Just Burn the Photographs

"Hey baby?" Matt asked after settling into bed.
"Yeah?" She answered, crawling next to him.
"Move in with me."

Ellie stopped moving and stared at him. She knew it'd break his heart even more if she refused.
"Matt, I..." his mouth turned down, he knew what was to expect.
"I'd love to," she faked a smile. She figured she could do this one thing for him.
Leanning over, she kissed him a few times.
"This is great," he said, "I can't wait."
He put his arms around her. 'Oh but I can,' she thought, 'I can.'
They cuddled up together and talked quietly about things to get for 'their' apartment. Knowning she wasn't ever gonna be happy with this, she continued to smile wide and fake enthusiasm.
It didn't take long for them to fall asleep and they awoke at 11:23am. Someone was knocking on the door.
Matt got up to answer it.

"Hey Matt," it was Derek, "we're heading out to eat. Wanna go?"

He looked over at Ellie who was yawning while brushing her teeth. Chuckling, he replied, "Yeah. Give us a few minutes."
He closed the door and walked to the bathroom.

It only took about 5 minutes for both of them to get ready.

They headed down to the lobby to meet up with the guys, who had all decided on chinese for breakfast.
The resturant wasn't crowded but they stayed for about an hour, just bullshitting around.

"When do you have to be at Pop's?" Ellie asked, plopping down into the hotel bed.
"5 o'clock," he kicked off his shoes and sat down next to her.
"I'm gonna call and check on Alicia."

Matt rested his head on her lap as she dialed.
"Hello." "Hey Alicia. Feeling better?" "Oh, I'm just peachy," she groaned. "My ribs hurt really bad." "They tend to do that when they break."
Alicia chuckled a bit, "I get to go home tomorrow. But they're gonna take 2 or 3 months to heal."
They talked for a few more minutes before hanging up.

She moved around then and fell to her side, landing inches from Matt's face. "So, we have all this time, and nothing to do? What, oh what, shall we do?" He leanned in to kiss her and ran his hand over her flat stomach.

Being this casual with Matt made her upset, she wasn't okay with laying around with him like this. She closed her eyes and kissed him, and pretended it was Gerard again. Fighting tears, she remembered happy times with Gerard.
Staying up all night just to talk, then laying around all day, sleeping.
Or several times when he made her breakfast in bed.

Matt snuggled into her neck, and she opened her eyes. She couldn't handle being with Matt anymore. She had to do something.

Note to self, I miss you terribly.
This is what we call a tragedy.
Come back to me,
back to me,
to me.