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୨⎯ "𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆" ⎯୧
⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : favourite crime - olivia rodrigo
ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

It's bittersweet to think about the damage that we do
'Cause I was going down, but I was doing it with you
Yeah, everything we broke, and all the trouble that we made
But I say that I hate you with a smile on my face

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .

Nick watches Matt from the doorway of what is now his room. Matt's sat on the floor, screwdriver in hand, helping put some furniture together when his phone lights up with Gemma's contact name. Matt swiftly presses decline and continues to go back to what he was doing.

Nick pushes himself off the doorway and goes to place some toiletries in his bathroom, not knowing if the declining call is anything that needs to be brought up. He does anyway.

"Is something wrong with Gemma?"

Matt ignores his brother and pretends to be hyper focused on what he's doing, but Nick has known Matt for nineteen years and nine months and he sees right through the pathetic attempt at avoidance "Hello? What's with you declining her call?"

The middle triplet huffs and places the screwdriver down allowing him to finally look at his bother "I'm clearly doing something. I'll call her back later"

The hostile, quick response from Matt tells Nick everything and nothing at the same time. It tells him that it's something that he shouldn't be asking about, even if it concerns both his brother and one of his closest friends, and it tells him that Matt is also in a shit mood which, really, is no surprise. They'd been moving for the past three days which meant building furniture, sorting out their individual belongings and running around doing miscellaneous errands in an effort to get settled in before they go back to Boston.

Madi and Laura had been a big help and Jade, Josie and Avery had been over yesterday helping the three of them sort out clothes to keep here and what they wanted to take back home. When he had asked about Gemma, Jade had just shrugged and said that she had a few things she wanted to do today and Matt had a similar reaction. Nick didn't think anything of it until just now and he's starting to wonder if he's missed anything else.

He walks down to the kitchen where Chris is and watches as Josie walks through their front door. Surprised, he greets her with a wide smile as she walks up the stairs.

"Josie! I didn't know you were coming over?"

Nick watches as she reaches him at the top of the stairs and shifts awkwardly looking to Chris "Yeah, thought I'd come over and help any way that I can since I'm free all of today"

Nick nods and leads her into the kitchen "Can I ask you something?"

Josie takes her purse off her shoulder and places it on the counter already nodding "Of course you can" She gives Chris a quiet thanks as he places a drink in front of her and he slyly leans on the counter next to her.

Nick looks between the two of them and momentarily forgets what he was going to say until he hears Matt swear from upstairs. He looks in the direction of the stairs and then back to Josie and Chris "Is Gem doing okay?"

Josie pauses "The stuff with Finn is really starting to get to her"

Nick and Chris look to eachother in confusion and then back to Josie simultaneously. She'd laugh if she wasn't about to tell them that she had betrayed her best friend's trust. The singer sighed and fiddled with one of her rings "Finn drunkly told me that he was the one calling the paps so that it would look like him and Gem were like, I don't know, getting back together? And then with what he said on his podcast last week, it's just getting a bit much"

Chris' jaw drops and Nick looks beyond confused. Not only had Matt not mentioned anything about this, but neither had she. They'd all seen the clip because Matt was so angry about getting tagged in it, which meant that they'd been putting up with that attitude but neither Nick nor Chris knew that Finn was actually trying to write a false narrative.

"He just declined her call"

Chris and Josie have near identical looks on their face "What are you talking about"

Nick pushes his hair off his forehead and goes to the fridge to get his own drink "Gemma just tried to call Matt and he declined it"

The three friends stand in the Sturniolo's kitchen in an uneasy quiet. They'd been through this miscommunication before but somehow this felt different to that. This was something that Nick knew had been building, something that was ultimately a long time coming. Finn had managed to stick his nose in their business every single time, inserting himself into the narrative when he was never there in the first place. Chris and Nick had watched their brother look defeated in moments when it came to Finn but ultimately having Gem there to lean on, to be there for him, so him declining calls made him feel uneasy.

Chris smacked the counter top with his free hand "I feel like we could definitely be overthinking this though. Matt hasn't said anything negative about Gem and neither of them has made it super obvious that there's something wrong"

Nick quirked a brow at his triplet's reasoning "He's been in a bad mood all week"

Chris shrugged "That's just Matt"

Josie jingles her keys and interrupts the two boys in front of her "Gemma hasn't been herself"

"What does that mean?" Chris questions

"A lot has just been getting to her more recently, shit that never used to get to her you know? She literally used to view Finn as nothing, practically forgot he existed, and now she's worried about what he's saying" Josie concludes with another nervous jingle of her keys before putting her hands up in a defensive manor "But that doesn't mean it has anything to do with her and Matt! She could just be having a shit week"

The brothers side-eye eachother suspiciously and look back to Josie who also has an unsure look on her face. Chris begins to say something when the sound of Matt thundering down the stairs interrupts their conversation. He enters the kitchen swiftly, almost completely missing Josie standing in his kitchen.

He quickly realises and says a small hello, almost looking lost as he goes to get a bottle of water "Nick I've finished what I was doing upstairs" he mumbles as he exits the room, not even giving Nick a chance to thank him.

The trio are once again left alone and they all look to eachother with concern before Josie speaks "Maybe he's just tired?"

Chris pins her with a dead look "Jose, seriously"

Josie presses her lips together in a thin line and nods "Well if there's anything you guys need, I can go out and grab it. Matt doesn't seem to be in a driving mood"

Chris nods and makes the effort to lightly push Josie in the direction of the front door "I'll come with, Nick send a list" he says as the pair disappear down the stairs, leaving Nick alone in an empty kitchen.

💌
wowww two updates aren't you lucky??

im just tryna make up for my lack of updating over the past week eeeek

anywho this isnt the last of me for this week, im rlly trying to pump them out while ive got all the inspiration in the world hehe

thank you for reading <3