Mat Barzal - What Real Support Looks Like

Part 2

The sun streaming through the blinds woke Gemma up.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up, expecting to see her and Mat's room, but she saw the Eberle's spare room and remembered last night's events.

She wished she could go back to that blissfully unaware state she was in thirty seconds ago, but that was not how the world worked. Gemma looked over at the clock, which read 9:15AM. Jordan and Lauren had to be awake by now, since Jordan had practice in a little over an hour. She got out of bed and padded over to the bathroom that was conveniently attached to the spare room.

Lauren was right about her body needing to recover. Gemma slept like the dead last night, and she actually felt well rested. When she saw her reflection in the mirror, though, she realized that she didn't look as good as she felt. She clearly didn't do a thorough job of removing her mascara because she looked like a raccoon, and her nose was red from all of the crying. Gemma cringed but didn't dwell on it, and she made a beeline for the makeup bag she haphazardly packed last night. She ransacked it in search of her mascara remover, but she only found cotton rounds. She looked at the counter and felt like an idiot when she saw the mascara remover sitting on it, front and center. Gemma wiped each of her eyes clean and washed her face. After she was finished, she looked in the mirror again, and she was pleased that she looked almost normal.

Gemma walked back into the bedroom and pulled out a pair of jeans, a light sweater, and socks from her overnight bag. It had been unseasonably warm for the beginning of March, so she only packed a few pairs of clothing. She was going to have to go back to Mat's apartment sooner rather than later.

She sat down on the bed, and as she put on her socks, Gemma noticed that her phone was not on the night table where she thought she left it. Figuring she left it outside, she exited the bedroom and walked into the living room, but no one was there. She stood there for a moment, and she heard hushed voices coming from the dining room. If Mat were here, she knew he wouldn't be quiet, so she approached the dining room.

Gemma was greeted with the sight of Jordan eating fruit at one end of the table, and Lauren and Sydney Esiason huddled in front of Sydney's laptop on the other.

Sydney was Matt Martin's fiancé, and she was Gemma's other closest friend out of the other Islanders' S/O's. The two of them bonded over both being from Long Island, and she was the first person to get Gemma out of her shell. Sydney and Lauren weren't particularly friendly before Gemma started dating Mat, but she had brought them together, and they were now as close to each other as she was to both of them.

"Gemma! You're finally awake! How are you, sweetie?" Sydney walked over to her and encompassed her in a bone-crushing hug. She was much shorter than Gemma (so was almost every S/O and a few of the players), but she was strong. Gemma hugged her back.

"I'm assuming you know?" Gemma asked as she pulled back from the embrace.

"Mat called our house last night looking for you," Sydney said.

"Oh God. Lauren, did he call here?"

"We took the landline off the hook, but yes, he called both mine and Jordan's cellphones," Lauren replied. "We let them ring. And then an hour ago, your phone started ringing; it was so loud that we could hear it in the living room. I was sure you were going to wake up, but when I went into your room, you were sound asleep, so I took it outside. Here," she said, holding out Gemma's cellphone in her hand.

"Thanks," Gemma said.

"Oh, and your mom also called a half hour ago. Apparently, Mat called her too."