Matthew was in complete and utter shock. I wouldn't blame him. When you knock on your friends front door and your other friend that lives across the state and is supposedly in a coma for about four months now answers the door, you're going to be very surprised.
He slightly opened his mouth to say something, I assumed, but he was at a complete loss of words.
"Aaron- I... Uh," he paused, "You're awake!" He said, his voice sounding forceful. I nodded.
"Yeah," I trailed off. I was a little flustered by the fact that he came here. He didn't come here to see me, because it's obvious he didn't know I'd be here. I know that Soph and him were close friends and I shouldn't be jealous or mad that he came to see her, but it bothered me.
"I-uhm," he let out a short laugh. "I can't believe you're here right now." Matt smiled and shook his head. I smiled back and took him in for a hug. He pulled away and gave me a little pat on the shoulder. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too bro." I said making him smile wider. "Come in," I beckoned him inside the house. He followed and we sat on the couch.
"Is anyone else here? Well besides Soph." Matt asked.
"Taylor and Dillon are here."
"I haven't seen them in a while!" He exclaimed and sat up more.
"Alright I'll get them." I stood up and jogged upstairs. Sophie walked out of her room before I could reach the guest room.
"Where were you?" She asked, knitting her eyebrows and taking my hand in hers.
"Oh Matt was at the door," I stated. I immediately felt her hand tense up and noticed that her eyes were slightly widened. Why is she acting like this?
"I'm going to get Tay and Dillon so they can see him." I said slowly, closely studying her face. I let go of her hand and walked towards the guest room. I pushed open the door and made my way inside. They were both on the bed on their phones, laughing about something.
"Hey Aaron." Dillon greeted.
"So Matt is downstairs, he said he hasn't seen you guys in a long time, so let's go there and hang out." They both nodded and stood up. Taylor was walking out the door, but came to a stop.
"I-is Sophie there too?" Taylor said flicking his gaze from me to Dillon. I pulled my eyebrows together and shot him a weird look.
"I'm not sure, I think she's in her room? I don't know let's just go downstairs." I shook my head and motioned for them to follow me downstairs.
As soon as we stepped into the living room, Tay and Dillon tackled Matt into a hug. Our laughter filled the room. After a bit of playing around, our laughs died down and we began to just talk about stupid shit. Like we usually did.
"So last night I witnessed one of the best things I have ever seen in my entire life," Matt began,"it was a gif on tumblr of a cat wearing a taco ha-" He was interrupted as Sophie entered the room. Everyone fell silent and I could almost physically feel the tension that had infected the room.
"Sorry that I barged in on your serious and extremely important conversation about cats on tumblr wearing tacos." Sophie joked, breaking the silence, along with the tension. We all let out small laughs and invited Sophie to sit with us. Sophie walked over towards my direction and sat next to me. I looked over at Matt and he had an irritable and uncomfortable look on him face. I raised an eyebrow and turned my gaze to Soph. Her eyes were fixed on Matt, giving him, I assume, an apologetic look.
What's going on?
Taylor started talking but I wasn't listening at all. My mind was consumed by so many questions. Why is everyone acting so weird? Was it something a did? Have I changed? What happened when I was gone?
I flicked my gaze down to Soph. She was already staring up at me. She gave me a small smile and I wrapped my arms around her. She let her head rest against my chest and as I used one hand to play with her hair.
I finally switched my attention back to Taylor and tried to listen to whatever he was going on about. He seemed a little uneasy. I looked to Matt and he coldly glared at Soph and I. His jaw was clenched and his ears were a light shade of red. I felt Sophie sink down farther into my embrace as if trying to hide from his intense stare.
"Uh, Matt are you okay?" I asked, cutting off Taylor.
"No, actually, I'm not Aaron." He responded rather callously. I then felt Sophie grip my forearm tightly.
"Oh uh- what's wrong then?" I muttered. He scoffed, and I scrunched my eyebrows together.
"Do you really want to know what's wrong? Do you want to know what happened in the past months you were gone!?" He stood up. "I was there for Sophie, I'm the one who kept her going and helped her stay on her feet. I was her shoulder to cry on whenever she had a breakdown. I helped her move on. I was sick of seeing her so broken and hopeless for so long. I encouraged her to go back and live her life and to try to be happy again, instead of letting her sit in that hospital for four months crying over you. I'm sure you would've wanted the same." He paused, "And guess what? Along this whole fucked up experience, I fell for her." He breathed out the last part.
My mouth hung open. I was astonished and speechless. I felt betrayed, scared and thankful. Matthew was there for her when I couldn't be. Who knows what could've happened to Sophie if she didn't have Matt. But, he was all of the things I could've been, maybe even better.
"And," Matt looked back at me,
"She also fell for me."
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It's like 4am pls excuse my shit writing
&& keep voting loves!
