Maybe Tonight 》Matt Espinosa

Chapter 72

Stephanie's POV

When the spotlight hits me, I was so confused. I honestly had no idea what was going on as I turned in a circle and saw everyone staring at me. Including Alexis, who had a big smile on her face but I could still tell she was crying. Emma had her hands covering her mouth while her eyes were wide and staring at me. Was there something on my dress? Did I look that bad? 

I begin to walk away so that I wasn't the center of attention, but then I see another spotlight shine down on someone. I squint my eyes to see through the light, but I couldn't see. I lift my hand above by eyes to block the light as I continue to squint. And that's when I see him...

Matt.

Matt Espinosa was walking towards me, wearing a black suit with a white tie to match my dress. Tears automatically fall from my eyes as I run towards him, breaking the space between us. I almost trip on my dress, but I don't care. I jump into his arms as he picks me up and holds me so tight. Tighter than he's ever held me before. I have no idea why he's here, or how he got here, or how he even knew that I was here. But I'm just so happy to see him.

Everyone begins clapping around us as I cling to Matt, crying into his shoulder. "It's okay baby." He whispers into me, "I'm here now." 

I eventually pull away from him and wipe my eyes and nose, while sniffiling. His eyes were watery also, but he was able to hold it in better than me. "How did you- when did- how even-" I couldn't think straight, my mind was going crazy as I talked really fast. "How?" Is all I ask.

He holds both of my hands as we stand in front of one another, "Your mom." He smiles. "It was her idea." He pulls me closer to wrap his arms around my waist, as the spotlight was still shining on us. I wipe my eyes one more time and he laughs, then uses his thumb to get the rest of the tears on my cheek. "Did you miss me?" 

I nod my head quickly and lean into his chest, "So much." I mumble into him. The music begins to play again and everybody starts dancing around us. I lean back to look around us and then groan, because the music is too loud. Matt takes my hand and leads me out of the gym and into the hallway of the school, where it's totally empty and quiet with the faint sound of music coming from the gym.

"Let's sit down." He drags me over and sits down against the lockers, pulling me down with him. I turn to look at his face, noticing how much tanner he looks. Ugh he was so gorgeous. "I also got something for you." He says and opens up his jacket, pulling out a red rose and handing it to me. "There's something attached to it too." He points out.

I gently take the rose out of his hand, admiring how pretty it looks. I unfold the thing that's attached to it and silently sob as I look at the picture. Matt chuckles next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders as he stares at the picture also. It's the same picture that Matt had framed back at the beach house over the summer. It's hard to believe that that was over four months ago.

"That's the date when we first met." He points to the corner, where the date is written down in pen. 

"It's perfect." I whisper, then lean my head down on his shoulder. He turns to look at me, then lifts his hand to bring my chin up. I look into his eyes as he leans down and softly touches his lips to mine, sending a shock through my body. Something that I haven't felt in awhile. 

When he pulls away, he grabs my hands and stands to his feet pulling me with him. "Can I ask you something?" I ask, when I stand up in front of him and he nods his head. "Why now?"

"What do you mean?" He asks, knitting his eyebrows together.

"We haven't talked in months and now you suddenly show up here out of nowhere." I look at the ground to avoid eye contact, "I don't know, it just seems weird." I shrug.

"I wanted to call you so bad Steph. You have no idea how much I needed you to be with me, I sat in my room for weeks pretending that you were next to me when you actually weren't." He sighs, "Everytime I tried to call or text you, you were busy and I thought that you just didn't want to talk to me anymore. And that crushed me inside."

"Of course I wanted to talk to you Matt." I grab his hands and hold them tight, "I figured that you were having such a great time in LA and that maybe you forgot about me.." I glance back down at the floor.

"Look at me." Matt whispers, leaning his head down to look into my eyes. "I would never forget about you. Never." He says quietly. 

A tear escapes from my eye once again, but I was quick to wipe it away. "So why did you decide to come now?" I finally lift my head up to look at him.

"Your mom called me randomly one day. She said that you weren't being yourself, that you were always moping around and you just weren't your regular self." He says. 

"Well, I've changed." I shrug, trying to defend myself.

"She said that you guys had a talk." He continues, "About your feelings for me and how they've never changed for me. That last time she saw you actually happy was when we came to visit for a couple days back in the summer. She said that since then she hasn't seen your true smile."

"She told you that?!" I panic. That was a private conversation that I had with my mom, I can't believe that she would tell Matt everything I said. Now I'm embarrassed because some of the things I told her were so cheesy and all I talked about was how much I still loved Matt.

He nods his head and smiles, "Yeah. I was surprised actually because I thought you hated me or something." He laughs, looking down.

"I don't hate you." I mutter.

"I know." He smiles.

"So what else did my mom tell you?" I cross my arms.

"She said that I should come here and surprise you, so I did." He reaches for my hands again, uncrossing my arms. "Were you surprised?" He smirks.

I finally smile and bite my lip, trying to hide it. "Yes." I admit. "I couldn't believe that it was actually you standing there for a second."

He laughs and then leans down to kiss my cheek. I smile at him, then grab his neck to pull him back into me to connect our lips. Our tongues intertwine as our mouths move in rhythm. His hand grabs my waist, squeezing lightly making me jump a little. He smiles as we continue to kiss in the middle of the hallway. When he pulls away, I whimper at the loss of contact since it's been awhile since we've done that. "Let's go dance." He whispers, then pulls me back into the gym.

A slow song is playing again as we make our way to the dance floor. We pass through a bunch of people who are slow dancing and stop as we get to the middle of the floor. He turns around to face me, grabbing my waist as I wrap my arms around his neck. He pulls me a little closer and I lean into his chest as his grip tightens. Our feet slowly move to the music while our bodies sway with one another. 

"I love you." Matt whispers into my hair.

"I love you, too." I mumble into his chest, closing my eyes and smiling.

He pushes me back a little so that he can look at my face. I look at him confused as to why he's doing that, since the song is almost ending. "Your mom also told me something else." He says.

"What?" I ask and stop moving.

"She said that you can come back to LA with me." He says trying to keep a straight face, but ends up smiling like crazy by the end of the sentence. "After Christmas." He adds in.

I stare at him, waiting for him to tell me that he's lying. But he doesn't, which makes me jump up and down covering my mouth and trying not to scream. "Oh my god!!" I yell and wrap my arms around him tightly. 

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Woooo I hope you liked this chapter :)