I kissed a girl
Katy Perry

Merry Christmas everyone. Here's a special chapter for all of you!
Thank you for everything. I'm
So grateful for all of you. -S

Matthew Gray

Remember that one time that you went to the store with your parents? You were so young and naive, suddenly seeing candy. That one candy that was in your favorite shape, color and flavor.

Remember how you had begged your parents for it? Pretty much feeling like you were going to cry if you left the store without it. You instantly fell in love with the candy just by looking at it, almost love at first side. You didn't know what the real world meant and what the the future held for you.

Remember how happy you were? Your heart was filled with happiness, your tummy with butterflies and the rest of your body was full of tingles and sparks.

That's how happy Matthew felt after going out with his beloved best friend Ryan. His life had been a living rollercoaster ever since his -now ex-boyfriend- passed away. He felt so good, relieved and loved the past few days.

But you know what they say, at all the good things there's an end. He had to go back to school, to his normal life: to his depression and back to breaking, almost beating, himself up with the death of his past lover.

"Matty!" I heard the familiar soft voice yell at the end of the hallway.

I turned around to be faced with the brown eyed curly haired boy. He ran towards me and attacked me with a hug, throwing his arms around my neck and practically clinging to me like a little kid.

"Good morning to you too Ry" I grinned when I noticed how happy he'd been.

"Merry Christmas!" He yelled and gave a small present that was wrapped in red paper with a golden bow on top of it.

"What is this? You know you don't have to get me any presents silly" I smiled at him.

"Just open it!" He giggled.

So I did what he asked me to. I opened the present to find a small silver bracelet with my own name engraved in it and a card that says. 'Merry Christmas Matthew'.

"Ryan! Are you out of your mind?! This must've cost you a fortune!" I said as my eyes widened in shock.

"You're my best friend Matthew and yesterday was so fun! I wanna do it again some time Matt, I love hanging out with you. See it also as a thank you for yesterday" He giggled and smiled wide.

"Come here dork!" I grinned and hugged him.

"Thank you Ry" I smiled and then gave him my present that I hid in my backpack.

He ripped the wrapping paper which revealed the pencils and colors I got for him since he loved drawing. Plus he was so talented.

"These are also expensive! This is like the best brand ever. I can't wait to use it. Thank you Matty!" He gasps and attacked me with another hug.

I laughed and looked a bit around. Everyone seemed to be in a Christmas mood since other people were also giving each other presents, hugs and they were smiling. It felt nice and there was a clear yet happy atmosphere around us. The school had also been decorated with red and silver stuff.

There was a huge Christmas tree in the middle of the hallway with silver and red Christmas balls and garlands. Sadly we had classes today, they clearly hate us. The only good thing is that we can leave school at 1 pm.

"How long do we have before class?" I asked him.

"Uhm.. Around fifteen minutes before we start" He answered while looking at his phone.

The only good thing about being in a different year is that we start and end around the same hours. Justin is in the same year as I am. Also a couple of Ryan and I's friend are in my year. The rest is with Ryan's.

"So.. I've heard rumors about you and Justin hanging out? I thought you hated his guts?" He asked casually, but something was off in his voice. Almost like he was about to laugh.

Sometimes I tend to forget that I'm also popular just like Justin. These rumors spread so fast. You literally don't have privacy in here once something happen, everyone knows. It was just the same that happened when he was gone.

I slightly frowned while thinking about him. I needed his touch, wanted to feel his warmth and had to hear his laugh. I missed how bright his eyes were looking into my soul or how he laughed soft when he listened to how I was talking about the smallest things. I just wanted him here, right now even if he'd be angry with me. I missed him.

"Hey Matt, you suddenly spaced out. Are you okay?" Ryan said while he grabbed my arm.

"I'm fine, what were we talking about?" I lied, again.

"About Justin.."

"Oh right, he was there when we had that fight. I wasn't fully alone. We just hung out for a bit" I shrugged nonchalant and smiled while thinking back at those memories I made with him.

"Oh?" He smirked playfully while his curls bounced a bit.

"What?" I snapped out of my thoughts and looked back at him.

"Just hanging out?" He winked cheekily.

"Oh no, god no.. not you too! We just hung out as friends" I felt my cheeks heat up and empathized on the word 'friends'.

First my mom and now Ryan is also thinking like that. What is wrong with these people? Can't I just hang out with boy-friends?

"Sure whatever, you're just all flustered and smiling dreamily while thinking about his sexy body" He giggled and smirked.

"Stop it!" I blushed even more and looked away.

"You can't hide it from me. I've seen it before, the connection" He whispered and smiled soft in a way that made me frown.

"What do you mean, I don't know what you're talking about?" I asked confused.

"Oh.. nothing" He smiled and walked further towards the canteen with me next to him.

I frowned but let it go for now. It's probably nothing. I know that I don't like Justin, at least not like that. No.. I definitely don't like him like that. It makes me want to snort.

We talked about useless things with the friends in our group, just as always. After a while I greeted everyone and went back towards my class.

"Hey Matz, wait up!" Justin said and catch up with me.

"Hey Merry Christmas Matz" He smiled wide and gave me a small black bag.

"What is this?" I asked confused and frowned.

"See for yourself" He smiled in a cheeky way.

I opened the bag and saw a gray sweater in it which made me look up at him in amazement.

"I know how much you like hoodies and sweaters since you wear them every day. I though maybe it was time for a new one? The color fits your eyes really well.." He laughed soft and smiled then.

"B-but I didn't get you anything! I'm so sorry" I frowned and felt guilty so gave him the sweater back.

"No, babe, take it. It doesn't matter, really. We just became friends so I didn't expect anything from you. I got you this, because I wanted to and not because I expect something in return" He gave me the sweater back and enveloped me in a hug so I buried my head in the crook of his neck.

"Thank you.." I whispered.

"Always for you Matt.." He said soft, but I think more to himself than towards me yet I heard him say it.

"Hey, everything okay by the way? You seemed pretty angry yesterday, but I didn't want to upset you so I never went towards you" I rambled and shrugged while feeling a bit insecure when he didn't reply for a while.

Get your balls Matt, you're never insecure.

"You and Ryan seemed pretty cozy yesterday.." He suddenly said.

"Wait.. What?" I frowned confused.

"You heard me" He said with a weird tone, he sounded..

Jealous?

I couldn't help but laugh out loud. He just stayed silent with a blank face in front of me which almost made me feel sorry for the pretty boy.

"You're jealous" I pointed out while grinning.

And then I was the jealous one? Pffft.

"I.. I'm not!" He yelled almost upset.

"Hey, calm down Jus. Ryan and I are just best friends. Like us two, we're just friends. Ry was really happy just because I took him to the fair and for your information, I don't like the fair so he was really happy" I explained myself and frowned.

I rarely saw him like this. He had the same serious face on and it gave me all the bad feelings in my guts. I didn't like him like this. I liked the dorky and teasing Justin, not the serious and angry one.

"By the way, the history test results are back. Did you get it?" He changed the subject and seemed less annoyed.

"What? Seriously?!" I asked with wide eyes.

He nodded to me as an answer so I grabbed my phone immediately and searched through my e-mail. I opened the last one that I got from my history teacher and read it pretty fast.

"And..?" I heard Justin nervously ask since he couldn't read my face expression for the first time.

My gray eyes met up with his forest green ones. My face went blank for a second, not knowing what to do or how to react. Then I jumped up and down in excitement, acting for the first time like a little child. But I was allowed to this time, because I passed!

"I got a 9.3 out of ten. I PASSED!" I yelled as loud as I could and went in for a hug.

I wrapped my arms around his neck in happiness and couldn't stop laughing in his ear, probably deafening the poor kid. I felt his arms wrap around my waist.

"See, I knew you could do it!" He laughed and leaned back to look at me.

"I couldn't have done it without you, thank you so much!" I laughed.

And in a rush, without thinking twice, I spontaneously kissed his cheek.

"Merry Christmas Justin!" I yelled excitedly while rushing back to the cafeteria to search for Ryan.

"Ry!" I grabbed his arm and dragged him towards a less crowded spot in school.

"Remember that very important history test I told you about last week?" I asked him.

"Yes?" He asked, waiting for me to continue.

"I got a 9.3 for my history test, I passed history!" I grinned excited.

"What?! Seriously? You've always struggled with history, I'm so proud of you!" He smiled and hugged me.

"Matt, we have class now. I talk to you later okay?" He said while looking at his phone and walked away once he hugged me goodbye.

I also went back towards my first class of the day or else I would've been late. Luckily I only had like two hours today so I went to the back of the class and tried to pay attention.

Yeah, tried.

After the longest two hours of my life full with teacher Mumble and her monotonous voice trying to explain whatever the hell that was. I finally went back home to meet my mom.

"Hey mom!" I smiled when I found her in the kitchen.

"Honey, you're back early today?" She asked and walked towards me.

"I got a 9.3 for history!" I told her excitedly.

"Really? Well that Justin boy is a good one, you should keep him" She winked and laughed.

"Mom stop that! We're just friends. What is it with you and Ryan?" I shook my head and laughed.

"I'm just joking honey" She smirked and then stood in front of me.

She reached out to caress my cheek and comforted me with a smile. I looked back into the same gray eyes that I had. This woman was a hero to me. I'm so happy to have her as my mom, she's beautiful and so strong while doing everything all on her own. I aspire to be like her someday.

"I'm so proud of you baby. You're going through a lot and I can see that somehow the past days, you seem happier. I don't know if it's because of Justin, but I'm glad you found someone you brought home besides Ryan even though Ryan is a sweetie" She smiled and kissed my cheek.

Then suddenly something about Justin came into my mind that I didn't realize before so my eyes widened.

"Shit! I kissed him"