of fake relationships and obsessive love

chapter 2

the sound of taylor swift's "shake it off" could probably be heard for miles around them as ashlee continued practically screeching the lyrics right into matt's ear.

matt's eyebrow twitched once, twice, as he tried his best not to drive his old, rusted car off the bridge and into death, which would, undoubtedly, be better than having to suffer through that moment.

not that he had anything against taylor swift. in fact, his opinions were pretty much neutral on that topic, but one more minute of hearing ashlee's scratchy- as- fuck, raspy voice and he would lose it and dump ash in the middle of the road. who cares about appearing straight to his parents anyway? he would just tell them he broke up with his girlfriend.

'remember why you're doing this matt,' he thought to himself as he counted to ten and took long, deep breaths. it didn't work- he still wanted to punch ashlee's face off.

that was when the singing (well, calling it that would be generous) suddenly stopped.

matt thanked his lucky stars for the miracle. for once, his mom's ten count rule had actually worked (even though, he'd like to add, it had never before worked when he was in worse situations like showing his mother his 8th grade report card, when he had seen his brother completely naked, when he'd seen his father shaving his chest hair off and, worst of all, when his grandfather, who was a staunch believer in gender roles had seen him trying on his sister's nail polish when he thought nobody was home).

"hey," ashlee said, squinting her green eyes as she turned to look at him. "you never let me choose the music and, you would've complained at least once by now- you hate my singing!"

matt stiffened, trying his best to keep calm and not act suspicious. he gave a weak, uneasy and, completely fake laugh and said,

"i guess it's because it'sthe last year of college and i'm trying to soak everything up, especially things about my best friend."

ashlee blinked owlishly before replying,

"hey matt?"

"hmm?"

"you do realize we both got job offers from the same company right?"

matt wiped his brow before replying,

"yeah, but different departments, duh. hey, is that a taco truck i see there?"

"WHAT WHE- ? wait, we're on a bridge, there's no taco truck here. stop trying to distract me with food!"

"well, it's working. anyway my mum's really excited to have you! she's been raving about you coming over ever since you agreed."

"that reminds me! i can't believe you finally DTRed our relationship and i can't believe your parents invited me over for christmas! they're such nice people honestly..."

matt let out a sigh of relief, guilt still in his system for lying to his.. okay fine... best friend. matt had been trying his best to tell ashlee but never got around it and, now, five weeks after his mother's phone call, there he was, heading to his home town with ashlee (who apparently felt it necessary to express her need to pee every five minutes).

but matt's house was several hours and a couple more gas stops away and he was just glad that ashlee hadn't caught on yet. because while matt was absolutely shit at lying, ash was a troll at reading between the lines.

"hey, matty?

"yeah?"

"i, uh, kinda sorta need to pee?"

"but we just stopped for gas five minutes ago and you said you didn't need to pee then!"

"yah well, i need to pee now!"

matt rolled his eyes, repressing his urge to clobber her. it was gonna be a long drive.

"maaatttttyyyy"

"what."

"i really need to pee."