🍓🍓🍓

୨⎯ "𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒙 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆" ⎯୧
⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : crash and burn - maggie lindemann
ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

You picked him over me
And you left with no apology
Felt a knife in your back
Yeah, you thought I was the killer
You're looking in the mirror

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .

Matt throws his arm over the back of the couch and turns his head to face Gemma in the doorway, the wide smile on his face quickly drops when he sees the look she's giving him. She puts her purse on the kitchen table and turns her back to him as she opens the fridge, grabbing a water bottle from the shelf in the door. Puzzled, he looks to Avery before getting up off the couch and following Gemma to her room.

"How was the party?" 

She pushes her bedroom door open and walks to her wardrobe as she shrugs off her jacket and goes to hang it back on a hanger "It was fine"

Gemma's clipped tone catches him off guard and he raises his eyebrow, his voice taking on a careful tone "Are you okay?"

Gemma sighs and turns around to face him, crossing her arms as she looks him over. The whole thing makes Matt nervous.

"Why didn't you come and get me? I waited for you"

Matt's stomach drops and the colour begins to drain from his face. He runs his hand down the back of the neck and goes to walk towards her, placing a hand on her shoulder as she turns around.

"Gem, I'm so sorry, I forgot"

She rolls her eyes in response and his grip on her shoulders tighten "I know that's not a good excuse and I know that it's not the response you want"

Gemma nods in response and lightly puts her hands on his waist "You're right about that"

Matt keeps her at arms length and moves his head down slightly so he's eye level with her "I won't do it again, Gem, I promise"

Gemma tilts her head "Don't make promises you can't keep, Matthew"

Matt's mouth turns down and he nods his head once before pulling her in by her shoulders and placing a kiss to the crown of her head "How did you get home?"

He feels her freeze in his arms as she holds onto him tighter and he makes the attempt to push her back so he can see her face "Gem?"

Gemma releases her hold on Matt and looks to him "Finn dropped me home"

Matt's face hardens and he resists the urge to pull a face, settles for pressing his lips in a thin line and nodding instead. The two of them stare at each other in a 30 second silence, trying to figure out what to say or do in this situation.

Matt knows he doesn't have a leg to stand on. He cant get mad because he forgot about her and she's here, at home, safe but he is also getting more and more irritated the longer he thinks about the fact that Finn drove her home. The same Finn that has been getting on his nerves since he met Gemma.

He interrupts his own train of thought and kisses her on the forehead "I'm grateful he was there"

Gemma raises an eyebrow "You are?"

Matt nods his head "I am. He got you home safe when I didn't"

A look of understanding flashes across Gemma's face and her eyes soften "Yeah, well, that was your fault"

Matt isn't shocked in the slightest at her remark and he grins wide "And I won't do it again"

Gemma mirrors his wide smile and takes his face in her hands and kissing him quickly "Let's go finish whatever you guys were watching".

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

Gemma is sitting on her floor in front of her mirror doing her makeup when her phone begins blowing up. Tiktok, instagram and twitter notifications flood her lockscreen and she quickly unlocks her phone, coming face to face with multiple clips of her getting into Finn's car  from two nights ago.

Her brows furrow in annoyance and she goes through comments on the post. Many people are confused, almost every second comment is mentioning Matt in some way and some people are even supporting it. She continues to scroll, growing more concerned about the  different things people are saying when she hears her door open.

Josie stands in the doorway with her hand on the knob and Gemma looks to her with her eyebrows raised, expecting her to say something. Instead Josie stands in the threshold silently inspecting Gemma with her eyes. They look at each other for an uncomfortably long time and Josie breaks

"I really need to tell you something"

Gemma smiles amusingly "Really? I thought you were going to stand in my doorway and watch me finish my makeup"

Josie crosses Gemma's room in short strides and sits at the end of her bed. Gemma goes on to blend her concealer under her eyes as her bandmate sits awkwardly, tapping her toes on the hardwood floor. Gemma stops her blending and looks at her friend concerned

"Josie what's going on?"

"I haven't been entirely honest with you"

Gemma's heart drops to the bottom of her stomach and she beckons her to continue. Josie swivels the silver ring on her right middle finger anxiously.

"When we were on tour Finn called me one night. Drunk. He told me that he was the one to anonymously send in that old photo of you guys to the shade room" Josie's tone is monotone and straight to the point, the exact opposite of what she's feeling on the inside.

When Gemma doesn't say anything, Josie continues

"He called me again and told me that he's been paying paparazzi to show up and get photos of the two of you together. When I told him I was going to tell you he told me he was going to tell you himself and I knew he hadn't after the photos of you two at lunch got posted"

Gemma sits in shock. She can feel her heart beating against her ribs, her concealer loses all its weight as her hand goes limp. All Josie can do is sit there and await whatever it is Gemma has to say to her.

"I don't understand why you didn't just tell me? Or why you believed that he was going to tell me!"

Josie runs her hands over her thighs nervously as she takes in Gemma's hurt tone "Gem- I don't know why I didn't say anything and I don't know why I trusted him, okay? but I've felt sick thinking about it"

Gemma moves so she's sat cross-legged directly across from Josie and she looks her directly in the eye "Do you know what kind of rift this has put between Matt and I? It all started with that fucking photo and you couldn't even tell me?"

Josie shakes her head "Gem I'm sorry! I don't know why I didn't tell you, especially since Matt is also someone I care about. I should've come to you before"

Gem sucks in a breath and leans back on her hands, letting  her head fall back. She looks up at her ceiling and closes her eyes, thinking everything over before looking back at her best friend and bandmate sitting in front of her "Yeah you should have because it's what I would've done for you."

Josie twists her hands in her lap "Your friendship still means the world to me"

Gemma rotates herself so that she's sat in front of her mirror again and she picks up her cream blush "I know"

Sitting up straighter, Josie frowns minutely "Are-are we okay? Are you okay?"

Gemma shrugs "I'm fine. We're fine"

Josie nods and awkwardly stands, walking towards the door. As she goes to open it, Gemma grabs her attention

"Josie , don't you ever keep something like that from me again"

Josie turns around and catches Gemma's eye in the mirror on the floor. She can see the battle Gem is having in her head, she can't decide whether she wants to bite Josie's head off or immediately forgive her and wipe that blank look of her face.

Josie purses her lips, nods her head and turns on her heel to walk right out Gemma's bedroom door and into her own room. On her nightstand, her phone lights up with notifications

iMessage
chris 💘
Are you okay?

She unlocks her phone and presses on her conversation with Chris

chris💘
Are you okay?

Jose❤️
I just spoke to gem abt finn

chris💘
Oh fuck

chris💘
How did it go?

Jose❤️
it was weird but  I guess it went okay

chris💘
Are the two of you still good?

Jose❤️
well she didn't say that she hates me so I guess so

chris💘
She wouldn't say that, especially not to you

Jose❤️
she probably wants to tho

chris💘
At least you guys talked it out and didn't yell it out

Jose❤️
that's true

Jose❤️
do you wanna get lunch?

chris💘
Sure

chris💘
12:30?

Jose❤️
I'll pick you up

chris💘
I can show you the place we're trying to get

Jose❤️
sounds good to me

💌
anyways

I hope I didn't disappoint w this chapter, I'm still writing a bunch and am hoping to publish them all by new years!

lmk what you think of this one

thanks for reading and I hope you have a good week!