I Saw Your Heart as It Overtook Me

I sighed as I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around my chilled body. I grabbed another towel to wrap my hair up with and headed out into the bedroom. The room was bare and empty; Matt had already left, leaving nothing but his dirty towel lying on the floor beside the dresser.

Turning the stereo on, I started to get dress with the sounds of The Used's new album, 'In Love and Death' blasting in my ears. I pulled on a pair of black flare and a black turtleneck, remembering that it was now raining like a motherfucker out there.

"Never caught my breath." I sang softly, keeping in tune with Bert's words as I dug through the closet. "Every second I'm without you I'm a mess."

"Aww, you sure do have it bad for your lover boy, eh?" Someone asked from behind me as they turned down my music a bit.

I turned around and caught sight of Lissa sitting on the bed grinning at me. I felt my cheeks starting to grow a bit hot and turned back to the closet so I didn't have to answer her.

"You don't have to be shy about it." She laughed. "You know its okay to admit how much you luuuuuvvv him." She teased.

"Shut up." I laughed, pulling out my tan knee length pea coat.

"Well, say it then." She said childishly, getting up to snag one of my scarves for herself.

"Whatever." I mumbled, putting my coat on and buttoning it up.

"Say it." She repeated in a sing-song voice.

I smiled to myself as I buttoned the last button.

"You know you want to." She poked, following me out of the room and into the hallway. "Lauren Amber Baker, I see that fucking smile on your face and I know you're thinking it."

"Shit, fine." I grinned, stopping at the top of the stairs. "I love him."

Lissa stopped and stared at me for a couple of seconds.

"What?" She asked slowly, her devious smile slowly playing across her lips. "Didn't catch that; you mumble too much."

"Fuck. I FUCKING LOVE MATHEW CHARLES SANDERS!!!" I yelled, taking the steps down two at a time.

Still laughing at my retardedness by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs, I looked up and felt my face immediately turn at least three shades of red. Standing right in front of me was Zacky, Johnny, Jimmy, and Syn, all of whom were giving me a weird look. I stared at them wishing I could just disappear into the wall behind me.

Soon Matt peaked his head around the corner, flashing me a grin that made his dimples show.

"I love you too babe." He said sweetly.

There was a loud impatient sigh from one or two of the guys, causing Matt to blush slightly.

"Gosh, you two are pathetic." Johnny mumbled, pushing Syn a bit to try and hint that he was ready to get out of here.

"Aww, leave them alone Johnny, they're new at this." Syn smirked, leading Johnny, Jimmy, and Zacky towards the door.

Matt shot them a dirty look as they passed and hurried over to give me a kiss.

"I'll see you in a few hours." He whispered, hugging me tightly before taking off after the guys.

********************

I kicked the door shut behind me, packing what was last of the bags of groceries into the kitchen. Alyssa, Amber, and Lissa sat beside the island, staring somewhat in awe at the clutter of Safeway bags piled on top of the counter.

"Holy shit." Alyssa said slowly. "That's a lot of effin food."

"Yeah." Lissa said, nodding her head in agreement.

"Well, we have to feed, what ... fifteen people?" I asked, starting to sort out the food.

"Actually, seventeen people; Jimmy's dad and JB are gonna be joining us as well." Amber said.

"Damn ... " I trailed off, hearing the phone ring.

"I'll get it." Lissa offered seeing that my arms were filled with potatoes and boxes of stuffing mix.

"Thanks." I said, disappearing into the pantry.

Lissa's POV
I got up and started towards the phone only to catch myself before I fell flat on my face.

"Bitch." I laughed, hitting Amber's arm as she smirked at me pulling her foot back, and continued my way to the phone.

I picked it up and frowned, not recognizing the number to belong to any of the guys.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hey Val." A pleasant voice said on the other line.

"Uh, this is Melissa." I said slowly, trying to figure out who it was.

"Melissa?" They asked slowly. "Oh! Melissa, I'm sorry huh, you sound like Val on the phone. This is Matt's mom."

Matt's mom? Why the hell would she think I was Val?

"Oh, hello Mrs. Sanders." I said politely. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, just taking a break from cleaning the house."

"Oh." Was all I said.

"So, is my son there?"

"Actually, no, the guys are in the studio today going over some new material. Did you want me to give him a message for you? Or did you want to talk to Lauren?"

There was a slight pause on the line and I wondered if she was still there.

"Um ... Who's Lauren?" Mrs. Sanders finally asked.

Holy shit, I thought to myself, Matt never told his mom about Lauren? But then again, they've only been together for a couple of days.

"Er ... Lauren's Matt's girlfriend." I said quietly, not wanting to get Lauren's attention.

However, when her head poked out of the pantry I knew that I had failed. She stared at me, tilting her head to the side a bit, questioning me with her eyes who was on the phone.

"But ... What happened to Val? I thought her and Matt got back together?"

"Well, they did but things just weren't working out." I mumbled.

"Oh, well, that's just too bad." Mrs. Sanders sighed. "So, who exactly is this Lauren girl?"

"Lauren Baker."

"Lauren Baker as is Zacky's little sister Lauren Baker?" Mrs. Sanders asked quickly, almost as if she were in disbelief. "No way. What the hell is he thinking?"

Oh great, I see Lauren's past reputation was still hanging around.
End of Lissa's POV

I gave Lissa a questioning look, wondering why the hell she was being so damn mysterious on the phone.

"Maybe you should call back later when Matt gets home." She said quietly into the receiver. "Alright ... Okay ... I'll tell him you called ... Alright ... See you next week."

She sighed heavily placing the phone back on it's holder.

"Matt's mom." She stated, seeing the look on my face.

"Oh." I replied, grabbing the frozen turkey from the counter to put it into the freezer.

There was a weird silence that fell between us, broken occasionally by the rain beating down upon the roof.

"Dude, we forgot to get the movies for our slumber party." Lissa said, sounding pretty bummed. "Come on Lauren, let's go get them."

"Alright, let me finish pu-"

"But they're gonna close pretty soon." She said impatiently.

I turned around and raised an eyebrow, getting ready to tell her they didn't close until like midnight, but stopped myself when I saw the look in her eyes; I knew that she wanted to talk to me about something else.

"Oh, okay then." I said quietly. "Let me go get my Blockbuster card in my room real fast."

*******************

About thirty minutes later Lissa and I were walking out of Blockbuster packing what felt like a zillion DVD's including The Labyrinth [alright, I admit I check out David Bowie's package every single fucking time I watch that movie], From Dusk 'Til Dawn, The Boondock Saints, King Arthur, and All Dogs Go To Heaven. Hey, leave me alone, I like All Dogs Go To Heaven.

Lissa and I looked at the rain pouring down around us and slowly turned to look at one another.

"Holy shit." I said slowly.

"Yeah ... We're gonna have to make a run for it."

"Damn ... "

We both started off in a mad dash for my car and by the time we got to it I swear my coat was soaked clear through. Now that's a lot of water; I mean, come on, it's a damn pea coat for crying out loud!

As soon as I climbed in behind the wheel I started the engine up and put the heater on full blast. I put the car in neutral and pulled my emergency break, not wanting to take off until the temperature was at least above freezing.

I handed the DVD's I was packing on over to Lissa and turned the stereo down a little bit.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" I asked quietly.

She sighed, brushing some of her water soaked black hair out of her face.

"Well, like you know, Matt's mom called earlier. And ... she seemed a bit ... uh Upset?" She trailed off, scrunching her eyebrows up a bit thinking to herself.

"Upset about what?" I asked blankly.

"You know Matt didn't tell her about you guys, right?"

"Yeah, he wanted to wait and tell her when she came down for Thanksgiving."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I already told her that you guys were together."

"That's okay." I said calmly, not the least bit bothered by it.

Honestly I didn't know why Matt wanted to wait to tell her anyway, but eh, he has he own reasons I suppose.

"So ... Matt's mom's upset huh?" I asked.

Lissa nodded her head.

"Er ... Why?"

"Well, to some people you're still that one trouble making little shit you know." She replied. "I'm not gonna lie to you Lauren; Matt's mom is one of those people who are very picky about the girls Matt dates. I just wanna give you a heads up because come time for Thanksgiving, she'll probably be riding your ass about the most stupid of things so please, try and keep your cool around her."

I sighed heavily to myself, suddenly starting to dread the upcoming week. This fucking sucks because I've never been so great at making a good first impression. And now that I knew I was going to be meeting someone who probably already hated my guts very fucking much ... fuck. That's all I can think to comment about the situation. Fuck.

"I don't wanna make you feel like shit, but I just wanted to warn you because she can be pretty ... difficult." Lissa said quietly.

I nodded my head.

"Thanks. Honestly, I appreciate it." I mumbled, putting my clutch in, stepping on the regular brake and released my emergency brake. "You probably saved me from starting a big Smack Down in the middle of dinner with her." I added with a smirk.

Lissa laughed, shaking her head a bit at my weird sense of randomness.

I put the car in first gear and took off, pealing out in front of a group of rather 'attractive' looking guys. But don't get me wrong, there's only one man I have my eyes on and at the moment I had some pretty wild and crazy ideas running through my mind as to what I would like to do to/with him later on tonight. But anyway ...

The rain didn't lighten up much on the way back to the house so I decided to park in the garage to save us from getting soaked once again. Just as I was getting ready to close the garage door I saw Matt's car come pulling into the driveway, followed by Zacky's.

I left the door open so that Matt could park in the garage as well and stood out of the way so I wouldn't get run over. He parked and Johnny hopped out of the passenger side, flashing me a rather weak smile and took off inside.

I walked around to Matt's side of the car and smiled at him as he got out. However, all that returned to me was a very 'unhappy' expression. Well, unhappy was an understatement ... Matt looked more pissed than unhappy.

I hesitated for a couple of seconds, wondering whether or not I should say anything. But you know me ...

"Hi babe." I said quietly. "You guys got back early."

"Yeah, no fucking shit Sherlock." He snapped angrily, slamming his door shut.

"I ... er ... " I trailed off, tearing my gaze away from him.

I didn't know what the hell to say and honestly I didn't want to say anything after I nearly got my head fucking bit off. I stole a quick glance up at him before I started towards the door that lead into the laundry room.

"Baby, wait, I'm sorry." Matt said gently, grabbing my hand as I passed him. "I didn't mean to yell at you. I just ... " He trailed off, wrapping his arms tightly around me to give me a hug.

"It's okay baby." I said gently, hugging him back.

He sighed heavily, keeping his arms wrapped around me and leaned against his car with his back to it. He began rocking me gently, giving me a soft kiss on my forehead.

"So ... What's bugging you Matt?" I asked, looking up at him.

"A whole bunch of stupid shit that I know I shouldn't be letting bother me in the first place." He mumbled, frowning to himself.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

"Not really."

"You know, it's not good to keep all troubles bottled up inside." I said, smiling softly to lighten the mood but to still let him know that I really wanted to know what was bugging him.

"Well, the label's giving us some problems and shit like that. My vocals have been off and fucking, I don't know. And plus ... my mom called me on my cell phone ... " He trailed off, biting his lip slightly.

"Oh yeah ... She called the house here looking for you ... Apparently she's not too fond of you and I dating."

He nodded his head.

"Yeah ... That's what she called me about ... She tried to get me to break up with you and shit like that."

Damn, I'm not that bad am I?

"But, I told her I never would." He said shyly.

"Ha. Bet she didn't like that too much now did she?"

"No." He whispered.

"Eh, don't worry about it babe. I'm sure she'll warm right up to me once she meets me." I smirked. "Since I'm oh so lovable."

Matt let a little grin play across his lips.

"Yeah, that's true."

"Mhmm ... So." I said, reaching up to give him a kiss. "Let's go inside and watch some movies."

"Alright."

He flashed me a smile before lacing his fingers with mine and lead me inside the house. I'm glad I was able to get him to feel a little better about this whole situation about his mom hating me but to tell you the truth, I highly doubted there was anything I could say or do to make his mom change her mind.

I mean, if she was already calling up Matt, trying to get him to dump me, it didn't sound like she was willing to give me much of a chance, right?