august slipped away like a bottle of wine

- part one

i liked matthew more than i planned. i fell for him hard and for a while i forgot about tony. after getting back from our trip to the evans' cabin we figured out how to be friends. everybody accepted matt as part of the group and we spent a lot of time together for the better half of the summer.

the first few weeks of us being an official couple he was very sweet and romantic. he made me a personal mixtape and took me to a drive-in cinema. he tried his best all the time and even asked camille what kind of movies i liked.

i spent most of my time with him, even at night we were always together.

in the mornings i stared at his back beneath the sun, wishing i could write my name on it. we were twisted in bedsheets, laying in his bed with the window open. letting the salt air fill the room. august was by far one of my favorite months and spending it with him made my heart light up. i never needed anything more. in my head i replayed whispers of "are you sure?" and "never have i ever before" and smiled.

matt had more tattoos than i could count and from what i understand people who loved tattoos always got them about what was currently happening in their life. one day when we were driving to the skating rink where we had our first date, he surprised me with a new one he had gotten. it was a tiny bottle of wine, the red one we enjoyed drinking with "jones" written on it. the tattoo was just above his color bone, where i always placed a small kiss when he was next to me.

it was the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me, yet still sarcastically i had to say "you know that's permanent, right?"

"well, hopefully, so are you" he grinned, his dimples showing.

i let my eyes fill with tears and kissed his cheek, the corner of his mouth and then his lips. "forever and always" he whispered.

that was one of the last times i felt truly happy with him. after that day everything started going downhill.

♡ ♡ ♡

for a while we were all meeting in group settings regularly and tony and i even went out alone a few times, just like the good old days. yet for some reason i haven't spoken with him and nat in a few days.

lately i noticed matt was changing. in the beginning of our relationship he smoked less and i rarely saw him drink enough to get drunk, but know he was going to parties all the time, hanging out with the wrong kind of people and for all i knew took all sort of drugs with them. when i confronted him he said that it was summer break and he was just having fun.

but that's not the only thing that changed. he no longer treated me like he did in the beginning. the so called honeymoon phase was over.

it's not that i expected lavish and expensive dates but he no longer tried at all. recently it felt like we didn't meet up to spend time with each other because we wanted to, now it felt more like a chore. instead of picking me up and going someplace nice he would sent me messages like: meet me behind the mall.

we'd just sit in his red camero together, maybe drive back to his place, that's all. he felt distant, almost like he was slipping away.

today he was driving me to meet camille and shawn, and while they insisted he should come with me, he claimed he was busy going god knows where with god knows who.

"be safe" i said before stepping out of his car, knowing he wouldn't. i walked through the park to where shawn and camille were sitting on the newly cut grass.

when i sat down beside them we could see the red camero speed through the road behind the park.

"he's changed" camille said, so perceptive as usual.