21 Questions | Matt Sturniolo

16.

That's some nice pics, Nick thought as he was currently looking through Lily's Instagram account. As usual after a show, he would go on sturnioloteam to see what people had posted about the tour and he stumbled upon Alex's post. He immediately recognised her and as he was on the girl's account, he saw that she had tagged someone for the photo credits. Nick, as a fellow photographer, wanted to see who had taken such clear pictures and this is how he found himself admiring an Instagram account full of landscapes – mostly of the sun or the moon. He noticed how good her camera and editing were and almost liked a post from three months ago before realising the mistake he was about to make. What he should have noticed however, was that his brother Matt was actually following the exact same account. But because Nick did not pay attention to the common follower as it was Matt's second account, he simply went back to watching videos people posted about today's show.
Then, as Nick was now checking that everything was fine with the video he had posted earlier – he was not used to posting with the timer but it was show time and he had no choice if he wanted to stick to the schedule, he saw Matt going through the bag of gifts they received from fans. Today's video – which they had literally recorded the day before as they had forgotten about it due to the tour – had been showing their tour bus as well as some of their favourite gifts. The triplets had a huge bag full of friendship bracelets, drawings, letters and also plushies which they would all keep. Matt, however, couldn't get over two specific presents. Both were Pokemon related: the first one had been cards made for each triplet and the second one was a painting of them as trainers. They hadn't been able to show the former in the video as it had been given to them today, but the latter had been greatly exhibited when the triplets had run over what they received since the beginning of their tour. They were grateful for all their gifts but those two would definitely have a special place in their hearts.
Nick, Matt and Chris were all grateful for their fans and were careful not to take them for granted. Each show was a blessing to be able to meet a small part of their fanbase and they couldn't wait to experience another one the next day.

~~~

    New day, new city, new show. Nick, Matt and Chris were now in Tampa, Florida for the penultimate show of the Versus Tour. As Nick was unfortunately out of the competition to win the tour – he would need three shows to win but only two were left, Matt was the last contender to prevent Chris from winning. The middle triplet only needed to win the Tampa and Fort Lauderdale shows to tie with his youngest brother. No one knew how it would turn out if two of them were tied at the end of the tour but every fan hoped for something ridiculously funny that would characterise the triplets well.
The three brothers had arrived in the venue and were talking with their manager Laura to organise the different events of the day, the first one being the "small talk" with fans.

"Ok guys so we have a slight change of numbers regarding the group pictures," Laura explained. "We can either keep two hundred people before the show and have a hundred after. Or, we split fifty-fifty with a hundred and fifty before and after the show. Any preferences?"

"If the fifty fans who were supposed to take pictures before the show don't mind changing then I'd be fine with splitting equally," Nick shared his opinion first.

"Yeah, I'm okay with that as well." Matt agreed and Chris nodded to confirm as well.

Laura thanked them for their input and got ready to select the fans who were going to switch the time of their pictures. She expected most of them to not mind as they would still get their picture taken nonetheless, and maybe even prefer this as the fans who were taking group pictures after the show had the advantage of having the winning triplet wear his crown and medal. She looked at the last people who had been checked in for small talk and went to stand near the space where it took place so that she could easily notify the fans before joining the next line.
The intimate meet and greet alternative was now starting and everything went smooth as usual: Nick, Matt and Chris enjoyed meeting the fans as well as taking pictures with them; and they were also glad to be able to give a worthy experience to their fans. All was going great, and it got even better as Matt noticed who the next two people he was going to meet were – thanks to his good memory of faces, he loved seeing the same people coming back at multiple shows.

"Hey, we meet again!" Matt said as Alex walked towards him before they shared a hug. "How are you?"

"Hiii," Alex replied. "I am so happy to see you again, how are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good."

"I hope you're glad to see I switched colours for you, decided to follow my friend on this!" Alex exclaimed as she was dressed in blue from head to toes.

"Yeah, I see that. Thanks for the support, for real." Matt felt genuinely appreciated as he remembered the blonde having supported Chris the last two times he met her.

Alex then asked Matt to take their pictures after he signed a photocard, to which he agreed and took at least ten selfies before doing the same with 0.5x pictures. She thanked Matt for that and quickly hugged him before walking towards Nick as Matt was joined by Lily.

"Hello there, again." Matt said while smiling at Lily.

"Heyy, it's been such a long time oh my god!" Lily joked as she hugged the triplet.

"For real, how you doin' though?"

"Well, I'm always doing great when seeing you. Hope it's reciprocated," Lily let out a small laugh as she felt comfortable teasing Matt.

"Hmm, I don't know about that..." Matt feigned to hesitate before confirming it was indeed nice to see the girl again. "You wanna take pictures?"

"Always, thanks babe!"

Although he didn't mind pet names, Matt was often surprised when fans would use endearing terms with him but he felt glad that people were comfortable enough to act as they would with their friends or inner circle. Then as usual, Matt took a dozen of pictures before giving the phone back and also giving the photocard of him signed. Lily thanked him again and wished for his victory as she believed that he still had all his chances to win today's show and the whole tour in general.

~~~

    Maybe Lily and Alex were lucky charms. Matt had won today's show, which put him at five victories against Chris's six and meant that he still had the opportunity to prevent Chris from winning the tour. For his and Nick's sake, Matt was ready to give it his all during the next and last show in Fort Lauderdale. However, he chose to try and forget about the eventual result of the tour as it was now time to take the last group pictures of the day.
Weirdly enough, Matt had noticed that neither Alex nor Lily were there during the first half so it certainly meant that he would see them now – which he was right about. The two girls were amongst the last fans to get their pictures taken and the triplets, although starting to feel the exhaustion of the day, were enjoying seeing them again. Nick, Matt and Chris, after hugging Alex and Lily, knew to put Matt in the middle as he was the winner of the day and also due to the girls both wearing blue for him. Similar to the show in Atlanta, they all made hearts in the first picture before the triplets chose to raise their medals as Lily pointed to Matt's crown in the second picture. The girls thanked Nick, Matt and Chris before the youngest triplet called out to them as they were leaving the area:

"I better see some deers on that face if you come back here!"

"Promise!" Lily replied as she waved and followed Alex to the exit.

As he watched the two best friends walk away, Matt couldn't help the smile on his wave as he waved back at them. He tried to focus on the few people left that were having their pictures taken with him and his brothers but his brain seemed to like drifting back to the two girls, and one in particular. She had been making him feel so at ease, it was simple to forget the anxiety he could sometimes experience during the tour due to the amount of people there. Matt was obviously thankful for all the fans coming but he had to admit it was always a bit easier to feel more comfortable with the fans that were closer in age than the younger ones, as sweet as they could be. For instance, although not fans, Matt had enjoyed a lot the show they did with the fans' dads on stage as they were truly refreshing and fun to have around. He had gotten along so well with his partner Mark that it only made him more impatient for the last show as Matt and his brothers would see their family again.

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Thank you for reading. Votes and comments are always appreciated if you like this story :)

The story is co written w little_grapejuice