lover boy & dollar store girl ♬ matt sturniolo

XXI

TW: slight mentions of negative body image thoughts. be gentle with yourselves.

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CHAPTER XXI
[ but it's halloween ]
♬

     when matt woke up, he found himself in a tangled mess of limbs and sheets. minnie had rolled over onto her back, but still had a hand curled in his sweatshirt, clinging onto the fabric; he wondered if she fell asleep that way, grabbing onto him. his heart swelled at the thought.
     she was letting out soft little breaths that sounded more like hums, and he watched quietly for a few minutes the way her chest rose and fell, and the way her eyelids twitched ever so slightly in her sleep. she looked so at peace, so soft, so... free of worry.

     the boy found himself remembering the night before, when she woke him up in chris' room by accident. he was nearly sleepwalking by the time he'd laid down in his own bed, he realized, because he could recall next to nothing from the middle of the night. all he remembered was waking up to see her, and next thing he knew, he was falling back asleep in his own bed.
     he pressed his memory for details, and he started to recall a few things- she apologized for waking him up, and then refused to take his bed, so they shared... and there it was. the embarrassment.
fuck, he thought to himself, shoving his face into his pillow and grumbling. i wonder if she remembers.

matt never gave anyone nicknames, and certainly not the girls he's liked. he always wanted to, of course, but things always felt so unnatural coming from him. he came off as stiff more often than not, so nicknames just sounded dumb. realistically, he knows that minnie probably wouldn't care, because she's just good that way- but he was still mortified. love? you fucking called her love? he tortured himself. jesus. caught slipping like always.
the boy tried to shake it off by pulling his head out of the pillow and looking at the sleeping girl again. he reached over and brushed a few pieces of hair away from her face and ran his fingers over her cheeks, croaking out a gravelly, "hey, wake up."
the girl let out what seemed like a whine, a grumpy expression twisting her face. she rolled over and gave him her back, and the boy had to bite back a laugh. he never knew she wasn't a morning person. he reached his hand out and rubbed circles into her back, saying, "come on, minn, time to wake up."

minnie flopped back over onto her back, her eyes flickering open reluctantly. she looked over to see matt watching her, his eyes seeming almost too blue. he gave a sleepy smirk and propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her. she rubbed her eyes and tugged the blanket up to her nose, hiding beneath it.

"good mornin', sunshine," he chuckled.

the girl felt her face go up in flames. she wanted to say, you and your nicknames, but she refrained. "morning," was all she could muster.

the boy tugged the covers away from her face before dipping down to press a chaste kiss to her temple, and then her patted her head like she was a puppy. "you're grumpy in the morning, huh?"

"shut up."

"come on, get up. we should wake my brothers up."

the girl mumbled nothing in particular as she detangled her legs from matt's bedsheets and hopped onto the floor, wincing at the cold hardwood on her bare feet. matt scooted off the bed behind her, chuckling at how slowly she was moving. "god, and i thought i was nasty in the morning. what are you, 85?"