star | matt champion

seven

Kelsey's POV:
as we all settled into our cabins i grabbed jack by the arm and pulled him into another room, away from matt and ian. "do you think this is going to be awkward?" i asked him. he shook his head, "only if you make it awkward"

three days sleeping in the same place as matt, the guy who doesn't want anything to do with me. "it's nothing new, i've done this before when he slept over at my place after the party. this should be fine" i whispered to myself as i paced back and forth.

———

the first day of the trip was pretty laid back, we got a tour around the area we were staying at and then got to spend the rest of the day doing whatever we wanted.

the second day we went to the snow, had snowman competitions, snowball fights, made snow angels, pretty much whatever you'd do in the snow, we did.

and on the third day, we all had to meet up at this one specific area at 5pm for a bonfire. i was excited for it, everyone was, except for matt. i could see the dreadfulness in his eyes, he really didn't want to go but he had no other choice. i've only seen him smile once this entire trip, and it was when he threw snowballs at all of his friends.

5pm came and we were all huddled up in a circle with a fire between us. we all had sticks with marshmallows on it and s'mores in case we wanted something else. we were seated next to our groups, our cabin groups. my group was put next to romil's, meaning matt got the chance to sit next to his friends, but unfortunately for him, i was still seated next to him.

"hey i'm going to go to the bathroom, i'll be back" jack said as he stood up. i nodded my head and continued to warm up my pink marshmallow but jack immediately ran back to me.

"that was quick" i laughed. his face was serious. dead serious.

"kels" he said with a pause. "those guys over there, they were talking about you, like, badly" he said, looking over at the four boys across from us.

"they were talking about you in a really sexual way" jack continued.

"your marshmallows burning" i heard. i looked over, it was matt. "w-what?" i stuttered.

"your marshmallow, it's burning" he repeated. "oh" i said, and threw it onto the ground.

"kels if you want i'll go there and tell them to stop" jack offered.

"stop what?" matt interfered.

"those guys over there, they're talking about kelsey in a sexual way and she hates that. i'm not surprised, anyone would" jack said, keeping matt up to date.

matt's eyes moved towards me, he could tell those guys made me really uncomfortable. it would make anyone uncomfortable for all i know, especially when they're literally looking you up and down from a distance. i fiddled with my skirt, pulling it as low as i could. i was wearing leggings under it since it was freezing outside, but it still didn't help me feel any better.

matt stood up and i held onto his arm. "what're you doing?" i asked. he pulled his arm away from my grip and walked towards the guys.

———

Matt's POV:
was this really happening? how can a group of people talk about another person like that? i walked towards them not knowing what i'd do or say.

once i got there, which didn't take long, i stared them all in the eyes. "what do you want?" one of them ask. "for you guys to stop sexualising that girl over there" i said, clenching my fist.

"it's not our fault she's dressed like that, you can see up her skirt" they all laughed.

are you kidding me? as if that automatically gave them an invitation to look or talk about her like that.

before i knew it, i threw a punch and we were in a fight. four against one. that was until romil, joba, dom and merlyn tried to help me out while ciarán and ian tried pulling us all apart with the help of others around.

"matt stop!" i heard kelsey yell. i felt her pull against the back of my shirt, trying to get me out of the fight. i let go of the guy i was beating up on the ground and turned around to face her. if i continued fighting while she tried to pull me away, she could've got hurt.

she grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from everyone. "why would you do that?" she asked with her arms crossed.

"no one should be talked about like that. don't take it to heart, i would've done it for anyone" i said as i walked back to the boys to break them apart.

the teachers were fuming with anger, but we left the next morning so there wasn't much they could do besides suspend a few kids, which is what happened to me. i got suspended for a week along with the four that were involved in the fight, but luckily romil, dom, joba and merlyn didn't.

the suspension was doing me a favour, i didn't like school, i would do anything to get out of it. the only problem was how my mother would react to it.