She Brought Light || Guy's POV

Chapter 61: "Perfect Because I'm Starving."

°M A T T ° P O V°

As soon as Veronica leaves, River drops me off at home before going home himself. Veronica's car is already in the driveway, parked in her usual spot.

Sighing, I walk into the house and go straight to the kitchen to pour me a glass of juice, but just as I enter the kitchen, Veronica is busy exiting. We both halt our steps and just stand there, staring at each other for a minute.

Just as I am about to reach out for her, she ducks her head and walks past me, saying a soft goodnight before she's up the stairs and shutting her room door. It feels like what was left of my heart after the beach just shattered further.

And suddenly I don't want that juice anymore.

I haven't felt like such a huge disappointment in my life before. I completely understood where she was coming from, hell after what she said on the beach, I think we all asked ourselves that same question. What if it was me? Would they have turned their back on me too? That thought alone scared me shitless and made me feel a lot worse for the way I treated River.

And now my own best friend, my sister, is second guessing everything we've built in the past 18 years.

"Matt?" I look up and am slightly taken aback when I realize I am standing in front of Veronica's room. I don't even remember leaving the kitchen. Sighing, I turn to Mason's room to find him standing outside his room door.

"Yeah?"

"You have a minute?" He asks and I nod, following him into his room.

I walk in and drop down on the bed, feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion washing over me. Mason closes the door before taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"What happened?" He asks and I frown. "I asked Speedy if she wanted to sleep by me tonight but she said she needed to shower and she's got homework to do. When I stopped by her room, her door was locked." Mason frowns and guilt wash over me.

Groaning, I throw myself back on the bed. "We fucked up." I sigh, pushing myself up in a sitting position again. Mason gives me a questioning look so I tell him everything that happened, starting from when we stopped trying to include River in anything we did.

I went on to explain how we were blinded by anger and jealously that we didn't notice how uncomfortable we were making the girls. Reliving the events that happened today makes me feel like even more of a disappointment, the look on Veronica's face stuck in my head.

Mason doesn't look angry as he sits there and listens to me speak and that just makes me feel worse. He should be angry at us for what we did, for how childish we were being. Hell he should have punched me for turning my back on someone I considered a best friend.

"I can see why she feels that way." Mason says once I finish. "But I can also see why you treated River the way you did." He adds, sounding like he genuinely understood. "Dude, your friends come here so much, Blake and Zayn stopped knocking and just started walking into the house. Mom and dad even stopped asking if they were staying for dinner and just assumed they would.

"Jordan and Alyssa are here so much, they practically became furniture. Hell, Zayn doesn't even ask when he's hungry. He just opens our fridge and makes his own food. Then there's River, who rings the doorbell whenever he comes over, looks uncomfortable around mom and dad, and asks permission to pour himself a glass of water." Mason points out and I chuckle because it's true. Not even Jordan and Alyssa knocks whenever they come over anymore.