(This chapter is basically the last one retold in Matt's pov, so if you want to skip this chapter you can, but you will miss out on a few things)
Matt pov:
Ding dong
I hear the doorbell ringing. It must be Gus! He's here! I frantically scramble down the steps, way more excited than I should have been.
I get to the door. I take a couple of deep breaths to collect myself and then open up the door. "Hey Gus! Come on in!"
I motion for him to come inside. We both make our way up to my room. He sits on the edge of my bed and says, "So what did you want to tell me?"
"Oh yeah!" I say, sitting next to him. "Ok, so- do you remember me telling you about Glandis?" "Yeah, is everything going OK over there?" He says. Aww, he's worried about me... Titan he's so adorable.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I say, "That's beside the point. Anyways... my point is.... I'm moving schools!" Gus goes deep into thought. But I decide not to bring any attention to it incase he gets embarrassed. "Don't worry, I'm not leaving this old dump anytime soon" I say jokingly, fake punching him I the arm.
He smiles. He's so cute. I continue, "Do you want to know what school I'm going to?" "Yeah" he says excitedly.
"Ok..." I say, " I'm going to Hexside!!"
He looks at me, bewildered with excitement. "Wait- really?!" He says.
"Yeah!"
"Oh my gosh!!"
Seeing him this happy makes me jump up and down, flapping my hands a bit. He grabs my hands and does the same.
After a few seconds we stop and sit back down, really happy. He turns to me and says, "For a second I thought you were like- moving or something"
"Hey- don't worry. Like I said, I'm not leaving this ol' dump anytime soon" I reassure him, punching him playfully in the arm.
He then asks, "So... when do you start at Hexside?" "Tomorrow actually" I respond. "Oh wow! Do you know what classes you'll do?" He asks, intrigued. "Well, I definitely want to do the construction course, but there's another one that I want to try out as well" I reply.
His eyes sparkle whe he says, "which one is it?" He's so freaking cute... "Yes" I reply smugly, "but- im keeping it a surprise.. you'll find out eventually. I'm keeping it a surprise."
He puts his hand over his forehead, pretending to faint. He falls backwards on my bed and says, "Nooo, how dare you keep a secret of such magnitude from me- your closest friend."
I roll my eyes, he's really cute when he gets in these moods. I lay down next to him and turn on my side. I take his hand off of his forehead and say, "You'll find out soon enough drama king." I feel a faint blush on my face and sit back up.
I think to myself for a bit. Then I ask him, "Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"
"Nope, not that I'm aware of"
"Do you wanna go for a walk or something? I dont know..."
"Sure!"
He smiles and we both go outside. Once we're a little bit away from my house he says, "Oh! Matt! I know a really cool hiking trail. It isn't too long of a trail but the scenery is cool!"
That'd be nice... "Sure" I say, "lead the way Gus!"
He grabs my hand. My face instantly flushes a light red. He doesn't seem to notice however. When we get to the beginning of the trail, he let's go of my hand and says, "Well- this is it!" I smile and say, "Well, let's go then!"
The trail is beautiful. The sunlight peeping through holes and patches in the blanket of leaves resting on top of the trees. Bright green blades of grass. And the river next to the past sparkles as the sun shines its beams of light on the water.
We walk side by side on the trail, we don't say much. The silence getting a bit to awkward for me. Think of something to say Matt! Then something pops into my head.
I ask, "Hey Gus" he turns to look at me, "have you thought about joining another course? I mean- you're great at Illusions- amazing even! But have you thought about trying another one just for fun?"
Why did I let myself get all flustered like that!? Ugh! Why am I like this!?
He thinks for a bit. Then he replies, "Well, I have thought about it.... but I dont know which one I want to do."
Something changes in me. All of a sudden I feel determined. Determined to help him find another course to join because gosh dangit- he's going to help!
I grab him by the hand as gently as I can and lead him to a clearing. I lead him over there at a half-walk-half-run pace.
We get over to the patch of grass and I sot down. I pat the ground for him to sit next to me. As soon as he sits down I say, "Ok Gus, were not leaving until we find you the perfect courses for school!"
He gets a little bit shifty and says, "I-its fine. I'll just join one when something really stands out to me."
"Nope" I say, "I'll only give up as a last resort. Besides, you might realize that theres another track that sparks your interest that you haven't really noticed!"
His facial expression changes. He seems more comfortable now and smiles. "Oh! How about we make a list of all the courses they make at Hexside" I explain.
About an hour later, we've narrowed it down to two different courses.
I watch as Gus thinks about which one he'll pick. His face contorting into a cute, concentrated state. Something in him clicks, and he says, "I think I'll go with the plants track."
"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about Gus!" I say excitedly. I playfully pump my arms in the air. We both started laughing.
It goes quiet. I look over at Gus and notice him looking around at the scenery. His brown eyes scanning the beautiful nature around us. He turns to look over at my so I look away. I don't want him to think I was staring. I smile to myself.
Gus then quickly turns away and scoots further away from me. Wait, did I do something wrong?
He brings his knees up to his chest and buries his face in his arms.
I scoot towards him cautiously. He doesn't seem to notice. He starts breathing a bit faster and starts to cry. Oh no.... Gus.... what did I do?
I push my thoughts aside. I put my hand on his shoulder to try and calm him. Cautiously I say, "Hey... is everything ok Gus?" Obviously everything isn't ok... I just don't want to seem nosy.
He looks up at me, startled, then quickly wipes his eyes. He quickly replies, "O-oh, yeah... my allergies are just acting up! Everything is fine."
That is by far one of the worst lies ever. "Look, Gus, you don't need to tell me exactly what's wrong if you don't want to. However- I need you to know that I'm here and that I'll listen any time. I promise."
He states at me. He starts to say something, "I-", but his voice cracks. He breaks down again, tears start falling from his eyes.
It breaks my heart to see him like this. He's been broken... and I can't watch him just fall apart. I move closer and hug him. He wraps his arms around me, sobbing even more.
Still crying, he says, "I'm just so sorry I keep dragging you into my stupid emotional problems and outbreaks. I'm sorry I-".
I can't take it anymore. I can't just keep doing nothing. My body moves almost without me noticing. I life his face up so that he is looking at me. I can feel butterflies in my stomach.
"Gus, please stop. You have to stop belittling yourself and your emotions. You're not a burden. You're not a problem. You're an amazing person. You can tell me when somethings up, okay?" I can feel tears burning in the corners of my eyes.
I scan his eyes, looking for something, anything. I just want to help him so bad.. "Gus, please. Let me help you" I say, my voice starting to crack. The tears in my eyes building up.
He nods and scoots back a bit. He tales a shaky breath and saus, "O-Ok, I can tell you."
I focus all my attention on him. Everything else seems to fade away. And it's just the two of us in this moment.
He stares at the ground and says, "Ok, umm.. you know the t-time I ran to your house and my eye w-was blue?"
He looks up for a breif second and I nod. His eyes dart right back to the ground infront of him.
He takes another shaky breath and continues his story, his eyes still not leaving the ground. He says, "W-well, I don't know kw what that was. But I'm pretty sure I know what caused it..."
I scoot closer to him, but he doesn't look at me.
"You see- umm... My parents have been going through a......" He restarts his sentence, "For the last few years my parents have been going through a umm....." He gets stuck on the last word. He doesn't want to say it, I can tell.
I lean towards him and say calmly, "Hey, it you don't want to say the word you don't have to. I know what you're trying to say."
He whispers back to me quietly, "Thanks". But his eyes are still glued to the ground.
It kind of hurts that he isn't looking at me. He should do whatever makes him comfortable but- it kind of hurts that I'm being "avoided". What am I saying? This is stupid. I'm stupid. Stop it Matt. Stop it.
I snap out of my thoughts when Gus starts up the story again. "And that day... my mom was..." he takes a deep breath, "My mom was moving out"
When he says that, something inside of me breaks completely. I can feel the tears start to fall from my face. I can't believe he's been going through this alone...
He looks up at me for the first time in minutes. His sparkly brown eyes filled with tears, just like mine.
His eyes fill with panic once he sees me crying. He frantically says, "Oh no! A-are you okay? Was it something I did? Can I do anything to help y-"
I go on autopilot again. I bring both of my hands up to his face.
Both our faces turn bright red. I start to stumble over my words when I say, "Gus... can we umm... can I..."
This time he cuts me off. He says, "yes" and leans in to kiss me.
It really shocked me. He pulls away from the kiss and I immediately get lost in thought. I sink deeper and deeper into all of my worries and insecurities. It feels like it's been minutes when I finally snap out of it, but it's only been about a second.
I immediately look down at the grass, apologize and say, "I-Im sorry I did that. I don't want you to have felt forced or anything. I-it was stu-"
He puts his hand on my knee and cuts me off. "What are you talking about? Do you know how long I've wanted to do that?!" he says smiling.
Then he hugs me, and I hug him back. But this huf feels different.
After a minute-or-so, we break the hug. Gus says, "So.... what does this make us?" He turns to look at me. I'm still a bit flustered from earlier when I say, "I... I don't know. Whatever we want to be I guess."
We're sitting next to eachother. Each one of us a blushing, teary-eyed mess.
"Hey Matt?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you... want to be my boyfriend?"
I turn to look at him. Excitedly I say, "I thought you'd never ask!"
He takes my hand and leans back, laying on his back. I follow. He closes his eyes and says, "Hey Matt, can we stay like this for a bit?"
"Yeah, whatever you want" I reply.
I can't believe this is actually happening! Nothing could ruin this moment.
Nothing.
(End scene)
I know that this chapter was longer than. The last one (by quite a bit) even though they tell the same thing lol. I just really wanted to show more of Matt's emotions while this was happening. That and I wanted to write their first kiss again 👹😈
Thank you guys for your support! It means the world to me.
This one is for you guys!
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