NEIGHBORS !
╰┈➤ 05. mac and cheese
irl
Elena scrolled on her phone for a bit longer.
She had told herself that she needed to get the house in line before she went out tonight, even if it was just to the triplets' house for a sleepover. So, after she was done scrolling, she tossed her phone onto the spot beside her and she cleaned up the house a little bit. Elena ended up texting Nick, telling him that she was hungry and would be coming over and invited the three to dinner at BOA.
Elena thought all four were in agreement, after Nick told her that they were in fact all in agreement, until she got a call from Matt.
"Hello?"
"Hi. I don't feel like driving."
Elena grumbled, "Matthew. I'll drive. I'm starving and I really want their lobster mac."
"Oh, I forgot you drove! Okay, great, we'll be there in a bit."
The line disconnects and Elena huffs a laugh to herself as she gathered her things for the night: keys, a tote bag with clothes (it was no secret that she prefers to sleepover at their place), her wallet, and toiletries.
She gave the house a small once over, made sure everything in the house was okay, began to head out, and shut the door behind her. Making her way to her car, she saw the triplets were already waiting for her.
Nick looked up from his phone and waved at Elena who greeted him with a toothy grin. She opened the trunk and put her things inside as she unlocks the car for everyone. Nick finds his place in the back, his sanctuary as he calls it, and Chris joins right next to him.
Her car was smaller than the Kia, having a compact Corolla. Matt made his way to the passenger seat and scolds Elena.
"Who in your life is scooting the passenger's seat all the way up? And why is it literally sitting upright? What fuckin' weirdos do you let in your car, Lena?"
Putting the key fob in the cupholder next to her, she pushes to start and snorts a laugh, "stop. Roman was trying to see how it felt because he was making fun of how close I am to the wheel! I have no clue what was running through his mind. And he just never fixed it! So fix it, please?"
Matt fiddles with the levers on the side of the seat and scoots his seat back and leans the it back as well.
It wasn't Chris's first time in her car, and his phone connected to her car immediately. Hours in Silence by Drake played as the navigation to the restaurant they knew so well chimed in every so often.
They arrived at the restaurant, an uneventful meal shared between the four of them, and somehow Elena ended up next to Chris. Matt and Nick were walking in front of them as the waiter escorted them to their booth and they just ended up sitting together, leaving the other pair annoyed.
Although the meal was uneventful, one fruitful thing happened to them. Elena's mac and cheese pull. The spoon was now more than a good seven inches away from her face and Nick and Matt were aghast at how the cheese was still going. It's crazy to think that this was the most interesting thing to happen to them at dinner.
Somehow, the cheese pull led to an argument on the way home about whether or not they should watch another scary movie tonight.
"No, Lena! I'm gonna end up slapping the fuck out of my brothers out of instinct and then we'll get into a big fight and I just do not even want to entertain that idea right now," Nick grumbled.
Elena turns left, nearing their houses and she rolls her eyes.
"Nick, it cannot ever be that serious. Like ever," she pulls into the triplet's driveway and parks her car, Matt carrying her bag from the backseat.
"You're too sweet, you know that?" Elena grabs her bags from Matt and pulls his head close to her and kisses the top of his head while he tries to shove her away.
The two are laughing with Nick walking in front of them to open the front door, but Chris was in a sour mood. As always, it seemed.
Chris gags at the sight in front of him, which was just Matt and Elena with Matt's arm around her shoulders.
Elena flips off Chris without looking back and makes a beeline from the door and to Matt's room to drop her clothes off. Something told Elena to not do that tonight. Call it woman's intuition, but she chose not to sleep in Matt's room that night.
"Nick?"
"Yes, Len?"
"Can I sleep with you tonight?" she's holding her belongings in one hand as she walks to the kitchen where Nick stood by the fridge looking for a drink to indulge in.
"Yeah of course! You're not with Matt tonight?" he asks as he grabs a Dr. Pepper from the shelf.
Elena shrugged, "I wanna cuddle tonight and I don't wanna cuddle Matt. No offense, Matt!" and Elena held her hands up.
"All taken. What the fuck."
She giggled at him, "Matt, you know I still love you!"
At this moment, Chris had retreated from his room downstairs and outwardly groaned, "are you guys gonna stop being fuckin' gross? Get a room."
"Owen's arrived, I see," Matt mumbles and Chris comes from behind him and sucker-punches his arm.
Elena ignored the brother, knowing that he had suspicions that her and Matt were more serious than they let on, which was ridiculous considering that Elena, again, still had someone to set Matt up with.
"I'm gonna head up, Nick, can I wear a shirt?"
"Don't even have to ask."
She smiles at him and takes her bag upstairs to Nick's room, which was still slightly unkempt from the mess he made earlier before dinner. Slipping on the house slippers Nick always kept tidy, she went to his closet–which was just fixed–and fished out a random Melanie Martinez shirt in addition to plaid shorts she grabbed from her own bag.
When she was ready, Elena turned on the shower and she eyed the products she still had in Nick's bathroom which was pushed to a corner reserved for only her. A warm smile flushed over her face– one of these days she needed to make sure she told Nick how much she appreciated and loved him, that's for sure.
Once everything was all said and done, she headed back to his room fully dressed to see the three boys crowded on Nick's bed. Chris and Matt were cuddling in the center of the bed as Nick was in his closet riffling through clothes.
Well, Chris was cuddling Matt. Matt was resting against the headboard with one hand resting behind his head as he perused through the Netflix interface for a movie for them to watch.
Elena had her clothes in her hand, walking out to put them in the overnight bag she brought. When Nick saw her when he left his closet, he noted the confusion on her face.
"Oh yeah, both of them were feeling clingy tonight. Now they're here. You can kick them out, if you want. Or don't. I'm gonna go shower right now," Nick says and he makes his way to his bathroom.
"'Kay," she mumbles.
She sits on the edge of the bed, closer to the foot of the bed rather than closer to the brothers.
"Are you gonna kick us out?" Chris asked, his voice small. Elena smiled at this, he could be so sweet when he was not an asshat.
"No, course not. It's your house and that's your brother. Stay," she explained.
Both of them were already dressed in their pajamas, which actually wasn't far off from what they wore to dinner. Chris subbed his oversized jeans for a pair of camouflage sweats and Matt changed his own pants for a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. Of course, the hoodie Matt wore remained the same, and Chris stayed in the white wifebeater he wore.
Looking through her bag, she pulls out her empty Stanley, "I'm gonna go look for snacks. What are we watching?" And Elena's house slippers are back on her feet as she leans forward to unravel her hair from the towel turban it was in.
"Nick wants to watch RuPaul but I said if I could find something better then we'd watch that. But honestly, I do wanna watch RuPaul," Matt answered.
"Perfect, I'm like two episodes behind and I think Nick is, too. Did you guys want anything from downstairs?"
"Pepsi for me, please," Chris chimed.
Elena nodded and then pointed at Matt, "dealer's choice. Surprise me."
She smiled and made her way down. She knew to grab the sodas for the boys, grabbed powdered donuts for Nick, a lollipop or two for Chris, and some chips for all of them. Now that she had laid out all of their snacks on the table in the kitchen, she silently wished that someone had come with her to help her bring everything– she refused to go in two trips.
As Elena stood there with a hand on her hip, she heard footsteps descend down the stairs and she smiles inwardly, hoping that it was Nick or Matt and she could ask them to help her.
Her smile falters a little as she notices it was Chris, knowing she wouldn't ask him.
"Did you need help?"
Elena didn't know that she wouldn't ask him because he'd offer. She thought she couldn't ask him because he'd be a dickhead.
"I can see the gears turning, kid. It's literally a yes or no, I just came down because I needed my charger."
"Um, yeah, you don't mind?" She pushes half of the goods on the table towards Chris.
"I'm not a complete dickhead, Elena."
She scoffs, "sure. Just take these. It's all yours and Matt's."
Grabbing hers and Nick's snacks, she heads back upstairs and situates herself comfortably in his bed. Nick was sat up on his side of the bed whereas Matt was leaning back on Nick's body, and Elena laid next to Nick. She nestled the water bottle between her and Nick in efforts for the water to not spill from the straw and made sure that the boys knew that they were more than welcome to drink her water. Elena and the Lord knew they needed it.
A few minutes later, Chris is on his phone with charger in hand and is holding most of the items in his other awfully-large hand. This doesn't go unnoticed by Elena.
In her defense, it was just impressive. All of them were great with holding a lot of things in just one hand.
He walks in and shuts the door behind him with his foot, placing the snacks onto the bed as he closed the doors and turned off the big light as he plugged in Nick's Christmas lights.
The night was calm, aside from Nick and Elena stressing over the queens who were struggling with this week's challenge, Snatch Game.
"She's going home. I just know it. They kept playing that stupid sound bit whenever she was answering during Snatch Game!" Nick said which resulted in a shush from both his brothers, an obvious sign that they were equally as invested into the show as Nick was.
Elena looks at Matt and Chris who were both on the foot of the bed, eyes never leaving the TV screen and she laughed to herself.
Another two episodes later, Elena lets out her first yawn and turns to the side to see Nick struggling to keep his eyes open. She leans forward and sees both Matt and Chris asleep, mouths slightly open to let out the snores their bodies were creating.
She taps Nick lightly, in efforts to ease him lightly out of his sleep. He budges slightly, opening one eye at a time.
"Do we let them sleep here?" She whispers.
"Huh? Oh. Yeah. They'll get up and leave if they wanna, but hold on."
Nick carefully gets out of the bed, trying not to wake either of his brothers. He opens his closet and finds two small blankets, drapes them over his own brothers, and tucks into bed again.
Elena's heart warms at this and she turns the TV off for all of them to sleep soundly.
A few hours later, Elena wake up when she realizes she kicked out her feet and didn't hit a body.
The girl sits up and looks down, noticing that only Matt was left. Nick was more than sound asleep, body in a near-fetal position. She stands up to use the restroom, and makes a mental note to check on Matt when she finished.
When all was said and done, she pats her wet hands onto her clothes before poking Matt's cheek to wake him up.
"Hey, sleepy head," she whispers.
"Hmm?" His voice groggy as he rubs his hands over his eyes, trying to regain full consciousness.
"You're still at the edge of the bed. Did you wanna stay or go to your room?"
Matt yawns, sitting up and stretching his arms over his head.
"I'm gonna go down. Thank you, Lena." He presses a kiss to the top of her head, and he walks out. Shutting the door behind him, she gets into bed again and scrolls on her phone as she sees the time, 5:32. The sun was beginning to peak over the skyline, showing that the day would be starting soon. Although breakfast foods would be ideal right now, the hunger kicked in and she knew she saw mac and cheese in the pantry, which was all she focused on.
Throwing on a zip-up hoodie that hung on Nick's gaming chair, she heads down with her phone as her main source of light. As she's outside of Nick's door, she hears faint sounds coming from the TV, showing her that she wouldn't be alone tonight.
No one was in front of the TV, but as she looked out the window from the couch she saw Matt and Chris hugging and she snapped a picture. Immediately. After looking at the image for a few minutes, she couldn't help but awww and moved forward to the kitchen to start cooking.
Elena would hate to admit it, but sometimes, Chris could be such a sweetheart. No matter who it was, they always thought Chris was a dickhead. She didn't like to look at the comments sometimes, seeing that people would be so rude to Chris. She could never fathom how anyone could be so crude and disgusting towards someone they didn't know!
Although her and Chris have their little scuffles, she would never stoop so low as to agree or entertain any of those hate comments. He might have been a pain in her ass at all times, but Chris was a sweet boy at the end of the day.
He was always so loving toward his brothers, always wanting to be touching them or near them at all times. Always wanting to be close with his brothers and wants to always show them affection, his way of displaying his love for them.
So, when she saw Chris and Matt hugging, she couldn't help but break out in the biggest and sweetest smile.
A good 14 minutes later and the mac and cheese was cooked. In the time it took the cook, she walked outside and asked the brothers if they wanted anything and both nodded. Their bodies were filled with empty calories, not filling them at all. Although this was no different, it sounded hearty and both boys jumped at the chance to eat especially if they didn't have to cook.
Elena ended up having to cook another box, not knowing how hungry they were. And herself. They decided to leave what they could for Nick to microwave if he wanted any, and Elena cleaned up as the two of the boys headed back to bed.
She finished cleaning the kitchen and decided to go all the way, and cleaned the whole second floor of the house. She swept, mopped, dusted, and almost vacuumed. Once she was happy with her work, she headed to her own house to get dressed in workout clothes and headed to the gym. She was already up early, might as well get the day going.
An hour and a half later, she felt lighter and happier and most definitely, sweatier. Driving back to the her own house, she grabbed some stuff from her fridge and brought it to the the triplet's house to cook breakfast for them. Whether they were awake or not, she didn't care. She would wake them up.
Today was going to be a good day, and she would make sure of it.
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘˗ˏˋ ˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ ˎˊ˗∘∙⊱⋅•⋅.
📁 l1velaughluke:
HIIIII i'm so sorry i've been gone for so long!!!! i swear i'm done taking hiatuses. i hope u guys enjoyed this chapter! and i promise there's no matt and chris rivalry in this story, i promise matt will get set up!!!! everything between matt and elena are completely platonic, no need to worry <3
vote and comment if u feel like it, thank you for your support regardless!!! 🩷 love you all