Closer to Heaven With You

“Are you coming sis?” Brian asked as he stood up, taking hold of Michelle’s hand.

“Actually, I was going to ask Matt if I could hang out a little longer.” Leigh replied, turning to face Matt. “Is that ok? I’ll go if…”

“No, stay, please.” Matt replied in a whisper, a wide smile over his face as he gently squeezed her hand.

“I’ll drive her home when she’s ready.” He added turning to face Brian who nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, that’s fine, see you later then sis.”

“Ok, bye Bri.” Leigh replied with a smile, watching silently as he and Michelle climbed the stairs of the basement.

Matt and Leigh were now the only ones left in the basement. Leigh turned back to face Matt with a shy smile, which he returned.

“So what do you want to do now?” Matt asked still smiling.

“Just hang out. I really enjoyed our time together yesterday.” She replied feeling herself blush.

“Good, I enjoyed too. Do you fancy heading upstairs? It’ll be more comfortable at least.” He suggested. Leigh nodded happily as he stood up and offered her his hands to help her up.
As they walked into the kitchen they were greeted by the sound of a woman singing along softly with the radio as she stood at the sink.

“Hey mom.” Matt said causing the woman to turn around.

“Oh hey. How are you Leigh?” she said with a cautious smile.

“I’m ok I guess, apart from the whole memory problem.” She replied, wishing she could rememeber her name.

“I’m sure you’ll get it back soon honey, just be patient.” She said warmly. “What are you kids up to anyway?”

“We’re just going to hang out.” Matt answered.

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” Leigh added.

“Ok, I’ll let you get on with it, it’s nice seeing you Leigh.” She replied. Leigh smiled before following Matt slowly through the house and up the stairs. He led them into his bed room, hastily gathering items up off the floor and straightening the bed sheets. As he urgently tried to make his room look more ‘presentable’ Leigh hobbled over to his bed and sat down, pushing herself onto it fully and leaning up against the wall so that her feet dangled over the edge. She looked around the room, feeling like it was familiar but at the same time feeling that every detail was new to her. Her eyes fell on something that looked somewhat out of place in the room. she leaned forward trying to reach the silver photo frame that was sat on top of the night stand at the side of the bed.

“Here.” He said softly taking the frame that was just out of her reach and handing it to her before joining her on the bed. She smiled appreciativly at him before returning her gaze to the three photos that were in the large frame. They were each of her and Matt, taken at different times and occasions.

“That one was taken at the park two years ago, before we got together.” he began pointing at the photo of a younger looking version of themselves. They were sat on grass and Matt was sat behind her, his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her close to him. They were both smiling, Matt’s dimpled smile making his hazel eyes sparkle.

“You were cold but you refused to let me take off my hoodie for you, so I did the next best thing.” Matt explained. “One picture where I was glad that Gena always had her camera on her taking photos for her class.” He added with a chuckle.

“She’s responsible for the last one as well.” He said jabbing his finger at the photo of the two of them in almost the same position as the first. Again Matt was sat behind her with his arm wrapped tightly around her body. This time they were sat on the beach and it was obvious by the way they were kissing that Matt wasn’t there to keep her warm this time.

“When was it taken?” Leigh asked quietly, not taking her eyes off the photo.

“A few weeks ago, just before we went on tour. I asked Gena if I could have a copy so I could take it on tour with me.” he replied.

“And I’m guessing this was taken when we graduated.” She said pointing at the middle photograph where they were both dressed in their high school graduation gowns. Leigh was stood in front of Matt, his arms yet again securely around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder as they both smiled at the camera.

“Yeah mom took it, she has a copy downstairs as well and I even think she gave a copy to Nana as well. She was getting you a copy as well, didn’t she give it to you?” he asked. She looked up at him with thoughtful eyes.

“If she did I can’t remember, and I haven’t seen it around since I got home from the hospital though so maybe she never got round to getting it for me.” she replied with a smile.

“Yeah maybe, I’ll ask her later.” He replied with a small sigh.

“Everything’s fucked up isn’t it?” Leigh asked her eyes still fixated on the photos.

“What? No, it’ll be fine.” He protested.

“But I can’t remember you, or us.” She replied sullenly. Matt sighed and brought his finger up to her chin, lifting it upwards so her eyes met his.

“You will, it’ll just take some time.” He said quietly gazing into her eyes with a small smile. “Things will work out fine.” He added as he leaned closer to her, pressing his lips against hers. He went to pull away but Leigh leaned closer to him, keeping their lips together. Slowly, his hand moved, from where his finger had been resting on her chin to gently cupping the side of her face. As Matt traced her bottom lip with his tongue she gasped at the imaged that flashed behind her closed eyelids. Immediately Matt pulled back, a painful look of concern flashing across his face. All Leigh could do for a long moment was stare at him as she tried to figure out what had just happened.

“Spiderman.” She muttered quietly with confusion.

“Spiderman?” Matt asked with an equal amount of confusion crossing his expression.

“You were spiderman. I saw it when we kissed.” She said watching as a smile work it’s way onto Matt’s lips.

“I was dressed as Spiderman for Zacks birthday.” He said with a small chuckle. “That was the night Jimmy found out about us.”

“Oh, so I’m not going crazy?” she asked with a giggle. Their eyes settled on each other again as Matt’s hand found her cheek again.

“You’re not crazy.” He replied quietly with a smirk as he again leaned forward to kiss her. Leigh smiled into the kiss as a medly of imaged flashed quickly through her mind, each of them of her and Matt together. Then, all of a sudden the images stopped and Leigh pulled away from the kiss.

“You ok?” Matt asked. She nodded quietly with a smile, gazing into his hazel eyes.

“Im better than ok.” she replied simply before leaning over to kiss him once again. Within moments, they had manovered themselves, as the kiss intensified, so they were led on the bed, wrapped up in each others body.

“I love you Leigh.” Matt whispered once their lips parted.

“I do too, you, I know I do, I feel some of it now.” Leigh replied gazing appologetically into his eyes.

“I know.” He replied simply pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I’m sorry.” She whispered as she lay her head onto his broad chest. They were silent for a long moment, before Leigh remembered something.

“You know when we were down in the basement earlier?” she began.

“Yeah.” Matt replied simply, sounding confused.

“I noticed something when I was talking about the dream I had.” She continued, a little unsure of how exactly she should word what she had to say.

“The look on Michelle’s face?” he asked. Leigh lifted her head slowly to look at Matt.

“You saw it too?” she asked in a barely audible whisper.

“Yeah, she looked worried about something for a moment.” He replied as she pushed herself up so that she was face to face with him.

“Why do you think she looked worried?” she asked quietly. Matt slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know, all I know is that I saw worry flash across her face when you mentioned the dream that quickly turned to what I could only describe as relief.” He replied.

“Do you think…” she paused for a moment, part of her unwilling to believe what she was about to say. “Do you think that she knows something, about what happened that night, about the acciedent?” she asked. Matt was silent for a long moment as he thought about her question.

“I really hope she doesn’t. I don’t want to believe that she knows anything about what happened. Before this afternoon, it would never have crossed my mind that she was holding something back. But seeing that look on her face, I don’t know, now I have doubts.” He said quietly. Leigh sighed and nodded. She really didn’t want to believe that Michelle, one of her best friends, her brothers girlfriend, knew something about what had happened the night of the acciendet.

“What am I going to do?” she whispered sollemnly.

“I don’t know baby, I doubt she’d tell us the truth if we asked her, she’s obviously got something to hide. I guess all we can do is wait, see if you remember something more.” He replied.

“But….”

“But, you’ve remembered so much this past week, it’ll all come back soon, I’m sure.” He said interupting her protest.

“Now, shall I go ask my mom to set one more place for dinner? I’ll take you home afterwards if you like.” he said, his dimpled smile bringing a smile of her own to her lips as she nodded.

“Great, I’ll go tell mom, I’ll be back in a minute.”