21 Questions | Matt Sturniolo

25.

Now on the plane, the triplets were finally on their way back home to Boston. They were excited to spend the next week with their family as it would be their last time together until Christmas. Per usual as when they would leave people after hanging out, they had to debrief the past couple of days as there was a lot to unpack: Matt realising that his online friend Lily was a fan of him and his brothers, inviting her to their last show as to properly meet her, before spending time with her and her friends at her house. None of them could have expected this to happen when Matt told them about his friend, but they were absolutely not regretting those times spent together.

"So," Chris started. "That was eventful."

"Yeah, a lot to deal with but it was worth it." Nick was glad to have experienced this as Lily was, in his opinion, very nice and fun to be with. "How are you dealing with that Matt?"

Matt had been surprisingly quiet since they had left Lily and Alex at the airport, which made his brothers worried. It wasn't a shock that the middle triplet wasn't talking much, but it was to a point that it's like he wasn't paying attention to anything else. Matt seemed to be distracted by something — or someone — and it was making him feel weird.

"She was crying", Matt eventually replied. "But she didn't want me to notice like—" she wasn't actually when I last saw her but I'm pretty sure she did after we left each other..."

Nick and Chris stayed silent at the revelation, not knowing what to say. They had noticed that Lily seemed to really be in tune with her emotions and to easily get attached to people based on what Alex had told them as well as the fact that Lily had been very friendly from the beginning. They felt bad for their friend as they hadn't expected her to react like this from being separated from them — from Matt mostly.

"How do you feel about leaving her though?" Nick asked.

"I don't know", Matt honestly answered. "I have mixed feelings about it because I really enjoyed the past couple of days with Lily so of course I wish we could've spent more time together, but I feel like I shouldn't get too dependent."

"I get what you mean. Although you've been talking for a while, you both tried to get used to a friendship in real life and it's gonna be hard to come back so quickly to long distance."

Matt felt like Nick was reading his thoughts as he knew exactly what to say. He was glad to have him as although Matt had always been deemed the best listener by his brothers, Nick's advice was something that was never useless. Sometimes it could be a hard truth you don't want to hear, but it would mostly be what you needed to hear.

"We're in the same country at least", Chris chimed in. He wanted nothing more than to reassure his brother who was always there for him, even if it meant feeding some delusions right now. "Could've been an international fan who flew from like Europe to see us. And y'all have phones so it's easy to keep in touch, even with the rest of their gang we'll keep talking so we should be good. You're not losing your girl Matt."

"Thanks Chris," Matt sincerely smiled at his brother's words and tried to ignore the last sentence. "I'm honestly feeling fine about all that but I just hope that Lily isn't dwelling on it too much, I don't think I'm worth that much."

"Don't say that bro, she values you so that's why she reacted like that."

"Chris is right," Nick agreed. "You both experience things differently so both of your reactions are valid. Don't feel like you have to match her simply because she's more expressive."

"Don't know what I'd do without you two for real." Matt truly appreciated the support given by Nick and Chris.

"We could say the same," Chris replied with a smile as he patted Matt on his shoulder.