puppy love ☆ chris sturniolo

18 || puppy love

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puppy love
𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨
chapter eighteen

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chris's recent morning was no better than valeri's. their friend group had practically been torn apart since neither house wants to take sides so they just all stay home and hope the other is okay. nathan who had been back in boston for a few days had been updated by sabrina and valeri through various facetimes.

it had been a few days from chris and valeri's conversation with neither of the two reaching out since. space was what they needed.

chris offered to get the house breakfast while he went for a walk to clear his head. on the way over, which was really only a short walk. as he walked, he shuffled the 🇫🇷🍞☕️ playlist as it landed on a few of his additions to it. he saw someone familiar and immediately paused.

"cynthia," he said seeing who it was. he didn't even make it far along to get his alone time like he planned.

"chris," she said back to him.

"could we talk? i can buy you a coffee if you want, i just need to get breakfast for matt and nick," she agreed and smiled.

***

they sat and talked about what had been happening recently in their lives as well as where they left things. "i only ghosted you because i didn't know how i was supposed to respond to that. i haven't talked to him since may,"

"and you don't have to. i haven't talked to him either," she sighed. throughout the conversation about their recent lives, chris caught himself smiling at her as if nothing had changed and no time had passed. he felt that they picked up exactly where they left off.

"hey, um, before we leave... the way i see this," she said pointing between the two. "is that we really have three options when it comes to us.." she trailed off.

"options one, is that i apologize and you could forgive me and we could go back to some type of normal. a more mature normal i hope," she stated. "or option two being i could apologize, you could forgive me and be able to use it against me every time we argue," chris laughed at her as they both stood up to leave, taking their belongings while chris had a bag with his brother's breakfast.

"you're making jokes now," he pointed out.

"yes, i know. cynthia has a sense of humor," she smiled slightly. as they both went quiet, cynthia stepped closer and as did chris.

"what's the third option?" he asked.

"i don't know what the third option is, but i know that i love you and i'm willing to start again," she stared into his eyes as their lips connected. he put his free hand on her side as she put a hand on his neck. "i'll see you," she said pulling away, celebrating in her head. chris stood dumbfounded. thinking about a new decision he had to make.

he began walking back to the house, this time more on edge than usual. when he walked in, he placed the bags on the dining table and called his brothers to the kitchen. "you went somewhere," nick speculated.

"why- why would you think that?" he played dumb.

"chris, do us a solid and don't go into acting..." matt said, rummaging through the bag. "buddy you got someone's lipstick on you," he laughed. chris' eyes went wide and ran into the bathroom with nick and matt laughing behind him. he looked in the mirror and saw the red tint for himself as he attempted to wipe it off.

"so whose lipstick...?" nick questioned.

"cynthia's," he mumbled. matt looked at him with his mouth wide open.

"you tackled nick over how she ruined everything, how did her lipstick end up on you?" he asked

"we talked. she changed and i don't know, there's a lot going on,"

"so there won't be a break up?" nick toyed with his breakfast awaiting a response. instead of responding, chris looked at his phone since he received a facetime.

"give me a sec, valeri is calling me," he excused himself from the table and went upstairs to answer.

"dude he can't be playing both of them," matt sighed.

"what could we even do? he's gonna make his own choices and have his own consequences just like he did before and we'll just have to be there. i just hope valeri is okay and that he doesn't do something stupid," nick reasoned. matt agreed as they changed conversation points.

meanwhile, chris answered the call from valeri which led him to see her crying. "woah, valeri, is everything okay?" he said with genuine worry.

"sabrina is out with some friends from her hometown and i don't want to bother her so i called you," she apologized.

"no it's fine, what's wrong?"

"i'm just-" she sniffed. "so exhausted, chris. hating you is exhausting,"

she sniffed again and wiped her eyes. "and i don't want to hate you anymore but chris that shit hurt. and i miss my friends and i miss everyone hanging out and i miss my boy trevor," she smiled towards the end. she didn't mean to get back together, just that she was thinking about it. "i'm not saying everything can go back to normal but i think you should know that i'm at least thinking about it. it's just so overwhelming because not only am i dealing with it privately but everyone's asking for you in my comments," she wiped her cheek again.

"same here, you should see the others comment sections. they're asking for you too," he responded. "slow down, okay? you don't need to decide anything yet, just take time for yourself if you need to. we're still friends or something, right?" she nodded her head, noticing the change in tone. he was much more relaxed now compared to the last time they spoke about each other.

"thank you, and again i'm sorry but seriously. i really am done hating you," she chuckled. "i'll see you when i see you?"

"i'll see you when i see you," the two hung up the phone and chris face planted into his bed. what the hell am i going to do?

***

mans is mad he has options meanwhile i got -1...