🌟sparks🌟 (matt sturniolo)

- 24 - suitcase -

and just like that, the trip was just about over. it was almost three weeks to the day since freyja and madi had met up with the sturniolo family in the dolomites. they had spent two weeks there and then had driven to bolanzo for the final week of the holiday. freyja couldn't believe how quickly the trip had gone, and now it was the evening before they were due to leave. 

madi, the triplets, freyja, and justin sat on the living room floor playing Mario kart on the old tv. they had split themselves into two teams: the red team consisted of madi, freyja, and nic, and the blue team was chris, matt, and justin. they were taking turns versing each other, and when mary-lou walked into the room, freyja and chris were facing off on one of the hardest tracks in the game. so far, freyja was winning.

matt looked up as his mom entered the room. "hey mom," he said, and everyone except chris and freyja turned to look.

"if we are gonna be out here by 9 am tomorrow morning, you guys need to hurry up and pack," she said sternly, glancing at the tv screen.

chris was about to overtake freyja on a sharp corner, and mary lou called out "freyja look to your left!" matt laughed. his mom had a very short attention span.

"thanks mary-lou!" freyja exclaimed as she passed the finish line ahead of chris. she grabbed chris's arm. "i win you lose now you get a big bruise!"  she bumped her fist against chris's arm, and he groaned.

"ow, freyja! that's gonna bruise." she just flipped him off. nic and matt were getting ready to verse each other when mary-lou switched off the tv at the powerpoint, cutting off the game as the screen turned black. the group groaned in protest.

"no more games until everyone is packed and ready to go by 9 am tomorrow." and with that, mary-lou turned on her heel and stalked out of the room. madi and nic got up first, and chris and justin reluctantly followed. freyja began to gather her belongings up from the couch ready to pack.

"do you know if justin has heard anything?" she kept her voice low as she spoke even though there was no one in the room with them. matt knew what she was talking about: the website handling the comments.

he shook his head, and freyja's face fell. justin had sent the screenshots on saturday, and it was now monday. it had been three days and they had heard nothing. "im sure we'll hear back from them soon," he said, trying to make her feel better. freyja and matt hadn't been back on her account since justin took full responsibility of it when he sent the screenshots, so they had no idea if there had been more comments.

freyja forced a smile on her face, and started up the hallway. matt followed slowly behind. he wished there was a way to make all freyja's pain go away. he saw through all her forced smiles and laughter that she was hurting, and there was nothing they could do but wait.

matt watched from the doorway of their room as freyja pulled clothes out of her section of the singular wardrobe. she folded them neatly and then placed them carefully into her suitcase.  she looked up as matt sat down on his bed. "oh," she said, looking at him.

matt sighed, standing up and walking over to his suitcase. he opened it up and began to haphazardly throw clothes in. "your never gonna be able to make all that fit if you just throw them in," freyja grinned, holding back a laugh.

matt sighed, again, but this time it was one of defeat. freyja smiled, walking over to help him. "here, fold your shirts like this," freyja folded one of his t-shirts into a neat square and placed it into a corner of the suitcase. matt smiled and attempted to copy her. 

"almost," she said, fixing up matt's messily folded shirt. they stayed like that for a while, packing matt's suitcase. they worked out a system: matt would pass freyja an item of clothing and he would watch as she folded it and placed it neatly in the suitcase. after a while, their idle chatter fell into comfortable silence. that is until matt broke it.