𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 & 𝗔𝗟𝗪𝗔𝗬𝗦, 𝐦. 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨

³

hope stared at the unopened message on her phone for several minutes, blinking blankly and reading it over and over. it was like the words she was reading weren't registering in her brain and the sender of the message was a complete shock to her. the message seemed almost fake, as though she was imagining it. when she saw nick sturniolo the other day, she didn't expect anything to come of it, especially not his contact name flashing across her screen. she huffed out a tiny breath as she clicked onto the message. it was a short message, explaining how he knew she was in boston and would love to meet her up with her to catch up, seeing as they hadn't seen each other for months. she didn't particularly feel excited about the concept, she was nervous to revisit old habits. no matter how much anticipation she felt, she knew she had missed nick so much. they were best friends for god's sake and she felt completely out of place when her and matt broke up so she stopped speaking to him, to all of them. she thought it was for the best but there wasn't really a day where they didn't cross her mind, even if for one brief second. she typed out a small reply and let him know she was free later today (as he requested) and sent it before she could second-guess anything.

her phone almost immediately pinged with a response from nick who told her where to meet up and that he was looking forward to seeing her. she hadn't seen chris when she saw matt and nick but she was certain matt had told his family that he had seen her. hope had yet to tell her friends because she didn't want to worry them or speak about it at all for that matter. it wasn't something she could brush aside because it had been bothering her since it happened. her mind frequently travelled back to the moment she had seen him and the intense gaze he held. he had looked at her so fiercely, she wasn't sure how to even feel about it.

with some more thinking and attempting to free her mind, she made her way downstairs to her living room to just laze around until her parents arrived home from shopping. the minutes ticked by and time felt as though it was going painfully slow with nothing to do. as a means of passing time, hope captured a quick few pictures of herself and her surroundings and sorted them out together in a creative array before posting onto her social media.

she wasn't what she considered famous but she did have a little following that she was proud of. most of it stemmed from when she used to make appearances in the triplets' earlier videos and was known as matt's girlfriend but as of more recently, she was beginning to attract some of her own attention. people still occasionally asked what had happened between the pair or all of them but she ignored all the questions as best she could. from time to time, she'd catch up with 'fans' and post pictures or give updates on her life. it was something she enjoyed and she even made some minimal profit which was an added bonus if you asked her.

almost instantly after posting, people had liked the story and replied. she clicked on her unopened dm's and answered quite a few with a smile on her face, truly thankful at how sweet some people could be. there were the few negative messages but she paid them no mind as the positive and incredibly nice messages fought them all away with little to no effort.

she had been on her phone for about twenty minutes when yet another notification popped up. her heart most definitely skipped a beat or two as matt liked the story. after the breakup, they hadn't unfollowed each other but there was some sort of mutual non-verbal agreement to avoid any posts or stories. naturally, hope stared at her phone, resisting the urge to be cliché and pinch herself to check if she was dreaming. how could he so casually just like pictures of her literal face when they hadn't spoken in a long time? the confidence he had took her by surprise and she found herself pondering if it was a ploy he crafted or just a simple gesture he thought nothing of.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"are you sure that was a good idea chris?" matt asked hesitantly, not believing his somewhat younger brother in the slightest.