasn't even told her parents that it's broken, because she doesn't want them to worry. it would be no help anyway, since she made an agreement with them when she got it that it was her responsibility and that she had to pay for her own shit.

unfortunately, getting it fixed costs a shit ton more than she expected, so viola is stuck riding her dumbass bike until she can scrounge up the money to take it to the shop.

she cannot believe what just happened. she is literally in shock, her hands gripping the handlebars so tightly that her knuckles are turning white, but it's the only way for her to stay stable. viola genuinely can't believe that daniella's had a crush on matt all this time and she never knew about it. sure, the two of them have never been that close, so she didn't expect daniella to just tell her, but viola is confused as to why she's never noticed.

according to evelyn, daniella's only liked matt since he graduated, so while they wouldn't have had the chance to interact all that often, there's definitelty been a handful of instances. since he's been on his gap year, matt's attended pretty much all the town events where he and daniella could've spoken. also, he's at school quite a lot picking up his friend nate, who's in viola and daniella's grade — a year younger than him. viola's sure he even went to a maeve thatcher concert with his friend astoria, the same night that she, honey, and daniella attended together.

she feels like shit. since her relationship with matt isn't real, she's technically not a homewrecker, but that makes no difference because of what a bad friend she's been. somehow, she feels just as upset as when julian broke up with her, possible even more so.

maybe this is why julian dumped her, and why matt doesn't want to escort her to this stupid fucking ball. it's because they realized how bad of a friend she is before she did. viola thinks she might be sick.

the only silver lining to this whole mess is that she's finally made it home, which means she can jump straight into bed and blast rick and morty at full volume to drown out the sounds of her crying — since she's almost certain that her tears are going to spill over any minute now.

viola's eyes catch a glimpse inside the kitchen, and the silouhette of her mother reminds her that fuck, she's not supposed to be at home right now. if she just walzes inside, she'll be bombarded with questions about why she's skipping rehearsal, why she's so upset, and why the hell she's biking around town like a third grader.

she parks her bike and opts to just sit on the curb until she can think of something to do. her mind is all over the place right now, and she has no idea what to do about all of this.

"nebraska?"

viola shuts her eyes at the sound of matt's voice, cursing the universe for summoning him when she least wants to see him. she never particularly wants to see him, which is annoying considering he's her neighbor and now her 'boyfriend', but right now especially, she wishes matt were anyone else. even julian would be better company right now, because at least daniella isn't in love with him.

"aren't you supposed to be at rehearsals?" he asks, and viola doesn't bother answering him. she knows it's rude, but she doesn't particularly care in this moment. she's never worried about being rude towards her infuriating neighbor before, so she's definitely not going to start now, when he's right in the middle of her plagued thoughts.

in response to her silence, matt takes a seat next to her on the curb, sighing as he stretches his legs out into the street. viola notices that he's wearing the same jeans as the night he showed up at her house, the day she kissed him. she dislikes that she notices the details of his outfit, and hates the fact that she likes the way he dresses. she didn't ever expect to like anything about him.

"is that your bicycle?" matt asks then, gesturing to the pink glittery thing next to them. viola glances at it, shrugs, before turning back to stare at her shoes once more. matt chuckles, but it dies down almost immediately as he seems to notice she's not in the mood for jokes. they sit in silence for a few moments then, before matt sighs and nudges her side with his elbow.

"i'm getting kinda bored of talkin' to myself, nebraska," he says. "you gonna tell me what's going on or—"

"did you know that daniella anderson likes you?"

her question shuts matt up real fast, ultimately giving viola her answer. she sighs, running her hands through her hair, now tangled from the windy bike ride. matt mirrors her, dragging his fingers through his hair, and viola gazes to the side and watches as it flops back over his forehead gracefully.

"is that what you're upset about?" matt questions, and viola nods with a sigh. that, he called it, not even wanting to repeat it.

"i feel like shit," she replies. "i had no idea, and now she thinks we're dating, and i'm a homewrecker."

matt's eyes widen, and he presses his lips together.

"you can't be a homewrecker when there was never a home to wreck, nebraska," he replies, attempting to reassure her for whatever reason. she's not sure why she's even opening up to him like this — it's something she never thought she'd do, yet somehow it feels right to be honest with him like this. it's comfortable, and she can see herself doing it more often, much to her dismay.

"be honest, were you at the carnival to see her?" viola asks then, and matt freezes for a moment, his eyes becoming unfocused like he's thinking deeply about something. after a second, he blows out a frustrated huff of air, before slumping his shoulders.

"technically yeah," he replies, and viola feels like crying again. how could she have been so blind? meanwhile, matt's uncomfortable seeing her upset — vulnerability is not something he's used to seeing in his usually fiery neighbor. "but it wasn't like that, at least not to me," he adds then. "it was a group of us meeting up, and she happened to be invited too."

"are you lying?"

"of course not. i had no idea she liked me."

a beat of silence follows, so matt adds, "i mean it, viola. i didn't know."

viola nods, sitting up straighter on the curb and crossing her arms. she's trying to look on the bright side, attempting to think of ways she could fix this. maybe she could just tell daniella that her relationship with matt is fake, and let them be together like they deserve? maybe she should just stage a messy 'breakup' with matt and send daniella to comfort him? maybe she should've just stayed home the day of the carnival, so none of this would've ever happened.

"who put the homewrecker bullshit in your head, then?" matt questions suspiciously. viola sighs loudly.

"evelyn," she replies, trying to play it cool when in reality, the thought of the blonde girl makes her blood boil. matt pulls a disgusted face.

"evelyn jones?" he asks, and viola nods. "fuck her. she was always a bitch in high school."

viola laughs at that, which makes matt smile. she finally feels somewhat better about the situation, so viola twists her body in matt's direction then so that she can better speak to him. he looks surprised by her sudden movement and looks like he's going to shuffle backwards, but opts not to at the last second and stays where he is.

"you should talk to dani," she says, and matt's eyebrows shoot to the top of his forehead. "maybe you can work things out."

"i'm sorry, what?" he chokes out, and viola shrugs. she shouldn't really be pushing him on this, but all she wants right now is to fix things with daniella. hey, matt might even be interested.

"she likes you, and i've never seen you within ten feet of a girl unless you're wasted at a party," she tells him, and matt looks at the floor sheepishly. "why don't you just give it a shot?"

"uhh, because i'm supposed to be dating you?" he answers like it's the most obvious thing in the world. viola rolls her eyes, though she does notice his uncomfortable posture, and the way he's suddenly stiffened.

"yeah, no shit," she laughs. "i mean, like, privately. just talk to her, who knows what'll happen?"

matt holds his hands up dismissively, shaking his head profusely. "dani's a nice girl and all, but i'm... i'm— well, um... i'm not interested," he stammers. viola resists the urge to both laugh and raise her eyebrows in confusion at the same time, a little bewildered by his sudden change in behavior. she doesn't think she's ever seen him so awkward. now that she thinks about it, viola doesn't think she's ever seen matt sturniolo flustered.

he gets a grip on himself a moment later, however, as matt clears his throat and straightens. he seems like an entirely new person when he looks at viola now, his usual insufferable smugness having returned.

"do you wanna go to mickey's tomorrow?" matt questions, much to viola's surprise.

mickey's is the town's local diner, a hotspot for homey breakfast foods that everyone loves. viola hasn't been there in what feels like forever, and she is honestly in the mood for some french toast and strawberries. she's just a little confused as to why matt's asking her, as if the two of them hanging out together randomly is a normal thing.

"um, sure... why?" she replies, and matt's eyes widen.

"why does there need to be a reason?" he asks.

"why the fuck would you ask me to go to mickey's with you?"

"uhh... so we can spend some neighborly time together?"

"we've been neighbors for eleven years, matt."

"boyfriend girlfriend time, then?"

"ew."

matt sighs and simultaneously rolls his eyes. he reaches over his leg to retie the shoelaces of his air forces, not looking her in the eyes. "fine. mrs murphy harrassed me today about not hanging out with you enough."

"there it is."

"shut the fuck up."

viola chuckles, getting up from the sidewalk and dusting herself off. matt finishes tying his shoelace and glances up at her, squinting slightly from where the sun is in his eyes.

"fine, i'll go to mickey's with you, my darling boyfriend," she says sarcastically. matt laughs, shaking his head. "just don't get chocolate chip pancakes."

matt's jaw drops open, and he also stands upright. "what's wrong with chocolate chip pancakes?" he asks, and viola swears it's the most sincere she's ever heard him be.

"they're literally made for toddlers, matt," she tells him. "if that's your order, you might as well ask for a sippy cup to go with your orange juice."

"i actually think sippy cups are quite practical," matt retorts. "and who says they're not for all ages?"

"says literally fucking everyone," viola says, laughing despite herself. she gives him a small wave then, bidding him goodbye before spinning on her heels and walking off towards her house. matt grins as he watches her leave.

"i'm getting the pancakes!" he calls out right as she reaches her front door.

"i fucking hate you!" she yells back, but she's still smiling even as she walks through the door and walks upstairs to her room.

💌 ⋆✴︎˚。⋆ ━━ ava speaks !

thank you for 2k already eeeek i am so grateful

can't believe people were hating on kirby but NOT matt's parents in the last chap omfg i thought i made them unlikable enough but clearly not

alsooooo maeve, rory and nate cameos YIPPPEEEEEE