The girl he never noticed

The time between

Its been a month since I left Matt in the parking lot. We haven't talked since then, even though he's texted me, I haven't responded, and when he tries to catch my eye in school, I just look away. He asked out Emma a week ago, and even though we haven't talked about what happened between me and Matt she still asked my permission to date him before saying yes.
As I walk down the hall with Emma, one morning when Matt found us, once Emma sees him she turns around and walks the other Way, I turn to follow her, but Matter grabs my wrist, and turns me to face him " we need to talk" I follow him as he walkes off in the direction of the classrooms, he checks to see that one is empty before walking in, I follow behind him before shutting the door behind us. "We can't keep doing this" Matter says walking towards the windows "doing what matt" i ask thinking he's referring to me ignoring him "you, telling emma to ignore me" he says running his hands through his short blonde hair. I'm a bit taken back, when he says this, I thought that this conversation would be about how I've been ignoring, but when I look at him, I see that he doesn't even care that I've been ignoring him, I think back to this past month and to how the first week after I drove away from the diner, he tried to get my attention. but then after that it was kinda like he gave up. I give a sad laugh, and shake my head at him, starting to feel the tears well up in my eyes "you, know Matt, I really wish you had a clue" I leave after saying that. As i leave the room, he calls after me, but as soon as I'm out the door, I run through the now empty hallways, and towards the girls bathrooms. I open the door leading into the bathroom, right as the tears started to fall. "Oh my god, Amber are you okay". I look over and see Amanda, standing by the sinks and looking at me. I remember how close her and Matt have gotten, lately, and decide not to tell her about him. So I just mumble a yes, before turning around and walking out the door.

At the lunch, I'm the last one to the table. I join Emma on the bench and start eating my food. I'm midbite of a strawberry when Amanda starts talking "so me and erik are talking about getting back together and he decided to throw a party, and invited us" she looks between me and Emma, "when is it" I ask reading Emma's facial expressions knowing that we both aren't in the party mood. "Tonight" amanda responds with a happy look on her face. Me and Emma share a look, knowing that its useless, trying to argue our way out of the party. Amands looks at me knowing that she won. "your parents are gone this weekend right" I nod my head to answer her question, knowing that she'll want to get ready at my house "great, we can just go there, and get ready after school".

After school I walk to my locker and start putting my books away, I feel someone stand behind me, I turn around and bump into someones chest, i look up and stare into Matt's green eyes. "What do you want matt" i ask, not in the mood for his games, I continue putting my books up, and shut my locker door, and start walking away, with Matt right on my heels. "Well I was wondering if you were going to the party" I open my car door, and get into the drivers seat "yeah, I am and so is Emma your girlfriend if that's why you were asking", I started to put the car in reverse, but he says "can you give me a ride home, my dad had to borrow my truck, and he told me to just walk home, but I figured I could..." I interrupt him and say "yeah, get in" I lean over and open the passengers door, and he climbs in the car. I start driving away from school, when one of my favorite songs starts to play. I start singing along to the lyrics, Matt reaches over and changes the radio station. I look at him, "excuse me, my car, my radio" I turn it back to my radio station, just in time to hear the last few words of the song, I give Matt an annoyed look before putting my attention back on the road.

When I pull up outside my house, I expect Matt to walk off towards his house, but instead he follows me to mine. When we get to my front door, and he's still following me, I turn around "you know, this isn't your house so, you can't just walk in, and Emma and Amanda are coming over to get ready for the party, so you need to leave" I proceed to unlock the door and walk in, Matt follows me, I give a annoyed sigh, and head upstairs to my room to change.
A few minutes later, I head downstairs in a pair of sweatpants, and a plain t-shirt, i find Matt in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. "You know I don't understand why you and Amanda are friends" I look at him "what do you mean"  I sit beside him, with an extra bowl, and grab the cereal box "well she's popular, and gets along with everybody, while you don't" he eats the last bit of his cereal before drinking the remaining milk. "yeah well not everybody cares what others think like you do" I say that last part with spite remembering that night that he told me he didnt hang out with me in public because he was scared it would hurt his image "what's that supposed to mean" I feel his body tense next to mine, and I stand up, "it means that ever since the day you came to school, you've only cared what everybody else thinks, you won't even hang out with me in public because you're scared that if someone saw us, you wouldnt be popular anymore" I didn't realize that I was so angry until I felt hot tears running down my face, Matt gets up and stands in front of me "you don't get it" he acts like I should accept that excuse "what don't I get, that your embarrassed to be my friend, that you're too ashamed to talk to me in front of your friends, but yet you can act like we're best friends at 3am when your home life is bad" I yell at him "I'm not ashamed of you, Amber" his eyes are starting to gloss over "you know I really wish I could believe you, but how do you think it makes me feel when I see that your willing to talk to Amanda at school but not me" I run upstairs and slam my door, before locking it. I hear Matt run up after me, and try and open my door, he bangs on it, "please I'm not ashamed of you Amber, your my best friend and I love you, let me in" I slide down the door, to the floor, and sit there,listening to his uneven breaths, as he continues to knock on the door. After about 15 minutes, I wipe at my eyes, and check my reflection in the mirror, I open the door and see Matt sitting down on the floor in front of the door. He looks up when the door opens, and jumps up grabs me in his arms. When his arms wrap around my body, I'm surrounded by the scent of pine trees, I hug him back, and that's when Emma and Amanda find us.