♡︎ Matt Sturniolo Centric One-Shots ♡︎

Toxic Friends Chapter Two {Nick, Chris & Matt}

Notoriety was something that people often paid for, some let it get to them, corrupt them, and change them for the worse. Matt didn't want that, didn't want for it to alter who he was. For it to change his values, morals, or his sense of self in any way.

Because he'd seen it before.

He had seen it happen to others before, plenty of others. That wasn't to say that it changed everyone, or that fame was all bad though either. It wasn't, it could be good, great even, so long as it was kept in moderation. As anything could be, it was both a good and bad thing. There were positive sides to it, but it could also be immensely harmful in other scenarios.

Often times people used their platform in ways that were frowned upon. Some people used it in ways that were purely to fulfill their own selfish desires. Those same people didn't care who they had to bring down, cut out of their lives, or what morals they had to defy as long as they got to the top.

It gave influencers and celebrities a bad reputation, Matt knows it did. He'd been fighting preconceived notions of him throughout the entire expanse of their YouTube career.

To be renowned was a great thing and just as bad in as many ways, Matt just hadn't realized just how bad it could be until he'd had to learn the hard way.

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Sometimes Matt didn't like what came with the fame that he and his brothers had, the notoriety threw him off. Touring, the podcasts they did, and their meet and greets could all be a lot on Matt.

It wasn't that he didn't like doing them because it wasn't that. There were just times where more than anything else he missed the days where he didn't have the additional stress, where he missed the days no one knew who he was. Where nobody expected anything out of him. And when they didn't have to worry about what friends they could trust, of people hurting them, coming in between them. That'd been something that'd been on Matt's mind an awful lot.

And he did, he missed it. Missed it when it was just him and his brothers, Nick and Chris. More than anything. But that was no more, they were the Sturniolos, well known and supposedly, well-loved too.

Matt didn't always feel it. Didn't always feel the love others apparently had for him. He thinks he felt it in the way Chris had begun treating him though. Even if he hadn't yet adjusted to it.

Because really, Chris's protectiveness couldn't be seen as anything but love.

His brother didn't just magically let up or let things go after what'd happened with Nathan and Lucas. That'd be wishful thinking, Matt knows it'd been a rattling experience for them all. Instead, it changed things, rendering their entire dynamic into something it hadn't been before. It was stronger, more substantial. They're closer now, yes, Matt knows that. But Matt also knows him not going to his brother at the first sight of Nathan and Lucas's mistreatment had changed a lot as well. Matt isn't sure if he regrets staying quiet, he regrets what it's done to him, to his brothers, and what could've been avoided if he had said something. He just isn't sure he regrets it beyond that point though. Matt'd been trying to keep silent for Chris after all.

What he does regret however is that their connection had taken a blow as far as trust went, on Chris's side at least, Matt still trusted his brother like he trusted the sun to rise. The youngest was a different case, the triplet no longer seemed to trust him where Matt's own well-being came into play. Nick didn't particularly either but it wasn't the way Chris mistrusted him.

It's believable to him that that's why Chris was terribly selective with who was brought around Matt now. Because the other either didn't trust Matt or Chris didn't trust others to be around Matt. It was unclear to him which it was.