CHAPTER 4| Don't leave
"What is she doing here?" I whisper shout with my eyes narrowing as Angelina, Matthews ex girlfriend walks up to us.
"My parents invited her." Matthew replies, with his arms around my waist getting tighter. "But at least be sassy. Don't let her get to you."
"Matthew!" Angelina smiles, "I've missed you! I haven't seen you in forever."
"Well I've been busy." Matthew says.
"We both have been busy." I smile up at Angelina.
She looks at me as if just noticing me. "I thought I told you to get me a drink." She raises her brow.
"Well I do remember telling you to get the drink yourself. I don't work here."
"Then why are you here?" Angelina glares at me while taking a step forward.
"Because," Matthew pulls me closer to him. "Ashlee is my girlfriend."
My widen a fraction at the sound of girlfriend. I quickly mask it over with a smile when Angelina looks back at me. "That's right," I turn sideways and peck Matthew on the cheek. "I am his girlfriend."
"Matthew," Angelina shakes her head staring at me with distaste. "You could have done so much better."
"Oh he did," I smile. "After dating you."
Angelina glares at me and in return I smile as sweetly as I can. Matthew takes my hand in his and pulls me along with him as he goes around Angelina. He pulls me in the direction of inside the house.
"You are utterly amazing." Matthew tells me when we're finally inside.
"Thank you." I grin.
Walking further into the house everything is either white, gold or silver. Mostly white. When you walk in you have sight of the enormous living room and the stairs that head up to the second floor. Walking passed the living room are three hallways and to my left I see a kitchen that is bigger than my apartment. When Matthew takes me into the dinning room, I get a bad feeling, I do not belong in a place like this. It is huge, with a long dinner table, pretty white and golden chairs. On that table, placed in the center are roses and wine glasses. There are two different types of forks and spoons, and one knife beside each plate that is on the table.
I take ahold of Matthews arm as I stare at everything. "I.... I...." My eyes have no clue where to look at. I mean for heaven sakes, the walls are white and the floor is too. The table cloth is even white. I am too afraid that I'll stain something. What if I spill my drink? What will I do? Apologize?
"I'm scared." I whisper into Matthews ear.
Beside me Matthew chuckles deeply. "Why do you think I don't live here."
"What?"
"I live in a place of my own, except for my cousin Graham who chose to live with me for this reason too. I can show you my place later."
"That would be a relief from here," I laugh awkwardly.
I follow Matthew to the far end of the table where I take a seat beside him. Three ladies in their mid twenties dressed up in aprons carry plates and pots in from the kitchen and place them on the table.
When Matthews grandfather, Frank enters the dinning room, he walks over to us and takes the seat beside me.
"Get ready to be judged." Frank tells me in a low voice.
"What do you mean by that?" I ask just as quietly.
"I just mean you should run while you have the chance."
"Don't scare her Grandpa." Matthew says from my other side.
The room goes silent when Martha and Bernie enter the dinning room. Angelina and another guy following right behind them.
Matthew's parents take a seat at each end of the table while Angelina and the other guy sit across from Matthew, Frank, and I, leaving the chair beside them empty.
"Isn't this house beautiful?" Martha directs the question to me as she takes a sip of her red wine.
"It is lovely."
"Great answer." Bernie says.
I furrow my brows at his tone but try to ignore it. A lady in an apron carries out a big silver tray and sets a smaller plate on the one on the table. The food in front of me looks like throw up mixed with green beans and rice. I do my best to hold in my gagging sound. I mean I haven't tried it so, it might not be too bad.
"This is my mothers favorite dish." Matthew quietly informs me while he picks at his food.
Seeing that everyone has begun eating, I do the same.
Oh God. It's bad, it is very bad. I grab my drink and chug it down to get rid of the taste. I nearly spit out my drink from the terrible taste as well. I put down the empty glass feeling chills creep up my back.
"Would you like some more wine?" Martha asks me.
"NO.... I mean, no thank you ma'am. I'm good."
Next to me, Frank chuckles pretending to be chewing on the food. I look down at my plate wishing I had pizza or something else, anything but this.
"So Angelina, sweetheart Martha and I were wondering if this following week you would like to join us as we head to San Antonio." Bernie looks over at Angelina, his tone nice and soft.
Angelina makes a face at me before nodding to his question. "I would love to join you. Please tell me Matthew will be joining us as well? I would really love to spend time with him, alone."
Bernie smiles at Angelina before glancing over at Matthew. "Son, will you be joining us? We have many activities we would like to do."
Matthew shakes his head. "Sorry Father, but I'm busy all next week and the week after that."
"Doing?" His mother asks.
"That is none of your concern Mother." Matthew replies as nicely as he can.
"Don't tell me you'll be spending time with Ashlee?" Angelina asks him with perfectly raised eyebrows.
"If I do, it is none of your business."
"Alright," Bernie interrupts them and looks over at me. "How old are you?"
"You are not supposed to ask someone about their age." Matthew glares at his father.
"Shut it." Is all Bernie tells him.
"I'm eighteen, sir." I reply, sitting up straight. Well not to straight like the rest of them, I don't want to break my back.
"So I'm guessing you just finished high school?" Bernie questions. "You can ask Angelina here to help you look into colleges. She is starting this month coming."
I shake my head with a small laugh that makes Martha and Bernie raise their brows in disapproval. "I graduated high school when I was sixteen and I graduated from college earlier this year. I don't see the need to ask Angelina anything."
Everyone at the table stares at me with wide eyes. I shrink back in the chair wishing I could disappear.
"Matthew you got yourself a smart cookie." Frank grins.
"Hmm." Bernie and Martha say in unison. "What jobs do your mother and father work?" Bernie then asks.
"My mother is somewhere in New York so I have no idea if she even works." I say quietly, staring at the roses. "And my father? He...Left three year ago."
"Wow." Bernie shakes his head. "And why are you here, far from New York?"
"I moved back here to be closer to my grandma, the only person who never fails me." And Taylor and Alejandro, sometimes.
"Your life seems pretty crappy." Angelina laughs.
"I can't help but agree," Bernie laughs along. After giving me a sympathetic smile, Martha soon laughs too. Matthew sighs and shakes his head.
I stare at them in disbelief and laugh to myself.
Very quickly noticing my laughter, the three, well including the guy beside Angelina, abruptly stop laughing.
"What is funny?" Bernie asks me with another look of disappointment.
"All of you."
"Excuse you?" Martha and Angelina say simultaneously.
I let go of Matthews hand and stand from the chair. "All of you are unbelievable. How can you say that my life is pretty crappy when the only thing you can depend on in life is your own damn money and gigantic house. You would be nothing with out any of it." I let out another laugh. "Jesus Christ how can you people even stand yourselves?"
I leave the dinning room towards the front door where I step outside and begin walking down the drive way.
How could they! Ugh Frank was right about running while I still had the chance. Never have I met people like Martha and Bernie. Angelina, now she is just a jealous ex girlfriend who seems a lot like Luke.
"Ashlee! Wait!" I hear Matthew shout. Turning around, I see him jogging my way.
"What?" I ask him as I continue to walk.
He stops me by grabbing me by the arm. He pulls me back and places his hands firmly in my waist.
"Don't leave."
Raising my eyebrow up I stare at him like he's crazy. "Don't leave?Really? I will not stay here with those people."
"I'm not talking about leaving the house." Matthew smirks. "I mean, don't leave me."
"Matthew I barley even know you."
"You know half of my life."
"And you want me to be apart of it?" I shake my head, tears pooling my eyes. "Matthew I don't-"
"You think I want to live my life like that?" Matthew indicates his hand at the house. "You think I want to be with some rich girl who only cares about money?"
"I didn't say-"
"No, you didn't." Matthew pulls me closer. "All I'm telling you is that I want a girl like you and it would mean so much if the girl was actually you."
"You barley know me!"
"I know enough." He whispers quietly while wiping away my tears.
Having his face so close to mine and having his words hit close to my heart, I couldn't stand it any longer. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss the living crap out of him.
Matthew kisses me back before lifting me up bridal style to carry me to his car. He sits me in the passengers seat then closes the door before going around to his side where he gets in the drivers side and starts the car.
"I knew you wouldn't like my parents." Matthew chuckles.
"Is it bad that I hate them?"
"Nope."
I let out a small laugh, "out of your family the one I could stand was your grandpa Frank."
"That's why I love him the most." Matthew smiles.
A smile forms on my own face and I turn to look out the window as we drive out of this part of the neighborhood. The clouds look abit gray and the sun is hiding behind them. My guess is that later it will rain.
I look back at Matthew admiring his face, his piercing blue eyes, the way his black curly hair falls to his face and he has to run his hand through his hair to push it back.
Twelve minutes pass, by the time we arrive at a black rusty gate that looks old. I stay seated with a look of confusion when Matthew pushes in some numbers and drives us forwards when the gate slides open. There is only one rode side that leads straight with many dead trees surrounding the area. But as Matthew keeps driving, I notice the pretty plants and healthy trees I'm beginning to see. Ahead of me I see a tall black brick house, bigger than my apartment and smaller than Matthews parent's house.
There's steps that lead up to the large pretty porch. It looks like a one story house, with its huge clear windows. There is a car and Matthews motorcycle parked outside. Matthew comes to a stop and turns off the car.
"Welcome to mi casa." Matthew says with a wink.
I immediately get out the car and just stand by the car door, staring at the beautiful house. The beauty of the house distracts me from the creepy fact that it's black and surrounded by trees everywhere. But I love it. I love the color, how it stands out, everything.
"You....live here?" I ask as Matthew comes around to my side and pulls me by the hand.
"Yeah." He walks me up the steps towards the front door where he opens it, reveling a spacious living room.
There is no wall that connects to anything, except the hallway. But other than that, when you walk in all you see is a enormous area. From the living room you can see and walk into the kitchen and dinning room. The one hallways is towards the back with one door on each side. The floors are a light brown wood, the walls are a ivory white color and the furniture is black leather, and the tables and counters are marble.
"Graham!" Matthew hollers.
Seeing that he gets no response, Matthew pulls me close to his body and puts his hands on my hips. He slowly brings his mouth to my ear where he quietly asks, "can I kiss you?"
I find myself nodding in response. My wallet purse falls on the sofa as Matthew slowly walks us backwards until the back of his legs meet the bottom of the sofa. He takes a seat and pulls me down with him. I sit sideways on his lap. He gently takes ahold of my face, cupping it with his graceful hands. His blue eyes stare into mine before wondering down at my lips. With a small pull, our lips crash together.
My arms wrap themselves around his neck as he hugs me to his body.
"Matthew.." I whisper feeling my face flush. "I think someone down there is getting a little bit too happy."
Matthew's eyes widen a fraction and he gives me a cheesy smile. "Sorry about that."
I smirk lifting an eyebrow. Slowly I move my left leg to his other side so that I'm sitting right on him. Matthew takes in a breath, "what are you doing?"
"Oh nothing," I smile.
I bring his lips to mine while I slowly begin to grind against him playfully. A moan escapes his mouth and he steadies me. "Why are you doing that?" He asks in a hoarse voice.
"I just wanted to hear you moan." I laugh.
Matthew stares at me like he was troubled. Then I see a smirk on his face.
He gently pulls me towards him. Then places sweet hot kisses down my neck while one of his hands goes down to my thighs. Matthew gently sucks and kisses my collar bone which feels so nice. His hand softly squeezes my thigh while he's rubbing little Matthew against me.
Biting down on my bottom lip, I look down just to be sure his zipper is up.
I bring my eyes up, gazing right into Matthews eyes. He grinds against me until finally I let out a moan.
Matthew smiles at me. "Now we're even." Awkwardly he chuckles, "I would ask you to do me a favor, but we're not far into a relationship."
Without thinking straight I smile at him with a shrug. "but as a friend I could probably do you a favor."
Matthew grins, "or I could do both of us a favor."
"I don't know if that's such a great idea." I'm caught in between. I want to because, I want him. But then I don't want to because I don't want to loose him.
"What the hell is this?" I hear a guy say in a deep voice, but towards the end he squeaked.
Almost immediately I get off of Matthew. I look towards the hallway and find a tall guy shirtless with water dripping from his light brown hair, wearing dark red basketball shorts.
Matthew let's out a groan, getting up from the couch he grabs my hand. He squeezes it for a moment before walking passed the guy. "I'll be right back." Matthew tells us.
The guys watches Matthew walk down the hall before going into the room on the right. When Matthew is out of sight, the guy turns around and begins to laugh.
"You must be Ashlee, right?" The guy asks as he walks into the kitchen.
"Uh yeah, how do you know who I am?"
"Matthew told me about the whole motorcycle incident."
"Oh." I laugh quietly, walking over to the counter. I take a seat on the stool and watch as he takes out the milk. "You're Graham, aren't you?"
The guy goes to the cabinet and takes out nesquik before turning back to his cup of milk. He looks up at me with a nod. "You must be a special girl."
"What do you mean by that?" I narrow my eyes.
"Well I mean Matthew hasn't been with anyone in almost a month or so after getting heart broken." Graham gets a spoon and begins mixing around his chocolate milk. He takes a seat across from me on the other stool. "He told me he wouldn't take interest in another girl again. I know when Matthew is serious, and he was very serious."
"So he hasn't been with a girl ever since he broke up with his ex?" I ask while leaning on the counter, resting my head on my palm.
Graham nods, "that's why you must be special to him."
"But we haven't known each other that long." I raise my brow, "why do you think I'm special?"
"Because," Graham says as we hear the sound of a door opening from across the living room, down the hall. "Matthew wouldn't be kissing you if you weren't."
Graham pulls out his phone while sipping on his cup of chocolate milk. Matthew comes into the kitchen having his back to me as he opens the closet pantry.
Matthew hasn't been with anyone in almost a month or so after getting heart broken. Matthew was heart broken? That little devil Angelina broke his heart?
"So how was the dinner?" Graham asks Matthew.
Matthew turns in our direction and turns on the stove that is between the counter. "Let's just say it was-"
"Bad?" I look at Matthew with a small chuckle. "I'm sorry but I'd say it was bad."
"Woah, woah, woah, wait." Graham puts his phone down and stares at both Matthew and I. "Ashlee went to the dinner?"
"Yeah." Matthew say.
I watch Matthew as he gets ham eggs, tomatos, onion, and potatos from the fridge. He brings them to the counter and begins cutting on the cutting board.
"Who and who was there this time?" Graham asks.
Matthew rolls his eyes at his cousin once he begins cutting the potatoes. "Mom, Dad, grandpa Frank, Angelina and some guy she brought with her."
Graham nearly spits out his chocolate milk on me and his eyes widen. "They invited Angelina?" He looks over at me, "Angelina is Mat-"
"Matthew's ex, yes I know that."
"Ohh by the looks of it I can tell you don't like her, do you?"
I glance at Matthew before looking back at Graham. "No, I don't like her. Can you believe she thought I was a maid?"
Graham let's out a snort, "the first time I met her, she thought I was Matthew's butler."
"They disrespected Ashlee." Matthew tells Graham. "I'm not going to another dinner until they show her respect."
"Wow." Graham looks at both of us again. "It was that bad, huh?"
Matthew and I nod.
Graham let's out a sigh and stands from the stool. "Call me when the food is ready, I'll be out in the pool."
"Alright," Matthew looks at his cousin, "but you just got out the shower and you're going for a swim?"
"Yeah, I have nothing better to do so why not?" Graham shrugs and walks away.
I stare at Matthew as he puts the chopped up onion and tomatoes into the pan. He had changed out of his black suit into some joggers and a white tshirt. I feel like my eyes are in heaven right now as I stare at Matthew. He's so...
"Hot!" Matthew waves his hand around, starring at his thumb. "Got damn it I burnt myself."
I let out a laugh, "do you need some assistance?"
"Yes." He smiles at me. I stand and walk around the counter to his side. Matthew kisses my cheek before handing me the spatula. I stir around the cut up pieces of potatoes, onion, tomatoes, and ham while Matthew adds salt and pepper to the eggs before mixing it in a bowl.
"Thank God this doesn't look like throw up." I say aloud and Matthew laughs along with me.