A Trip to Remember (Matt Espinosa)

27.

*Danny's Pov*

*The Next Day*

This morning Cora, her friends, and I went over to Mom and Dads house and we weren't even there for an hour before she asked me to go back to the house and get Nala, her puppy. I park my truck before walking inside and down comes the dog, bounding down the stairs.

I pick her up and hold her a moment before I feel something wet and warm on my shirt, "Really dog!" I say scrunching my nose an setting down the dog.

I walk into my room and change my shirt when I hear a knock on the front door, "I'm coming, hold on!" I yell jogging down the stairs.

I open the front door and see Matt Espinosa standing there, "Um, hi. I'm Matt." He says nervously, "Is this where Cora Sanders lives?" he scratches the back of his neck nervously.

"Yeah, I'm her brother, she's not here right now." I say crossing my arms. What can I say, I'm a protective older brother, sue me.

"Look," he says, "I know you probably hate me. But I hate myself for letting her go." At this point he was just exhausted, "Call Johnson, he told me to come see her."

I sigh and say, "Fine, I'll take you to her. But if this ends in any way with you hurting her again, you will pay for it severely."

"I'm not here to hurt her, I'm here to do just the opposite." He says running a hand through his hair.

In the car ride to Mom and Dads house it got more and more obvious that he was nervous to see Cora again, "Matthew, stop worrying, she'll take you back in a heartbeat once you explain to her why you fucked up the relationship."

Nala then crawls up next to Matt from the Mack seat and cuddles up against his leg, "I'm not so sure about that." He says shaking his head and petting the dog.

"She will, I know her better than she does herself. She will understand that you did it out of fear, I mean it's obvious you still love my baby sister."

"Yeah, I really do."

-/-/-/-\-\-\-

*Coras Pov*

I laugh as Nash and Sammy begin their pie eating contest, Sam is just burying his head in the pie and eating the occasional piece of crust. Nash however is attempting to eat the sickeningly sweet cherry pie, it seems to be way too sweet for his taste.

I hear someone enter the front door, "I'm back with Nala and a special guest!" I hear my brother yell.

I laugh and yell, "Then get them in here!"

I turn around and see Danny holding Nala in the kitchen entryway, but that's not why I'm frozen in place with fear written on my face. Matt is, and he's standing beside my brother in my parents kitchen.

Turning around I see Edward awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, Nash staring at Matt with pie dripping down his face with his mouth hanging open, Cam giving Matt a death glare, Sammy licking pie off his face, Finnegan eating the rest of Nashs' pie, and my parents looking at each other then back to Matt with confused looks on their faces.

"Daniel Austin Sanders where'd you get that shirt!" My mother screeches in horror.

I look at my brothers shirt, "I don't need a tractor to pull hoes," I read off the shirt aloud, "Really, Danny?" I say with a look of distaste.

He looks down at his shirt then back at the rest of us and says, "Really? That's what you choose to talk about in this situation? Unbelievable." He hands me Nala then takes off towards the fridge, where he's met with my mother smacking him in the cheek. Does him right for wearing the ridiculous shirt.

"Matt, what the hell are you doing here?" Cameron says clearly pissed.

"This sounds like something that needs to be worked out with out us here," my dad mumbles walking out of the kitchen with my mom and Danny slowly following behind him.

Matt finally being acknowledged stutters, "I- I- Uh..."

"He's here because I invited him." Edward says

"Cora?" Sammy says looking at me noticing that I had zoned off staring at Matt.

I slowly look away from Matt and hand Finnegan Nala, "I think I need some fresh air." I look down at the ground as I walk out the back door, I sit down in the freshly cut green grass and listen to the argument going on inside.

"Jack, why the hell would you invite Matt down here!" Nash yells.

"Did you see Cora at all!" Cam yells still pissed, "She was unable to move or talk until she left the room!"

"I understand that, I understood that she wouldn't react well when I told him he should come down here!" Edward yells back, "But you guys have to understand that Matt made a mistake, a big one, and he wants to fix it! He still loves her, you can see when he talks about her that he misses her or when you can tell he's thinking about her because he stopped talking mid sentence and started smiling then frowning at the thought of his mistake." I didn't have to see Jack to know his face is red with anger as he tries to get his point across, "All he wants is to fix everything."

Edward clearly got his point across when neither Nash or Cam said anything, I can feel tears well up in my eyes as I lay down on the cool grass to stare up at the sky. Above me is not a light blue sky with white puffy clouds; the entire sky was covered with dark grey clouds signifying that it's going to rain soon.

I hear the back door open and then Matt says, "You should probably come inside, it looks like it's going to rain soon."

"I like rain." Is all I say not even glancing at him. Then he sky slowly starts to open up and drop water on the Earth, slowly at first then at makes it's way to a downpour soaking my clothes.

He sighs and exits the house sitting down next to me, his clothes already soaked with rain water, "I've thought about you every second of everyday since I left you at that airport. I was so fucking stupid." he says laying down and pulling at his hair, "And I took all that time to convince you that we could make it, then I go and get scared. I had you in my arms, I could call you my own, I got attached. Then I started getting scared, scared of losing you-that the distance would be too much." He sighs squeezing his eyes shut, "Then I left you..."

I wipe a way a tear, which was pointless because it was just replaced with another one. Or rain water, I can't tell which is which anymore. I stand up feeling my wet shirt cling to my body, "Why are you upset? You left me remember?" Then I walk back inside the house without another word from either of us.