Behind The Scenes

Chapter 8 (Part Two): Things are sweeter in Tennessee

"You're an ogre!" Aly grumbled, throwing herself on the bed. "What are you going to do?"

"No idea. But I will figure something out."

Matthew looked at Aly, who slept curled up in the left corner of the bed. She had freaked out for hours, even though he kept saying he would do something. Difficult girl, this one! She was won over by her tiredness and now it was his head that was exploding. He couldn't deny he was also worried with this whole story. Of course Mr. Hayes couldn't force them to get married – except using his shot gun, because then yes, in that case he would easily get it his way –, but he would surely make everything more difficult. And let's be real, of all the people who do not do well with pressure, Alyssa was the worst one, easily. They were professedly in deep shit. He was starving, since he was deprived from the Christmas feast in the beginning of July because of his father-in-law's outbreak, so he decided to take a walk to see if he could find something to eat. When he opened the door, he came face to face with Mrs. Hayes, who was about to knock.

"Oops, you scared me!" Cheryl joked, placing her hand on her chest. "Sorry to bother, you spent too much time in there and haven't even eaten yet, I got worried."

Matthew turned off the light and closed the door behind him.

"Aly's sleeping, Mrs. Hayes... I mean, Cheryl," he said and the woman laughed. "She got sick because of the quarrel downstairs, but she's already doing better. I was actually going to try to find something to eat to see if she can eat it when she wakes up." He calmly said, and Cheryl smiled.

"Come with me then, you must be starving too!" She said, pulling him by the hand.

Bingo.

Both of them entered the kitchen and soon Cheryl got bread and some things to make sandwiches. She faced Matthew, a little bit embarrassed.

"You see, Matthew... I'd like to apologize for Jack's attitude today. He is actually a very calm man, believe it or not." She giggled and Crawford joined her. "But you know how it is, right? His baby daughter, the family's little princess, suddenly appears pregnant with the baby of a guy who-" Cheryl abruptly stopped talking, with her face getting red.

"I know about my reputation, Cheryl," Matthew started to say, and she looked at him. "I know that if I were someone's dad, the first thing I would do is freak out if a daughter of mine appeared with a guy like me in our home. But I am trying to be a better person, I truly am. For Aly. And for our baby too."

Alyssa's mom stared at him, melting. Then he smiled.

"Oh, that was so adorable." She said, all gawky, with a crying face, what almost made Crawford laugh. "Tell me how you two started!"

"Ah, this is a great story." Crawford laughed, grabbing a piece of a tomato that was nearby. "You know how we did not get along, huh? Well, there was a day when..."

Alyssa woke up with the lamp's dim light. She sat on the bed and looked for her phone, which read almost 2AM. Damn, she had slept a lot! She didn't even remember voluntarily lying down, for starters. And she was completely starving. Then her eyes fell on a plate under the lamp, covered by a cloth. She lifted the cloth and faced lots of cookies and frowned. She looked at the floor and saw Matthew there, all clunky, sleeping on top of a comforter, and involuntarily smiled. Alyssa took one of the cookies and watched him sleep for some instants, then got up, took a blanket and covered her boyfriend, who smiled even sleeping and seemed satisfied with that. She smiled back, completely unaware, and went back to bed.

Matthew cracked his back before giving Aly his hand, making a face.

"Hard floor you have here," he complained and she squeezed his hand.