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ALL I DO. { irl }
"if you puke in my car, im gonna be pissed." matt snaps, looking through the rear-view mirror to glare at the nauseous trio riding in the backseat.
"why are you only yelling at us?" camille grumbles, nick and chris agreeing with her despite knowing it'll annoy matt. "niola is the most drunk out of anyone else here. and you haven't yelled at her once!"
matt glances over at the girl in question. niola is curled up in the passenger seat. her knees are tucked in her chest, her feet propped up on the seat — which he would normally bitch about. but it's niola soooo
as soon as he and niola exited the bathroom, she nearly passed out from how much she drank. that's when matt announced that they were leaving.
nick swore under his breath, sad to be leaving lucas. but he knew that it's better to get home sooner rather than later, even though it was already past midnight. whereas chris and camille had no problem with leaving the party. they knew that as long as they had each other, they'd never be bored.
and here they are, driving home. niola hasn't said a word since they left, silently staring out of the window with her back faced toward everyone else. camille, chris, and nick are all feeling queasy — a bumpy car ride and alcohol don't exactly go hand in hand.
"you okay?" matt asks niola, coming to a stop at a red light. the yellow streetlights glow against the glitter of her gown, causing her to turn into a shining star against the dimmed lighting of the rest of the car.
niola doesn't say a word, simply nodding in response to matt's question. despite wanting to figure out what's wrong with her, matt doesn't ask her anything further. he just returns his attention toward the empty road in front of him.
while matt can't stop worrying about niola, she can't stop worrying about what she had told matt in the bathroom.
niola has never told anyone about her home life. even back when she had tons of friends, they all thought her parents were just busy with work. nobody would have guessed that her mother was overworked while her father was abusive.
what about matt causes niola to open up to him so easily? something about him makes her feel comfortable in his presence; makes her trust him regardless of any logical reasoning screaming at her not to.
on top of that, niola is also freaking out about rayne.
she told miss posey that she would only have to take care of rayne for a few extra hours. niola never intended on staying at that stupid party for so long.
what if something happened? what if miss posey needed assistance? what if she called niola, but the call didn't go through? what if her dad came back and picked rayne up from miss posey's? what if she's all alone with him?
"can you drop me off at the house next door?" niola asks once matt has turned onto her street.
"of course." matt agrees easily, pulling into her neighbor's driveway.
niola opens her door and steps out of the van, stumbling for the first few steps she takes. upon seeing her struggle, matt practically jumps out of his seat and rushes to her side.
he offers his hand, but she shakes her head. "i'm perfectly fine, matthew."
"i'm happy to know that you're back to your usual, lovely self." matt teases, earning a glare from niola. "even so, i can't let you walk by yourself in this state."
niola shoves him off of her. everything in her body is screaming to pull him into her arms. she wants nothing more than to allow matt to help her.
but her father taught her that accepting help makes you weak. if you relies on someone too heavily, you'll be unable to do anything on your own. she's already confided in him more than she'd like to admit. if she continues down this path with him, she'll become too lenient on his help.
"i don't need your help." she snaps.
matt can tell something is wrong. he can see the way she needs him, even if she doesn't care to admit it. still, matt doesn't want to force her into something she doesn't want.
"i won't help you, then." matt agrees. "but at least let me walk with you."
"being my escort is helping." niola points out.
"no. i'm not helping you. i simply want to look at the interior of your neighbor's house." matt lies.
he knows that he needs to convince her that he isn't helping. or else she will insist on going alone, and he can't let her do that.
"that's creepy." niola says. "why do you want to see her house?"
"you of all people should understand my reasoning, silvers." matt says. "i'm a huge fan of history — you know this — and i've studied the houses in this neighborhood. one that especially piqued my interest is the one in front of us."
lying to niola feels like he's driving a dagger into his heart and twisting the blade. but matt reminds himself that he's doing this for her own well-being.
"fine." niola finally agrees. "you can come with me."
.∘◦❀◦∘. a/n : ik that niola's shit is kinda getting old but 1: she CLEARLY (or at least i hope this is clear) has some trauma she's trying to cope with :/ 2 : she's gonna eventually go thru some character development (with help from a certain someone 🤭🤭) and all will be well also this IS a slow burn so idk what you expected?? 🤨◦∘.❀.∘◦
