Haunting Love | Matt Sturniolo

-006- 𝚂𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜

"No way she went to breakfast. She's been gone for so long." Sam insisted. He paused. "What if she didn't even come back in last night? I knew we should've waited till she got back." He paced back and forth in the room.

They had woken up two hours ago, to find no Talia in the room. They weren't too worried at first, but with no reply to their texts and no sign of her since last night, tension was rising. Sam would not be able to forgive himself if something happened to her.

"She'll be fine dude, relax." Colby tried to calm his best friend. "Maybe she's over at the triplet's room." He offered.

Sam nodded. "Yeah...yeah maybe she went over there this morning." He agreed, grabbing his phone and keycard. "Let's go check." He insisted.

Colby quickly did the same and followed suit. For all their sake- he hoped to find Talia in their room.

***

Cozy. If he had to use one word to explain how he felt when he awoke, Matt would say cozy. He was surrounded by warmth and a slight pressure as if something was pressed atop him chest. Every breath he took was welcomed with a sweet, flowery scent- perhaps jasmine. His nose was tickled by something soft below his face, and his arm felt heavy. His eyes parted open to find the cause of his warm wakeup.

Curled up between his arms with her head against his chest was none other than Talia. The tickly feeling must have been her hair under his face touching his nose. It was a sight he was more than happy to wake up to. The sunlight glimmering over her hair and parts of her face- the only visible parts of her- made her look so serene. He looked out the window; who knew sunlight could be such a blessing.

He then looked to his other side to see Chris look over with a smirk. "Don't even start."

"I didn't say anything." Chris defended.

"Don't."

"..."

"Chris."

"..."

"Morning lover boy." Nick teased as he left the bathroom. Matt rolled his eyes; he had just woken up and already he was tired of his brothers' bullshit.

Matt gently shook Talia awake. "Hey, Tilly." He quietly called to her. "Tallyyyy."
The girl grumbled and buried her face further into the boy's chest. He couldn't help but let out a soft laugh, the movement of his chest stirring her fully awake. She rubbed her eyes to adjust them to the sunlight.
"Morning Tilly."

She merely hummed a grumble of a response, before tossing off the blankets and walking to the bathroom in a zombie-like fashion.

"What was that?"

"Maybe she's not properly awake." Chris offered.

Sure enough, Talia stumbled out of the bathroom only a few minutes later looking fresh as a daisy, though, her mind still didn't look 100% there. "You awake awake now Tally?" Nick asked.

The girl nodded, rubbing the sides of her face to awaken herself. "Yeah, it'll just take me a bit to get up to speed." She explained. "Thanks for letting me crash here last night, by the way."

"It's cool. You could come back to stay again if you wanted, Tilly." Chris offered.

She smiled, but her face was clearly disapproving. "Thanks, Chris. But I think I'd rather have my own bed." She looked over. "No offence to you, Matt."