Just us - Matthew Sturniolo

If you'd like

I unbuckle myself and as I'm fixing myself and grabbing my purse, Matt goes around the car and opens my door for me , I blush as I take his hand and get out the car.

"You have a lovely house" I say as I look at the 2 story family home, it looks very welcoming. "Thank you" he replies, "my brothers are a bit Nosey and might bombard you with questions" he lets out a small chuckle. We walk up to the door and my anxiety starts to set in , my vision gets blurry , my breathing becomes short and fast, I tune out all sound, I cannot focus on anything but my panic, I hear mumbling but I cannot make out the words, I simply cannot think. I'm here, at a house, with people I don't even know. Will they even like me. What if they think I'm weird. They are probably wondering what I'm even doing here . I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look up,

"Follow my breathing" Matt instructs me. He breathed in and out , holding it a couple second. I mimic his movements. "How long has this been happening?" He asks me softly. "A couple years" I answer out of breath. I suddenly realize how close were standing and his hands on my arms holding me safely. "If I new you had anxiety I would've never just sprung this onto you I'm sorry" he looks into my eyes for a moment. " I've never had someone bring me out of it before, and this early on" I say quietly. "It usually lasts about an hour or so . I shut everything out and no one has every brought me out of it before" I say .

He smiles , " I can take you home , you don't have to do this" "I want to be here , it was very nice of you to invite me" I say kindly . We walk into the house and I'm met with the eyes of 5 others .  "There you guys are I was wondering what took so long" Nick says playfully, he walks over to me and gives me a welcoming hug, I walk over to Chris and he dabs me up, "uh this is Larry, Britney, and Madison " Matt informs me as
The three stand up from the couch, I shake their hands, "I'm y/n, it's nice to meet you guys " I introduced myself , "oh they know" I hear Chris whisper to Matt , Nick  smacks him to keep him from saying anything further , Matt just side eyes him. "I can give you a quick tour of the house if you'd like" Matt offers, "okay" I smile taking him up on that offer.

Matt guides me further into the house. "This is the kitchen and dining area, can I get you something to drink?" He opened the fridge looking at me expectantly, "water would be nice, thank you" . He grabs a glass pouring me some water and handing it to me. We tour the rest of the 1st floor of the house , moving upstairs, he points and tells me about different rooms from the hall. We walk further and he opens a door, "and this is my room" he says walking in. I stand in the door frame, afraid of invading personal space. Matt gives me a look that says he's waiting for me to follow him, I step into the room and my eyes land immediately on his gaming set up. "Do you play ?" He says noticing my interest ,"no , but I'd like to learn" I say analyzing the monitors, my attention now shifts to his shelves filled with self help and mental health books, my fingertips glide across the Mmmm landing on one, pulling it out. "That's my favorite one" he says softly, walking over to me. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to touch" I feel the embarrassment rush in me as I realize I was touching his personal things. I quickly put the book back , shocked at my own lack of self awareness at the moment.

"No don't be" he places the book back into my hands, "I made some notes in it you can check out" . He walks over and sits at the edge of his bed, ushering me to sit next to him, I follow. He takes my glass from my hand and holds it for me as I open the book, I skim through a couple pages reading his highlights and notes he had made himself. I feel like I'm reading something rather intimate. Like I'm taking a look into his inner more purr thoughts of his conscious. I feel his eyes on me and I look up at him and see him watching me with a look of slight adoration on his face, "you can borrow it if you'd like" he suggests, I'm starstruck by his handsomeness and have trouble finding my voice, "i-,,um-" I struggle , eyes still locked with his. "WERE GONNA PLAY UUUUNNNOOOOOO" Nick shouts to us upstairs startling me , "we should probably join them out there" I giggle, I take my set the book back down and Matt hands me my glass back, and I make my way downstairs.

~ Matt's pov ~

I stand up getting ready to follow her out and I notice she left her purse on my bed, I almost call her back to give it to her , but I stop. I see the book on the bed, she looked like she enjoyed reading my remarks on it a few moments ago, I look back , contemplating my next move.

I unzip her purse quickly slipping the book inside , and zip it back up, I leave the purse untouched looking on my bed, following behind her downstairs.