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SHE NEEDS HIM
chapter one, MORNIN'

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  THE BLUE CLOCK WAS TICKING SOFTLY ON THE WHITE WALLS, ANASTASIA PATON LAY SILENTLY IN HER FRESHLY CHANGED BED. The clock read two o'clock, which could be in the morning or in the afternoon. In this case, it was in the morning.

Anastasia wasn't sure what was going on but she was certain she had felt this feeling before. This time, it wasn't as bad as it used to be but she could tell it was going to get worse. She stood up, walking tiredly towards the curtains that closed off her balcony, Anastasia slid open the glass doors and inhaled the early morning air.

"Stace?" A voice called out from the side. Anastasia cautiously turned her body, meeting the face of Nicolas Sturniolo who was staring at her through an open window in his triplet brother's room.

"Mornin'" she smiled tightly, sensing the next few words that were about to come out of his mouth. Anastasia leaned on the railing, watching the boy aggressively click on his computer mouse before turning back to her.

"Why are you up?"

Stacy just shrugged. To be honest, she didn't know why herself. There was something about the feeling and sound of the early am. Going to bed early and waking up late was something Anastasia didn't exactly enjoy doing, she just felt it comforted her. Though now with this familiar feeling returning, her sleep schedule is definitely going to begin to get ruined.

"I fell asleep at five, it's been nine hours," Stacy reasoned, watching Nicolas frown from the window. "Why are you up?" She returned his question.

"Editing for tomorrow— tonight's video," the boy sighed, rubbing his exhausted eyelids.

Anastasia felt bad for the young boy though she knew how strong his passion was for photography, videography and his YouTube channel with his brothers.

"Where are the other two?" She questioned the boy as he was not in his own room editing.

"Alahna wanted food," he chuckled.

Stacy giggled softly. Alahna Curtis was one of the only other girl-best-friends that had stuck by Anastasia's side through it all. Even though she disappeared for a while due to personal problems, Stacy wouldn't trade the beautiful girl for the world.

"Fair," Stacy shook her head with a smile.

"I'm gonna head to bed, come over around nine," Nick yawned.

There was no hint of questioning in his tone which meant he wanted to hang out with Stacy later in the day. Anastasia nodded politely, waving goodbye and watched as the window closed and the lights flicked off, all except for the soft blue glow of the LED lights on the wall. 

8:47am,
ANASTASIAPATON has posted
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ANASTASIAPATON

liked by sydneysweeny, rosslynch and 10,000 more...
ANASTASIAPATON, uh ohhh, back again :,)

VADAMARLEYPATON, this is MY sister!!!
↳ FELIXPATON, bro she's mine too 🙄

ALAHNA111, oh my gosh you're hot
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, in love w/ you.
↳ CHRISTOPHERSTURNIOLO, AYOO?

CHRISTOPHERSTURNIOLO, do my hair pls
↳ NICOLASSTURNIOLO, yes mine too 🙏

MATTHEW.STURNIOLO, nice crewneck 🤨
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, gracias, it's my bffs 🤗

USER2, i think we should go out to dinner
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, i was thinking the same 💌

TOMHOLLAND2013, Z has been squealing over this
post for a solid 10 minutes. Make it stop, Stacy
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, LMAO TELL HER I SAY HI

STUNRNIOLO.TRIPLETS, i love you, stace 💖
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, who said this? i love you too tho

HUNTERSCHAEFER, two weeks?
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, oui!

USER11, such a slay

WALLOWSMUSIC, missing our jam sessions 😔
↳ ANASTASIAPATON, hopefully soon <33

EMMACHAMBERLAIN, omgosh

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     AT NINE O'CLOCK SHARP, ANASTASIA KNOCKED ON THE WOODEN DOOR OF HER NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE. Matthew Sturniolo swung open the door, his eyebrows furrowed with tired eyes.

"Stace," he breathed out, his eyes instantly lighting up at the sight of his best friend.

Anastasia smiled sweetly and brought the boy in for a warm hug. She walked into the toasty home that always brought comfort to her. While she took her Ugg Boots off, the sound of nails on the floorboards came closer to her.

"Hey, Trevor," she cooed, petting the dog's round head.

Matt watched the interaction with a small smile on his face, though something was off with Stacy. She wasn't the usual ball of energy she always was today.

Anastasia and Matt walked down the hallway, catching up on how their night was last night. Matt told her his night was 'eventful' which Stacy laughed at and proceeded to tell him how 'boring' her night was.

"Hello," Stacy dragged as she and Matt walked into Christopher's room where the other two boys were mucking around.

"Stacy!" Chris grinned, bolting towards the girl and tackling her to the floor.

Anastasia laughed even with the air knocked out of her, patting the boy's hair. She dusted her sweatpants as she stood up, tugging the hem of her cropped long sleeve with a smile.

Nicolas galloped over to Stacy with a wide grin plastered on his face and brought her in for a big hug. The pair swayed around in each other's arms for a little bit before pulling apart.

Stacy jumped onto Christopher's comfy, undone bed. She lay on her side to face the triplet brothers who just watched her in amusement.

"Are we filming tonight, Matt?" Chris asked his brother while walking to sit at the end of his bed.

"Yup. Ana, do you wanna come with us?"

Anastasia gave a small smile to the boy, nodding her head happily. One of the few things she enjoyed in life was being in front of a camera. Sometimes she could be exactly who she was and other times she could portray a character, very well may I add, and either way would be labelled as 'someone everybody can relate to'.

"Should we go live?" Nick lifted an eyebrow, glancing around the room.

The other three nodded, none of them had any idea of what to do other than just hang out so that's what they did. They went live.

"Hi," Chris dragged out as many people began to join the Instagram live. He had set his phone up on the tripod in the triplet's kitchen.

"Yes, Stacy is here," he added, dragging his friend into the camera frame.

Anastasia smiled and waved, reading the comments that were spamming her name in excitement. She bit her bottom lip in joy, she was forever thankful that her best friends had such an amazing fan base and that she rarely ever got any hate from their fans.

"We're just going to be answering questions and probably eating, so ask away," Matt spoke from behind the counter where he and Nicolas were dipping strawberries into melted chocolate.

Stacy immediately left Chris's side and snatched a neatly dipped strawberry out of Matt's hand and bit into it happily.

"Mmm mmm mmm!" She joked in a high-pitched voice, just to annoy Matthew a little more.

Matt rolled his eyes, a grin still on his face while dipping another strawberry into the thick liquid.

"Tell Stacy we're going to need a lift to Oliver and Macy's tomorrow," Chris read out Vada Paton's comment on his live stream.

The boy turned towards Anastasia with raised eyebrows, Stacy grumbled before throwing a thumbs up to the camera. The four continued to answer questions for another hour until they got bored and were asked to take Trevor on a walk.

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"HI THERE, WE'RE THE STURNIOLO TRIPLETS AND WE'RE DOING A QNA FOR YOU TODAY!" Nick spoke loudly to the camera that sat on a box of Hot Tamales on top of the dashboard in Matt's car.

"Oh and this is Anastasia Paton," he added with a laugh, pointing to the brunette beside him.

"And you're watching Disney Channel," Stacy deadpanned.

The entire van erupted in laughter, even if it wasn't funny they laughed because it was one in the morning and the four were tired and delirious.

Is Stacy filming anything at the moment?

"Not currently but Euphoria season two comes out very soon," Anastasia replied, laughing softly at how excited the triplets got.

"Bro it's so cool to just rock up to the store and be like, 'yeah, my best friend is in Euphoria,' because everyone knows who she is," Chris excitedly explained to the camera.

Matthew and Nicolas nodded proudly while applauding obnoxiously.

Favorite quote of one another?

"What the fuck does that mean?" Nick cluelessly asked after reading the question around.

Stacy giggled at how confused the boy was and quietly explained it to him while Matt and Chris thought carefully about their answers.

"Let's go in a circle, like, we all say a Stacy one and then a Nick one and you get the vibe," Chris suggested to the other three.

Anastasia, Matt and Nick nodded at the idea, turning to Chris to begin the 'quote circle'.

"Okay, Stacy quotes first," he began, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "My favorite quote from Stace would have to be 'why can't toilets just spawn when you need them?' That shit made me laugh for days!"

"But I had a point, bro! Why walk across the hallway to sit and pee when you can have a button you press so it spawns next to you?!"

The three brothers laughed loudly at her statement, Anastasia stared at them with a confused smile even though she knew they agreed.

"Dude, I lost it when Nick started talking about his Smurfs conspiracy with the fuckin' McDonald's worker," Matt laughed loudly.

As usual, the four began to go off-topic. Which was a pain for Nick to edit but most of the time he kept it all in the video for the sake of entertainment.

"Oh my, God! That poor woman did not get paid enough," Stacy shook her head with a laugh.

Have the four of you ever argued?

"All the fuckin' time, bro," Chris rolled his eyes.

"I think they mean if, like, we've badly argued before. We argue 'all the time' as a joke," Nick explained to Chris who just shrugged and shoved french fries into his mouth.

Matt pressed his lips into a thin line and glanced over at Anastasia who was busy sipping her Dr Pepper.

"Ohh, then yeah! Sort of."

Stacy shot the boy a confused look, silently asking him to elaborate on why he said that.

"Remember that one time—" Chris began but was soon cut off by his smartie-pants brother.

"—yes, Chris, we so remember 'that one time', because we remember every fucking thing we do together," Nick deadpanned.

Anastasia snorted at Nick's hypocrisy as a few days earlier the boy was bashing Chris for not remembering the day Matt slipped in a cowpat.

"Shut up, oh my gosh!" Matt whined, throwing his head dramatically into the back of his seat.

"Okay, that day when Stacy got mad at me and Nick for—"

"—Nick and I," Anastasia corrected him quietly.

Chris groaned, barely being able to get a sentence in during the past two times he began to speak the same sentence. He shoved his middle finger in front of Stacy's face before returning to his speech.

"You got mad because we accidentally told Kate that you didn't want to be her friend anymore because she was a bitch," Chris finished his sentence.

Stacy nodded, remembering the exact day. Nick laughed loudly from beside Anastasia, also remembering how she yelled at him and how long she held a grudge.

"You can hold a grudge for ages," Nick voiced his thoughts, looking over to the girl.

"Kid had me saying ten Hail Marys every night before bed," Chris shuddered.

The Paton girl nodded with a cocky smile, patting the boy in front of her's shoulder. 

(💟) MAL SPEAKS

hellooooo!! long time to see!
i finally got chapter one out,
how proud of me are you?

it took me a little while to figure
how to make the ig photo post
look real, especially bc i write on
my computer!! but i found a way
and hopefully, it looks okay on 
phones. plus, this is why i said to
read in dark mode 🙄🙄

i appreciate you all so much and
let me know your thoughts on 
today's chapter and if we're 
excited for mal's social media
fic era?? 

ALSO, extra cast for the rest of
the book!! dylan minette and
lydia night as joseph avery
and lorelai miller!

take care, my loves!!

mwah, mal <333