DEAR, EX
scarlett groans as a loud voice booms through her hotel room, the light turning on. "good morning, ladies!" nick announces, pulling the covers off off scarlett, and then jade.
scarlett squeezes her eyes shut, pulling the blanket back onto her as jade groans and gets up. "what time is it?" scarlett mumbles into her pillow.
suddenly, someone jumps onto the bed and weighs it down, then continues to lightly bounce. the bouncing stops, and then there's just one more. "it's seven a.m." chris says in an excited tone and leans down to scarlett. she wants to smile at his voice, but she's too tired, and now upset that she was woken up in such a way.
chris rolls scarlett over, moving her hair out of her face. "no." she tries to roll back over.
"it's time to wake up!" liam says as he runs in with matt.
she groans, pulling the blanket closer. "five more minutes."
nick pulls the blanket off of her again, and she curls into a ball.
"get up." liam shoves her shoulder.
"get up!" jade runs from the bathroom and to scarlett's bed.
"scar, get up." matt thumps her forehead.
she sighs and sits up, causing matt and nick to YAY! and chris to briefly clap.
"alright," nick rubs his hands together as the camera starts. chris is in the passenger, matt in driver. scarlett and nick are in the back seats while jade and liam are in the far back. "welcome to fanfictions part..." he holds up four fingers. "four!"
chris sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "i can't believe we're doing this again, nick."
"alright, who's reading first?" matt asks.
"you," chris furrows his eyebrows. "'cause you already got wattpad on your phone." he laughs, causing matt to smile and turn on his phone. scarlett smiles as she downloads the app on her own phone, along with everybody else in the car. besides matt.
"alright, first one." matt speaks up. he giggles at the title. "it's called back to you, nick sturniolo imagines."
nick's face falters as he looks up from his phone screen. "no, matt. no. let chris read it. please. you're such a slow fucking reader."
matt's grin widens as he clicks start reading. "nick was in a hot tub, arms rested on the back of it."
"oh, no." nick's words muffle as he buries his face into the palm of his hands, back arched like a cat. scarlett finally signs up, searching up matt's name and scrolling through.
"why slash enn... oh— your name," matt slowly realizes, causing chris' silently laughter to continue and grow as nick groaned. soon enough, scarlett, liam, and jade began to snicker, too. "was eyeing the hot tub, contemplating wether to get in or not. his concentration grew along with his frustration..."
"YOU'RE STRETCHING IT OUT, MATT!" nick shouts, bringing his face away from his hands and looking up at his brother.
matt defensively turns around. "I'M NOT?? THEY JUST ARE USING FUCKING... SHAKESPEAR LEVEL WRITING SKILLS!"
"SCREW YOU, MATT! READ SOMETHING ELSE!"
"FINE."
"i'll read!" chris enthusiastically smiles, having been waiting for his turn. "panera bread girl. matthew b. sturniolo."
matt's lips part, and the entire van begins to start laughing. "read it." matt jokes.
"woah, matt," nick says.
"it was a dark evening," chris dramatically says, his smile not being able to falter. "matt's two triplet brothers had made him drive to mcdonalds to get them food. the drive thru was closed, so he walked inside to order. but just as he steps in..."
"the suspense is building." nick comments. chris chuckles before continues.
"he sees a girl that he recognizes having a phone pressed against her ear, quietly repeating an order from whoever she's calling. matt freezes, realizing it's the girl from panera." chris smiles, continuing to the second chapter.
"alright, chris. skip to the better part." nick waves his hand.
matt smiles. "i'm enjoying this."
"did you enjoy writing your new scary doll story, too, matt?" scarlett speaks up, and matt furrows his eyebrows at her in confusion, then realizes. he turns to his brothers, who are holding in laughter. when matt bursts into laughter, chris, nick, and scarlett do, too.
scarlett turns to show liam and jade the context, which is matt mentioning 'I just got started on my new scary doll story' on his wattpad account in 2015.
"okay, listen," chris laughs a bit, and matt smiles. "there's beef."
matt's expression falls.
"the panera girl's name is lilly, by the way. okay. she says 'you can't play like that, matt'!" chris dramatically screams, laughing in between all of his sentence before he takes a breath and continues. "'am i just a restaurant crush to you, or do you really love me'? matt stands there, her words stinging him like a bee." chris laughs at the writing. "he's dumbfounded, because he doesn't know. he doesn't know—"
nick rolls his eyes. "you're not being dramatic enough, chris." he snatches the phone from chris' hands, who rolls his eyes and slaps his hands on his knees as if to say of-fucking-course. nick clears his throat audibly to continue where chris left off. "he doesn't know the answer to her question. for the past two weeks he's known lilly, he was always smiling and happy. whatever anxiousness he had faded away. and he found himself always wanting to be around and with her. soon enough, he—" nick stops himself with a scrunched up face, then hesitantly reads the next part of the sentence. "kisses her, pulling her in."
chris fake barfs as matt laughs with a confused expression, while everyone else either scowls or laughs. "when he pulls away from her," nick continues. "'you're not just panera girl, lilly. i love you'."
"okay, loverboy!" chris begins hyping matt up, lightly backhanding his arm. matt laughs and rolls his eyes at the return of the nickname from part one.
nick hands the phone back to chris, then holds up his own. "i have a really good one."
"alright. read it, nick." liam leans forward, finally speaking.
"chris sturniolo..." nick looks around locking eyes with everyone in the car— starting with jade then ending with matt. "x scarlett wheeler."
scarlett's eyes widen as chris immediately buries his face into his hands.
"no way!" jade exclaims, leaning closer and looking at his phone. "you're lying—"
"oh my gosh, it's real!" liam laughs, looking at the cover, which is a very okd photo of scar and chris, from 2019.
"you have to be kidding!" scarlett says, not even laughing due to her disbelief. nick turns his phone to her as matt is dying, and she reads the title : 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐄𝐑, 𝖼𝗁𝗋𝗂𝗌 𝗌𝗍𝗎𝗋𝗇𝗂𝗈𝗅𝗈 𝗑 𝗌𝖼𝖺𝗋𝗅𝖾𝗍𝗍 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗋. "oh, my gosh." she laughs, covering her face and leaning back into her seat.
nick finally shows chris, who begins to stare at the old photo of the two— which is the cover. it was winter of 2019, and it was when times were just so much simpler. chris laughs it off, taking a sip of his drink.
nick announced that he would cut the video until it got to a good part, and when it did, he was laughing his ass off trying to read it. "chris locks his eyes on scar's, his lips quivering—"
"QUIVERING?!" chris turns around, genuinely laughing this time at the author's strange word choice.
nick laughs briefly before continuing. "chris begins to speak. 'scarlett, i—'"
before nick can finish, scarlett opens the door to the van. chris had been considering the same thing the entire time, so the second he sees her hand reach for the handle, he opens the passenger door.
the two step out, taking a breath.
"shit's crazy." he runs a hand through his hair, fighting off a smile, as the entire car is cackling as nick continues to read the fanfiction. "someone writing a fanfiction about us. like— you and me."
"i told you." she shrugs, a gentle smile forming on her face. "we were made for the pages of books."
"or the screens of a phone." he mumbles, and she smiles wider. she begins to notice and inspect his shirt, causing her eyes to trail down to his wrist.
she notices the bracelet he's wearing. the stars dangling off of it, how it's clasped onto his wrist even though scarlett always had to help him do it.
it was the bracelet she got him for his birthday.
she looks up at him, as he looks at his wrist.
"do you have yours on?" he asks.
she purses her lips and pulls up her sleeve, bringing her wrist to his as the magnets connect. they laugh together at how stupid they look.
"scarlett, chris!" nick says. "get back in the car."
the two's bracelet magnets disconnect as the look at each other again, before taking back their seats and making matt continue reading the book about nick.
💋
i didn't wanna proofread this but the real life jade (jadeiscoo1 ) is lwk dyslexic so i've been reading the chapter to her when we hangout and... now i'm proofreading again. because 😬😬😬😶
hope u liked this chapter!
also for context...
LMFAOO Matthew_Sturniolo
and for the bracelets if you dont remember reread chapter three