True to You

The Ones That We Love

2019

"Matt, what's wrong? You're all tense and I haven't seen a dimple in over an hour. I think I'm going into withdrawals," Caitie wrapped her arms around Matt from behind and peeped over his shoulder. He was hunched over the kitchen island glaring at his phone.

Glancing around at her he asked with a frown, "Did you know about this party that McKenna is taking Laine to tonight?" Because he was not okay with it if she had. And he was not okay with not being okay with anything Caitie had or hadn't done. It was a conundrum that had his head spinning even more than the protective anxiety that spiked when he thought of Laine, and McKenna of course, at a party filled with alcohol and horny twenty-something douchebags. Although if he were being truthful his concern for McKenna was minimal, not only did she have brothers and her dad to watch out for her along with all of their friends, she also had her live in boyfriend Walker. Matt liked Walker who was very conscious and respectful of the damage that Matt could do to him if he fucked up with Brian's little sister in any way, shape or form.

No, his main concern was for Laine who'd never known her father, who'd lost her mother and whose closest family were overseas studying rocks from what he could gather. Or was it ice? Whatever it was that her grandparents were studying, they weren't around. But he was and whether she liked it or not he'd been friends with her mother, not to mention that she worked for him which left him feeling responsible for her safety.

Her safety at a party. With beer. And probably shots. Not to forget the aforementioned horny douchebags. Shit there was probably weed as well. Fuck, if they were anything like he and his friends had been at that age there was probably harder stuff than just weed.

Matt rubbed his chest. "Jesus, is this what a heart attack feels like?"

Caitie gave him a look of concern and pushed his coffee cup away from him. "No, that's what four double espressos in an hour and a half feels like."

"How do you know how many coffees I've had?" It hadn't been that many had it?

Caitie's lips tilted up in a half smile and she waved an accusing finger at the coffee machine, "Baby, I'm pretty sure that they can hear it from all the way over at your mum's place when you fire that sucker up."

"Oh." Maybe he'd better lay off the caffeine.

"Now, to answer the question that seems to have sent you into a coffee induced anxiety spiral, no I did not know about the party that Laine and McKenna are going to." Caitie ducked under his arm and tucked herself in close to his side. "But I'm glad to hear that they're going."

"Caitie, I have two words for you. Horny. Douchebags. Oh, and irresponsible consumption of alcohol," Matt protested deciding that two words could not even begin to define his concerns.

Caitie silently raised her eyebrows at him. Without one single word she told him exactly what she thought of his arguments.

"You're right. Everything you're thinking is right but that's how I know Sunshine. We were all drunken horny douchebags when we were younger," Matt sighed.

Caitie squinted at him and he frowned back at her. "What?"

Lifting a finger Caitie smoothed the frown from his forehead and said, "I'm having trouble picturing you as a horny douchebag."

He couldn't help but grin and he knew the moment his dimples popped in his cheeks because Caitie got a hazy eyed vagueness in her eyes and sucked in a deep sighing breath. He loved that he could still make her react that way. "Okay, maybe I was only ever horny for one girl, when I was younger it was Val and now it's you, but we've all been drunken dickheads at one time or another. Or more often in the case of some."