movies , matt sturniolo. ✓

five.

evelyn just had a flashback. 

it came to her right after matt had left her house the afternoon after her birthday. she had just gotten into bed to take a nap when all the emotions hit her at once.

FEBRUARY 14, 2022.

matt was over at evelyn's house. the two sat on evie's bed, just talking about anything and everything. it was valentine's day, only a couple of days after the couple's six month anniversary.

"okay, okay, okay." matt stops whatever they were talking about. "close your eyes, evie." he instructs. 

"okay..." evelyn laughs, closing her eyes. "you're not gonna kill me or anything, are you?" 

"very funny." matt rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. once evelyn's eyes were closed, he reached into the gift bag that was on the floor next to the bed. he takes out a small black box and opens it. 

"alright, ev. open your eyes." he says. evelyn does what he says. her eyes lay on his palm, where he's holding a necklace that has the charm in the shape of half of a heart. on the half, was the letter 'm' engraved on it.     

"oh my god." she gasped, staring at the boy in front of her. "matt you didn't."

"i did. look on the back." he says, handing her the necklace. evelyn looks at the back, only to see half of a picture that nick had taken of the two a couple weeks ago. it was the half that had matt in it. "i have a matching one." matt explains, taking his own out from underneath his shirt. his had the letter 'e' on the front and had evelyn's half of the picture on it. 

"can i..." evelyn trailed off as matt nodded. she came closer and took matt's in her hand, careful not to tug the necklace off of him. she put her own against it and heard the faintest click of magnets. the image she was met with was one of her favorites of the two.

matt holding an ice cream cone and smiling goofily while evelyn stood next to him with a wide grin.

"happy valentine's day, my evie." matt says, causing evelyn to look at him. their eyes met and their faces are only inches apart as matt smiles. "do you like it?" he asks. he was met with a kiss. 

after a few moments, evelyn pulled away, her eyes tearing up. 

"matt, i love it. holy shit, how am i ever going to top this." she sighs. 

"my goal was that you could never top this." matt explains. "if you get me something better than this i will literally have another marvel marathon with you. and you know-"

"yeah, i know you hate marvel, matt. but you did have a marathon with me before."

"only because i love you." matt replies. the words slip out so fast that both teens barely have time to process. matt realizes what he says and suddenly gets nervous.

"i love you, matthew bernard sturniolo." evelyn replies, giving the boy another kiss before getting up. 

"i'm gonna go show dad the necklace. and then i have to get ready for dinner tonight. you should go home and get ready."

"yeah, okay." matt responds. "i'll come pick you up at 8?"

"like always." 

PRESENT DAY.

evelyn quickly gets up and looks around the room, spotting the necklace matt had given her sitting on her dresser. while putting it on, she instantly felt terrible for making matt go through all those marvel movies. it was no wonder he hesitated before saying yes. before evelyn could pick up her phone to tell rory or elle about the memory, a note on her desk caught her eye. walking towards the desk, she saw the note sat next to a pug keychain. the note had 'to matt' written on the front and it was folded. curious as to what she wrote before the accident, evelyn opened the note. 

to mattyb, 

happy one year, love! i spent the last month trying to oneup what you did for me this valentine's day, but ultimately, i failed. i ended up buying you a pug keychain that only cost like two dollars but i just couldn't resist! it was just... so you. i saw it at target and immediately thought of you. so yeah, i got you a stupid fucking pug keychain as a gift. i know what you're gonna say: "evie, it's your birthday. you don't have to get me a present." but too fucking bad, matt. it's also our one year anniversary which means i DO have to get you a present. whether it be a pug keychain or a locket with me in it. but i guess that's just how i am. i don't need an expensive gift to show how much I LOVE YOU!!!!! and to add some value to the keychain, i managed to sew that on the bottom of the keychain. so now you have a pug keychain with the words "i love you" written above it's tail. anyway, add the keychain to your minivan keys! or hang it in your room, i don't really have a preference. oh wait, maybe hand it IN your minivan like on the rear view mirror if that makes sense??? yea i like that. but it's up to you! i'm so glad to have spent this last year with you and i'm hopeful for so many more, matt. 

love forever and always, 

your evie <3.

evelyn was nearly crying. she felt terrible that she couldn't remember matt. taking the pug keychain and folding the note back up, she put both in a tiny paper bag that also lay on her desk and labled the bag 'MATT'. hoping that she had the address saved somewhere, evelyn scoured every app in her phone before finding matt's address in the bottom of her notes app. the old her probably had it memorized and didn't need it again. 

quickly telling her dad she was going to elle's, evelyn followed the directions and walked the ten minutes to the sturniolo household. she didn't see any car in the driveway. she assumed matt was out since his minivan wasn't there. rushing up to the doorstep, evelyn placed the paper bag in front of the door and rang the doorbell before running down the steps again. hiding behind a nearby a bush, she saw the door open and chris look around before his eyes landed on the paper bag. he picks it up and looks around once more, catching sight of the strawberry blonde. he gave evelyn a small smile and wink before closing the door. evelyn smiled.

she may not remember everything, but getting that one memory and knowing how meaningful this keychain will be to matt gave evelyn the hope that everyone needed.

she was going to be okay.

maha speaks :)

dedicated to jj because she told me she wanted to cry.

also NO ONE is prepared for the ending of this except callie because i had to run my ideas by someone :))) yall are gonna hate me so much but im not sorry.