as you wish

73

irl

as matt lays in his bed examining the crumpled photo of him and kaia from his wallet, he can't help but feel like he lost everything when he lost her.

he feels pathetic for giving up on his life just because he's not with her anymore, he's sick of feeling like she was the only thing that made his life worth living.

after sitting in a pool of his own pitty in the loneliness of his bedroom, he has the urge to leave. to just get out of the house and drive somewhere, he doesn't know where, he just needs to leave.

he neatly puts the photo back in his wallet and grabs his phone and keys, heading downstairs almost in a hurry.

marylou stops him after seeing him head towards the front door, she was sitting in the living room watching her tv show and sipping a glass of wine.

"where are you going, hun?" she asks matt ad he puts his shoes on.

"i don't know. i'm sick of feeling sorry for myself, i'll be back in a couple hours." matt answers.

"you better not be going to kaia's house unannounced again, her mom said it took her hours to get kaia to stop crying after you showed up." marylou wagged her finger.

"i'm not, mom. she's wouldn't even talk to me, anyway." matt jokingly rolled his eyes, placing a hand on the door knob to leave.

"if you're going out, could you grab me a diet coke on the way home? i've been craving one all day." she asked sweetly with a smile.

"sure, mom." he nodded, opening the door and walking to his car.

he got in the car and started the engine, opening his mirror above him to check his teeth before leaving.

a photo fell out of his mirror that he forgot he had put there, he picked it up off the ground and closed the mirror, looking at the photo.

it was the polaroid from earlier this year of him and kaia at her birthday party in la, he kissed it and tucked it back into the clip on the mirror.

he thought about his mom asking for diet coke, that was always kaia's favourite drink, too.

he sighed and backed out of his driveway, heading out to drive around for a bit.

once out on the basically empty roads at 8:30 at night, he rolled down his window and turned up the music like kaia always used to do.

you're just in time, make your tea and your toast. you framed all your posters and dyed your clothes, ooh. you don't have to go, you don't have to go home. oh, there's a long way to go. i don't believe that time will change your mind. in other words, i know they won't hurt you anymore as long as you can let them go.

he had been out driving for a few minutes when he just felt like going home and crying. he remembered he had to grab his mom a drink first, so he began driving to the nearest grocery store so he could go home right after.

he found a spot in the parking lot and locked his car, walking as quick as he could straight inside with his keys still in his hand because it was pouring rain.

he got inside and walked straight back to the drink aisle, not even bothering to look around first.

he looked around and grabbed 2 diet cokes out of the fridge, wanting to drink one himself to see why kaia loves them so much.

after grabbing them, he headed over to the self checkout desk and pulled his wallet out of his pocket, pausing for an extra second to smile at the photo.

he taps his card when he suddenly hears something, whipping his head around to see what it was.

"matty!" willow yells, wriggling in kaia's arms.

he freezes.

"what music do you want to listen to?" kaia asks as she sits down in her seat, looking at willow in the mirror.

"harry!" willow shouts.

kaia laughs and connects her spotify to the new bluetooth car, playing harry's house on her phone and smiling when she hears willow begin to hum along to music for a sushi restaurant.

she starts the car and drives over to the grocery store and parks, carrying willow and running inside using the hood of matt's plain grey hoodie she was wearing to cover her and willow because it was raining.

once they got inside, kaia set willow down on the ground and took her hood off, drying the ends of her hair with her sleeves.

she reaches down to hold willow's hand as she guides kaia over to the magazine area.

the harry magazines are all on the bottom shelf, so she crouches down on one knee to look at them all while willow excitedly points at every cover with harry's face on it that she sees.

"which one is your favourite, willy?" she asks.

"i can't choose, i love them all." willow smiles and shrugs.

"me too, but you have to pick just one. i said i'll buy you one magazine, silly." kaia smiles and pats willows back.

she thinks really hard before grabbing her favourite off the shelf and showing it off to kaia.

"this one!" she enthuses.

"okay, let's go pay so we can go home to read it and look at all the pictures." kaia agrees.

she stands up to her feet and picks up willow who is happily holding her new magazine, already being very careful with it.

kaia begins walking over to the checkout when she stops in her tracks, swearing she sees matt, but not totally sure because the boy's hood was up and he was using the self checkout.

"matty!" willow suddenly screams, kaia looks alarmed and tries to hush the girl incase it is him.

he looks over to see who was screaming, and kaia realizes that it is in fact matt.

her feet are unable to move as her and matt are both frozen where they were standing, making eye contact with eachother as every emotion possible flashes behind their eyes.

1038 words