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SEVEN

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IRL
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❝Do you guys just want to sleep over? My parents aren't here for the weekend, so you can stay if you want," Lea suggests as the end credits of Let It Shine roll. This is the umpteenth time they've watched the movie and the group of teenagers have yet to become bored of it. The only boys awake to answer Lea's question were Matt and Nick— Chris fell asleep right before Cyrus submits his CD to Roxie's contest. Nick tiredly murmurs a 'yes', before quickly dozing off onto Leanna's couch.  Leanna exhales deeply before turning her head towards Matt.

"You're not tired?" Leanna asks Matt while taking a handful of popcorn that Nick made from the bowl on the table, into her hand.

"Not really, I'm sort of hungry though," Matt responds, he sighs taking pieces of popcorn from Lea's hand.

"Do you want to go to McDonald's?" Lea offers, standing up to stretch. She looks down at Matt and sees him shaking his head.

"I don't really feel like driving right now, to be honest," Matt replies, rubbing the excess butter from the popcorn onto his joggers.

Lea opens her mouth to suggest the idea that she could drive them to McDonald's, but Matt starts to speak again, "No offense, but I'd rather die than have you drive me somewhere," Matt suppresses a smile as he stands up from the couch before continuing, "You're sort of a shit driver, Lea."

Leanna scoffs, shoving Matt's arm, "You're the one that taught me most of what I know," Lea guffaws, walking out of the living room, and into the kitchen. Matt trails behind her, laughing.

"Lea, you had to take your test four times," Matt explains sitting down on the chair near her kitchen island. He watches his ex-girlfriend as she opens the fridge, grabbing eggs and butter.

"But I passed, didn't I?" Lea asks rhetorically, shutting the door to her fridge.

"Barely," Matt mumbles. He watches Lea grab pancake mix and chocolate chips from her pantry.  He glances briefly at his hands, then back at her, watching her dump the pancake mix into a bowl. She looks cute when she's concentrated, Matt thinks to himself. His eyes flicker down to her lip that she's biting. He knew it was one of her nervous ticks, he remembers in sophomore year when she almost chewed her lip raw before her Biology exam. He had to buy her at least 3 Burt's Bees chapstick and they couldn't kiss for a week (which was the worst week of his life). She's cracking an egg into the bowl when he finally speaks up.

"What are you doing?" Matt asks, striding over to where Lea resides. He leans his weight against her fridge as she continues to crack another egg into the bowl. Lea turns her head in Matt's direction and smiles softly before answering.

"Making chocolate chip pancakes."

"You don't like chocolate chip pancakes," Matt states, grabbing a cup from her kitchen cupboard to fill with water. On the ex-couple's first anniversary, he decided to surprise her with breakfast and made chocolate chips pancakes. At the moment, she said she loved them, but it wasn't until two months later she revealed the truth. In Lea's defense, when she was nine she ate way too many chocolate chip pancakes and threw up. It was from that day that she promised herself to never eat them again. Up until she saw how excited Matt was about her breakfast surprise— he spent over an hour trying to prepare everything and she couldn't bear to tell him the truth at that moment.