⌜ chapter thirteen ⌟

Letty opens the backdoor to the Matthews' house and walks inside, finding Eric sitting at the table trying to type on a laptop. "Hey, what are you doing?" The brunette asks as she shuts the door and walks over to him.

"Trying to write a play about my life." He tells her as she sits in the seat next to him.

"Eric Matthews in Look At Me, Look At Me: A One-Man Show." She reads off the paper next to him, and then starts skimming through it. "Hey, babe?"

"Yeah?" He turns his attention to her.

"Your birthday is February 11, 1978." She tells him.

"I know." He says, and she points at the paper where it says that his birthday's June twenty-fourth. "Morgan." He mutters, and she chuckles as he scratches it out with his pen to fix it.

Letty starts reading through it again, and she starts laughing as Cory walks down the stairs. "Uh, you're cute, and I hate to rain on your parade, but so much of this is wrong." She says, and he scoots his chair closer to look at everything she's pointing at. "And your middle name isn't Kyle, it's—" She's cut off when he puts his hand over her mouth.

"That wasn't Morgan, I did that one on purpose." He tells her, his face an inch from hers as he stares into her dark eyes. "I am Eric Kyle Matthews now."

"Okay." Her voice is muffled by his hand, and then the phone starts ringing.

"You two are weird." Cory says as his brother gets up from his seat to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"You're weird." Letty retorts.

"Nope. No Dory here." Eric says as he shoves his hand in his front pocket.

"Eric, that's for me." His brother rushes over to him and takes the phone. "Shawn?" He asks, and the older two in the kitchen exchange a confused look.

...

"Why, is Jennifer there?"

...

"You know, this is ridiculous." Cory says. "How can you let some girl tell you you can't see your best friend? It's just wrong. Do you hear me? Wrong." And then there's a pause. "Shawn, are you there?"

...

"I gotta see you." He says, and Letty stands up to move beside Eric as they both watch his younger brother.

...

"Because of...her?" He questions. "You're gonna let her stand in the way of what we had? Shawn, if you won't see me, then I'll come right over there and see you."

...

"I will not be ignored." He insists, and Eric and Letty glance at each other again.

...

"That's all I'm asking for."

...

"The library it is, then I'll step aside forever." He starts to pull the phone away from his ear, but then puts it back to see if Shawn's still there. Cory finally hangs up the phone, and then turns around to find Eric and Letty staring at him, both with furrowed brows and confused expressions.

"I want my own room." Eric tells him.

"Hey, Cor. Why weren't we invited to yours and Shawn's wedding?" Letty asks, and the younger boy looks at her.

"Why weren't we invited to yours?" He motions between her and Eric, the two teenagers having started leaning into each other without even realizing it.

"Oh, no. When we get married, it's gonna be a big production." Eric says as he wraps his arm around the brunette. "All our family and friends, big dress, huge cake, a hundred white doves, the best food." He tells his younger brother.

"And who's paying for that?" Letty asks as she looks up at him.

"We'll figure it out." He smiles as he looks down at her. "Start saving now."

"You two make no sense to me." Cory shakes his head and then goes back upstairs.

"Makes perfect sense to me." Eric says, his eyes on the brunette. "Can't be together right now, but we're still supposed to be together in the end."

"You really are the romantic type, you know that?" Letty smiles, her arm hooked around his back.

"Never was before you." He says, and she nods.

"I remember."

"Takes someone special."

"And can that someone special be honest with you?" She asks. "Even if you're not gonna like what she has to say?"

"Of course." He nods as he turns to face her, rather than keeping her against his side.

"No one's gonna pay thirty bucks to buy tickets to a show to hear the story of a man whose name they don't recognize." She tells him. "I'm all for you writing a play, but I don't want you to lose money on this. And I know that renting out a theater isn't gonna be cheap."

"You don't think I should write this?"

"I think that if this is the story that you wanna write, you should start it now and work on it as you gain some more life experiences. But you and I both know that you're just looking to make a quick buck." She says, and he nods.

"Yeah." He sighs. "How did you get to be so smart?"

"I just know you." She smiles. "Eric Randall Matthews."

"You little—" He grabs for her, but she quickly turns and sprints for the stairs.

They're both making a lot of noise as he chases her up the steps and down the hall. He finally gets his arms around her, and she twists around to face him. Eric's hands are on her hips as he pins her against the wall outside of his sister's bedroom, and she chuckles as she looks up at him.

"You caught me. Now what?" Letty asks as he brushes her dark brown hair away from her eyes.

"No sense. You make no sense." Cory says, standing in the boys' doorway as he looks at the older two teenagers.

"Hey, Cory? Go away, and shut the door." Eric tells younger brother, and the brunette in front of him smirks.

"And what exactly do you think is gonna happen?" She asks after he closes the door.

"You know what I'm always hoping for." He says as he moves closer to her. "And if you don't stop me, I'm gonna kiss you now."

Letty's eyes fall shut as he leans down, and his lips brush lightly over hers. He hesitates, giving her a chance to pull away, but when she doesn't, he pulls her body flush against his as he then presses his lips firmly against hers. She runs her hands up his chest so that her fingers can tangle in his hair as he deepens the kiss, and he presses her against the wall again.

He wants to keep kissing her, but he knows that they shouldn't even be doing this right now. So he pulls back and rests his forehead against hers, giving them both a chance to catch their breath. After a few seconds, he reluctantly stands up straight but keeps his arms around her as he looks into her dark brown eyes. A smile pulls at her lips as she looks up at him.

"Not that I'm not always happy to see you, especially right now..." Eric starts, and she laughs as she rests her forehead against his chest. "But what did you come over here for?" He asks.

She sighs as she looks up at him again. "Nothing." She shakes her head. "It's not important." She says, and his eyebrows furrow.

"What's the matter?"

"I just... I really don't want to ruin this moment." Letty tells him.

"What could possibly ruin this?" He asks, and she looks down. "Letty?" He hooks his finger under her chin and gets her to look up at him again.

"I can't find my necklace, and the last time I remember having it, I was still living here." She tells him. "I was hoping to check around Morgan's room."

"It's not there." He says, and her eyebrows furrow. "I have it. Or I did."

"What?"

"I found it on my bed after we broke up, the chain must've broken while we were..." He says, and she nods. "It costs a little more to have the chain fixed than I was expecting. And buying a new one is expensive because of the metal. It's taking longer to get done than I was expecting, but it's at a jeweler now."

"You're having it fixed?" She asks, obviously surprised, and he nods. "But you hate it."

"But you don't." He argues. "Besides, you told me once that it was the only necklace you have. I've been looking into getting you another one, but all the ones that I like enough to buy for you are kinda expensive. I was saving up, but I was also still taking you out on dates. Now, I'm doing this, so it's gonna take longer again. Plus, it's hard to find ones that I think you'd like..." He shrugs.

"You could give me a candy necklace, and it'd be my favorite." She tells him, and he smiles as he runs his thumb lightly across her cheek. "You didn't have to spend your money to fix a necklace that you hate. Honestly, I shouldn't even have been wearing it."

"You like it, and I love you." He says. "It's just a necklace."

Letty stretches up onto her tippy-toes and presses her lips against his again. He rests his hand on the side of her face as he kisses her.