Chicago (a Friday Night Lights fanfiction)

Sidewalk

After they'd done a full round of the gallery, they stopped by the first painting again. "You want to go get something to eat?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. But I mean, if you'd rather stay, we can."

"No, I'm good." Over Julie's shoulder he caught Ryan's eye and nodded toward the painting, to let him know how much Matt liked what he had done, and how many questions he was going to have about it later. Ryan grinned and nodded back, and Matt put his hand lightly at the small of Julie's back and guided her from the room.

It felt so natural to touch her like that, Matt was hard put not to reach for her hand as they walked along the street. But they hadn't established where they were, or what they were, and he didn't want to overstep, or start something he couldn't stand to lose.

Julie wasn't looking at him, anyway. She was staring at her feet as they walked, lost in thought.

At last she spoke, abruptly, like it was the middle of a conversation. "This is—Matt, this is amazing. You've really found a place, and people, of your own. It ... it suits you." Julie looked at him sideways. "You're really lucky."

"Yeah."

"I wish—everything just went wrong for me, you know? I had all these ideas, I—" She waved her hands around, searching for the words. "It's like, I go to college because I think it's gonna be my big break, and it was everything I was working toward my whole life, and then it's like I get there, and—I don't belong there. And then I come here and everything's like fantastic and amazing and I just—fit—and it's like my life finally makes sense."

She sounded like she wasn't happy about that. Matt frowned. "And that's ... frustrating?"

"It's frustrating because ... I miss you, and I miss us, and it's like, tonight, watching you with all these people, it's like ... you've moved on, which ... I get ..."

Is that what she thought? "No," he protested, but it was lost in the flow of her words.

"But it just—sucks! It's like ... I don't know, I feel like I just, I don't fit in your life anymore."

Matt was amazed. Tonight she had fit perfectly, like she belonged with him, and he had been so happy to have her there, like an empty space inside him, the last piece of the puzzle, had finally been filled in. How could she not have felt that? "No," he said again. And then, "Hey," as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Before he think about it too much, or tell himself to stop, he pulled her close and kissed her. It felt so right to be standing here on a street in Chicago, kissing Julie Taylor. When the kiss ended, he confessed, "I've been wanting to do that ever since you showed up."

He waited for her response, and seeing no protest in her eyes, kissed her again, softer and slower this time. They stood there on the sidewalk, kissing, as people went by them. But unlike Dillon, no one knew them. They were just two people, and no one paid any attention to them at all.

Matt drew away at last. He wanted more—he wanted to take her back to his apartment and make love with her, to really have things be the way they should be. But he didn't want to rush her, or push her into something she wasn't ready to get back to. Whatever had driven her here, she hadn't resolved it yet. Maybe she needed that space. "Did you—are you still hungry?"

Julie shook her head. "We'll order in. Later."

He grinned, happiness filling him. "Let's go, then." This time he did take her hand.

They made it all the way back to his building without kissing again, but as soon as they were in the hallway they reached for each other, Matt pushing at Julie's coat, sliding it off her shoulders, so he could kiss her bare skin.

They made it up another step and the coat dropped off entirely, Julie's head tilting back as Matt's mouth moved along the column of her throat.

Another couple of steps stumbled up, nearly to the hallway now, Matt's jacket on the floor along with Julie's coat, her hands working their way up under his shirt. Her touch, dreamed of and missed for so long, was like flame. He wanted—needed—

With a growl low in his throat, he pulled away from her, dragging her by the hand up the last few steps and down the hall. "Matt, wait." Breathlessly, giggling, she turned back to grab their coats. By the time she reached the door, he had it unlocked, and they embraced again, falling inside, pushing the door closed, kissing each other desperately.

Julie stepped out of her shoes, leaving them behind tangled in the pile of their coats, and Matt stripped off his sweater, tugging at the buttons of the shirt he wore underneath it before giving up and just ripping it off over his head. Her dress was much more easily dealt with, slipping down over her hips to fall in a puddle of black fabric at her feet.

He lifted her, feeling her legs wrap around his waist, stumbling his way toward the bedroom even as he kicked off his shoes. At the bedroom door he tripped on his left shoe as it came off his foot, and they fell onto the bed together, laughing.

And it was perfect. The last piece of the puzzle, slotted neatly into place, forming the complete picture of what life should be.