𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐮𝐬, 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐬 [hiatus]

ch. 6

matt and lana went upstairs to check up on elaine, noticing how she tried so hard not to cry and now her mascara was running down her pale round cheeks. seeing her as was something matt and lana hated, and knowing it was their brothers fault sort of pissed them off. matt went first in talking to his younger sibling, "ellie?" he asked hesitantly, walking up to her bed sitting on the edge of the sage green sheets, "are you ok?" he was worried, he knew that elaine was sensitive when it comes to things like these, she's always been bullied for being 'too smart' so thinking she's not wanted was not a rare accuracy. elaine tilted her head further to the side, she didn't want to see them look at her crying, "i'm fine." her voice was cracking on the process, matt felt his heart break slightly. he had lana leave and give chris and loren a lecture of their stupidity, "they didn't mean it y'know," matt explained a softly, "they're just demented." elaine chuckled a bit, at least that made her laugh matt thought to himself.

back downstairs though, the two boys were getting lectured by lana, their faces said it all, "you two are so stupid! has anyone ever told you that?" lana had screamed at them, "yes actually, you have," chris started, "three, FUCKING TIMES ALREADY!" loren continued for him, nick was standing there with a bag of skinny popcorn in his hands recording this mess, "yell at me again and you'll die loren. six feet. under. the. ground." threatened the curly haired girl. the boys sitting on the couch were surprised, and a little bit scared of they weren't to lie about this situation. nick laughed a bit, amused by this, "why are you laughing?" chris glared at his brother, "you'll see why chris, you'll learn."

continuing the scene, upstairs, not minding the mess of yelling battles downstairs. elaine by then had talked about how she felt with matt, he was her comfort person, her support system. matt had sat on her bed, his left arm rapped around her shoulder, trying to make her feel happy again. there was a silence. not a bad one, one you could fall a sleep in. but then the silence was interrupted by the small voice of elaine,

"do you think i overreacted?" elaine looked up at her brother, now her tears were long gone, "no, that's not for me to decide. we sometimes can't control how we feel." matt said quietly. elaine had been silent for a while and matt decided to check up on her, she had been staring at the wall for about a minute since matt spoke, "look here, try this," matt sat up sitting across from elaine, copying his actions she was now criss cross in front of matt, "take a look around you. find three, at least three, of your favorite color. ok?" elaine nodded, "and whenever you do find the color, take a deep breath in and out, got it?" and once again elaine nodded, looking around her room from she was, she had already found two colors: sage green and lavender purple. "i can't find the other color," elaine sighed, "which color is it?" matt and elaine has been in her room for about half an hour trying to find elaine's last choice of color, "it's a coffee brown. it's similar to what lana gets at starbucks, it's light and it's s very nice color. i like it." matt widened his eyes a bit, the way she described her favorite shade of brown, connecting it to her best friend, starbucks, and coffee really intrigued matt. so, instead of finding the color elaine was thinking of, they described simple things. like the sky, moon, stars. their parents, nick and chris, and lastly loren and lana. all in that order, well except lana, "how about, lana?" matt finally questioned, he had a feeling. a nagging one, he was curious yeah but the feeling wouldn't leave him alone.

"lana?" "yes, lana." elaine was staring at the floor of her bedroom thinking of ways to describe her best friend,

"lana is amazing, actually. she's was the first person my age to not bully me because i was smart. and lana, she has curly hair, it's long. it goes down to her waist, and her eyes are this brown that you think would be black but it's not. and when the sun hits her eyes, they turn light. like her eyes are a completely different story. and her laugh is so soft and pretty, and her smile is beautiful. lana is the most amazing person you could ever meet. she's smart and funny, she's kind but also so loud. she loves talking to people and speaking her mind. and-" elaine had realized that she had rambled on more than she was supposed to, her face was a bit pink and her hands were still up in the air from explaining, and matt immediately knew, even if elaine was too naive to see it. she liked lana, but none of them knew, not even elaine. elaine may be smart as fuck, but feeling and how they worked was something her knowledge lacked.

later that day when everyone was practically asleep, matt had gathered both nick and chris to his room. "why the fuck would you drag my ass out of bed, just to bring me into a room with another bed." chris groaned, nicki was on the floor on his phone, seeing as he never sleeps which is quite concerning but not important at the moment, "elaine likes lana." matt blurred out, chris immediately sat up and nick looked up from his phone, "what." "WHAT!" you can guess which was which, i think. "chris shut up, and yes. even if they might not know it. it's true." the oldest and youngest triplets looked very confused, "what do you mean 'they might not know it?'" chris looked very confused and nick was scrolling through tiktok again not really caring about it, "you should've heard the way ellie was talking about lana. she was all like, her laugh is so pretty." chris and nick looked skeptically at their brother, "so, you're telling me elaine likes lana, but doesn't know that for herself?" nick concluded, matt nodded, "yes! exactly! like she's in denial." by now nick had understood and chris was still wondering what was going on, "they like each other?" chris asked, "no. elaine is in denial. she likes lana, but y'know she doesn't know she likes her, herself." matt was tired of explaining it to chris, "oh, i think i get it." "yea-" "lana likes elaine. and elaine likes lana, but it's in denial. and thinks of her like friend, because she can't figure out her feelings." nick looked at his brother like he was crazy, "since when did you become smart" "lana likes elaine?" the two brothers said in unison, "i don't know and yes. yes she does." matt nodded, nick speaking for him, "mystery solved i guess." and because it was around three am the went to sleep, on matt's bed seeing as they were too lazy to go to their separate rooms.

{a/n - that was long. though it took like fucking 12 minutes. i'll be going on vacation for a while so if i don't post tomorrow i hope that'll clear it up. but i'll try and post as much as i can, thank you for reading!}

have a wonderful day! <3