Love Game

Everything was going great. I was almost done with this tattoo and Matt, was sleeping. I smirked and looked up at him, getting sidetracked until I was no longer just looking I was staring. It was a while for everything that I was looking at, to sink in. To seep into my pours, and send a message to my brain, that was moving ever so slowly to, tell me who I was looking at. Just who; and at that moment, I screamed. Dropping the tattoo gun and backing away waking Matt, I stood in the far side of my room just looking at him. In pure shock yes, but frightened at somewhat that my fragile little high school sweetheart wasn’t the same anymore.

“…A-are you okay?” Just as Matt was sitting up, the door slammed open, smacking me in the nose.

“OW!”I held my bloody nose, falling to the ground listening to my boss yell at me.

"What in the FUCK is wrong with you and screaming in my damn shop?!" Vanessa, my boss, always had a temper. But I guess when Tony was screaming in the shop, it was okay. I stood up and pushed her out the room, blood running from my nose and into my mouth.

“That guy is your brother.” Vanessa blinked at my comment. She patted my shoulder,

“Ashley, go home. You need rest.” I could feel her looking at my bloody nose, twisting her face.

“I DON’T NEED REST!”

“Yeah, you do. You’re going crazy all this boy shit is going to your head. That’s not my brother. My brother’s name was…Matthew Charles Sanders. He’s afraid of the dark, scary movies and thunderstorms. On occasion, he’ll wet the bed….but he stopped when he was eight so no worries.” She fanned her hand, my jaw dropping nose still bleeding.

“….You broke my nose; I’m sending you the doctor bill. You damn bully.” I lightly touched my nose, wincing in pain.

“Okay, go home; you’ll get paid for the time you were here.” I nodded and grabbed some tissue and held it to my nose walking back into the room, looking at Matt sit in the chair. Once he saw the blood on my hand he was quick to walk up to me.
“What happened?” His voice was sweet and soft.

“Just a bloody nose; you can come back for your tattoo if you want. I should be back.” Looking up at him, I wanted to cry. That was my baby.

“Oh I kind of wanted you to finish but…I’ll come back. Do you want a ride home?”

I only nodded as I grabbed my things and walked outside. Matt followed after me and took me home. The ride was quiet. I never took my eyes off of him. My eyes would bounce back and forth on his body, looking at things on him so I could make sure he was who I thought he was and I wasn’t going insane and Vanessa was wrong. I saw a class ring on his hand. Maybe it wasn’t him; maybe Vanessa was right maybe I was going crazy. What the fuck? No.

I pointed the ways to my condo, sniffling every once in a while to keep the warm blood from trickling down my lip. Just as I thank him and start to get out of the car, I stop when I hear him call my name. I turn to face him.

“Yes?”

“…N-nothing. Just go. I’ll see you tomorrow or something.”

“Thanks for the ride….Can I have your number?” He nodded and we quickly exchanged numbers. I thanked him a second time and got out of his car, letting the blood seep down my lip.

Matt’s pov

I was starting to think that maybe what Brian said that night was right. I drove back home but that was all I thought about. She looked like her, yelped like her, dressed like her, everything. I took a quick shortcut to Brian’s house and bursting through the door when I got there.

“Bri, I believe you.” I walked into his living area, sitting across from him. He looked deeply confused.

“Erm…what?”

“I believe you. What you said when you—let yourself into my house at three in the morning,”

“Oh. You kind of killed my mood.” He went back to tuning his guitar.

“Sorry. I believe you though, I really do. That Ashley girl reminds me of Ashley.

“Oh you mean that girl that’s a bitch to you and doesn’t want you. I don’t know why you chase her…” I chase her for a reason, Brian.

“Brian…” I rolled my eyes.

“Fine, I’m sorry. But look here’s the thing, if you think that her then get a good look at her. I know that’s Vanessa but…I just don’t know. Like, I don’t want to scare her or anything.”

The room got quiet and it wasn’t long before I decided to go home and get some sleep because it was getting dark and I was getting sleepy. This was worse than moving to London. I cried myself to sleep plenty of times but at this very moment, I lay awake, my hazel green eyes wide open and the moon light shinning in my room along with the strong pitter patter of the thunderstorm. It took my three hours for me to realize that I wasn’t going to get any sleep. I got out of bed and got re dressed, Bella watching me with her eyes, her tail wagging as if I was about to go give her a walk but that, sadly for her, wasn’t the case. I put on a leather jacket and my shoes, grabbing my keys and left the house driving back to Ashley’s house.

Ashley’s pov

I sucked the candy off my finger then got up to answer the door. I opened my front door to a soaking Matt. His leather jacket was shiny and slippery as was his short hair, which had a slight wave to it. I let him in taking off his wet jacket and hanging it on the coat hanger by the door.

“…Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…Just cold and wet.” I was just now realizing how deep his voice was.

“Come on, my room is warm.” I took his damp hand and lead him back to my room closing the door behind him and sitting on the bed. “Soo what’s up?” I hated to look at him and to think it was Matthew Charles Sanders all star football player of Lincoln High School and then think that I could be wrong and I would be searching forever.

“…Did you go to Lincoln High School in…Michigan?” My breath hitched in my throat as I nodded. “…And did you date a quarter back in your twelfth year of High school?” Also correct. I nodded “….What was his name?”

“M-Matthew Charles Sanders; they called him by his last name in public, he didn’t really like his name.” Matt leaned down in front of me, so close I could feel his body heat, watch his pupils dilate to the lamp in my room, smell that he had overdosed on the extra scented body wash and that his mouth wash and his toothpaste were spearmint flavored and scented. I would go into more detail but then I’d be writing a book.

“…Look at me.” He stated. Well, that’s what I did. I looked at him, for a while too. About thirty minutes before my eyes started to water from allergies. Grabbing tissue and dabbing my eyes, I looked Matt and frowned at how upset he looked. “…You don’t know who I am, do
you?”

“Of course I do. You’re Matt.”

“Ashley Bryant. Look at me.” I stopped.

“..How do you know my last name?” I felt my stomach make a slight drop as tears rolled down his cheeks as he grabbed my shoulders.

“I have known you forever. I’m Matthew Charles Sanders and you can’t see it…Baby, it’s me.” At first, I stared at him in disbelief then as I paid more attention, I was right all along. Now sobbing uncontrollably, I cupped his cheeks in my hands rubbing his face with my thumbs looking at him.

“..Oh my god. I am so sorry for the way I treated you. What took you so long?”
“I thought you were in Michigan…You’re a…Suicide girl now?” His eyebrows went up.

“Chasity, Sierra and I got accepted and…I was afraid to tell you…” My voice was soft and shaky. He flashed me a dimpled smile and I melted on the spot. “..What?”

“I always knew it was you. Only you talk like that.” I smiled and bit my lip.

“…You’re not mad are you? I mean, I’m naked in a lot of my photos so…are you okay with that?”

“Ash, it’s whatever makes you happy. Are we dating now?” I nodded excitingly, leaning in and kissing him deeply and passionately then pulling away resting my forehead on his. Sitting down on the bed, I patted the spot next to me as he sat down playing with my fingers like we did in High school. “I can’t believe it’s you.”

I smiled, “I know. Me too…so, you’re in a band?”

He smiled and nodded, “Have been for while. So, the shop owner, your boss is…my sister?”

“Yeah that’s her. Cheerleader and all, she tends to wear bikini tops to work when it’s really hot so you’ll be able to see her stars.”
Thirty more minutes into talking and we had finally gotten tired of talking and lay next to each other look at the night sky through my ceiling window.

“…It pays to be on the top floor.” His voice was soft but deep as ever. I smiled and nodded but said nothing else. It wasn’t until my eyelids got badly heavy and I rolled over, comforting myself against Matt taking in his scent and burning my nose hairs because Matt’s body wash was so strong. Matt always never knew the meaning of ‘too much’. That reminds me when I first met him and his new ways in high school.

Flashback*
As I was leaving the girl’s bathroom, I heard the booming voice on the boy I had the biggest crush on but wouldn’t give a chance. Sometimes I was lying, but I only told him the truth once. Let’s just say Matt never had cooties.

I heard my friend Johnny and I knew how his smart mouth could get him in trouble and when I heard the words ‘short-shit’ , ‘swirly’ and then a toilet flushing, I panicked and ran into the boys bathroom and to my surprise their bathroom was cleaner than ours. I saw Haner first. His short hair and his strong looking arms along with his long legs and put his foot on top of Zack’s, my other best friend, head in the toilet and flushed his head. I could hear him choking on boy bathroom toilet water and water falling on the tile floor as Brian took a chunk of the oddly dyed hair that Zack had, jerking his head up which would be something for me to help him with on the weekend. He gasped for air and muttered another comment thinking that would make Haner crack, run and cry like he talked about but it only pissed Haner off and Zack’s head was back in the toilet. Johnny on the other hand knew when to shut up but he was daring and he liked to fuck with Matt.

“I should kick your ass.” Matt spat, I only sat and watched.

“Go ‘head. It’ll be another reason as to why Ashley won’t talk to you.” Matt froze. I could tell the words had gotten under his skin and Johnny had hit a nerve but Matt quickly brushed it off.

“…What do you have to do with her?”

“Are you that stupid? Zack, me and her have been friends since the womb. That’s my sister from another mister, moron!” I couldn’t help but laugh at Johnny catching everyone’s attention, I waved.

“Soo...I thought you liked me, Sanders.” I emphasized his last name, “Don’t beat up on my friends. And Matt just for that, no, I don’t want to go to the movies. Not until you’re nice.” All was quiet, except for Johnny’s laughter as he pointed to Matt, menacingly.
End of Flashback*

“….Question.”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you hate Johnny and Zack?” Matt sighed at my question.

“With those two….Hate don’t really need a reason sometimes…but I guess I was just jealous and I’m still a little jealous of them.”

“…Why?”

“They have all these memories of you from the past tweleve years we’ve all known each other. I got the eleven years of when you denied me every time and I only got one year that I had so much fun with you. They know you like a blind person knows brail lettering.” Well. “I know you like my mom knows about what I look like right now.”...Not so well. I fell asleep three hours later, my little fingers twisted in the hem of Matt’s shirt. However, I was woken by Matt’s loud snoring two hours after I had fallen asleep. But I loved it.