Maybe Holding Hands Wasn't Such a Good Idea

I woke up very early on Saturday morning slightly disoriented as to where I was, until I felt an arm resting lightly around my waist. I opened my eyes and was faced with a white t-shirt, in that moment I remembered that I was at Matt’s and I must have fallen asleep sometime during the second movie we were watching last night. I fought off a blush as I realized that this was the second time that Matt and I shared a bed together.

I shifted slightly in Matt’s grip and felt his arm tighten a bit on my waist. My eyes flashed up to his face quickly, expecting to see his hazel eyes staring at me.

“Good morning,” he greeted me sleepily without opening his eyes.

“Morning,” I replied quietly. “What time is it?”

“Breakfast time,” he answered with a smirk as he opened his eyes.

He sounded kind of adorable with sleep still making his voice a little groggy, I noticed with a small smile.

I rolled over to look for my cell phone so I could check the time and Matt’s arm fell from around my waist. I almost groaned when I saw I had five missed calls, three text messages and one guess as to who left them all for me.

It was only a little past eight in the morning and Tyler had already managed to put me in a sour mood. I lay back down on the bed with a huff and noticed Matt smirking at me from the corner of my eye.

“Vaughn?” He asked.

I didn’t answer him and he chuckled, correctly interpreting my annoyance.

“I’m gonna get dressed and then make us some breakfast,” Matt said sitting up. He quickly grabbed a change of clothes. “Be right back.”

When I heard Matt exit the bathroom five minutes later, I grabbed my bag and got up to wash my face and brush my teeth. I changed out of my shirt and changed into a light purple tube top that I usually wore at the beach and left my black pajama shorts on. After I made my tangled mass of hair look presentable, I went back into Matt’s room, the smell of eggs and bacon drifting tantalizingly in the air.

I picked up my phone from the bed and quickly texted Tyler and apologized about not hearing my phone ringing when he called last night and that I was excited to see him later. I was about to go downstairs when Matt walked in with a large grin and breakfast on a tray.

“Breakfast in bed?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Matt nodded as he set the tray down in front of me on the bed. “I figure it’s the least I could do for you considering you’re helping me out today.”

I smiled up at him. “Thanks. This smells great.” I grabbed one of the plates while Matt sat down next to me and took the other.

“It’s just scrambled eggs, bacon and some toast,” he shrugged. “Nothing too special. Plus it’ll drive Tiffany absolutely nuts,” he smirked.

I almost choked on the orange juice I was drinking when he said that. I sputtered and coughed as Matt thumped me gently on my back. “Oh my god, don’t do that when I’m drinking anything,” I said once my coughs subsided. “I almost snorted juice out of my nose.”

“Sorry,” Matt said with a small smile.

“So when this whole thing with Tiffany is done and over with, are things going to go back to normal?” I asked.

“I hope so,” Matt said fervently. “I can’t wait to be free of Tiffany and all this bullshit.”

“No, I meant between you and me. I mean, after today, we won’t really have a reason to hang out anymore.” I did my best to keep the sadness of the thought from leaking into my voice.

When Matt didn’t answer for a while, I finally looked up at him and noticed the understanding in his eyes.

“Since when do friends need a reason to hang out?” He smiled brightly at me. “We can hang out anytime you want, Liv.”

The smile on my lips was huge and I couldn’t stop smiling for a long time after that. I was happy to know that Matt still planned on seeing me once today was over with.

Once Matt and I finished breakfast, we started watching TV and began our wait for Tiffany’s arrival.

I was in the middle of asking Matt a question when he suddenly turned the TV off and rolled on top of me in the bed and started kissing me. Without thinking, my arms wrapped around his shoulders and I started kissing him back as fiercely as he was kissing me.

After some time, Matt pulled away from me with a look of severe concentration on his face.

“Matt, what was—”

“Shh.” Matt’s hand on my mouth stopped my question.

“Sorry,” Matt said after a few moments and removed his hand from my mouth. “I thought I heard a car door slam and thought that Tiffany was here.”

“No problem,” I said breathing a silent sigh of relief. “A little warning next time might be nice though.”

Matt coughed and his cheeks turned a light pink as he turned the TV back on. “I wasn’t even thinking I was just sort of reacting.”

“It’s okay I guess,” I said turning my attention away from him and towards the show on TV.

Matt sat up and pulled his white shirt over his head, my eyes widened at the sight of his naked chest.

“See something you like?” Matt winked at me.

I quickly looked away without answering his question, hoping against hope that I wasn’t blushing. “Why are you taking your shirt off?” I asked.

“For Tiffany’s benefit,” he replied simply.

“Oh.”

Matt and I didn’t speak again for the next ten minutes.

“So are you ticklish?” Matt asked suddenly.

“Yes, very,” I answered honestly without thinking, my eyes still trained on the TV.

“Perfect.” The next moment, Matt pinned my wrists above my head with one of his large hands and began a one handed assault on my sensitive stomach with the other, tickling me mercilessly.

“Matt! Please, stop!” I begged between giggles. I was having a hard time trying to catch my breath.

“Hmm, no,” Matt smiled down at me. “I’m having way too much fun.”

I began to squirm beneath him, and his legs tightened around mine stilling my movements. At that moment, with Matt straddling my body, it struck me how very strong he was. Yet, I knew instinctively that he would never use his strength to hurt me, but to protect me. I almost rolled my eyes at how much I reminded myself of a romance novel written for frustrated women with no love lives.

When Matt finally let up, I was breathing hard, I was sure my face was red and shone with a light sheen of sweat, and my stomach was sore from all of the laughing I did.

I glanced at Matt through narrowed eyes. “You’re mean,” I said as soon as my breathing returned to normal.

“I know,” Matt grinned wickedly.

Half an hour and two false signals with two kissing sessions later, both Matt and I heard a car door slam loudly.

Matt ran over to the window and looked toward the front lawn. “Tiffany’s here!” He said quickly as he ran back to the bed pulling the covers up over us before rolling back on top of me, straddling my waist, careful to hold himself up on his elbows. He kept a few inches between us before leaning down and attaching our lips again.

This kiss was different from the other ones this morning. It was more heated and aggressive, almost urgent. It was like I could feel Matt’s hopes that our scheme would work perfectly through our kiss. I felt Matt licking at my bottom lip and with a gasp, opened my mouth, this tongue instantly tangled with mine and my hands tangled into his hair, pulling him closer to me. Matt’s hands skimmed lightly over my stomach, causing me to giggle into his mouth.

Neither of us heard the door open.

“Matt? What the hell are you doing?”

Matt and I pulled apart at Tiffany’s voice, we were both panting for breath, our chests rising and falling quickly. I felt a blush rise to my cheeks.

“You!” Tiffany screeched when she saw me under Matt, her face turning the most impressive shade I’d seen on her yet. “What are you doing with her, Matt?”

Matt didn’t quickly scramble off of me straight away; instead he took his time and leisurely, almost lazily, pulled himself away from me. “Babe,” Matt said looking down at me, “hand me my pants, please.”

Tiffany let out a whimper of disbelief.

Tucking the sheet around my chest so that Tiffany would think I was naked beneath them, I leaned over and pulled Matt’s pants up off of the ground. He put them on under the blanket making it appear as though he was completely naked underneath.

“What are you doing here, Tiffany?” Matt asked casually.

“What am I doing here? You told me to come by today. What the hell is she doing here?”

“I think that’s kinda obvious,” Matt grinned wickedly.

Tiffany stood there glaring at me and I noticed for the first time that she had my unworn skirt in her hands, twisting the fabric savagely between her hands, anger glittering in her green eyes. “I knew you two weren’t just friends!” She shouted suddenly. “I knew something was going on! And you told me I had nothing to worry about,” she scoffed. “She’s just a friend of your sister’s. How could you, Matt? How could you do this to us?”

“There is no ‘us’, Tiffany,” he smirked over at her. “We’re over.” Matt looked back down at me, his thumb traced my bottom lip, his eyes never left mine. “I’m in love with someone else.”

Without missing a beat I said, “I love you too, Matt.” He leaned down and planted a quick, hard kiss on my lips.

Tiffany stomped her foot and whined like a five year old. “You stupid, home-wrecking bitch! I told you to stay away from him!” She yelled before charging over to me. “I’ll claw your fucking eyes out!”

“Stay the fuck away from her!” Matt caught Tiffany around the waist before she could reach me. He stilled her wrists in one hand and started to bodily remove her from the room.

With the sheet still tucked firmly around my chest, I got up and followed them.

“Tiff, we’re done. I never want to see you again. And if I hear that you’ve come anywhere near Liv, so help me,” Matt threatened. “Now, if you don’t mind, my parents are gone all weekend and I plan on spending every second that’s left with my new girlfriend up in my bedroom, so get the hell out of my house.”

“Grrahhh!” Tiffany screamed. “This was supposed to be our weekend, Matt. That dinner in the dining room, the fucking rose petals, breakfast in bed; it was all supposed to be for me not her!” She looked up at me. “This is your fault. You stole my boyfriend, you little whore!”

Tiffany tried to get around Matt to get to me but he quickly stopped her and started to push her toward the front door and out of the house.

“Wait!” Tiffany said just as Matt was going to close the door in her face. “I need to tell you something, Matt.”

“Fine, make it quick,” Matt said in a bored tone as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ll be watching and waiting and when you get tired of her, and I know that you will,” Tiffany looked over at me as she said that. “I’ll be waiting to take you back. And we can forget this whole mess ever happened because I love you, Matt. And nothing will ever change that.”

At Tiffany’s words an unexplained shiver ran down my spine, making me completely uneasy for reasons I didn’t quite understand. I just had this feeling that this whole thing wasn’t over just yet.

Matt shrugged as though Tiffany’s statements meant nothing to him. “Don’t count on me and Liv breaking up, it’s not gonna happen.” He slammed the door in her outraged face. As soon as he closed the door, he slumped against it and looked as though he’d been run over by an eighteen-wheeled semi truck.

We both heard Tiffany let out a frustrated scream beyond the door.

I dropped the sheet from my body and joined Matt’s dejected figure by the door. “I’m confused, did that work or not?” I asked in a quiet voice.

Matt looked over at me with a tired smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m not too sure.”

“What does this mean?”

He looked away from me and sighed heavily. “It means that I’m never going to get rid of her.”

After a few moments of silence I turned back to Matt. “So what do we do now?”

Matt didn’t answer me straight away. “I think I should take you home. You and Vaughn are going out tonight, right?”

“Yeah, we are,” I answered.

“You should probably put some actual clothes on,” Matt said quietly, still not looking at me.

“You’re right,” I mumbled before quickly standing up and going to Matt’s room. I closed the door pulled on some jeans and a blue shirt that I brought over. I gathered all of my things and took one last look around Matt’s room for anything that I’d overlooked. I saw my red skirt by the window and went to pick it up. When I straightened up, my eyes glanced outside.

Tiffany’s car was still sitting in the driveway!

I quickly ducked down and made my way over to Matt who was still sitting by the door.

“Tiffany’s still here,” I told him in a hushed voice.

Matt’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Her car is still in the driveway. I think she’s just sitting in there.”

Matt got up and carefully looked out of one of the windows in the living room and groaned. “Why can’t she just leave me the fuck alone?” He bit out frustrated.

“Look, Matt, why don’t we clean up this mess,” I gestured toward the rose petals, “and maybe by the time we’re done, Tiffany will be gone.” I could hear the optimism in my voice and hoped that my expression matched.

Matt looked at me for a moment before nodding. “I’ll go get the broom,” he said walking toward the kitchen.

I busied myself in the dining room, stacking our dishes from the night before and taking them into the kitchen to wash. Matt and I were working quickly and quietly, straightening everything out. After Matt had vacuumed his room, I decided it was time to look out of window.

“Is she still here?” Matt asked with a bated breath.

“No,” I let out a small sigh. “She’s gone.”

“I’ll take you home now,” Matt said quietly. “Before she decides to come back and take root in my driveway.”

“Matt, stay with me tonight,” I blurted out; my brain did not give my mouth permission to say that.

Matt’s head turned to me quickly. “What?”

“I said, stay with me tonight. I don’t like the idea of you being here alone with Tiffany parked on your doorstep.” I’m not sure what made me say the words, but they were out now and Matt was silent, mulling over my request.

“What about Vaughn? Don’t you two have plans for tonight?”

What about him? I’d almost said out loud. “I’ll call and cancel, tell him I’m not feeling well or something. Just please, stay with me tonight?”

“What about Carver? I don’t think he’ll appreciate seeing me right now.”

“Don’t worry about Carver. I’ll talk to him, if he’s even at my house,” I said. “So what do you say?”

Matt nodded. “Thanks, Liv,” he said walking toward me and engulfing me in a tight hug.

“No problem, Matt. Grab your stuff and let’s go.”

We left Matt’s ten minutes later. I was constantly looking over my shoulder on the ride to my house looking to see it Tiffany’s green Jetta was following or not and by Matt’s tense movements and glances into the rearview and side mirrors, I could tell the same thing was on his mind.

Neither Matt nor I said a word on the way to my house; the radio was the only thing keeping the silence at bay. My mind was absolutely whirling with what happened today. The plan was only half a success and half a failure. I did not think Tiffany would vow to wait for Matt to be done with me and I’m pretty sure Matt didn’t think that would happen either.

According to Matt, Tiffany should have broken up with him upon seeing him with another girl. Was Tiffany’s obsession so strong that there wasn’t a thing Matt could do to shake her off?

Once Matt got us to my house, I had him punch in the code for the gate and he pulled his truck into the garage. He had just turned off the engine when I turned to look at him.

“Matt?”

“Yeah.”

“Wanna be my boyfriend?”