𝑳𝑶𝒀𝑨𝑳𝑻𝒀 - 𝐜𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨 { ✓ }

• 07

in other words, alice is the one pretending to be upset so she can be comforted when she's the one who caused all of this.

"i hope you two realize what shitty people you are." chris says before walking up the stairs where mae went.

he walks up to the bathroom door and knocks on it, as gently as possible.

"fucking leave." mae shouts. from the sound of her voice, chris can tell she's been crying. a lot.

imagining her upset sends a sharp pain through his chest.

"it's chris." he says, softly.

"its unlocked." mae says. her voice is suddenly not nearly as angry and she almost seems relieved to know it's him rather than anybody else. which makes sense since the other two people in the house just fucked her over.

chris opens the door and then closes it behind him.

sitting in the empty bathtub, curled up in a ball is mae.

"do you want a hug?" chris asks, "or would you like to be left alone?"

she's hides in bathtubs whenever she gets upset. and she's done this ever since she was a kid. something about being in small spaces like this helps comfort her. like the sides of the tub make her feel a sense of safety.

"can i have a hug...?" she asks, her voice is now barely above a whisper. chris nods, walking up to the bathtub and looking down at mae.

"i hope both of us can fit in here." chris says, stepping over the side.

mae lifts her head and looks up at him. nobody has ever been there for her when she hides like this.

whenever she got upset as a child, alice would just wait until she was 'finished throwing her tantrum' as she said. then, then alice would act like nothing was wrong with her sister and ignore the situation completely.

but right now, chris is crawling into the bathtub with her even though he's too big to fit in the space without it being extremely cramped.

he squeezes in between mae and the side of the bathtub, clearly in pain. the wall is pushing against his hip in an intolerable way. 

mae shifts so he can sit comfortably. but now she's basically on top of him. she doesn't care, though. she just wants to be reassured that everything will be okay. chris opens his arms and mae nestles into his chest. he wraps his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. mae clutches onto the fabric of his shirt as she tries not to cry her eyes out.

"it's normal to cry over these things." chris whispers, closing his eyes and squeezing her tightly. "don't hold it in."

hearing those words makes her cry even more. knowing that someone is there for her through something like this makes her extremely emotional for some reason.

she looks up at him with tears in her eyes, "do you think he even loved me in the first place? we've been together for a long time. i mean, our one year anniversary is in- fuck- it was next week!"

"there's no way he couldn't have loved you." chris says. "why else would he date you instead of alice in the first place?"

"i don't know," mae mumbles. "he would only ever compliment my appearance. now i realize that's probably because alice and i look alike."

"you're more than your looks." chris tells her, "you're smart, kind, and extremely funny."

mae laughs, wiping her cheeks. "you can't say that. you barely know me."

"well, if someone who met you only a few hours ago can understand what a great person you are, rian must have seen all of that too. and considering he just lost someone that amazing, it's his loss. not yours."

she lifts her head off of his shoulder and smiles at him before saying, "thank-"

mae is interrupted by the bathroom door swinging open. suddenly, nick is running into the room, crouching down by the bathtub.

"are you okay?" nick asks. "matt and i just walked in and saw... them."

throughout the two years mae has known nick, she has never seen him this worried about anything.

"yeah, i'm fine." she replies. "all thanks to chris. he really helped to cheer me up."

normally, nick wouldn't hesitate to tease chris about this. but nick is angry. very angry. to the point it nearly scares mae.

nick gets angry all the time. he likes to argue and yell as a hobby. but the amount of rage that's on his face right now is absolutely terrifying.

mainly because he's trying his hardest to hide it and speak as gently as possible to mae.

"wait, where's matt?" chris asks, realizing the third triplet is missing.

"he had to go outside and wait in the car." nick explains. "he said that if he didn't leave the room immediately, he would end up saying some things he would regret."

"he should have said them." chris says.

mae chuckles at that. even with dried tears on her face and he nose all stuffy, her friends still manage to make her laugh. and she will forever be grateful for that.

suddenly, she remembers why they're here in the first place. to record the car video.

"wait." mae says. "don't you guys still need to have a video to post on friday?"

"hey," chris says, "don't worry about it. we'll come up with something."

she nods.

"HEY!" nick shouts, excitedly. "DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A SLEEPOVER!?"

"a sleepover?" chris and mae says in unison.

"yeah! i'm sure mae doesn't want to be in the same house with alice alone tonight. so why don't you say the night at our house?"

mae smiles, "i'm okay with that!"

"it's settled then! we're having a sleepover!" nick shrieks, happily.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧.˚ₓ

a/n :
SLEEPOVER !!!