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ALL I DO. { irl }
"who are you texting?" nick asked as he noticed chris giggling at his phone as he typed messages to a random person.
chris shoved his phone between the couch cushions, before saying "nowhere!"
nick raised an eyebrow at chris's strange behavior, but he knew that he was probably just texting matt — talking about whatever it is that straight men gossip about.
beside chris, camille was sitting on the couch with rayne on her lap. the child was playing a random princess makeup game on camille's phone. every time she completed a makeover, rayne would excited show camille the new look.
honestly, camille didn't give a shit what the princess looked like with new makeup. but the way rayne's whole face lit up whenever she got attention made camille super invested in the beauty salon.
"i'm gonna order pizza." nick says, grabbing his phone to call the pizza place. "is cheese okay with everyone?"
"it's fine with me." camille says nonchalantly.
"me too." chris agrees.
"i'll go ask matt and niola if they want any toppings." camille says before setting rayne down and standing up from the couch.
"no!" chris stops her, grabbing her wrist. she and nick look at him confused. "i mean, uh, let's wait until they come out at their own pace."
camille shrugs and sits back down and rayne climbs back onto her lap. but nick isn't as easily persuaded by his brother's lies. he narrows his eyes at chris, but says nothing.
he simply looks back down at his phone and finishes the pizza order.
after talking through their feelings some more and deciding what they expect out of this relationship, matt brought niola to the bathroom and tended to her burn mark. he applied some ointment, then bandaged it with some random first aid kit he found under his sink.
while matt dabbed salve onto the raw part of her skin, they discussed what labels they want. the two of them said that they wanted to start dating, but would prefer to take things slow.
niola agreed that matt should be the one to tell his brothers — chris is already checked off that list. and niola could tell camille and rayne if she wanted.
their conversations weren't rushed or argued about. they just communicated through their feelings and decided what would work best for their relationship.
"andddd," matt said, drawing out the last syllable as he patted down the edge of the bandage. "done!"
niola stood up from the closed toilet seat and walked over to the mirror. she checked out her newly bandaged shoulder. matt may have overdone it due to how worried he was, but that honestly makes her feel so much more comfortable in the wrap.
he spun it under her arm and across her chest and over her other shoulder, but in the end he managed to completely cover the wound in rolled gauze.
"how do i look?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips in a dramatic pose. "can i pull off being crippled?"
"you could pull off anything." matt tells her, coming up behind her and resting his chin on the top of her head. he looked at her in the mirror, admiring the way she smiled back at him in their reflection.
after about twenty minutes of waiting for their food, someone started pounding on the door.
"hang on i'm coming!" nick shouted at the delivery guy as he grabbed his wallet and pulled out a few dollars to give him as a tip. the pizza man continued to pound on the door, not seeming to hear nick's response.
"hang the fuck on!" chris yelled, not appreciating the way some stranger blatantly ignored his brother. he knew that the delivery man could definitely hear chris's voice when he yelled, but he continued to beat on the door.
when nick finally got to the front door and opened it, holding out a wad of cash, the man they saw was not a pizza delivery guy.
he was middle-aged with thin wrinkles on his face. his skin was ruined with lack of care throughout the years. his eyes were dark brown and his hair was black.
what they noticed first wasn't the way he was clearly injured, but the way rayne shrieked in fear at the sight of him. she cowered in camille's lap trying to hide herself from his line of sight. but the man already noticed her.
he shoved nick out of his way, causing him to thud against a nearby wall.
camille held rayne tightly as she fearfully muttered one single word, "dad."
