Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ALL I DO. { irl }
niola's desk has been empty for a week. it's been five days and matt still feels like a piece of himself is missing every time he enters their english classroom just to see that her desk is still vacant.
who's chair is he supposed to kick from behind? who's hair is he supposed to pull? who's he supposed to compare test scores with?
matt groans at the thought of someone else ever sitting in her chair. someone else ever taking her place as his rival. the mere thought of it makes him want to vomit in the bathroom the way she did on sunday.
while on the topic of what had happened on sunday, matt thinks about what happened between them when they were on the porch. all week, whenever he thinks of her – which is a lot – his mind always seems to find itself replaying the same memory. the memory of her arms snaking around his shoulders before she leaned in, teasing him with the possibility of a shared kiss under the stars.
then, she pulled away.
matt groans again, wishing he had done more to avoid her ending the night sick like that. he lays his head down on the wooden top of his desk.
"girl troubles?" a guy asks from behind him. matt turns around at the sound of the voice. then he finds himself facing someone oddly familiar. for a long moment, matt can't seem to remember where he knows this dude from.
he has curly, brown hair with a few chunky blonde highlights. his eyes are dark brown and his skin is pale.
aside from having sat in front of this guy all year, matt knows that they've met outside of this classroom. but for some annoying reason, he can't recall where.
"i'm lucas." the guy says. "i was at amelia's party."
everything seems to be coming back to matt now. lucas was the guy that was sitting next to nick during the game of truth-or-dare. matt remembers how nick couldn't shut up about this guy for days after the party. he walked around the house behind matt, telling him about lucas.
honestly, matt barely listened to nick's rants, but he can still remember a few details that nick mentioned.
he knows that lucas is bisexual. he knows that lucas lives with his single father and older sister, kiana. he also knows that nick has a huge crush on lucas – which means matt can't say anything to embarrass his brother.
"oh yeahhh," matt says. "i remember you now."
"you're nick's brother, right?" lucas asks.
matt makes a mental note, reminding himself to let nick know that lucas remembers who nick is. and not only that, he also remembered who matt was. matt wants to laugh, knowing how excited this will make his brother. then, matt wants to die knowing how much nick will talk about this afterward.
"yeah." matt says.
lucas nods, "cool."
for a moment, they sit in a really awkward silence. neither of them know what to say since they've never talked before.
at the party, lucas had listened to nick talk about his brothers. nick mentioned matt and lucas instantly recognized him as the boy who sits in front of him in english class. when nick pointed in matt's direction, he saw matt and niola sitting side by side – much closer than normal friends would sit. when he saw niola, he recognized her as well. she's the girl who sits in front of matt.
"i don't think i've ever seen you this fatigued." lucas finally says, breaking the silence.
"what do you mean?"
"well, normally you're always talking to niola. the two of you never stop bickering. but some how, all of that nonstop arguing paid off, right?" lucas rambles with a short chuckle before he continues. "i mean, since you guys are dating now."
"yeah, haha," matt forces out a laugh that he hopes doesn't sound too forced. "it all worked out."
"is that why you look so sad now?" lucas asks. "all week, you seemed to just be exhausted."
"no, i'm fine. it's just-" before matt can come up with some reason to excuse his weird behavior, the bell rings – which means that english is over and it's time for lunch. matt quickly stands up from his chair and leaves the classroom before lucas can say anything else.
as much as matt misses niola, he doesn't want to talk about their fake relationship. because how is he supposed to explain that he appears to be fatigued because niola – who is his supposedly his girlfriend – confessed that she does love him? that would make no sense considering the fact that couples confess their love to each other before their relationship.
while matt walks down the hall toward the cafeteria, he pulls his phone out of his back pocket. he opens niola's contact and stares at their previous dry conversations. he remembers that on sunday, she got jealous of him texting someone. does that mean she wants them to text more? if so, what does he say?
matt types out a few messages, but just ends up deleting them all.
"hey." no. that's boring. plus, after that, what is he supposed to talk about?
"how are you?" no. that's just as bad as saying hey.
"i miss you" no. no. no. no. NO.
even though niola has been at home all week, miss posey has been babysitting rayne everyday to prevent the chance of her catching niola's illness.
it's very rare for niola to be bored. normally, there's so much to do and so little time that she's super stressed out and she can't ever sit down and rest. but since she's been at home all by herself, it's different. she's finished all of her chores, swept all of the floors, washed all of their laundry, and now she's left with nothing to do.
she's been contemplating sending a text to matt. totally not because of her jealousy on sunday, but because she just wants to check on him and make sure everything is okay.
niola types out a few messages, but just ends up deleting them all. she doesn't want to seem clingy or annoying.
all day, she's been laying around on her bed watching tv. and every time she picks up her phone, she hopes to see a message from matt. but there never is one. so she just tosses her phone back down onto her bed and unpauses the show she's watching.
.∘◦❀◦∘. a/n : wait why is tsitp kinda good??? honestly i was expecting it to be cringy and bad, but i rlly like it 😧(mainly bc we all know how much i love cliches and this is cliche heaven) also, don't ask me if i'm team jere or team conrad bc i'm in love with them both 😔😔🫶 ◦∘.❀.∘◦
