✓ | MIRRORBALL ❨ C. STURNIOLO! ❩

32 | real life

LIZZIE WALKS in to the triplets' home, the door unlocked as chris promised months ago. she starts to walk immediately up to nick's room, but stops when she sees chris alone in the living room.

"hey," she says as he looks up from his phone.

he just gives her a quick smile before going back to the game he was playing, and she continues walking. her cheeks feel warmer than before, but she ignores it.

she knocks on the door to nick's bedroom before opening it and throwing her body on the bed. she lets out a loud groan as she shoves her face in one of nick's pillows.

"what's got you groanin'," nick asks, looking down at her in confusion.

"life," she mutters. nick cheers her up by bringing up the next episode of bridgerton on his laptop.

"god, yes, distract me now," she says dramatically. she moves to sit up next to nick, laying her head on his shoulder as they watch.

matt storms in an hour later, screaming, "get up, let's go!"

"where is it that we're going?" nick asks.

"the sunset is actually fucking insane right now, we're going to the beach," chris says as he shows up behind matt.

lizzie jumps up and throws her shoes on faster than ever seen before. "i'm ready!" she shouts as nick still sits in bed. she grabs his hand and drags him up, pushing him to get up and ready to go.

chris pulls a packet of twizzlers out of his pocket and begins to open them. lizzie gives him a look, which he reads immediately and pulls one of the red candies out to hand to her.

their hands brush as she takes the candy, and they both immediately pull away. her cheeks grow redder as she says, "before we go i need to pee!" and rushes away.

nick and matt give each other a look before turning to chris, eyebrows furrowed.

"what?" chris asks, looking down at his candy.

"what's going on there?" matt responds.

"where?" chris pretends to have no idea what his brother is talking about.

"you and lizzie have been acting so weird since we got back," nick says. "don't play dumb with me christopher."

"bro what just because she's a girl and i'm a guy things are weird? we're just friends chill the fuck out," chris walks away, pissed off.

when lizzie returns, matt has a hard time pretending like nothing happened, but nick makes it up for the both of them. they all pile in the van and head towards the beach.

after the sun has set, the four teenagers lay on a blanket in silence staring at the sky above them.

"don't you see the starlight," lizzie sings quietly, "don't you dream impossible things?"

nick jumps up to sing along with her, grabbing her hands and pulling her to dance with him. they run across the beach, dancing and screaming to the taylor swift song playing in their head.

chris sits up, leaning on his elbows behind him. he watches the girl in awe as she glows under the moonlight. matt stares dumbfounded at his brother who acts oblivious to his own feelings.

when lizzie and nick run back to the blanket, they fall down dramatically, gasping for air.

"i need to get more in shape," lizzie complains, to which nick nods in response.

she closes her eyes and relaxes under a blanket of stars. next to her, matt hands chris the bluetooth speaker, which he's been begging for the whole time lizzie and nick were running around.

she hears the beginning of a very familiar song start to play loudly in front of her. she opens her eyes, giving chris a confused look as the intro to mirrorball starts.

chris stands up, brushing sand off of him. wordlessly, he reaches one hand down to the girl in front of him. she takes it as he pulls her up, bringing her into a dance.