𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐔 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 - 𝑴𝑨𝑻𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑾 𝑺𝑻𝑼𝑹𝑵𝑰𝑶𝑳𝑶.

eight!

[irl!]

—————

[irl!]

ANOTHER DEEP BREATH AND GRACIE'S walking through the threshold, madi shutting the door behind her.

her fingers shake and her stomach feels like it's being tied in knots as she walks to the corner of the hallway that's hidden and near the living room.

she stops for a split second, her breath hitching in her throat as she hears the angry voice of matt's.

she jumps in surprise from a light hand touching her arm, which is quickly revealed to be madi.

"are you okay to do this?" she asks softly, beginning to feel guilty once again when gracie's anxiously quiet for a few moments.

"you know you don't have to do this if you don't want to—i don't want to force or pressure you into this. if this is too much for you, none of us will blame you if you leave." madi says quietly, becoming quickly worried at the scared look in gracie's eyes.

"we'll just figure something else o—" before she can finish, gracie waves her off, gulping down the panic.

"madi, it's okay," she says, giving her a small—but lets be real, fake—smile. "i know this is the right thing to do—it has to be."

madi quietly nods, still feeling guilty, but not knowing what else to do.

taking in another deep breath, gracie forces a smile on her face and walks past the corner and into the room.

she immediately notices how everyone and everything stops the second she's in the room.

her eyes find jake, who's being held back by nick, who looks like he'd rather be anywhere else, rather than being the mom to everyone else.

her face immediately forms into an expression of irritation. "jake, do you want to explain what the hell you're doing here?"

jake gulps nervously, but somehow finds the courage to defend himself, "i just saw how hard things have been for you and i wanted to see if," he pauses to turn around and angrily motion to matt. "this jackass could explain himself."

despite the attention towards matt, gracie still doesn't look at him.

even when matt defends himself, angrily trying to walk over to him, but not getting far with chris holding him back, "explain myself? how about you explain yourself?!"

chris pushes him back and nick has to work even harder to hold jake back, even though he's lowkey considering just letting his brother give him a piece of his mind.

gracie shares a look with madi, rolling her eyes at both of the boys' behavior—she wishes she could be anywhere but here.

"what the hell is that supposed to mean?" jake yells back, struggling to push forward with nick harshly holding him back. "explain myself? really? you're the one that broke my best friend's heart!"

not being able to control and calm herself down for much longer, gracie quickly walks in front of the both of them, raising her hands in the air to stop both of their arguing. "both of you, enough!"

matt immediately shuts up when he hears the clear frustration in her voice, jake doing the same.

gracie takes a deep breath as she walks over to nick and jake, nodding to the eldest triplet to let go of him.