lover boy & dollar store girl ♬ matt sturniolo

XVIII

CHAPTER XVIII
[ divine intervention ]
♬

minnie felt like the worst friend in the world for ignoring the triplets. she knew better- these aren't people she can just push away and expect it to be easy. her phone was constantly dinging with text messages from chris and nick, and at the start there were phone calls and voicemails from matt, but he gave up trying to get her to answer after the first two days.
she didn't mean to go quiet. she didn't even realize she was doing it until she left their house on saturday. the girl had got it into her head that she'd made a fatal mistake, telling matt what she thought of the two of them- how they had a separate relationship, one that was different than her and the other two. what was the most upsetting was that she knew she was right to say it, but she didn't mean to. she was terrified to know that matt knew how she felt, and what he might say after. how he might reject her.

jasmine has never been in a relationship. no boyfriends or girlfriends, no first kiss, no goodnight phone calls- hell, the only hands she's ever held had belonged to her parents! and she wanted that with matt. she wanted him to be the first one she experienced things with, to be the one she trusts, the one to want her. she wanted so badly to be wanted by him. but, of course, she had to blow it by saying they were more than friends when they'd never decided that. she just assumed.
and how could she assume? they've only been friends for a few weeks. how does she know he isn't so flirty with all his other female friends, or that he doesn't like someone else already? who was she to tell him what they were? stupid, stupid! she berated herself after she'd said it, you've fucked it up now, haven't you?
after that, minnie grew terrified. she didn't want to know if matt felt the same. she didn't want his brothers to find out what she said. so, the girl did what she does best: isolate herself. she stopped answering, she ate in her car during lunch instead of beneath her tree, and she took the long way to every class, dodging the boys as best as she could in the hallways.
she knew this wouldn't work much longer. she'd run into them eventually, and she'd need to explain herself. but the longer she could avoid the embarrassment, the better.

the girl was exhausted after the school day, dreading going home and knocking out the essay her english teacher assigned to be due the next morning. but, she drove herself all the way home anyways and parked in her spot against the curb in front of her house, just trying to make it inside. she heaved herself like luggage through the front door, limbs heavy as lead, and yelled a tired "i'm home" down the hallway for her mother to hear. she shuffled into the kitchen to put her bookbag down, and was completely bewildered by what she found sitting at the dining table.

"hey, kiddo!"

sam mcallister was sat comfortably in the chair at the head of the table, knees pulled to her chest in a pair of worn blue tartan pants. the girl cradled a cup of coffee in her hands, in the resident mug minnie kept for sam's home visits- it was a big one, with a black and white picture of snow white singing into the well on the side. her hair was a deep magenta, and minnie wondered how fresh the color was, because two months ago it was an alien green. but, none of those details mattered, because sam was home.

"i- i didn't know you'd be here so early," the teen bit her lip, trying to choke down the tears she felt welling in the back of her head.

"i got too excited for halloween, so i figured i'd come a week early. i can afford to skip a few classes anyway," the girl smiled, her crooked canines poking out from behind her brown lipstick. "plus, something told me i needed to be here."