Match Me

Chapter Four: I Want You to Match Me

Chapter Four: I Want You To Match Me

"What do you mean I'm not gonna like it?" I ask as he glances down to his watch and purses his lips as someone walks over to us.

"Shit, I have to go. I'll talk to you-"

"Levi, darling!" An older woman with striking green eyes approaches, a kind smile on her face. "Are you ready to go home yet? Or do you want to 'chill' with Harls a little more?" She puts air quotations around chill and Levi groans, rolling his eyes.

"Oh honey, is this Isaac Bass's older sister? How lovely!" She chirps, giving me a little wave as she smiles at me. I smile back, her positivity towards everything is making me feel happy.

"Mom. let's go." Levi says, trying to edge his now scowling mother out of the picture.

"Elleviot Charles Jetts!" She says in a hushed but firm tone. "I am trying to have a conversation! It would do you well to listen for once." She says, crossing her arms.

"Elleviot?" I ask, snorting. El-ee-vee-uht, what a girly name.

"It would do me well for you to come home once in awhile." He mumbles, his eyes to the floor. "And please don't call me Elleviot, mother." He says in a louder voice, but soft, a tone tinged with sadness. "We went over this. I'm Levi."

His mother frowns, pursing her lips. "Alright then." The tension between these two is so strong, as if they both love each other but can't stand being around one another.

It also puts me in an awkward position.

"Ahem." I cough before they start hugging or strangling one another, and his mom snaps back to attention, as if she'd forgotten I was there.

"Hello Ember." She smiles at me while Levi, or Elleviot, shifts from foot to foot, not meeting my eyes.

"Hi Mrs. Jetts." I reply, not good at starting conversations. Or keeping them up, as Levi's mom simply smiles at me and looks me up and down, somewhat similar to what the popular girls do at school.

"Ember, can we go home now?" Isaac asks, popping up beside me as he lugs around his awards of every sort.

"Yeah, just let me look for my keys. It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Jetts." I give her a small smile and she nods, smiling as well.

"Wait!" Levi calls, shaking his head to connect his emerald eyes with mine, burning with green fire. "I'll drive you home."

"Uh, I have a car. Thanks for the offer-"

"Harley, drive Isaac home." He orders, calling out to his best-friend across the room, who nods and walks up to my brother. I guess it's decided for me now, especially since Isaac seems more than happy to ditch me and go ride with Harley and his ultra-cool soccer friends.

Gotta love siblings.

"I'll... I'll take your awards home, hon. Okay?" Levi's mom says, taking the trophies, plaques and medals from his hands and neck, shuffling out of the way as she struggles to balance everything.

Levi watches his mother leave, not attempting to help her at all. Douche.

He grabs my hand, his rough, calloused fingers closing around mine, tugging me in the direction of the parking lot. Several people watch us, staring with no shame, watching their star soccer player leave.

"What was that for, Elleviot?" I ask, as he opens the door for me, shoving me in the tall, white truck. He slams the door shut and hops in the drivers seat seconds later, taking a deep breath and exhaling, leaning back into his seat. "This truck is kind of tacky." I blurt when he doesn't speak.

"I didn't ask your opinion." He replies, fumbling around in his skinny jeans for the keys while I sit in silence, blood rushing to my cheeks. The truck roars to life, the bright lights illuminating the dark parking lot. Most of the cars are still here, though Levi's parked in a dark creepy corner, at the very edge of the lot.

We sit in silence for awhile, until I turn on the radio. Levi has it set on Sirius XM, and I fumble around the stations before I finally tire of switching it around and leave it on Nightingale, a Demi Lovato song I've never heard before.

"I've been looking through your phone." He interrupts the beautiful melodies of the song to nearly give me a heart attack. Not only are there the names of my clientele on there, there's stupid short stories about love, my match-making ratings and my collection of embarrassing Taylor Swift songs that I listen to when I'm sad that I can't find a boyfriend for myself.

"You set Harley up with your friend Carrie, didn't you? That's why he has your phone number." He mutters, taking my precious iPhone out of his back pocket. I want to tackle him and take it, but I know I won't be able to do anything even if I do succeed in taking him down.

What am I supposed to do after that? Pretend nothing happened and have him drive me home?

"You're a damn good matchmaker, too bad you're going to lose your job soon." He smirks, making me want to slap that stupid smile off his face.

"What do you mean by that Elleviot?" I reply, and he glares at me, purses his lips, and finishes with a malicious smile on his face. That face is the exact reason why I don't hang around the popular kids.

"Touché. But there's more at stake for you than me." He turns on my phone, the bright light almost blinding, and flicks through the Notes on my iPhone - the place where I keep my rankings - and scrolls through the guys.

"I know a lot of people, Flames, and they're going to be very interested in how they're ranked. I know I was." He smirks, landing on the last name in the files.

LEVI JETTS
Eyes: Green
Hair: Dark brown
Teeth: Straight white
Dimples: Yes
-
Personality - unknown/10
Looks - 9.8/10
-
Matched: No.

My cheeks flare bright red as he stares at me intently, enjoying my suffering.
Please, kill me now.

If I haven't died of embarrassment yet.

"I don't do the ranks, Jetts, so stop doing that funny grimace." I lie through my teeth, as his self-satisfied smirk drops.

I totally do all the rankings. Yes, I hate every minute of it. Yes, it is vulgar.

But I always use my rankings chart to help create the best matches, and I do a good job of matching, so it must work.

"Nine point eight is pretty high up there." He says in a different tone. Damn, if Levi used this voice all the time, he'd have to use a baseball bat to fend them off. Where did he learn how to turn on the sexiest voice ever? If he has a certain strategy, I'd like to know it. Could come in handy one day. "If you don't do the rankings, who does?"

"You're not allowed to know." I reply, my voice sounding squeaky and uneven even to myself.

He licks his lips, leaning in closer to my ear, so close that I can feel his breath on my neck. It tickles, a lot.

My heart goes out of control, if Levi hasn't heard it by now, he'd be deaf. I can barely think of a witty thing to say, only pathetic fart jokes and the possible beginning of a burping contest.

Mental. Blank.

"What can I do to raise myself to a ten, Flames?" He whispers in my ear, sending chills up my spine, and he turns his face so his light green eyes bore into mine. He leans in, getting closer and closer-

"TOO CLOSE!" I yell and knee him in the stomach, sending him hurtling back into his seat with a string a cuss words.

That was a close call. I do some deep breathing and try to compose myself once more as he catches his breath.

He wheezes for air for a couple moments, and I'm wondering if he's injured or something, until he croaks out. "Fuck you."

And the boy's alright! Unfortunately.

"You will never fuck me Elleviot." I reply, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Let's face it. If I really wanted you, you would've been in the backseat of my truck, ten minutes flat."

"I wouldn't let you be my first kiss even, Jetts, don't flatter yourself." I retort, clasping my seatbelt on. "Take me home."

"You've never been kissed?" He asks, shocked. My cheeks flare up for what seems like the hundredth time. "A flipping matchmaker who's never been kissed!" He laughs in my face, and I slink back into my chair.

Why do I always tell him things I don't want to?

"The fucking irony." I grumble, crossing my arms.

"Anyways, we need to sort something out. I don't want to keep your girly-ass phone forever." He says, taking it out once more and cringing at the sheer amount of pink on it. "Blech."

"I won't tell anyone your name is Elleviot, you give me the phone back. Deal?" I ask, my eyes shooting down to my iPhone in desperation.

"And I get to tell Harley he's a solid eight point five to nine? Sweet!" He grins, though it's more like an 'are you serious' sort of smile.

"Fine. How do you want me to make up for that?" I ask, digging myself a bigger hole.

"One wish. You have to do anything I ask, once. No strings attached, I'm not allowed to publicly embarrass you, use you as my servant, not any torture shit." He says, though it seems like a good deal, there's gotta be strings attached. Somehow.

"Fine." I reply, and he extends his hand for a shake. I roll my eyes at his immature gesture - this must be his way of securing a deal - but I shake it anyways.

"We're driving you home now, eh?" He asks, revving the engine. "Seatbelt on?" He asks, and I clip it on.

"Yeah, let's go."

x+o=xo

"What's this?" I shuffle through the CD's in his glove compartment, taking out the one that caught my eye.

Levi glances over and snatches the disc out of my hands. "Put it back, Flames."

"Why?" I ask, giving him the puppy dog eyes as he glances at me again.

"Don't question it Ember, I said put it-"

I pop the disc into the player, hitting 'play' before Levi can stop me.

"Are these love songs?" I ask, smiling to myself as I listen to the words. Yup, definitely songs of the mushy-gushy variety.

"No." He responds, his voice sharp. "Now stop the music."

"These are love songs!" I squeal as one of my favourites come on, and I can't resist singing along to the sad yet sweet melody.

"Quiet Ember, it's bad enough listening to love songs with you in the truck, I don't want my ears to bleed all night too." He whines, and I smack him playfully on the shoulder.

"Shut it Levi, this is my song." I start to do the octopus - my favourite dance move invention, in which you wiggle your arms as though you were indeed an octopus.

"And you're home." He parks the truck in my driveway, and stops the music.

"Nice dance moves though, you've gotta teach me how to flail my arms like that." He says, his tone dripping with sarcasm as he jumps out of the truck, only to reappear on my side, holding open the door.

I hop out of the truck, expecting a see-you-later or an adios, but he continues to walk up the paved path to my house, walking me to the door.

"Ember!" Isaac whines when he opens the door to see me. "Damn, I thought you were the pizza guy. This is disappointing."

"Glad to know you care for me." I mutter, taking off my shoes and flopping onto the couch. Levi sits next to me, his back crouched over. He's too tall for the couch.

"We need to work something out for-" His eyes dart back to my brother for a moment, who's pretending to be on the computer, but I can tell he's listening by the way his eyes don't flicker around like they normally do.

"My room." I suggest, and begin to head up the smooth, wooden stairs, Levi thumping behind me.

"Mom and Dad will skin you alive if they find you in a room alone with a boy!" He yells, as I continue up the stairs, skipping every other step.

"I know!" I yell back, pausing for a moment, waiting for Levi to catch up. He murmurs something I don't quite catch, as we walk down the short hallway into my room. The lights are already on, strange. I always make sure to turn them off before I leave, to make sure my carbon footprint is as light as possible.

I push open the door, the flimsy paper sign reading 'Do not disturb or I will attack you' flying up as the one piece of tape I used in grade six struggles to hold it down. Immediately I feel four pairs of eyes on me. Shit.

"Ember! You're finally home, we were waiting to start the Netflix movies... Today we're going to watch the Notebook again." Kimber chirps, her box of tissues in hand.

"Yeah, and this time I'll really try not to shout penis in the middle of the sappy scenes. Promise." Autumn adds, although the mischeivious glint in her eyes tells me that she's lying and probably will. But that's not the problem at hand!

"Hey Ember, can I come in now--" Levi pokes his head into the doorway, as I desperately try to shove him back into the hall. The girls take a moment to process that yes, Levi Jetts is standing in my hallway. A boy. "Are you having some sort of girl sleepover of something?" He asks, frowning at the girls dressed in their rattiest and most comfortable pj's, their faces lit up like a fire engine.

"What is he doing here?" Autumn asks, her grey eyes wide.

xoxoxox

"Who?" I ask, trying to shove Levi back into the hallway. They give me 'are you serious' looks and I give up. "He's..." My eyes dart to Carrie, who's jaw is slack in shock. "I mean, Levi's just..."

"I.. I thought I'd, er." Levi stammers, his eyebrows knotted in a thinking position. "Well, Ember and I were on a date--"

"And you guys thought you would finish in the bedroom?" Blythe raises an eyebrow at me and I blush, shutting my eyes tight and wishing this day away.

"Did you know the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell?" I blurt, and the girls snicker. Autumn winks and I swear I'm going to die.

Isaac, you better hold out on your promise and put my ashes into the urn that turns people into trees. Hell yeah, I'm going to be an awesome maple one day.

"I'll.. Uh.. I'll leave, call you later I guess." He ruffles his hair and closes the door, and I sink against the door, my feet sinking into the fluffy throw rug.

"You've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do!" Blythe cries, as the girls swarm around me.

"Pass me a Hershey's, let's get started," I sigh, flopping onto the pillows the girls have placed around my room.

xoxoxoxoxox

"There's not much between Levi and I, we went out for a movie and that's it." I explain, as the girls give me unbelieving looks. I shrug and pick up another chocolate bar from the assortment of candies the girls have brought over for what would have been another movie night.

"You didn't even tell us he asked you out!" Autumn pouts, clearly disappointed that I would hide such a 'big' thing from them.

"Did Harley say anything about it?" Blythe asks Carrie, running a hand through her chocolatey hair.

"No, but then again, I'm not his girlfriend." She shrugs, glancing back down at her phone again. "He never texts me back." She mumbles.

"Anyways, how did Levi ask you out? When? Where, and why?" Carrie asks, throwing a pillow at me when I don't answer immediately. "Spill!"

Fuck, I'll get Levi caught up with the scheme later.

"It was... After school on Friday. I dunno, he came up and asked, and I was like yeah sure." I respond, getting up to grab my laptop from my bed. "Can we just watch Ryan Gosling now?" I plead, biting my lip.

"No, this is huge--" Autumn protests, but someone knocks on my door, interrupting her.

"Are you girls alright?" My mom appears in the doorway, peeking her head in. I cut Autumn a glare, 'say nothing' and she nods. We all know how my parents would react to me even standing next to a boy.

"Yeah, we're fine mom. We're just gonna watch a movie." I respond, gesturing to the laptop on my bed.

"The Notebook again?" She rolls her eyes at us, smiling. "Okay, just try to keep the tears on the down low."

"You know that's impossible, Heather." Carrie replies, and my mom nods and exits.

"No one says a word of Levi Jetts to my mother. Or my dad. Ever." I order, and they all nod. "Okay, let's start!"

xoxoxox

The band room has to be one of the best and worst places in the school.

High ceilings make for great acoustics, it's at the bottom of the school so no one has to hear our racket, and it's equipped with some pretty great instruments, stands and chairs. And it's huge, so it can fit sixty kids with instruments at once. It's not very comfortable, but it can.

"You're late again, Ember." Jack the sax player reminds me. He's one of my Matches, him and his girlfriend have been dating for a year or so now.

"Shut up Jack." I reply, hurrying over to my side of the room, and he cracks a smile. We have a running joke about my lateness, which isn't very funny to me, seeming as I'm always in trouble for it, but hilarious to Jack. It's not my fault that the girls decided to watch movies until three a.m, leaving me half-asleep and slow to move between classes.

I quickly assemble my flute and open my folder as the band begins our warm-up. The Winter Festival is fast approaching, our band has been prepping for it for months. And this year, after much schmoozing, begging and practicing, I've been able to snag one of the key solos in our performance.

After we've practiced a few songs, our conductor, Mr. Todd, stops the band.

"Wrap up, we're going to take a break. Roll out the TV, please. Hand in your sheet music for The Winter Trees." He announces, walking over to our growing compilation of movies. "Who wants to watch The Notebook today?" He asks, selecting the famous movie from the shelf. Ryan Gosling is everywhere, I swear.

Wait, did he just say hand in the sheet music for The Winter Trees?

"Wait, Mr. Todd." I walk up to him, holding my music in hand. "We're not going to play The Winter Trees?" I ask, my voice somewhat high pitched and frantic. The old, grey haired band teacher looks down at me, nodding. "But I've been practicing my solo for months! You promised--"

"We don't have one of the key components in the song, Ember. Levi can't stay for the end of the performance, he has a soccer match against Mt. Crawford in the last hour, so we simply can't play the song." He replies, plucking the pieces of paper from my hands, a bored expression on his face. "No one else can play the bass; a shame, since it's such an easy part."

"But he only plays in the first part of the song!" I reply, keeping my voice hushed as the rest of the band prepares for the movie. "Please, Mr. Todd?" I plead, giving him the puppy eyes as Levi walks over, the mass amount of papers in his hands.

How come each and every one of my problems seem to stem from this asshole?

"Here you go, Mr. Todd." He hands the papers to the instructor and walks away.

"Ember, we can't do it if Levi's not there. I'm sorry, I wish it was different, but it's impossible." He says, shrugging. "The only way we could do it is if Levi would be willing to teach someone how to play, but no one would want to learn how, especially if it's only for one song."

"What if I learn?" I ask, and he raises an eyebrow at me. "I can do it! You know how desperate I am to do this."

He chuckles, and the opening music of the movie blasts throughout the room. "It's up to Levi, if he'll teach you, we'll play it. But you less than a month, Ember."

Well, he did say it was an easy part. "Don't underestimate me, Mr. Todd." I reply, heading over to the only boy who can help me save my solo.

xoxo

After the bell rings and the Notebook is turned off, all the students leave the class in a rush, heck, even Mr. Todd leaves in a rush.

"Hey! Hey Jetts!" I shout, trying to pull his shoulder back. He turns around, his green eyes blazing.

"What now Ember?" He asks, annoyed already as he taps his foot in impatience. "C'mon, I've got places to be, unlike you."

"I've got places to be!" I protest, and think for a moment. No, I actually don't really have places to be, but whatever. "But anyways, I... I need your help." I cringe at the words.

He smirks, the arrogant smile I've come to hate. "So Miss Matchmaker needs my help again, eh?" He asks, his voice dripping with satisfaction. My eyes dart around to check if anyone's overheard him.

"Shout it a little louder, I don't think they've heard you in Kansas." I mutter, tossing my flute case from hand to hand.

"SO MISS MATCHMAKER NEEDS MY HELP AGAIN, EH?" He yells at the top of his lungs, and I resist the urge to knee him where it hurts, instead I bite my lip and clench my fists.

"Shut it!" I hiss, and he laughs, the skin around his brown-flecked eyes creasing as he continues to chuckle. "It wasn't funny, Levi. You can stop the hyena impersonation right about now."

"Rolling out the insults won't make me help you, Flames." He crosses his arms, the arrogant smirk back on his face. "What do you need?"

"I need you to teach me how to play the bass. In a month. Actually, I only need you to teach me the part to The Winter Trees, since you're an asshole who decided to drop out of the last performance." I reply, and he raises his eyebrows.

"Calling me an asshole won't make me help you, Flames. Say it in a nice way." He replies, sitting on the steps of the stairs, licking his lips. "C'mon, say it."

I give shoot him a glare. "Please help me learn how to play the bass, Levi."

He takes a mock-thinking pose, as if pondering my question. "What about 'Levi, you're a god. Please let me learn your all-knowing bass ways.'"

"No." I reply, crossing my arms.

"Say it." He says, and when I don't reply, he continues. "Fine, get someone else how to teach you. Oh wait! I'm the only bass player!"

I look down at his mocking eyes, and spit out the words. "Levi, you're a god. Please let me learn your all-knowing bass ways."

He nods, clapping slowly. "Was that so hard?"

"Yes." I reply.

"Okay, I'll teach you. But I want something in return." He says, standing up to his full height to face me, his tall, lanky figure looming over mine. "I want you to match me."

xoxoxox

Read/Vote/Comment! :) What do you think of Levi so far?
So sorry I had to post this twice. But you would've missed out on the Levi car scenes!

-Rachel