as you wish

59

irl

the group begins walking around the mall talking to zeke, chris still feeling guilty for being passive aggressive towards him hugging chloe.

chloe grabbed chris' hand and held it tightly as they walked around the upper level of the mall.

after a few minutes of casual conversation with him, 2 girls that couldn't have been over the age of 15 shyly approach them, nick noticing and stopping everyone from walking.

"can we get a picture with you guys? we've been watching you for like, forever." one of them asks.

"of course." nick smiles.

kaia, chloe, and nathan step aside as nick, matt, and chris all huddle together with the girls, leaving zeke extremely confused.

they take the picture, then look at kaia, chloe, and nathan.

"can we get one with you guys, too? we just love all of you." she asks.

zeke looks lost out of his mind, but stands aside as they join the triplets for the photo.

matt putts an arm around kaia and everyone smiles for the pictures, they each give the girls a small hug and watch as they run off giggling.

"i'm so lost." zeke shakes his head, smiling as they continue watching.

"they're just our viewers. you know, from youtube?" chris explains.

"ohhhh, yeah. i don't have any social media, i'm barely online. i have a phone, literally just to text my parents and some friends. and play games when i'm bored." zeke laughs, now understanding.

"that's awesome, honestly sometimes i wish i never had social media." kaia smiles at zeke.

"it is pretty peaceful. so, you guys are like, famous online?" he asks.

"no, i definitely wouldn't say famous. we have a good amount of followers, but we're still normal people, not washed up celebrities." matt answers.

"cool, cool. what's the most "celebrity" thing you guys do?" he asks, genuinely curious.

"uhhh, i guess it has to be having a house in la, we visit whenever we have breaks from school, we're probably gonna spend a lot more time there after we graduate. we're in our fifth year here, kaia, chloe, and nathan are seniors." matt explains to zeke.

"oh, cool. i'm in my fifth year, too. so, how old are each of you guys?" he asks, looking at everyone.

"well, me, nick, and chris are all turning 19 in august. kaia just turned 18 a couple months ago, chloe turned 18 in january, and nate is also turning 18 in august." he answers.

"all three of you in august? triplets, right? i knew you looked too similar to just be brothers." he laughs.

"yeah, triplets." matt nods.

kaia lets go of matt's hand to walk over to the starbucks in the mall that they had just passed, and matt stopped walking to turn around and look where she was going.

everyone else stopped, too. matt apologized to zeke and ran over to kaia, everyone followed him over.

"sorry." kaia whispers to matt as she orders a drink.

"you totally ditched him mid conversation!" matt whispered to her.

"he was talking to you, anyway." she laughed, paying for her order.

"whatever." matt laughs, putting an arm around her as they wait.

"i'm so sorry, zeke. i just saw the sign that they put out new flavours of my favourite lemonade." she apologizes, turning around to face zeke who was talking to nick with a huge smile on his face.

"oh, don't even worry about it. i would've done the same." he brushes it off, continuing his conversation with nick.

"they seem to get along well." matt raises his eyebrows, leaning down to whisper in kaia's ear.

"it's cute." she agrees.

the barista hands kaia her finished drink and she thanks the girl, holding matt's hand as they keep walking through the mall.

"so, i was just telling nick about a party i'm having tonight, would any of you wanna come? my parents are out of town so i invited basically everyone from my old school and everyone i know from here." zeke says to the group.

"yeah, absolutely! we don't have anything planned." kaia happily accepts.

everyone else agrees as well, and they eventually say their goodbyes to zeke as they're all getting tired and want to go home.

zeke gives nick his number to "talk about the party" but as soon as zeke was out of earshot, nick wouldn't stop gushing about how he's pretty sure he was flirting with him.

they all walk out to kaia's car and pile in, the traffic on the way back to the triplet's house and out if the mall parking lot being absolutely attrocious.

kaia pulls into the triplet's driveway, parking her car and climbing out. everyone closes their doors and walks inside, she locks the car as they're stepping inside the front door.

everyone kicks off their shoes and dispursts to different rooms. nick, nathan, chloe, and chris all sit in chris' room to stream themselves on twitch taking turns on fortnite before they have to leave for the party.

matt and kaia couldn't be bothered, so they just lay down in matt's room watching tv to pass time. zeke had told nick to come over around nine, and texted him the address.

it was currently a little after 4pm, and everyone was excited for the party.

"what are you gonna wear?" matt asks kaia, breaking the silence that had been there since he turned the tv on.

"not sure yet. definitely nothing too fancy, it's probably a pretty casual house party." she shrugs.

"i can pick an outfit for you if you want." he offers, not bothering to hide the huge grin plastered across his face.

"only if you pick something nice. we have like 5 hours until we have to leave anyway." she laughs.

"are you planning on drinking?" he asks her.

"i mean, probably. if he's providing it then i will. why?" she asks.

"so i get to drive your new car home?" he asks excitedly.

"oh, shit. yeah, i guess you'll have to be the dd." she nods.

"i always am." he laughs.

"does it bother you? that i drink and vape and shit, and that you guys are sober? like, don't you wish you had a sober girlfriend?" she looks at him, turning away from the tv.

"not at all. i'm just glad i have you. you never pressure me or try to make me drink, so why can't i just love you anyway? i don't care that you do it." he shakes his head, pulling her in closer and kissing her forehead.

"i love you, matt." she smiles, pecking a kiss to his lips.

"i love you more." he smiles back at her.

1116 words