CHAPTER 20
REAL LIFE
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REAL LIFE

"can you-- can you come pick me up?" milani pleaded as she sat on the sidewalk curb outside of a huge, two story house that currently held around a hundred drunk college students.

"i'll send you the address."

the girl hung up, wiping away tears with her sleeve. what started as a truly amazing night, quickly turned to one of the worst nights of her life.

here she sat, outside of a house where she previously had been the night before. the only difference was that her brother didnt come this time. mason had invited her to come over again, the house being one of his close friends'. he knew she had an amazing night the night prior, so he thought to invite her once more for part two. however, he was looking for something more.

when the two arrived at the party, milani stayed close to mason since she hadn't known anybody. the only thing that bothered her was that he knew almost everybody. she hoped to stay by his side the entire night, but later on, she found herself without him.

she searched the crowd for him, eventually seeing that he was dancing with another girl and getting really intimate with her. as if that wasn't enough to upset her, mason soon found his way back to her and tried to push himself onto her.

it wasn't just the fact he was doing so without asking her, it was also that he was doing the same exact thing to another girl less than five minutes before he tried his luck with her.

with that, she yelled at him, drawing attention from everyone at the party. however, everyone gave her a weird look rather than mason. it was then that she had quickly run outside and sat on the curb, thoughts spiraling in her mind.

milani wanted to call ella, but she knew for sure that she was asleep or that she'd kill mason right then and there if she showed up. she didn't want to call kyson because he'd do the same, but literally.

that left her with only one other person, and as much as she didn't want to, she at least had to try. otherwise, she'd be walking home, alone. on top of that, it was beginning to rain.

soon enough, a black suv pulled up right in front of the girl. she stood up slowly, double checking that it was him, before opening the passenger door.

"matt, i'm so sorry. i know it's late-"

"what the fuck happened?" he interrupted, concerned more than ever.

milani's hair was a mess and her mascara was starting to run with every tear that fell from her eyes. her arms were crossed, with her knees brought up to her chest. she was nothing short of miserable. it was cold outside and it was raining lightly.

"can we just go? i'll explain it in a bit," she sniffled.

matt let out a sigh, listening to her request. he knew that getting angry about it wasn't going to help one bit and that he just needed to be there to listen. to calm her down.

the first ten minutes of the drive were silent. it felt a little awkward to matt at first, but he soon realized that it for sure didn't feel awkward to milani because she couldn't even think about that in the moment. she was more focused on processing what happened.

"hey... i don't want you to think i'm upset or mad at you, okay? i just- seeing you sitting on a curb alone at two in the morning, crying, worries me," matt informed her.

it did more to matt than just worry him. it made him uneasy knowing she was hurting. he hated it when she was hurting. he knew he couldn't express those feelings since he was the reason she was hurting at one point. but he wanted to do better. she deserved better. she deserved the world.

"im here to listen," he assured her.

"thank you," milani muttered, wiping her tears with her sleeve, which was now slightly damp from both her tears and the rain. "it's just- it's so stupid. it's so stupid and i fell for it." she dropped her legs to the ground, now sitting upright in her seat.

the car came to a stop at a red light. matt looked over to the girl with furrowed eyebrows.

"he's just some stupid boy who's looking for some girl to hook up with."

matt's stomach dropped at her words. he wasn't sure what all that entailed. whether it meant she hooked up with whoever it was, or she almost did. either way, it pained him. not only because she was hurting, but because he still had feelings for her.

as much as he wanted to tell her, now was most definitely not the time. she was broken in pieces and the only thing he should be doing is comforting her. he then thought about placing his hand on her thigh for comfort, but quickly remembered they weren't like that. deep down, he wanted to say fuck it and do it. but he didn't want to freak her out.

little did he know, she would love that more than anything at that given moment.

he snapped out of his thoughts when someone honked at him, the light now being green. he wondered who else was up at this time, but quickly shook the thought away.

"so.. what do you mean you fell for it..?" he questioned, nervous that she had caught on to his thoughts.

she sighed, "i thought he was this nice guy who wanted to get to know me. he asked if i wanted to go out tonight and i said yes, of course. we went to a party at the same house we did last night, but he was trying to get with some other girl and then less than five minutes later, he tried to do something with me. i didn't let him, obviously, but it blew my mind that he thought i was that easy. not just that, he was trying to hook up with someone else. right in front of me. i don't know, i feel like i'm just doing everything wrong now"

"woah, you're not doing anything wrong. you were blindsided, that's not your fault," matt tried.

milani didn't say anything in response, but she appreciated his words nevertheless. she didn't know if it was the alcohol talking, but she really wanted matt to just make a move or something. she was starting to get into her head, looking back at how happy she was when they were a thing. she wanted it back, but the real thing this time.

"i'm glad you waited to tell me, though, because i probably would've gone in and confronted his ass."

the girl laughed nervously, recollecting her thoughts, "i'm sure you would've."

milani noticed that matt had taken a different turn than usual, and she looked back towards the intersection, before turning towards matt.

"where are we going?"

he quickly glanced at her, "your apartment. is that not where i'm supposed to be going?"

she started playing with her fingers, "can we just go back to your place? i don't want kyson asking any questions."

while she honestly did just want to be with matt, she also didn't want to deal with kyson. the girl was far from being in the mood to explain things to her brother. but more than anything, she wanted to spend time with matt; make up time that had been lost due to the sudden ending of whatever they had.

matt didn't know what to say, and he almost insisted that he dropped her off at her place. he knew, though, that whatever she wanted mattered more. and deep down, he was more than happy to have her stay over for the night. he missed her.

"y-yeah. of course."

she smiled small, "thank you."

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