[irl!]
—————
[irl!]
A LITTLE BIT AFTER HEARING lily's abrupt yelling, both nessa and elliot step out of the room and walk over to nick and matt with both apologetic and concerned expressions.
"is she okay?" matt asks with concern, noticing how suddenly quiet lily's room is, compared to the defensive yelling that just happened.
nessa and elliot share a look, before turning to both of the boys and shake their heads.
"no. she's not," elliot pauses, knowing that she's known for quiet a while what's been going on with her best friend.
nick and matt both share a confused look.
"what?" matt asks confusedly with a bit of concern, having a slight idea of what it's about, but wanting to just assume.
nick, however, is only getting impatient with his worry for his friend. "what the hell are you talking about?"
matt gapes at his brother and slap him upside the head. "nick!"
"what?" nick rolls his eyes at his brother and motions to both elliot and nessa. "i just wanna know what they're keeping from us!"
matt simply glares at his brother, but nessa sighs and motions for elliot to go on.
"she has feelings for chris." elliot states guiltily, feeling bad for spilling this fact, but knowing that this whole thing has been going on for far too long.
nick raises an eyebrow in clear shock, while matt sighs and nods, clearly not shocked, considering he's had his suspicions that his brother and his friend had more than just a platonic bond.
nick's speechless for the next few seconds until he sees matt's face of realization.
he scoffs and glares at him. "matt, did you know about this?"
matt sighs and rolls his eyes at his brother and run his hands down his face in clear stress. "i didn't, but i considered that it could've been true."
nick groans in frustration and shakes his head at his brother, while both nessa and elliot watch what could be an argument.
elliot rolls her eyes and glares at the both of them. "enough! we don't have time for this!"
nessa sighs and nods as she crosses her arms, feeling concerned for lily more than anything else. "this is why she's been punishing herself. she refuses to believe it, but she's in love with him. but, she's scared."
nick knits his eyebrows together in confusion. "wait, what? she's in love with him?"
matt sighs and nods, having been suspecting this a while. "i think she is. but, i think she's scared to admit it, because then that makes it real. and we all know how her last relationship ended."
"alex." elliot states tightly, her tone of voice showing how much she despises her best friend's ex-boyfriend.
matt sighs and nods. "she has a right to be scared. but, chris, doesn't understand any of this."
nessa sighs and nods, while elliot rolls her eyes and groans. "the only two people that don't how they feel is chris and lily themselves."
matt sighs and nods, knowing she's right.
"well, what do we do?" nick asks, after finally getting over the news that was just spilled.
nessa groans in mere frustration and shakes her head. "i don't know. i think lily's pushing him away to punish herself, but to also protect him from herself."
nick scoffs and rolls his eyes. "what kind of messed up fucking logic is that?"
matt groans and lightly slaps his brother in the shoulder, which nick takes great offense to. "hey!"
matt only rolls his eyes and glares back at nick. "stop! you can't put all the blame on her! she's going through a lot."
nick glares back. "i'm not! she's our friend! i'm not putting the blame on her!"
elliot shares an annoyed look with nessa.
"what do you mean?" nessa asks with both confusion and irritation.
nick groans and rolls his eyes. "i just mean that her making the decision to end things for chris isn't right. it should be up to him to decide that."
the group of friends all go quiet with understanding expressions, knowing that he's right—something that he's very familiar with.
"okay...so what do we do?" matt asks anxiously, wanting to help figure this situation out for both lily and chris.
nessa sighs and runs her fingers through her hair in clear stress. "i don't know. but, we can't let them push each other away when they mean so much to each other."
and just like that, the group of friends spends the rest of their time hanging out to figure out how to fix the broken situation.
—————
[irl!]
THE ENTIRE RIDE HOME, BACK to the triplets' house is entirely too quiet.
nick, who's sitting in the back of the car, which is entirely normal for him, is awfully and unusually quiet, on his phone and texting nessa and elliot.
matt, who's driving, is trying to stay focused on the road as he drives, but every few seconds, he loses his focus over worrying about both chris and lily—a part of him worries that their relationship is ruined forever now because of the part he played in this situation.
and chris? well, his face really shows the anger and hurt he's feeling. and despite being so relaxed and all talk-y, he's the complete opposite of that.
by the time they finally do get back, nick is the first to get out of the car, while matt stays in the car.
just as chris is about to get out, matt stops him by grabbing his shoulder and keeping him in place. "wait."
"what?" chris asks with a full attitude, his face showing once again how upset he is.
matt glares at his brother for his attitude, but when he doesn't apologize—he's too far gone in his own attitude and anger—he sighs and shakes his head.
as he turns the key to turn off the car and pulls it out, he takes off his seatbelt before facing chris. "we need to talk."
"about what? i have stuff to do." chris scoffs angrily and glares back at him.
now, it's matt's turn to scoff and he gives him a pointed look. "and what is that? to wallow in self pity and sit on your phone all night?"
chris snaps his mouth shut, but continues to glare at his brother.
matt and chris stay glaring at each other for a second, before matt finally breaks the silence, "look, we have to talk about this situation with lily."
chris scoffs again and shakes his head, his face filling with annoyance at the mention of her. "no, we don't. there's nothing to talk about."
matt scoffs, growing irritated with his stupid he sounds right now, but tries to stay patient with him. "why? why do you say that, chris?"
"because!" he retorts in both a childish manner and an annoyed one.
"because?" matt questions with a blank stare, as if listening to a child speak.
chris doesn't say a word, not wanting to say it out loud.
"chris!" matt exclaims at his brother when he gets sick of sitting and waiting for him to speak, which becomes the fact that he doesn't speak for several seconds.
chris rolls his eyes at his brother's stern warning tone of voice and glares at him. "what?"
it's matt's turn to roll his eyes at his brother's idiocy and pettiness. "why do you keep saying there's nothing to talk about? it would be easier if you just talked to one of us about this, instead of just bottling it up and acting out!"
chris just scoffs lowly and looks out the window, not answering his brother's question.
"chris!" matt calls to his brother, shaking his shoulder to get him to answer him. "what did you mean by that?"
chris scoffs again and rolls his eyes, not wanting to admit the truth. but, he also knows that his brother isn't going to stop until he gets an answer from him.
"there's nothing to talk about because she clearly doesn't want anything to do with me anymore."
his words come out in a mumble, but matt hears them clearly.
matt scoffs and slaps his brother upside the head with an annoyed look in his eyes. "are you serious right now? that's what you think?"
chris rolls his eyes and says nothing, not in the mood to listen to anything he's saying.
matt turns to face the front of the car, to the wheel with a frustrated groan leaving his lips. "you're being ridiculous."
chris quickly takes offense to that. "how the hell am i being ridiculous? lily's the one that's ignoring me and lashing out at me!"
matt rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "you are being ridiculous that you don't see what's right in front of you!"
"and what the hell is that?" chris questions, not seeing what's right in front of him—like matt just said.
matt, however, doesn't even answer him for a moment—he's too frustrated with his brother idiotic behavior.
with a frustrated groan, matt takes off his seat belt.
chris raises his eyebrows at his brother in shock, so used to him always speaking his mind, as he watches him pocket his car keys and move his hand to the door handle, getting ready to open his door.
however, matt pauses for a second, before turning back to face his brother. "look, i get you're mad. but, you're at just as much fault as lily,"
matt rolls his eyes when he sees the annoyed and offended look in chris' eyes, but he doesn't let it deter him from saying what he needs to say. "she may have lied about the situation with our fans, but you didn't even give her a chance to explain."
"yes, i did!" chris exclaims, with so much irritation in his voice, as he throws his hands up in frustration at his brother.
"no, you didn't. elliot told me what happened. she told me how lily called her in tears about needing to see her and how when she got home, lily was absolutely heartbroken because you didn't let her really explain." matt retorts back, trying to get him to understand.
chris freezes and deflates as he hears his brother's words, starting to feel a whole lot of guilt deep down at realizing how much he'd hurt lily—he hadn't really thought about that, since he was just so hurt by how she hurt him.
"she cried?" he asks in barely a whisper, more to himself than matt.
but, matt still answers him, noticing his new behavior of listening and wanting to take the opportunity to fix the part of the problems between lily and his brother that he caused in the first place—no matter how many times both chris and lily tell him that it's not his fault.
"yeah. and she was locked in her room ever since your fight—she's been falling apart," matt sats quietly with raised eyebrows, before continuing in, feeling a deep need to fix this issue between one of his closest friends and one of his brothers, "elliot told me she wouldn't even go on her phone."
chris snaps his head up to look at his brother with even more confusion. "wait, really? are you serious?"
matt simply nods and crosses his arms as he leans back against his seat. "yeah."
chris sputters and shakes his head in confusion and worry—though, he tries to not show it. "but...she loves being on her phone! she can't go five seconds without it!"
matt sighs and nods. "well, yeah, but she's been really upset about this. from what i heard from nessa and elliot, she's been feeling really guilty and upset at what happened. she's been isolating herself and punishing herself because she feels like she messed everything up," he explains, but doesn't let chris interrupt him with whatever response he's feeling, considering he has more to say. "she wouldn't even let me take the blame for telling you."
"what? she didn't?" chris asks, his guilt only growing.
matt sighs again and nods. "yeah. i tried to apologize and tell her it was my fault. but, she wasn't having it. she refused to blame me or get mad. the only person she was mad at was herself. i'm sure she still is."
"then..." chris trails off with a bit of both confusion and anger. "then why did she act the way she did?"
"because she's acting out. she thinks she screwed everything up with you. so, she's pushing you away. we all know from the little bit of the history that we do know about alli's and her parents is that they spent a lot of time putting her down and putting everything on her—she's probably just scared that they're right." matt simply explains, before finally opening his door.
before he gets out of the car, though, however, he looks back at his brother with a determined look on his face. "just...talk to her, at least. okay? she's hurting, but it's because she misses you. and she cares about you way more than you actually think."
matt doesn't wait for his brother to respond. he just gets out and shuts his door, before heading inside the house, leaving chris to sit in the car in silence.
he spends so much time in the car, playing back everything his brother just told him.
and the guilt and concern eats away at him.
but, that's not all. no, it's not just that.
something about the way he remembers his brother's words gives him butterflies—a strange thing for him, considering his fear of relationships. was matt telling him that lily has feelings for him? this entire time?
—————
A/N: AHHH, GUYS, IT'S HAPPENING!!! i honestly can't believe it's taken THIRTY EIGHT chapters for this all to ACTUALLY build up, but here we are!! also, obviously, i didn't wanna rush their relationship either. but, ANYWAYS, here's an updated chapter. it's also a little bit more longer than most of the chapters, which wasn't actually intentional, but you guys can take that as an apology for taking SO DAMN long to update a new chapter! i've just been having a really hard time lately and i've been struggling with a lot of medical issues and finding motivation to ACTUALLY update this fic, but here we are! i haven't updated any other of my fics, as well, which i'm going to try to do, but yeah, here this chapter! hopefully it was good and tysm to everyone that's been supporting this fic because i genuinely didn't even think anyone would really even read it, but yet, here we are! anyways, ily and enjoy!
—hannah <3