𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 - Matt Sturniolo

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Mᴀᴛᴛ

Chaise smiled broadly and looked towards the sun. Her ginger-colored hair shone beautifully and her eyes glittered and shone in the most beautiful green in this world.

And then her eyes met mine and I was mesmerized by her beauty. "This really is a beautiful place." She said, breaking our eye contact to sit down.

I sat down next to her and handed her her pizza. "Alahna said Nick, Chris and you are triplets." She said out of nowhere and I nodded as I took a bite of my pizza.

"Which one of you is the oldest?" "Nick." "I kind of figured that, Chris is the youngest, right?" she asked and I nodded.

"Do you have any siblings?" "Yes, an older brother. And you?" "Yes, I have an older brother too." "Do you get on well?" I wanted to know.

She sighed and seemed undecided about what to say. "Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It depends on his mood. I mean, we already love each other, but we're not so close that we would spend our free time together. It's different with you, isn't it?"

"Yes, but we're all the same age, Nick, Chris and me. That makes things a lot easier." I explained and she nodded in understanding as she drank her iced tea.

We fell silent again and looked at the sun. "Does your aunt live here or why is she here even though you live in LA?" I asked. I took a break from my pizza and saw her smiling.

"My aunt changes her location all the time, every two months. She travels all over America, she wants to take everything America has to offer. She's been doing that for 2 years. She had planned to be here for the summer and asked me and my brother if we wanted to come too, probably because she's so lonely otherwise." She said without looking at me.

Somehow I thought what her aunt was doing was cool, but I couldn't do it myself, being without anyone all the time.

"She's doing it all by herself?" I asked and she looked at me again and nodded. "Sad, isn't it?" she said and I nodded. "But why? Doesn't she have any friends to go with her? Why are you alone voluntarily?" I asked.

She laughed briefly but it disappeared again. "She didn't choose this." She said and looked down, and from the look on her face I realized that there was probably nothing nice to say about it. She had aroused my interest but I didn't want to open up any old wounds.

"Matt, have you ever been in love?" she asked me suddenly and I looked at her with amusement. The question came so suddenly and I didn't understand why she was asking it, how it related to what we had just been talking about.

I didn't have to think long to answer. Because there was never a girl I loved. "No, and you?" "Me neither."

Then we looked at each other and I don't know why but it felt like we were communicating through our eye contact without realizing it.

I had never looked for love, but that didn't mean I didn't want to experience it. But we were still young, 16. You have so much time to experience love at 16, there's no rush. Even if little by little your friends are already experiencing it.

"Maybe that's why I don't understand it and maybe you won't understand what I'm about to tell you either. My aunt was in love with her best friend for years, Kevin, and the two of them planned this trip together, which she is now doing. And then at some point Kevin was no longer just her best friend but her boyfriend. I got to know him, I thought he was nice and somehow they were perfect for each other." She stopped for a moment and I realized that the story wasn't going to end well.

"Did he die?" I asked to somehow relieve her of the painful part. She looked at me, smiled sadly and nodded. "Yes, five years ago. And that's why she does it alone. And she always refuses to meet anyone new because of Kevin."

I nodded to show her I was listening, I would have said something if I'd only known what. "And I don't understand it Matt. And maybe I can't understand it yet because I'm too young or I've never been in love, but why do you choose to be alone? I'm sure Kevin wouldn't have wanted her to be so lonely either." She said and it was written all over her face that she was worried about her aunt.

"We'll understand one day." I said and looked at her. She looked into the sun and sighed. The light wind made her hair fly back and I had the urge to write down all the thousands of thoughts I had about it.

"Okay. Let's change the subject, it's too depressing for me." She said and put on a smile that only made you smile too.

"Why hasn't a nice guy like you had a girlfriend yet?" She asked, looking totally fascinated. "We're only 16." I said, hoping it would hold up as an argument. "Others were already taking drugs at 16, age is not an argument."

I had to laugh because I thought it was funny how seriously she was taking this conversation. "I could ask you the same thing." I said proudly. "Oh god, where should I start? Well, first of all, I don't have a cell phone - that means I'm totally uncool, plus I have fucking orange hair, nobody wants a girlfriend with orange hair. So I mean there were already 2 or 3 guys who were interested in me but I didn't like them like they liked me, you know? I just don't think there was anyone I really liked."

Only after she had said so much did she let me get a word in but I thought it was sweet. But it was also sad to know how she felt about herself, "Yes, I understand. But just because you don't have a cell phone doesn't mean you're not cool, I think you're cool, just like your hair."

She grinned at me. "Thanks, Matthew." When I heard my full name I didn't know if I didn't like it or loved it. I wasn't a fan of my full name, especially not my middle name, but from her mouth it actually sounded pretty nice.

"Somehow I'm telling you a lot for only knowing each other for three days." She said and took a bite of her pizza. "So what? You're only here for seven weeks, you have to make the most of the time you have." I said and she nodded. "That's right."

We sat there talking about a thousand different things and somehow it felt like I'd known her for years.

After the sun had set, I drove her home again. "That's where I live." I said as we drove past our house and pointed. "Ah okay, then I know where I have to go to pick you up." "You wouldn't believe how great it is not to be the only one with a driver's license anymore." She just laughed.

When I stopped in front of her house, I got out and walked to her door, she watched me carefully. I opened the door for her and she just raised her eyebrows in amusement. "What a gentleman." She grinned at me and went out.

I accompanied her to the door and before she could get the key out, the door opened by itself and a pretty, middle-aged blonde woman stood in the doorway.

She grinned broadly and blinked in confusion as she looked back and forth between me and Chaise. "Aunt Susi, this is Matt, the one I told you about." Chaise said and I tried to find something about her aunt that resembled her but nothing, they were completely different.

"Ahhhh." The aunt did and held out her hand to me. "Hello." I said friendly and smiled at her. "Well, I'm off then, it's been nice with you today, see you around Chaise, bye Ms. Hawkins," I said to say goodbye and get out of this awkward situation.

She smiled at me and I wanted to hug her but I thought that would be weird if her aunt was watching so I turned around and left.

So I drove home with the assumption that my brothers were about to ask me about everything.

My suspicions were confirmed. I hadn't even got out of my shoes when Nick and Chris were already standing in front of me. "And how was it?" they asked and I sighed. I just wanted to go to my room to think and write. But I couldn't get past the two of them without revealing something.

"It was great. We ate pizza, watched the sun go down and talked about all sorts of things. If you want to know more. Wait until tomorrow, I want my rest now." I said and went to my room

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