somebody else, matt sturniolo

thirty one

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XXXI
emotional motion sickness !

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»»———-real life———-««

emersyn had barely left her bed for the rest of the weekend. her hair stayed matted in a messy bun and she wore the same pink nick sturniolo photography hoodie since friday. it was probably well overdue for a wash. she'd been binging the flash when she should have been doing her honors english homework. but it was procrastination at its best.

very little had she spoken to any of her friends, let alone wyatt. let alone matt. so, when the triplets' van pulled up in her driveway on monday to pick her up for school, it was the first time she'd really spoken to any of them since homecoming.

when emersyn hopped in, the atmosphere was completely normal. nick and chris were arguing about whether or not they'd rather use a bow and arrow or a crossbow during the zombie apocalypse and matt was shaking his head and butting in every now and then to call one of them stupid.

"okay, okay. which would you rather have, emersyn?" chris asked.

"crossbow, easily."

nick blew raspberries from his lips as the van turned into elesia's street. "oh, fuck off."

they were about halfway through first period during a group lab in science when nick scooted his chair an annoying amount towards his brother. "hey,"

matt was doodling at the corner of his notebook when he should have been watching the chemicals bubble up in order to take notes on it. his mind was far away, on anything but science. well, not anything. more like one thing in particular. "what?"

nick lowered his voice to a whisper so none of their other lab partners could hear him over elesia's rambling about the expierment. "are you ready to tell me about what i saw on friday?"

"i don't quite recall what you mean."

"quit playing stupid with me, mattew."

matt dropped his pencil, still yet to make eye contact with his brother. "nick, drop your stupid ass nancy drew act. you didn't see anything. nothing happened."

nick had begun to fiddle with the white rim of his phone case, glancing back and forth between his notes and the lab in front of him. "oh, shut up, kid. tell me, did you kiss her?"

"what? what the fuck, no." matt's voice shot down below his casual whisper.

"what is it gonna take for you to just be truthful?" a lot, apparently. because matt  had yet to be truthful since the conversation started.

"nick," he was growing aggravated. his brown hair falling over his eyes and his neck craned downwards, "knock it off."

"hey, she's my bestfriend. i have legal rights to know if something happened!"

matt's nose scrunched up. he couldn't take anymore of this interogation. "i can't stand the sound of her voice, let alone the thought of kissing her."

"kissing who?" elesia and nathan had peaked their heads up from the behind the flask that separated them. "yo matty b got a girlfriend?"

"no, no. it's not like that."

"or so he says." nick mumbled.

it wasn't long afterwards that the bell rang and matt was the first out of the classroom. the remainder of the friend group met up during their study period again. after being forced from the library due to the drama club ambushing the hideout.