♥︎ ✯ ☘︎︎

𝟒 ... 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐲𝐧 𝐜𝐫𝐲

☘︎︎ ✯ ♥︎

matt 🍁

I wake up pissed off. Not just because I slept terribly or because I'm sweating profusely due to Luna curled up into my side, but because today is a travel day. And I hate travel days.

My loud exhale fills the room as I stare at the ceiling above me. Luna licks my arm in greeting and rests her head on my chest, her big soul-filled eyes staring into mine.

"Hi, Luns," I whisper, my voice scratchy with sleep.

Luna's tail thumps against my leg underneath the covers and her jaw falls open as she yawns, giving me a nice waft of her rank breath.

"Thank you so much for that, you stinky goof." I kiss the top of her head before I toss back the covers and swing my feet over the side of my bed. I do not want to deal with today. I wish I were still asleep.

The house is quiet as I exit my bedroom. Luna's claws clip against the floor as she trots after me, knowing I am on my way to get her breakfast. The girls slept over last night so we can leave promptly for the airport this morning, and one of Bryn's friends from her job at the coffee shop is picking up Luna soon to dog-sit her for the next two months. I wish the giant puppy could come with us, but it's not feasible.

I hear the water running in the bathroom downstairs and know Bryn will be getting ready for the day. She's not a morning person, but she gets ridiculously excited about trips and is usually up hours before we need to leave to get everything ready. She's going to be a good mom one day.

Callie and Madi are upstairs in Nick's room, but I doubt they nor Nick will be awake for at least another hour. We don't have to leave for another two hours, but I want to be able to get ready without everyone getting in my way and stressing me out.

When I shut off the shower faucet twenty minutes later, yelling fills my ears: not just one singular voice, but a multitude. I grumble under my breath as I quickly dry off and tug on clothes, expecting to find a full-out brawl when I burst out of the bathroom. But I should have remembered who I lived with.

Chris and Bryn are wrestling in the middle of the floor. He's shouting ridiculous insults while she laughs hysterically, clearly trying to get words out but failing miserably. Nick is yelling at Luna as he tries to reclaim a t-shirt clamped firmly in her jaws, but she thinks he wants to play and is growling excitedly. Callie is perched on the kitchen table and is loudly singing the Canadian national anthem, for what reason I am unsure. Madi is sitting in the living room and has her phone on speaker phone as she talks with her mom while watching Too Hot Too Handle on the TV. 

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?" My voice rips from my lungs and fills the house, overpowering all other noise.

Luna is so startled she drops Nick's shirt, and everyone else falls silent as they turn to look at me. And then proceed to start laughing.

"Matt, what the fuck?" Nick cackles as he shuffles towards me with his hand outstretched like he plans to hypnotize me.

"What are you doing?!" I smack Nick's hand away, my brow furrowing in confusion as I glance at each person, not understanding why they are laughing so hard. "What's going on?!"

"Matt, your hair is green," Bryn giggles as she sits up on the floor, her brown eyes wide as she stares up at me. "What did you do?"

"My hair is not green!" I scowl as I shove past Nick to look at myself in the mirror on the wall by the couch. When my reflection comes into view, a strangled gasp escapes my lips. My hair is a dark, mossy green. "What the hell?!"

"Matt, are you seriously telling us you just woke up with green hair?" Chris' reflection frowns at me in the mirror as I tug at my wet hair in shock.

"No, but I don't..." I trail off, my gaze focused on my hair as my mind spins. Yesterday, I caught Callie in a vulnerable situation. I helped her and tried to be nice to her. The last time I was nice to her when I first met her, she suddenly decided she hated me and started verbally attacking me. So now, after I've been nice to her again, would she sit back and do nothing?

I turn slowly, the rest of the room falling silent as my gaze levels on Callie. She is still sitting on top of the kitchen table, but her lips have curled up in a devious smirk and she is confidently tapping her nails against the tabletop.

"Callie."

"Matt," she replies sweetly as she pushes her dark hair over her shoulder. "Honestly, I think green suits you."

"Did you put green dye in my shampoo?" My voice is dangerously low, and Nick mumbles an "Oh, fuck" as he retreats into the living room to sit with Madi.

"Oh, was that your shampoo?" Callie gasps in surprise, her smirk slipping off her face. "I'm so sorry, Matt, I thought it was mine! I thought I would try green for fun, but now that I see how terrible it looks on you, I think I might pass."

My muscles are tight in restrained rage and I force myself to draw in a breath before I speak again. "Please tell me it is not permanent."

"I would never use permanent hair dye, much too risky!" Callie shakes her head rapidly, her smirk beginning to return. "I think it was a semi-permanent dye, maybe like a two-week long-lasting time? Oh shit, I guess that means you're going to have green hair for the first bit of the tour! If only you were team green instead of blue."

"Callie," Bryn snaps, not sounding impressed with her best friend. "This is fucking low."

Knowing there is no way Callie will own up to dying my hair on purpose, I roll my eyes in disbelief and stomp out of the kitchen, slamming the bathroom door behind me. I can't believe Callie's nerve. I never did anything shitty to her, so I don't understand where this fucking terrorising comes from.

I ignore the sound of raised voices outside the bathroom door and pick up my phone from the counter to search for how to get hair dye out fast. After a couple of minutes of pointless internet searching, a quiet knock on the bathroom door cuts into my silent seething rage.

"It's me."

I yank open the door and jerk my head to tell Bryn to come in before I shut the door behind her, taking care not to look down the hallway in case Callie is down there. I will not give her the satisfaction of seeing me this angry.

I don't understand why she acts like this. She's always been harder to connect with, but I've seen her let her guard down more with Chris and Nick, so why is she still icing me out? Is it just because I've accidentally seen her in vulnerable moments? It seems like she is trying to control the way people see her, and she's failing with me.

"It doesn't look that bad," Bryn says quietly, her face scrunched together in an obvious lie.

"I look like I am turning into a piece of seaweed," I hiss, my pulse continuing to race with barely contained rage.

"Dude, I know you're mad, but you've gotta calm down. Your face is bright red." Bryn gently grabs my wrist, forcing me to focus on her. "Take three deep breaths, please."

I roll my eyes, but do as she says, knowing she is right. Callie might be the worst fucking person on the planet, but I have to be the bigger person.

Once I have taken a few deep breaths and my pulse has slowed under Bryn's fingerprints, she releases my wrist and pulls out her free hand from where it was tucked behind her back. "You're lucky I have a box of brown hair dye."

"You should have led with that!" I exclaim as I grab the box from her hands. "It's my exact colour. Why do you have this?"

Bryn shrugs, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Last week, Nick texted me and said he was sick of his blonde hair and wanted to go back to brown so he asked me to pick this up on my way home from work. Unsurprisingly, he changed his mind by the time I got home, but I figured I would keep it just in case."

"Mabel, I adore you." I plant a chaste kiss on Bryn's head and grin when she scowls and wipes at the spot my lips touched.

"You're gross," she states bluntly as she takes the box of hair dye back from me. "And also so fucking lucky that the green dye didn't stain your face in the shower."

"I had a face mask on."

Bryn's eyebrows fly to the roof and she laughs in surprise. "You never fail to shock me, Matty B. Now, let's get your hair back to brown, shall we?"

callie 💋

The drive to the airport is tense. I am sitting in the first row of the car with Nick and Madi, but I stay silent while they chat with Laura and our Uber driver, an English immigrant with strong opinions on American food. Nick is finding him hilarious.

Meanwhile, the back of the car is deathly silent. Matt has been giving me the silent treatment since my epic prank was revealed, and every time I catch his eye, he scowls and looks away. Thus, mission success. What I didn't expect was that Bryn would also give me the cold shoulder. She was more upset than I expected, which made me feel bad, but what was I supposed to do? I had to push Matt away somehow, and this was the best way.

Chris is also quiet, but I think his silence relates more to trying to support Bryn. She's upset with me, sure, but even more than that, I know she will be anxious about our upcoming flight. The Versus Tour kicks off in Rome, Italy, a thirteen-hour flight from Los Angeles. Bryn has panic attacks when flying between LA and Boston, so I can't imagine how nervous she must be about flying to Europe.

The airport is crawling with people when we arrive. I stick close to Nick's side, abiding by the buddy system that Bryn drilled into our heads this morning. The boys fall quiet, each tugging up their hoods and putting on sunglasses. As for me, I have Arctic Monkeys blasting through my headphones. I have never flown before so the whole airport scene is unfamiliar, but Laura is handling everything, so all I have to do is not lose her in the crowd.

It's not until we are at TSA that my brain kicks into gear. Our group gets split into different groups to go through security, and I am sent to a line with Chris. I roll my eyes when the security guard sends Matt after us. But my attention is pulled away from my archnemesis when I notice the hot guy organizing his stuff in the security bins in front of me. I've heard a rumour that the airport is a good place to meet people, but I always thought that was bullshit. But maybe there is something to the rumour that rings true.

"I've seen this airport security guy before," the guy suddenly says, his gaze focusing on mine as he points at a tall, firm-looking TSA worker. "I swear he sounds like he's running an auction."

I laugh in surprise, not expecting Mr. Hot Guy to speak to me. He is quite attractive; he's got to be at least six feet tall, and he has dark, practically black hair and deep brown eyes. Not to mention, the smile he's giving me right now is making me weak in the knees. "You can't be serious."

"I am, come listen!" he insists, chuckling as he waits for me to finish dumping my stuff into the bins to go through the scanner.

I ignore Chris and Matt murmuring to each other behind me and follow Mr. Hot Guy to the line to walk through the metal detector. And sure enough, the TSA worker is running things in a less-than-conventional way.

"Step right up, that's right, you there in the green top, alrighty, here we go, step inside. Going once, going twice, going thrice, sold! You're good, ma'am, have a wonderful day. Next, step right up, the man in the brown pants, here we go."

"I think he missed his true calling in life," I grin as I watch the man wave around his arms, enthusiastic about directing people.

Mr. Hot Guy laughs, the sound silky smooth. "I told him that exact thing last time I was here and he said there is no greater honour than working in TSA."

"You're kidding," I laugh, my gaze shifting from the worker to the attractive male beside me.

Mr. Hot Guy grins, flashing me a set of pearly white teeth. "I'm Conrad."

"Callie." I return his smile. "Are you from LA?"

"New York. I was here touring UCLA, I'm thinking about transferring from NYU."

I'm about to answer, but a sharp clearing of someone's throat cuts me off.

Conrad and I look to where Matt is standing beside us, his eyebrows raised in disbelief and his arms crossed over his chest. "Conrad, was it? I'm going to be blunt with you, man. I've known Callie for a while, and I would keep my distance from her if I were you. She may look healthy, but I can assure you that her gynaecologist would say otherwise."

My jaw drops in horror, my mind scrambling to create a response to Matt's blatant lie.

"Uhh–" Conrad casts me a side glance before he clears his throat uncomfortably and steps away to go through the metal detector. "Nice to meet you, Callie."

I stammer, trying to find something appropriate to say, but Conrad is already disappearing through the other side of the metal detector, and the TSA guy is waving at me to come through. I glare at Matt, who is smirking triumphantly, before I stalk through the metal detector.

It doesn't take long for Matt and Chris to join me on the other side, all of us having been declared metal-free.

"What the fuck was that?!" I explode, not even trying to keep my voice down.

Matt scowls at me, his face tightening defensively. "You fucking dyed my hair green this morning! That was payback!"

"I dyed your hair, I didn't tell a hot girl you had herpes!"

"I didn't say herpes," Matt fires back, clearly missing the point of my anger. "It could have just been genital warts."

"Matt!" I shriek, my heartbeat hammering in my ears. "That is so much fucking worse than what I did! I just changed your appearance, which wasn't that good in the first place anyway!"

People are starting to look at us, wary of our argument that is growing in volume. Chris is silently packing up all our stuff, and Nick, Madi, Bryn, and Laura are waiting nearby for us, but Matt and I are oblivious. We are locked in our own world.

"Please!" Matt scoffs in disbelief, his cheeks reddening the more upset he gets. "I think you find me attractive. And I was doing that guy a favour."

I growl under my breath as pressure builds under my eyes. While Bryn cries when she's sad, I cry when I get angry. But the day Matt Sturniolo sees me cry is the day that I jump off a bridge.

"Hey!" Chris hisses, grabbing our elbows to haul us out of the heart of TSA and to the sidelines where our friends are waiting. "You two need to cut it out!"

"He fucking said I have STDs!" I exclaim, ripping my arm out of Chris' grasp. "That's way too far!"

Chris opens his mouth to reply, but Matt beats him to it. "You know what you don't get, Callie? You're a bitch to me all the time, and sure I'm mean to you, but not like you are to me. I just gave you exactly what you deserve, and I would do it again in a heartbeat."

"Enough!" Bryn yells, her high-pitched voice cutting off my brain's formulating insult.

My gaze rips away from Matt to stare at my best friend, and my stomach drops to my feet when I see tears pooling in her eyes.

"I'm sick of you two fighting!" Bryn whisper-shouts, clearly trying to ward off the attention that Matt and I gathered. "I can't do it anymore! Matt, you're my brother, and Callie, you're my best friend! We're all together all the time, and it breaks my heart that you guys can't get along. I can't do this anymore." With that, Bryn spins on her heel and storms away from us, but not before I see tears spill over her eyes and roll down her cheeks.

Madi and Laura exchange a glance before they wordlessly follow Bryn, leaving Matt and I with an annoyed Nick and a seething Chris.

"Let's go," Chris growls quietly. He grabs both mine and Matt's elbows again, and this time I don't fight him. With Nick trailing behind us, Chris hauls us down a nearby hallway so we are tucked out of sight from the public eye. Only when the loud murmur of the airport fades slightly does he release our arms.

I've never seen Chris so angry. His chest is heaving as a result of his breaths coming quickly, and his fists are clenched at his sides. His brow is furrowed and his eyes are narrowed as they dart back and forth between Matt and I. Nick, meanwhile, is leaning against the wall looking almost amused as he stares at Chris.

"Remind me to never make Bryn cry," Nick murmurs with a low chuckle.

Chris sends Nick a deadly look, causing Nick to put his hands up in surrender.

"I am so fucking sick of both of you." Chris' voice is low, and the rage simmering under his words sends shivers down my spine.

Matt stands silent next to me, his arms crossed defensively over his chest. His knee is jittering slightly, and I'm surprised when I realize that I know that to be one of his anxious triggers. I guess I pay more attention to him than I thought. Probably just because he's so ugly it's amusing.

"It's one thing when you're fighting at home, but we're not at home anymore," Chris continues, his dark gaze continuing to switch between Matt and I. "We are preparing to work, yet you two are acting like children. This tour is so fucking important to all of us, especially you, Matt. And Callie, you need the money this job is giving you. You don't want to be fired, do you? Because I guarantee that the girl you're working for is not going to put up with this bullshit. You two need to grow up and gain some perspective. What's more important: the life-changing trip we are about to go on, or your petty feud with each other?"

"We might as well just send them both home," Nick interrupts, unphased when Chris' scowl swings at him. "They can't even handle being in each other's presence for five minutes, let alone work together and spend all their free time together. They'll murder each other if things continue this way. Like blood and gore everywhere murder scenes. I doubt they could even behave if we offered them a bajillion dollars."

Matt grumbles in offence under his breath from beside me, but my eyes narrow at Chris, whose face just lit up like a lightbulb.

"That's it," he murmurs under his breath, his gaze flickering to the ceiling as he mentally sorts through something. After a moment of confused silence from Nick, Matt, and I, Chris looks back at us with a huge smile. "That's it! We'll have a bet. And if you succeed, Callie, Nick and I will give you a thousand dollars–"

"Whoa!" Nick interrupts again, alarm flashing across his face as he straightens from his leisurely position. "Don't spend my money!"

"And Matt," Chris continues, ignoring Nick. "We will give you permission to get a second dog."

I can tell by the way Matt's posture straightens that he is intrigued. And I am too. A thousand dollars is a lot of money.

"What's the bet?" Matt asks suspiciously, his voice guarded.

Chris finally glances at Nick, who rolls his eyes and shrugs, telling Chris to go on. The youngest triplet beams before looking back at Matt and I. "You have to spend all your free time together and be nice, or at least civil, to each other when you are around other people."

"All our free time?" I question, my eyebrows raised in disbelief. "That seems highly unnecessary."

"The more time you spend together, the more likely it is that you'll start to understand each other, which will lead to both of you not hating the other anymore," Chris counters, his smirk showing that he is very confident in the logic of this bet.

"What do you define being civil as?" Matt asks, his brow knitted together with intense focus.

"No mean or degrading insults, no swearing at each other, no glaring, no sabotaging." Chris ticks the items off his fingers as he speaks, his smirk widening. "Nick and I will be the judges and we'll decide at the end of the tour if you have completed the mission."

"Okay, I'm in, this sounds fun," Nick decides, standing beside Chris and mirroring his sly smirk. I might hate all the triplets now, not just Matt.

Chris daps Nick up, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "I am a fucking genius, this is such a good idea. I should've thought of this sooner."

Matt clears his throat, drawing his brothers' attention back to him. "And if we succeed, I can get another dog? And neither of you will ever complain? About the new one or Luna?"

Nick and Chris both roll their eyes and answer Matt simultaneously. "Yes, Matt."

"And Callie gets a thousand dollars, five hundred from each of us," Nick adds, apparently fully on board with this plan.

"So are you in?" Chris bounces on the balls of his feet, far too excited over this idea.

Matt and I exchange a glance. I can see the same hesitancy mirrored in his eyes. He obviously doesn't want to do this any more than I do. But that second dog is enough of a motivator to keep him on the hook, just like the money is for me.

"And if we refuse?" Matt challenges, his voice low and almost threatening.

"Then you can both find your way back home. Alone," Chris shrugs. "I'm serious. We need peace if this tour is going to go smoothly. You're both great at your jobs, but this feud is putting everyone on edge. It's this, or nothing."

I clench my jaw, knowing I'm stuck. There's no way I can afford to turn down this job. Mom needs me to take it. Matt seems to be wrestling with the same realization, his scowl deepening with every passing second.

"We'll talk about it. Scram." Matt jerks his thumb over his shoulder, making Chris and Nick scoff in disbelief.

"So rude," Nick mumbles as he trudges past Matt and I.

"And after I stopped them from being arrested by TSA," Chris huffs in disbelief as he follows Nick.

Their voices fade as they round the corner, leaving Matt and I alone in uncomfortable silence.

"I hate you, but I think I hate that we made Bryn cry even more." My voice is quiet, and I am almost embarrassed to be admitting to Matt how I feel about something. But I'm telling the truth. Beside my mom, Bryn is the most important person in my life. When she hurts, I hurt.

"Me too. It makes me sick that we're hurting her," Matt murmurs, dropping his arms from their crossed position as he turns to face me. His gaze analyzes me, and for once, I don't snap at him to fuck off.

I avoid Matt's gaze and instead focus on the dripping water fountain beside us. "I know you don't give a shit about me, but I could really use the money."

Matt is quiet for a moment, and I can feel his eyes searing into my skin. "Well, I really want another dog."

"Enough to play nice with me for two months?" I risk glancing back at Matt, and I am surprised by the determination in his eyes.

"I think we can do it. It'll fucking suck, but it's possible."

"Only if you keep your stupid ass comments to yourself. I swear you're an eighty-year-old grandfather, I should be attending your funeral, not your shows." I start to roll my eyes but immediately catch myself. "Oops."

Matt raises his eyebrows, seeming almost amused. But that's impossible. He hates me. "So we're doing this?"

He holds out his hand and I eye it for a moment before hesitantly sliding my hand into his. "We're doing this."

Commence operation 'Don't kill Matt and win one thousand dollars.' God help us all.

cara's obsession ❀

hehe canucks won last night against the flyers 3-0 🥇🥇🥇

i finally watched the new season of obx and it's CRAZY. i fully called the jj plot twist 😎 if you haven't seen it yet, don't click on these comments. and if you have, let's discuss >

no update yet on my guy best friend. my dad thinks i should just ask him about it but that seems way worse to me.

another update, i am finally driving again (but i am still in an aircast LOL) and my first drive was to take my entire family, grandparents included, to the airport for a trip to mexico! but i couldn't go because i have midterms!! 😍😍😍 yay school.

question of the day - favourite fall activity! i really love fall hikes, particularly with friends and my dog! the colours are so pretty in ontario and i love it (but not as much as i love all of you)

good luck living life this week!! 💋💋 (don't forget that jesus loves you!!)

🍉 🍉 🍉