CHAPTER TWENTY !
[ real life ]
❝ YOU DO CARE. ❞
📂﹖﹕𓂃𐩐💻
ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ
as soon as aurora opens one of the back car doors and comes inside, she can literally feel the tense atmosphere. it's completely silent in the vehicle until she closes the door behind her.
"hey rory," chris turns in his seat to acknowledge her presence
"hey," she greets back, pausing once she feels her phone vibrate. she awkwardly pulls her phone out as chris is still turned towards her. she powers on the device to see a text from cameron, of course. she just sighs and doesn't bother responding to it, instead noticing the low battery on her phone.
she looks back up to chris, freezing for a second when she notices matt's eyes on her through the rear view mirror. his gaze feels somehow heavy as he still hasn't said anything. "um," she turns to chris. "is there a place to charge my phone up there?"
"yeah," he answers, pointing to something beside the radio.
"okay good," she says, reaching for the charger in her sweatpants pocket and pausing when she doesn't feel anything. she checks the other pocket and when she comes back empty handed, she throws her head back in a groan. "fuck."
"what?" chris asks, his eyebrows furrowing as matt turns around in his seat to face the girl as well.
"i left my charger in there." she frowns.
"oh."
there's a long pause, no one saying anything, before aurora sighs loudly. she sits up in her seat and just as she reaches for her door handle, a voice stops her. "what are you doing?"
she turns around to matt, seeing his scowl and blinking. "getting my charger."
"no you're not," he immediately responds, his face twisting up as he talks.
"yes i am."
"no you're not."
"yes i am."
"no," he begins to shake his head. "you're not going back in there."
"um, i have to," she responds with a roll of her eyes. it's not like she wants to go in there but she needs her charger hello? "that's my only charger."
"okay?" his eyebrows furrow as if he's confused why that would make it matter any more. "i don't care."
"well, i don't care if you don't care," she tells him childishly. she turns around and reaches for the door handle again when the lock to it suddenly shoots up. she immediately turns back at him and narrows her eyes. "are you serious? i can literally unlock it with my hand."
"okay? i'll just lock it again before you can open the door," he shrugs like it's obvious, making aurora take it as a challenge.
she immediately turns around and unlocks the door, reaching for the car handle again as quickly as she can. she's stopped by the sound of the door locking before she can pull it. she immediately turns back around to matt and groans. "matt!" she exclaims. "that's the only fucking charger i have and my phones and about to die. i need it."
there's a few outstretched seconds of silence before matt suddenly narrows his eyes and shrugs. "fine."
"wait what?" her eyebrows instantly reach the top of her head. "really?"
"yeah," he nods, making aurora sigh of relief for a second before speaking again. "i'll go get it then."
"WHAT?" she instantly shouts.
"i'll go get it," he repeats easily.
chris begins to laugh quietly, immediately stopping once he receives a glare from aurora.
aurora turns back to matt and shakes her head repeatedly. "are you stupid? i literally told him my mom is the one who came to pick me up and the entire reason i had to tell him that is because he'll get-" she cuts herself off when matt turns around and literally opens his fucking door. "MATT."
"i'll be back in a second," he tells them before quickly climbing out of the car and closing his door behind him before aurora can yell.
"what the fuck!" she exclaims, now chris being the only other person in the car. she looks out her window and watches as he walks up to the entrance of the house.
when she reaches for the car handle though, chris stops her. "i wouldn't, rory," he says.
"why?" she frowns.
"i mean... bros literally fuming," he tells her, shrugging once she looks back at him.
she just sighs, moving her hand that was still on the car handle and scooting over to the middle seat so she can see chris better when talking to him. "why's he's so mad?"
he blinks, waiting a few seconds for her to say she's joking before narrowing his eyes when she doesn't. "come on, rory," he groans.
"what?" her eyebrows furrow at his tone.
"he always loses his shit over you," he shrugs like it's common knowledge.
"um," she says, pausing for a long few seconds because she's unsure of what to say. "over me or over cameron?"
he rolls his eyes. "over you."
she pauses, pressing her lips together as she thinks on what he said for a moment. after a few seconds, she looks at him. "over me or at me?"
he shakes his head, beginning to sigh loudly. "you're hopeless," he says. "over you obviously!"
there's a long pause before auroras eyebrows suddenly raise to the top of her forehead and she tilts her head at him with narrowed eyes. "are you doing the thing where you try and convince me i like matt?"
"...no."
"chris!" she groans, immediately seeing right through him. "i don't like matt."
"and i don't believe you!" he instantly responds back in an exclaim, sitting up further in his seat.
she just closes her eyes in frustration and shakes her head repeatedly. "never gonna happen."
he crosses his arms and tilts his head. "it's already happening."
"chris," she sighs, not having the energy for this. "can you just connect to aux and play something?"
and just like that, he lets the subject go. he plays a yung pleit song and mumbles the lyrics as he scrolls on his phone, not focused on how long matt is taking. once the songs finished and matt's still inside, she frowns. "what's taking him so long?"
"huh," chris says. "no clue."
aurora immediately scoots forward, leaning into the space between the driver and passenger seat. "why'd you say it like that?"
he sighs, slowly putting down his phone and turning to her with a blank look. "what."
"you said it in a tone that was almost sarcastic," she tells him, narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously. "so why'd you say it like that?"
"aurora," he just says, beginning to sigh again.
she opens her mouth to accuse him of knowing something she doesn't when a sound comes from outside the car and they both turn their heads out his window.
"oh look, he's right there," chris speaks as they watch matt come out of the front door and close it behind him.
"yeah, only took him five full minutes," she responds, rolling her eyes and sitting back in her seat.
the two go quiet as they watch matt come to the car. when he climbs inside, no one says anything still. the only noise is the sound of him closing his door before he pulls a charger out of his pocket and stretches his hand out to aurora without even turning around. "here," he says.
aurora cautiously takes it from his hand, feeling weird from the yet again tense atmosphere. "thanks."
he doesn't respond with anything, just starts the car and pulls out of the driveway.
the rest of the car ride is spent in uncomfortable silence, at least for aurora. aurora glances at matt throughout the drive, him not taking his eyes off the road the entire time.
when they get to ravens house (aurora decided to just stay there), matt heads off to ravens room without even saying hi to anyone. aurora frowns as she hears the door close, deciding on following him. she earns a look from chris when she heads in the same direction matt went in but she just shrugs and continues walking.
when aurora walks into ravens room without even knocking, he's sat on the edge of his bed looking down at something. she notices it's his hand and he immediately moves it when he glances up and sees her walking in.
"are you okay?" she asks after a small moment of awkward silence.
"yeah," he answers blankly.
she rolls her eyes at his obvious lie of an answer and walks over to him, stopping in front of him and looking down at him. "no, you're obviously pissed."
he looks up at her now. "yeah no fucking shit," he says, auroras eyebrows raising slightly before he speaks again. "i'm not in the mood for this, aurora."
"why are you so upset?" she asks, ignoring the blatant annoyance in his voice.
his eyes squint slightly as he looks at her. "you know why."
"yeah, you're right. i do know why but i'm not getting it because you literally hate me," she crosses her arms, knowing that cameron is the root of his bad mood. he always is. "why do you care so much?"
matt goes silent for a few seconds, just glancing over her face before suddenly shaking his head. when he looks at her, it almost feels as if it's going on for hours when she knows it's just a couple seconds. "how many times do i have to tell you that i literally don't?"
she narrows her eyes at him, not believing it for a second. "no," she says, his eyebrows raising slightly. "you do care."
he narrows his eyes at her as well. "no i don't."
"okay," she responds. "why'd you warn me about cameron from the start then? why'd you offer to pick me up whenever my parents were fighting? why'd you drive all the way to cameron's just to pick me up?" just as his eyebrows reach the top of his forehead from all the questions being shot at him, she grabs his hand that's been on the bed next to his knee. she raises it into the space between them and turns it over to reveal the shades of red and purple over his knuckles. "why'd you punch him?"
aurora is not stupid. she noticed the bruising on his knuckles five minutes into the drive here. she didn't say anything, just sat there and processed that he obviously punched cameron. his hand didn't look like that before he went in the house. she's not sure if chris noticed as well but if he did, he didn't say anything either.
matt's eyes widen slightly, having no clue that she had seen. there's long pause where matt just glances at aurora holding up his bruised hand before looking back at her. she tilts her head at him, obviously expecting an answer. instead of answering her question, he rolls his eyes. "why does it matter so much?"
aurora instantly groans at him asking her a question instead of answering her multiple ones. when she takes too long to respond, matt tilts his head. "what? do you care about me then?"
aurora pauses, just staring at him for a few seconds. she suddenly realizes she still has ahold of his hand and quickly drops it, instead crossing her arms. matt glances at his hand that falls to his knee before back at her, now with a different look.
"yeah," she settles for the honest answer.
matts eyebrows instantly raise and his lips part just slightly, genuinely surprised by her answer.
aurora rolls her eyes.
"don't give me a weird look. i'm allowed to hate you and still care about you just a smidge," she tells him, pausing for a second before leaning just slightly closer to him. he immediately notices it. "and you're allowed to too because i know you do."
matt goes quiet for a while. he silently glances over her features as he processes what she said. he's unsure of what to respond with but he's sure of what he feels from her words. so, he decidedly puts a wall back up. "gross," he says, his face scrunching up. "your voice just did a thing there where it got softer and it's making me a little nauseous."
she instantly rolls her eyes and steps further away from him. "way to kill the moment, matt."
"oh?" his eyebrows raises and the corner of his lip begins to raise into a smirk. "were we having a moment?"
her eyebrows furrow for a second before her face scrunches up into one of disgust, understanding what he means. "ugh. not like that, you weirdo."
"mhm," he hums back, the smirk still present on his face to insist that he doesn't believe her.
she frowns at his smug expression and steps forward, suddenly grabbing his hand. she makes sure to grab the one she knows isn't bruised. "now, come on," she says.
"what?" his eyebrows furrow as she pulls on his hand aggressively. he looks down at the contact and notes that she grabbed his hand and not his wrist like she usually does.
"we have to make sure your hand doesn't get infected, you fucking idiot."
he rolls his eyes but allows her to pull him off the bed and lead him down the hallway to the bathroom anyway.
💌
matt punching someone is so extremely out of character help i'm sorry??? just remember this is fanFICTION not fan truth. irl matt would never
anyways... matt's perspective chapter is right around the corner and thinking of what i know i'm gonna write for it has me giggling, squealing, twirling my hair, blushing, screaming, kicking my feet 🙂
next chapter also has me giggling and blushing but you'll find out what i mean when i write it 🤣🤣
<3
jaden