Runaway // Matthew Espinosa

Chapter 42

Friday 7 pm.

Chelsea threw her arm around my shoulder as we walked on the sidewalk outside. The whole neighborhood was basically, so people were out and about. Chelsea and I both were drinking a beer, while the boys were back at the barbecue.

"How's California?" She asked, the stars shining in her brown eyes.

"Stressful. I haven't told Matt yet, but I was looking at apartments somewhere up north."  I wanted a new start, a change of location,if Matt was up for it of course.

"You two should move to New York and we could be super close then!" Chelsea exclaimed.

"Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of moving out of the city, actually wouldn't it be more stressful?" I furrowed my eyebrows at her with smile on my face.

"I promise you will love it!" Chelsea was trying very hard to convince me when I had not yet even asked Matt if moving was okay.

"Hmm we'll see." I chuckled at her, and we turned around back towards the house.

I finished my bottle of beer as we reached back home. Everyone was getting ready to eat. The rest of the people here were upstairs. Besides us and the boys, a few more families were invited. Me being my antisocial self in high school meant I didn't know them.

Chelsea and I jogged up the stairs to catch up with the others. Around 20 people
our age were up there and I didn't even know half of them. I hadn't realized how big this barbecue had become.

Chelsea and I searched for the boys, who seemed to have separated due to the amount of new faces they were probably catching up with.

"Let's go find Matt, so we can convince him to agree to let you guys move to New York!" Chelsea exclaimed, grabbing my hand.

"I never agreed to New York." I trailed off, but she didn't acknowledge my comment.

Matt wasn't anywhere near the crowd, so the only other place he would be was his room. Chelsea and I reached his room, and I knocked on the door. There was no response, so I took that as a yes to enter.

"We should scare Matt." Chelsea had a huge grin on her face and I nodded.

I slowly pushed open the door. I peeked in the crack between the doorframe and the door. My eyes searched for Matt and then I saw legs near bed, four legs. Oh shit, someone was hooking up in here.

"I don't think Matt's here. Two people are hooking up in there." I giggled to Chelsea, but she told me to see who it was.

I pushed open the door a little more to see that the people hooking up was a girl and my Matt. The back of his head covered her face, but his hands held her face. My heart dropped and my mouth gaped open. I stumbled back into Chelsea. I bit my lip trying to prevent the tears from spewing from my eyes.

Chelsea frowned at my actions, confused, before peeking in to see what I had saw. I shook my head 'no' to her, meaning for her not to barge in.

I walked away.

On the first day of the year, I caught him cheating.

"Go get me another beer." I wiped my eyes and told Chelsea.

-

Matt's POV.//

"Let me see if anything is in your eye." I said, holding Bianca's face and examining her eye that was pink and spilling out water.