🌟sparks🌟 (matt sturniolo)

- 22 - cinema -

when freyja woke up the next morning, matt was still asleep. his arm was wrapped loosely around her waist, but instead of freyja being cocooned by matts body like she had been while they fell asleep, she was facing him. their faces were so close that their noses were inches apart. matt sighed contentedly in his sleep, and freyja reached for a section of hair that covered his eye. the strands felt silky soft between her fingers. 

being as quiet and gentle as she could, freyja slithered out from matts grasp. the hardwood floor felt cold beneath her feet as she made her way over to her own bed. the heater was on in every room in the house, but of course, it was still fucking cold. matt sighed again and rolled over so he was facing the wall. thankfully, he didn't wake up. freyja climbed under her covers and grabbed her phone and airpods. she pressed play on a playlist called 'snowtime' and navigated to the strand bookstore in new york's website.

freyja had been buying books online at the strand for as long as she could remember. while others would argue that the books there were overpriced, freyja had come to the conclusion that they were a lot cheaper than back home in iceland. freyja browsed for a bit, and then searched for the invisible life of addie larue. she obviously knew the book was loaned to her, so she couldn't keep it, but she wanted a copy of her own in case she wanted to read it again.

freyja added the book to her cart and continued to browse through the bestsellers collection.

half an hour later, freyja had five books in her cart, with a total of just over $50. as well as addie larue, freyja had purchased the first addicted book by krista and becca ritchie, if we were villains by m.l. rio, the secret history by donna tart, and a book about skateboarding for charlie. she had set the delivery address to madi's house in la, happy she didn't have to pay for shipping. maybe she would get to go to the bookstore properly. if they went to new york, that was. 

freyja was only wearing one airpod, so she heard matt when he spoke. "hey," his voice was hoarse with sleep. "what are you doing over there?" he smiled softly, stifling a yawn.

"i didn't want to wake you," freyja replied, smiling right back.

"come back here," matt exclaimed, holding the covers back. freyja grinned and climbed off of her bed and into matts. freyja rested her head on matts chest, and he wrapped his arms around her. after a minute of comfortable silence, matt spoke again. "do you think its weird we sleep in the same bed?" he asked quietly. the question had been weighing heavily on his mind. he knew that he liked freyja, he just wasn't sure if she liked him back. it wasn't weird for friends to cuddle and sleep in the same bed, right? 

freyja thought over her response. "i don't know," he replied quietly. "i mean, it's platonic i guess?" freyja winced at the words. for her, it was more than platonic, she just didn't want matt to know. freyja didn't see matt close his eyes in disappointment.

"yeah," was all he said, hiding the disappointment in his voice.

more silence, this time not as comfortable. but neither of the teens made any effort to move. "matt?" freyja moved her head so she could see his face.

"yeah?"

"justin knows, doesn't he?" freyjas eyes were sad, and matt hated seeing her like this. he knew he would do anything to make her pain go away, even if it meant he would get hurt.

"yeah. but i promise he just wants to help. i was so worried......i-"

freyja cut matt's rambling off. "don't worry, matty, im not mad." matt smiled at the nickname only his mom called him. he didn't mind one bit that freyja called him that. it was cute. "i get it, you're worried, and we both trust justin. if the comments are this bad, then this is getting too big for us." freyja still looked sad, and matt pulled her as close as he could.