RIVALRY,, matt sturniolo

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. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
🖤🖤🖤

all elaine levine could do was frown.

the second her feet hit the pavement ground of the street that the bus parked in, after they finally arrived back home, she saw the whole friend group standing there by the mini van with wide excited smiles.

elaine was so happy to see them, she really was. but there was no smile on her face, not even any sort of sign that she was nearly as happy.

she knew they where all there for her and matt, but they didn't know what happened between the two which lead elaine to handle this situation fast. with quick steps she walked over to the whole group who all came right at her with open arms.

vera was the first one to notice her best friend's cheeks where consumed with dried mascara. the way her eyes where puffy enough to look swollen and the way she covered her head up with a hood.

"what—" vera starts talking with her smile fading midways but she didn't came far when elaine crashed into her arms, pushing her back to the car.

"can we just leave?" elaine whispers out with her voice terribly cracking in between as her eyes went from vera towards cinzia, who laid her hand onto her shoulder.

vera furrowed her eyebrows at elaine while she looked at cinzia, who held the exact same look on her face.

"yeah—yeah, let's go." cinzia decides to break the dead silence with a small comforting smile towards elaine.

"what's wrong?" nick then spoke up when he noticed the three girls huddled together, which also caught chris attention.

"nothing!" elaine quickly shouted, bringing her hood further over her face when nick tried to take a good look at it.

nick only gave vera a look full of disbelief which made the brunette girl avoid eye contact.

"matt!"

elaine squeezed her eyes shut at the mention of his name while she automatically pushed herself further into her two best friends, who felt the way she tended up.

cinzia furrowed her eyebrows when she caught sight of matt, who was tightly hugged by his two brothers, but that was not the reason she was looking at him. it was the fact that matt was looking at elaine with saddened eyes, almost guilt swimming inside of those blue eyes.

"group hug!" chris suddenly yelled as he pulled matt harshly over towards the girls which made elaine's eyes widen in panic when she felt arms going around her.

vera scolded her boyfriend who seemed to be obvious of the current situation going on.

while they where all hugging, elaine could feel matt's chest pressing into her back and all she wanted to do was die in that very moment. her muscles tensed at the way his warmth once again engulfed her but it no longer kept her warm, instead she felt herself shiver at how icy the familiar feeling felt.

"let's go!" nick suddenly blurted out with his hands grabbing onto elaine's shoulders, quickly pulling her away from matt's presence which almost made her sigh in relief.

nick led the girl towards the very backseats of the car while he took her bag and shoved that along with matt's into the trunk. meanwhile cinzia squeezed herself right besides elaine who avoided looking anywhere but outside of the window. soon, vera and nick hopped into the seats in front of the two girls while chris went into the passenger seat and lastly matt, who took his place into the driver's seat.