𝓑𝓮 𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 - ᴍᴀᴛᴛ ꜱᴛᴜʀɴɪᴏʟᴏ

7.What are you doing up?

It's almost 2:00 in the morning. Nick is sound asleep next to me, but I am not tired at all. I forgot to bring my reading light so I've been looking through Pinterest for the past hour and listening to music on my headphones. I decide to get up out of bed and go downstairs to get a drink. I'm oddly thirsty right now.

As I'm walking downstairs "The Pool" by Stephen Sanchez starts to play. I love this song so much, it's one of my favorites from him. I just love his music so much. His voice is so beautiful. I'd kill to see him live.

I use the light from my phone screen to see where I'm going. I grab a water from the fridge. As I'm about to take a sip from the bottle, a figure appears from the hallway. I almost drop my water, jumping in fear. I pull my headphones off of my head and let them rest on my neck. I shine my phone light to see it's just Matt. He moves a hand to cover his eyes, squinting from the light. I let out a sigh of relief and drink my water. "Fuck, Matt. you scared the shit out of me," I say. "Sorry, Who did you think I was though?" He laughs quietly. I shrug. "I don't know." I turn my phone off and put it in my pocket.

"What are you doing up?" I ask. "What are you doing up?" He repeats. I can't see his face in the darkness but I know he's smiling. I set my water down on the table and run a hand through my hair. "I'm not tired, and I got thirsty. that's why I came down here," I say. The fridge lights up the kitchen as he opens it.  I can see him clearly now as He reaches in to grab a water for himself, then shuts the door. "Yeah, me too," he says. We stand there not saying anything for a moment. The only noise in the room is the music playing through my headphones.

"What are you listening to?" He speaks finally.  "Stephen Sanchez," I say. "Have you heard of him?" 
"No, I don't think so. is he good?" He says. I smile even though he can't see it. "Very good. You should listen to him when you get the chance," I say.
"Hmm," is the only answer that escapes from his mouth. "How about you come back to my room, and we could listen to him together with the old earbuds I have?"

Those earbuds hold so many memories between us. He's had them since we were living in Boston. We would always share them and listen to music together. It's been quite a while since we've done that, so when he asks if I want to now I want nothing more than to do that. My only response would be yes.

My heart flutters. "I'd love that," I say.

We head to his room, he quietly shuts the door so he can turn on the light. It hurts my eyes and I try to adjust to the brightness. He notices. "Oh, sorry Ellie," he says. I wave my hand in a "no big deal" motion. "You're good."  He nods and searches around for the earbuds. As he does so, I move over to his bed and sit down.

I've always found Matt's bed the most comfortable, but I've hardly ever slept in here. Only when Chris steals my spot in Nick's room and I have no choice but to sleep in here.

Eventually he finds the earbuds. When he has them he goes to shut off the light and open the door. He walks over to the other side of the bed and sits down. He turns on the flash light on his phone so we can see each other.

I scroll through Stephen's albums on Spotify. "Ok so we're gonna listen to "Angel Face" first. It's his latest album, and it actually tells a whole story. It's amazing. I don't feel like going into full details right now because I'm lazy." I laugh. He smiles at me, slowly shaking his head. "I'll send you his visual album on YouTube another time so you can see it," I say. "Ok," he says with a nod. I disconnect my headphones from my phone and put them on the table next to his bed. I hold out my hand for the cord to the earbuds. He gives it to me and I plug it into my phone.

I lay back on one of his pillows and place one of the ear buds in my ear. He does the same and turns off the light on his phone. "I hope you like him," I say. "I'm sure I will," he tells me. I can see his smile in the low light of my phone screen. That's when I realize how close his face is to my own. It makes me panic. My eyes trail down to his lips, I want so badly to kiss him right now. I blink, snapping out of it. I move my head over a bit to put some distance between us. I press play on the music.

He loved Angel Face and immediately wanted me to play his other albums. we just finished "Easy On My Eyes" and I just started "What Was, Not Now".
I'm not gonna lie I'm starting to get pretty sleepy but I'm trying to fight it because I want to stay up with Matt.

                                 Matt's POV
I'm not sure when she fell asleep, but when I look over to Ellie she's fast asleep. The album has finished and it's starting again. I reach over to take her phone off her lap. I press pause on the music, unplugging the cord from it. I gently remove the earbud from her ear and slowly get off the bed. I put the earbuds on my desk along with her phone and mine.
I cover her with the blanket. She shifts slightly. She seems so peaceful. I lean down to leave a soft kiss on her forehead. "I love you," I whisper in a way that's hardly audible.