Love Next-Door - A Matt Sturniolo Story

three 🧺

Dani and I spent hours at the triplets apartment. We didn't watch tv, we weren't on our phones, and we never stopped talking. I could tell why they were always yelling, the stupid conversations got exciting and tense. I found myself yelling over Matt and Chris, agreeing with everything Nick said. They seemed confused, but I understood everything he was talking about, easily.
"How are you confused?" I yelled in frustration at Matt. He looked at me, then Chris, and they started laughing. I crossed my arms and sat back on their couch. I rolled my eyes at them, crossing my legs, and shaking my foot.
The conversation suddenly turned into pencils, and why we used #2 pencils on tests. "So where's #1?" Nick yelled. "Wait! Shut up! Everyone shut up for like five minutes." I said before getting up and running to my apartment. I grabbed my sketching pencils, they ranged from 4H to 8B. I ran back over and showed them.
"Okay these are numbered differently. But, Chris is right about the graphite. HB is the testing #2 pencil, so a #1 pencil would be F." I said handing them to Nick.
"See! I fucking told you it was the graphite." Chris said leaning back in the chair across from the coffee table.

"I'm mad he's right." Nick stated, crossing his arms. Matt was holding the pencils now. "Do you draw?" He asked. I nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm in college for art education. I'm gonna teach art."
"Can I see?" He asked smiling. I smiled back, "Sure anytime."
"How about now?" He asked, his third question.
"Sure, I guess, why not?" I said getting up and heading to my apartment. He followed behind me, when we walked in he looked around. He noticed some of the unpacked boxes stacked in the living room and the kitchen. Our furniture was here, we had just yet to put up decorations.
I led Matt to my room, where no boxes were to be seen. I suddenly got embarrassed by the small pile of clothes in the area where I hadn't put a laundry basket yet. I quickly led him to my desk, I sat down and pulled the papers out of my portfolio. I handed them over to Matt, suddenly feeling anxious and insecure. I'm not sure why, I've always been confident in my work.
He thumbed through them slowly. Nodding in approval to each one. He stopped about halfway through the pile, I wasn't sure what piece he was looking at. He smiled and ran his finger down the paper. "This one, it's amazing." He said quietly. Almost whispering.
"Which one?" I asked him. He handed it back, it was a self portrait. I laughed and asked, "What's so special about it?"
He paused, thinking carefully, "It's just, beautiful." Hesitating on the last word. "What specifically is beautiful?" I asked, hoping for input. "The model for one, and it just looks so... good? Realistic? I can't think of the words." He said laughing softly. "Sorry, I'm acting stupid." He added.
"No! That was really sweet of you to say, thank you. I don't show many people my art and when I do I usually just hear 'Wow' or 'You're so lucky' and you made me feel actually proud of the effort I put into it." I replied smiling. He blushed a little, he looked around my room, his eyes hovered above my bed. He cleared his throat and said, "We should probably be getting back."

I nodded, "Yeah, let's go." I said smiling. I followed behind Matt, walking back to his apartment. We walked in, Chris and Dani were quietly talking on the couch and Nick was no where to be seen.
"God, we leave and they just have nothing to entertain them." I state. Chris and Dani look up at us, Dani says, "Nick went to bed, and Care- we should too because it's 2 in the morning."
"How the hell is it 2, we have overstayed our welcome. Okay, goodnight all, sweet dreams. See ya-" I started to say. Matt softly grabbed my wrist as I turned to leave. "Hey um, we should probably switch numbers so we can hangout more." He said smiling and holding his phone out.
I laughed, grabbing his phone, and putting my number into it. I typed in my name, trying to think of something cute, but I couldn't think of anything. So I just put in Caroline. I handed Matt's phone back and he said, "Thank you, goodnight stranger."

Dani and I walked back to our apartment, exhausted. We climbed into our separate beds, crashing. I never realized I was so tired, I could've stayed up all night talking to them.