Reckless // Matthew Espinosa

Chapter 17

Matt came home with me and Ana. Ana loved him. She absolutely loved him. Matt carried her home on his shoulders. He was a different person around little kids. Its like he understood them. It was the cutest thing. Ana was a life saver. She saved all of this. Ana was something special.

-

Ana left after hours of playing with Matt. My family loved him. It was 5 PM, and my parents were going out. This left Matt and I with the house to ourselves. Now many teens our age would do unthinkable things, while staying home alone. But me and Matt, we played ping pong in the game room instead. We were just friends after all.

Matt ordered pizza for us. We needed to talk. Matt and I were cool, but we didn't sort things out. I wasn't okay with that. So maybe when the pizza arrived, we could sit down and talk things out.

I got Matt a water bottle and tossed it at him. Half way while watching the bottle soar through the air, I realized that Matt wasn't paying attention. "Matt." I almost yelled. The bottle hit his stomach. "I am so sorry." I said, before laughing at the incident.

"What the hell was that Zoe?" He almost yelled. "I um well." I had no words. I just kept laughing. His reaction was priceless. "I honestly thought that you were going to catch that." I held back my laughter. He just walked towards me.

My heart raced. What was he doing? He had a smug smirk on his face. He never acted like this. I had some sort of idea of where this could go, but I didn't want that. We were 16 for crying out loud. Calm down. I stepped back. He bit his lip, looking me at me. "Matt." My voice came out weak.

Matt had come so close to me. It was like he was towering over me. I took another step back, before my foot couldn't find the floor. Matt grabbed my hand, pulling me into his chest, before I could slip down the stairs. "If you wanted to get close to me, then you should have just asked." He whispered below my ear. He  winked before letting me go and jogging down the stairs to answer the door. What just happened? I felt myself smile, before joining him downstairs.

He held the box and said "Where should we eat?" "Cmon." He followed me upstairs and to the game room. There was a huge balcony with chairs and a table. Matt followed me out there and set the box on the table.

He opened the box and we each grabbed a slice. I really loved pizza. Matt seemed to love it more than me, as for he had finished 2 two slices. He left the crust in the box. I was guessing he didn't like them.

Purposely, I picked up the crust that he didn't it and ate it. He just smiled, elbowing me. I bit my lip, giggling a little bit. He kept leaving his crusts for me to eat, with every slice that he finished.

"Can we talk?" I was nervous to ask him that, but I mustered up the courage to ask him. "Yeah." He sighed. I felt like he knew that I was going to bring that up eventually. Now had to get out the question that bothered me. His relationship with Cara.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but why are you dating Cara?" I looked away, biting into the pizza crust. "I had the biggest crush on her. I've been meaning to ask her out. And I finally got the courage to. She is really amazing." He almost gushed. I knew he wasn't trying to be rude. He was telling me how he felt. "She's nice." I lied. "Do you approve of her?" He asked. "Yeah." I swallowed the lump in my throat. I avoided eye contact.

"So who do you like?" Matt winked. You, Matt. I like you. I want to be yours. My head said. "I-I don't really like anyone." I shrugged. "You've got to be kidding me, Zoe." He raised an eyebrow. "Well, I have kept an eye on Jace Mason." I did think he was cute, he was in a class of mine. We were somewhat friends.