My eyes drifted open to my brightly lit bedroom

My eyes drifted open to my brightly lit bedroom. Memories from the evening before drifted to my conscious. I groaned while rolling off my bed, it turned into a yelp as I landed face down on the floor. I heard a chuckle be admitted from across the room. I rolled over to see Matt sitting on my computer chair. I squinted my eyes so I wouldn’t go blind.

“What are you doing here still?” I muttered.

“Good morning to you to sleeping beauty.” Matt replied letting out another chuckle.

“I get the sleeping but not the beauty part.” I drawled with sleep still evident in my voice.

“What am I going to do with you? Huh?” He sighed and got up from the computer chair. I finally opened my eyes all the way to take in his appearance. His short blond hair sat disheveled on top of his head. He still wore the clothes from last night wrinkled and all. Well almost everything from last night. His shirt was missing from his torso. At that moment my stomach decided to flip multiple times. I rolled back onto my stomach closing my eyes. Matt’s naked upper body was engrained in my mind. I let out another groan.

“Jo are you ok?” He asked concerned. All I could see was his sculpted six pack. I waved him off.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just need to take a shower.” My voice held strong but muffled, because of the carpet.

“Ok I am going downstairs to make some lunch.” Lunch?! Isn’t it morning? I heard him walk out and close the door.

Crap, Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. I repeated in my head. This is not good.

I sprung up from my spot on the floor and ran to my bathroom. I spent the next ten minutes trying to get Matt’s body out of my mind while taking a shower. I gave up on taking a shower and filled the bath tub with hot water. I sank into the steaming liquid, staring down the opposite wall.

When did Matt become muscular? I mean I noticed but I guess I didn’t fully take it in. Hmm…why now? How come my stomach did summer salts? This can’t be good.

I sighed and enjoyed the hot water that surrounded my body. I closed my eyes enjoying the sensation. Eventually I climbed out of the tub and wrapped a towel around me. The mirror had fogged up so I took a rag from the cabinet and wiped down a portion of it. A young lady I no long recognized stood before me. My hair had grown out some, so it laid on the top of my shoulders, making sure water dripped down my back. I let out an exhausted sigh and turned towards the door to my bedroom to see it quickly swing towards me. I gripped the towel around me tighter.

“Jo!” Matt shouted into my ear.

“Gaaahhhh! I’m right here you doofus!” I yelled back, “Why didn’t you knock?” I think at that point time Matt had taken in my appearance, considering he was dead silent.

“Matt?” I enquired waving my hand in front of his face. He seemed to be staring right past my shoulder, “You there?” He shook his head and looked back at me.

“Yeah, I’m here. Uhh I just wanted to let you know that isn’t hardly anything to make in your pantry so I figured we would go over to my place and make something. That ok?” He was now hanging onto the door anticipating my answer.

“That’s fine.” He remained stading at the door. ”Uhhh…Matt can you leave?” I questioned him while giving a nervous smile.

“Oh ya.” He ducked out and closed the door softly behind him. I immediately felt myself slump my shoulders and release a large breath.

Woah, Why was I holding my breath?

I shook off the curiosity and moved to get dressed. A couple minutes later I joined Matt downstairs and moved ourselves to his house. While walking over it dawned on me that it was Tuesday, not Saturday or Sunday. I haulted infront of his garage door.

“Why aren’t we at school?” I shouted at Matt. He spun around to stare at me like I had grown two heads. A couple seconds passed until he let a bellowing laugh.

“You just noticed it’s a school day huh?” A smirk played across his face. I glared at him hoping that he would understand my feelings.

“I called the attendance office this morning and let them know that neither you or I would be at school. We needed to transport our parents to the airport for their business trip.” The smirk was still there.

“They bought that?” I was thourghly shocked.

“Yep, they even said to drive safe.” I shook my head and we continued on our short journey the kitchen of the beloved household. We entered the kitchen and dispanded. Matt went to go cook who knows what, and I retrieved some diet soda from the fridge in the garage. When I came back he was cooking away at the stove.

“What ‘cha cooking?” I started.

“Your favorite.” He never looked up.

“Does that mean blue box mac and cheese?” I started bouncing on my toes in anticipation.

“What do you thin-“ He never finished his statement because I had started dancing around the kitchen and singing a random dance tune. I honestly hadn’t had my favorite in a couple of months. What made it even better was that was making it. Whenever he made it, it was a masterpiece compared to when my mom makes it or when I make it. I stopped long enough to see him watching me with one eyebrow hitched up.

“Excited much?” He tried to use as flat tone as possible, but failed miserably.

“As a matter of fact, I am. I have not had blue box for a couple of months.” I had calmed down some and moved to the family room across the way from the kitchen, the only thing that separated the two was a half wall which the sink was behind.

. I sunk into the couch enjoying the comfort below me as Matt continued making the mac and cheese. I took in my surrounds that were o’ so familiar. I was balled up in one of two the tan over stuffed couches. The walls were covered in a mocha colored paint that was almost impossible to see because of all of the family photos. All of the photos had been taken before Matt’s older sister went to college and his parents started working with my parents. An old brick fireplace sat directly across the room from me. I had never taken the time to look at it closely.

As I look at it now it is so full of character from living through multiple owners. I slowly uncurled my body and traveled up close to it. Mine was painted white and didn’t have all the interesting elements of the brick. I hesitantly slid my hand over the hardened clay feeling the rough bumps that was not obvious to the naked eye. My eyes looked down to see it still contained wood ready to burn.

I turned around to see Matt with two bowls of cheesy goodness with two forks.

“My savior!” I exclaimed sprinting to the bowl of fake cheese and noodles.

“Wow, I guess you were hungry.” He let out a chuckle while taking a seat on the couch facing the fireplace. I sat next to him enjoying the comfortable silence that lasted while we chowed down. When we had both finished, I grabbed both of our dishes and entered the kitchen. While I was washing my bowl Matt leaned over the half wall and rested his head on his forearms, gazing at me intently.

“ I honestly don’t know how you handle your mood swings.” He chuckled.

“Honestly,” I mocked, “I don’t how I handle them either. Life had just been super crazy lately so when I have a moment to myself I seem to forget who I am.” All my energy that had been there before had dispeared into thin air. “Its like I am working hard on trying to be the person my parents want me to be, teachers and friends included.” I peered up at Matt to see a sense of pain strike him. “But not you Matt of course not! You never judge me; you are one of the very few people who let me be myself.” I placed my hand on his fore arm to try to make him see the severity of the situation. He sighed in defeat.

“Jo I know that it just hurts me that you have to think that way.” He interlaced his fingers with mind, gingerly running his thumb over the back of my hand. “I want you to be you and not worry about what other people think. It is hard a lot of the time but otherwise you lose who you are, which in your case would be a crime. Jo you are an amazing person…”

I opened my mouth to interrupt but he quickly spoke. His blue eyes pierced my own.

“Please don’t interrupt me cause you need to understand this.” I nodded, mouth shut. “Like I said before you are amazing, sweet when you want to be and aren’t afraid to let anyone know the truth. Most of the time you are happy with who you are and you handle most terrible cases with grace, which includes all your clumsiness,” he chuckled. ”But you need to see that or else this constant self doubt will get to you. I wish you could see how amazing you are…” He sighed again and reached over to run his hand though my unruly hair as a sign of affection. “Jo please don’t ever change.”

From what he had all said my voice died in my throat. How was I supposed to respond? He had just described himself in a way, and he seemed so sincere it broke my heart to see him this worried. I tried to give a reassuring smile and responded.

“I’ll try.” I croaked. Worry soon slipped off his face and was replaced with a show of pearly whites.

Well this is the new chapter I really like this plot line and the characters I am just having writing it how I like. I am taking forever because life is just getting int he way. Sorry.

Jit