🍓🍓🍓

୨⎯ "𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆" ⎯୧
⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : eyes off you - prettymuch
ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

Don't ask why, I can paint a picture of you in my mind, love
All my life, I never thought someone would make me feel so high
But here you are

for faintedluvers

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .

Matt's sitting on his bed in the dark when he gets the FaceTime from Johnny. Confused, he answers it only to be met with the top of Johnny's head and the overwhelming sound of a crowd of screaming teenage girls. When he realises he can't be seen, he stands from his bed and turns on the lamp that sits on his desk and the screaming seems to only intensify, barely drowning out the sound of an amplified acoustic guitar and light vocals coming from Johnny's end of the line.

There's no use trying to talk to his friend so he settles for a wave as John flips the camera so Matt can see the stage. On stage, Gemma, Josie, Avery and Jade are sat on high stools singing one of Matt's favourites off of their new album; the girls are signing the chorus and swaying slightly in time with Jade's strumming, light pink and yellow lights surround them and behind them a montage of black and white clips of the band play. There's recent ones like a video of Gemma and Avery holding onto each other and swinging one another around, the four of them dancing in their kitchen and a clip of both Jade and Gemma playing guitar in the studio, along with older ones. The four of them at what looks to be Jade's eighteenth birthday, a video of them at their first ep launch and an old video of Josie and Avery around middle school age jumping around and signing with hairbrushes in what looks to be a young girl's bedroom.

Matt watches the performance carefully. All four of them look amazing in their outfits and with their hair done but he just can't stop looking at Gemma. He doesn't know if it's because Johnny is standing on the side of the stage she's closest too or if that's just his own subconscious leading his eyes straight to her.

Her hair is down behind her shoulders and she's wearing what looks to be some sort of corset dress, but her eyes is what Matt is drawn too. The way she looks at her bandmates and then at the crowd in admiration makes him stop paying attention to anything else that Johnny is showing him.

When she sings, she looks so relaxed and at home on stage in front of a crowd; like she knows that she belongs up there in front of them. It makes Matt think back to all the times she's called him before a show in near distress like tonight when he spoke to her, the panic is always clear as day in her eyes but you'd never know it just by looking at her face. It makes him think about how easy it is for her to appear to be in complete control in front people but inside feel like she's absolutely losing it.

As he's thinking this he can see that she spots Johnny standing in front of the stage and she pulls a slight face of confusion before directing her attention back to her bandmates to finish the song. Chris opens his bedroom door just as Gemma gets off her stool.

"Yo, Nick just came up with this really cool idea for a video and- oh my bad I didn't know you were on the phone"

Matt momentarily turns around as Nick comes to stand behind Chris "Yeah, look, Johnny is FaceTiming me from the show"

He holds up his phone and his brothers stand behind him just as he sees Gemma take the phone out of Johnny's hand.

Matt can now see Gemma clearly and up close as she grins with delight, bringing the microphone to her lips

"Hello Sturniolos"

Chris and Nick wave enthusiastically at their friend and Matt's eyebrows shoot up in shock. Gemma laughs at his reaction along with Josie who has come to sit beside her on the edge of the stage. The crowd screams and the girls both stand to walk to their resepective mic stands so they can prepare to start the next song.

Nick slaps Matt's shoulder "Why didn't you come get us when Johnny called you? how long ago did he FaceTime you?"

Matt shrugs "They've only sang one song since he called me and I didn't tell you guys because I didn't really know what was happening at first."

Johnny then holds the phone up higher to get more of the crowd in behind him and the three brothers wave as the crowd screams before their friend brings his phone back down and closer to his face so they can almost hear him clearly.

"I hope you guys aren't busy but it's only halfway through the show and I thought 'why not call the guys so they can see this?' and here we are"

Chris gives a thumbs up "We aren't busy! thanks for calling so we can watch even though Matt over here didn't say anything"

Matt merely rolls his eyes in response and John flips the screen just as the girls begin to talk about their next song.

Avery is adjusting her microphone as she points to the crowd "Alright Georgia! This next one was the lead single off of sound mind; THIS IS RELAPSE"

the crowd screams and Matt, Nick and Chris watch the lights turn light and dark blue with a night sky visual playing on the screen behind them. Gemma takes a breath, puts one hand on her microphone, the other falling to the stand and starts to sing the first verse as the music plays

"I told myself I wouldn't stay up late,
but it's 5 a.m. and I'm calling to see if you're awake, I guess it's just a misplaced sense of fate.
That I'll be on this trip forever, it's like I don't know no better"

Gemma notices that Johnny is still holding up his phone and pointing it towards them. She half-grins softly and Matt feels a smile of his own start to form on his face as she waves directly at the camera. without thinking about it he gives his own little wave but stops when he realises he isn't alone in his room and he starts to feel stupid until he notices that neither Chris or Nick have spoken up or poked fun at the wave. Feeling content, he leans his head on his arms and continues to watch.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

Matt ended the FaceTime with Johnny about two hours ago and since then, he's gone back to sitting in the dark and scrolling mindlessly on his phone while he wait's up for Gemma's call when she gets back to her hotel.

When he looks at the time and sees that it's one a.m. he thinks back to how exhausted she looked as they sang the last few songs of the set which leads him getting swept up in a whirlwind of his own thoughts. He thinks about the conversation he had with Josie and Avery and how honest he was with them about how he felt for Gemma. He thinks about the fact that he hasn't even told Nick or Chris how he feels. How that since he started talking to Gemma, he's known that his feelings towards her weren't 100% platonic like he's been saying.

Fed up with spiralling, he quietly gets out of bed and pads down the hall to Chris' room, he pushes the door open as quietly as he can and peaks in to see a lump under the blankets. Chris' phone is the only source of light in his room and when he hears Matt push the door open more he rolls over to face him.

"What are you doing? I thought you were asleep"

Matt lets a sigh escape past his lips and steps further into his brother's room before quietly closing the door behind him

"I can't sleep"

Chris sits up and turns on his LED lights, the pale light illuminates the room and Chris's slightly concerned face.

"Are you okay?"

Matt shrugs and walks over to sit in the desk chair at the end of the bed "Technically, yeah but I need some... advice?"

Matt cringes at the statement that comes out as a question and he watches Chris's face turn from concern to tired confusion as he tries to get more comfortable sitting up

"So you came to me at one in the morning?"

Matt shrugs again and tries to think of how he's going about this. He watches his tapping fingers on the arm of the chair and looks up at Chris

"It's about Gemma"

Chris rolls his eyes "yeah, I know, you guys are just friends or whatever. I already know this, Matt"

The middle triplet shakes his head "No. I need advice about how to tell Gemma about how I feel."

Chris drops his jaw slightly and turns his head dramatically whilst putting his finger behind his ear "I'm sorry? can you repeat that for me? I think I'm going deaf"

Matt rolls his eyes and leans his forehead in his left hand on the arm of the chair, sighing.

"I said: I need advice about how to tell Gemma how I feel"

Chris leans back against his headboard and nods once "well I don't really have any ideas'

This causes Matt to briefly throw his hands in the air and sink further into the desk chair

"Matt, I don't know what you want me to say because it was just this morning you were telling me that you didn't like her like that and that you two were just friends-"

"we are just friends"

"AND NOW you're in my room at one in the fucking morning asking for advice on how to tell her how you feel when you haven't even told me and Nick how you feel"

"Look" Matt straightens up in his seat and plants his feet in front of him before continuing "I like her. Okay? She's great! she's caring, intelligent, she's easy to talk to and she's someone that I feel like I've known for ages instead of just a couple months. She's honestly someone that I want to tell everything to but I don't want to just blurt it out to her if its something she doesn't want to hear"

Chris looks at his brother considerately "What did Josie tell you today?"

"She basically told me-"

"No, not what did she basically tell you. What did she for sure tell you about Gemma"

"She told me that she's for sure not going back to Finn, that I'm confused about how she feels because I haven't just straight up asked her and that her and Avery wouldn't be encouraging me to make a move if they didn't think that it wasn't going to be reciprocated'

Chris quirks an eyebrow "So she told you flat out that you have a chance with her best friend and you're sitting here asking me for advice"

"Chris, you're not getting it! what if that's not what she wants?"

"Matt. Fucking call her and ask her. At this point you're standing in your own way"

"But-"

Chris rolls his eyes so far back in his head and swiftly reaches for Matt's phone at the end of his bed "If you won't call her then I will"

Matt makes a move to grab the phone off Chris but he's too late. Before he can even blink, his phone is unlocked and Chris is looking for her contact

"Bruh what the fuck is her contact name?"

Matt goes to make another grab for it but falls short and smacks his bother instead "Chris give me back my fucking phone!"

Chris jumps out of his bed and runs into his closet in an attempt to get away from Matt. He holds the doors closed from the inside and continues to scroll through Matt's contacts before taking a wild guess and starts to call the number under the name 'sunshine'. He snickers to himself and lets the call ring out almost completely before he loses his grip on the doors and Matt gets them open and snatches his phone; by the time he has his phone back in his hands though, its gone to her voicemail and Chris starts talking.

"Hi gem gem, if its you, it's Chris! Matt just wanted to say-"

Matt slaps his hand over Chris's mouth and levels him with a glare as he brings the phone up to his ear. Chris nods encouragingly.

"Heeey Gem, it's Matt. Look, can you just- I really need to talk to you about-" Matt looks at Chris and decides to make his way back to his own room

He talks as he walks out of Chris's room and down the hallway, looking back to make sure that Chris isn't following him.

"I really didn't want to tell you though a voicemail but I just, I like you, you know? and it's totally cool if you don't feel the same because you're a great friend of mine! but I would really like to tell you how I feel properly.. if you'll let me. Okay thanks, bye"

The dial tone rings though Matt's ears and he falls back onto his bed with a deep sigh. There's literally nothing he can do about it now. He rolls over and sends a quick text to her before plugging his phone in to charge and burying himself under the covers in an attempt to push down the queasy feeling in his stomach.

When he finally gets in a comfortable position the only words that he keeps repeating in his head are Josie's

she wouldn't be arguing if there was nothing to argue about

💌
WE HAVE A CONFESSION!!!

laughing bc I hate slowburns when I have to write them but I can't help it lmfao

Forgive any grammar/spelling mistakes this is a tad rushed but I came up w the voicemail idea and couldn't get it out of my head

Hope you enjoyed!

Thanks for reading & I hope you have a good week <3