Sequel: Love With a Motive
Status: Jan. 25, 2014: I'm reposting this story. Woo hoo!

Maybe Holding Hands Wasn't Such a Good Idea

The Proposal

When Matt had driven us back to his and Kara’s house, I noticed that their mother’s car still wasn’t in the driveway and figured she wouldn’t be home any time soon. I unbuckled my seatbelt and made to get out of the truck when Matt’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“Liv?”

“Yeah?” I turned to look at him and saw a prominent crease between his brows like he was contemplating a really hard Calculus problem and just couldn’t figure it out. “Matt, are you okay?”

Matt let his breath out in a rush and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Yeah, never mind.”

“If you’re sure?” I asked, hesitant to leave him alone, especially if something was really bothering him. “Matt?”

“Yeah?”

“I know we aren’t really friends or anything, but if you, you know, ever need anything or need to talk, or not talk or whatever, I’m here for you, okay?” I mentally cringed at my lameness and hoped Matt wouldn’t think I was some sort of idiot.

Matt smiled, but it wasn’t anywhere near a shit-eating grin. “Thanks, Liv. You know, you’re pretty cool, for a chick.”

“Thanks.” My own smile was unsure of the almost compliment. “I think.”

Matt let himself out of the truck and I followed his lead. I was just about to open the door to the backseat when Matt’s hand covered my own.

“I’ll get these,” he said. “Go ahead and go inside.”

When I just stood there, Matt rolled his eyes. “Carver’s right; a girl shouldn’t have to carry anything if a ‘big, strong guy’ like me is willing to do it for her,” he said, managing to flex his muscles and close the truck’s door at the same time.

I laughed. “Thanks.”

Matt took his act of chivalry very seriously. He carried my bags into the house and when I tried to thank him and take them from him, he resisted and took them up into Kara’s room and set them down by her closet door.

Kara just looked between me and Matt as though trying to figure out why Matt was acting the way he was and I just shrugged. He left her room after saying a brief “Night,” and closing the door behind him.

“What was that all about?” Kara asked.

“Matt met Carver tonight,” I ignored her question and plopped onto the beanbag, it made a whooshing sound under my weight.

“Oh,” Kara smirked. “And how did that go?”

“Carver thought Matt was Tyler and was trying to scare the crap out of him by giving him the ‘you’d better treat Liv right before you regret it’ speech.”

Kara laughed. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah, and Matt’s just standing there taking all of Carver’s crap before I step in and tell Carver that Matt is your brother and not my boyfriend. And when everything’s been cleared up, Carver and I kinda tag-team and mess with Matt a bit.”

“What?”

“Well, Carver wanted to know what I was doing home alone with a guy who wasn’t my boyfriend and I told him that Matt and I were planning on having kinky sex and Matt freaked when Carver got all ‘angry’,” I said using air quotes, “with Matt and went off on him and started threatening him again. None of which I heard because I was laughing so hard.

“When I thought Matt had had enough, I called Carver off of him and we just cracked up. Matt just stood there, probably wondering if we were high or something. And then he drove us back here after asking me if Carver was in love with me.”

“Why would Matt think that Carver was in love with you?”

“Carver was just messing around with me and I guess Matt thought he was serious or something, I don’t know,” I shrugged.

“He couldn’t tell Carver’s gay?” Kara smiled.

“Hey, you didn’t know he was until I told you either,” I said popping some M&M’s into my mouth and making a face at the lack of peanut-y goodness.

“I know,” Kara grimaced. “It’s a shame, too. What a waste,” she shook her head with a sad sigh.

I rolled my eyes. “So you ready for another movie?”

“Yeah,” Kara answered around a large yawn as she stretched. “I’m just going to run down to the kitchen for some more soda. Do you want anything while I’m down there?”

“Nah, I’m good,” I said making myself comfortable in the beanbag chair.

“Okay, be right back,” Kara said skipping out of the room.

I smiled after her. Kara’s yawn told me one thing for sure: Soda or no soda, there was no way she was going to make it till the end of the movie and would fall asleep about halfway through.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. “Speak of the devil,” I mumbled to myself as Carver‘s name appeared on the screen. I quickly scanned his text

Hey, did you arrive in one piece?

I typed my reply.

No, after we left, Matt pulled over and then proceeded to hack me to bits.
You won’t find my body cause it’s scattered along the roadside.


Carver didn’t reply right away.

Who provides your cell service?
Must be excellent to work from beyond the grave. :)


I chuckled at Carver’s flip remark. Although, if anything did happen to me while I was under his care, he wouldn’t be making light of the situation. Carver really was the protective big brother type and I’d been on the receiving end of that protection for a while now.

Once, I broke my arm when Carver was teaching me how to ride a bike and he really took it hard. He didn’t leave my side once while I was at the hospital and when I got home, he insisted that I just sit and heal while he did most things for me.

I really did love Carver like a brother.

So, Matt is straight right?

I laughed loudly.

Really, most sincerely straight.
And jailbait, you old man.


All the cute ones are. :(
We both know I don’t rob cradles.
Night. Text me tomorrow.


Hahaha.
Good night, Carver.
Don’t stay up all night studying again.
I mean it, buddy.


About half way through the movie, I heard Kara snoring softly into her crossed arms and smiled to myself, I just knew she would fall asleep. I kept watching the movie for a few more minutes before deciding to turn it off. I quietly picked up all the junk food mess and just tossed everything into the empty popcorn bowl.

I was quite amazed by the amount of “food” Kara and I could consume. I walked into the kitchen and threw the wrappers and kernels into the trash before putting the bowl and glasses into the sink. I checked the time on the microwave and noticed that it was a little after eleven at night and chuckled. Kara was such a grandma.

I drank some water and then washed the dishes that were in the sink so Mrs. Sanders wouldn’t have to deal with them when she came in, whenever that would be. After I cleaned up, I went back into Kara’s room—she had found her way into her bed in the time that I’d been gone—and grabbed my bag with my clothes in it and changed into my pajamas, a yellow tank top adorned with a panda and some black cotton shorts.

I picked my backpack up from where I dropped it earlier and grabbed my laptop and walked back downstairs into the living room and prepared to do my homework, starting with the paper Ms. Barnes assigned in history today; it was too late for me to concentrate on Algebra 2. Unlike most kids in my class, I really liked history but I wasn’t looking forward to writing this paper. Ms. Barnes really knew how to kill the weekend euphoria—that was a palpable force in class—when she assigned this paper on the battle that took place in Carthage, Missouri in 1861 during the Civil War era.

I started up my laptop and when it had loaded, I took advantage of Kara’s WiFi, and did some Google-ing. I sighed at the number of hits the search came up with. I tied my hair back with the black hair tie I always had on my wrist and mumbled to myself. “This is gonna be a long night.” And with that, I started to immerse myself in the blood-soaked past.

Image


Shortly after three in the morning, I was just about finished with my paper which I was thankful for, this paper hadn’t been on a cheery topic. I rolled my head on my shoulders to relieve some of the tension in my neck before stretching my arms over my head and popping my back.

All that I needed to do was some minor editing and my paper would be ready to be handed in first thing as I walked into class Monday afternoon. I saved my paper twice, once on my computer and then again on a flash drive just in case I needed it. Kara was constantly making fun of my semi-compulsive need to back up all my files.

Mrs. Sanders had wandered in around one in the morning looking slightly worn out and more than a little frazzled. She gave me a customary kiss on the cheek before walking tiredly upstairs to shower and then “hopefully slip into a much needed coma”.

I was rubbing my over-tired eyes when I felt someone sitting next to me on the couch.

“Hey,” I said softly, hiding my surprise.

“Hey,” Matt whispered. “What are you doing up so late?” He asked me after a quiet moment.

“I could ask you the same thing,” I pointed out.

Matt just shrugged his huge shoulders. His motions caused his black shirt to stretch snuggly over his shoulders and my eyes were focused on the taut fabric. I wondered briefly if the material would actually tear from the strain of trying to cover his massive bulk. “So why are you up?” He asked again.

“I’m a bit of an insomniac,” I said. “Figured I’d get some homework out of the way in the meantime.”

“So you can’t sleep?”

“I can, it just takes me a while to fall asleep,” I explained further. “Kara fell asleep before midnight and I wasn’t all that tired so I decided to get some history homework done in hopes that it would make me tired enough to fall asleep easier tonight.”

“Did it work?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I answered truthfully. “Blood and carnage doesn’t mesh so well with my over-active imagination. So why are you still awake? I mean, you can’t be too interested in my sleeping situation.”

Matt didn’t answer me as he ran a stressed hand through his short, black dyed hair and let out an explosive sigh. “Look, Liv, under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t be asking this, but I’m really desperate and I just don’t know what to do anymore.”

His hazel eyes were pleading into my brown ones and I couldn’t help but feel his desperation echo within me. And it definitely wasn’t sitting well with me. Without any hesitation, I decided that I would help Matt with whatever he needed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Yeah, Liv, actually there is,” Matt stopped talking and bit his lip, as though contemplating whether or not he was going to tell me what I could help him with.

My hand automatically went to rest on him arm. “Look, Matt, whatever it is, I’ll definitely help you out as much as I can.” I said looking directly into his troubled eyes, hoping to encourage him to tell me what was bothering him so much that he was feeling desperate enough to ask me for my help.

Matt sighed again and shook his head. “Never mind, Liv, just...forget I mentioned it, okay?”

“No, Matt, come on,” I said. “Just tell me what’s bothering you. Please?” I added as he looked at me.

Matt’s gaze scanned my face for a moment and looked resigned at whatever he saw there. “It’s about Tiffany.”

“Your girlfriend?” I was confused at this point. What did Matt need my help with his girlfriend for?

“Yeah...no...I don’t know.” He said agitated.

“Well, which is it? Is she or isn’t she?” I asked him.

“She thinks she’s my girlfriend, even though I already told her that I wanted to break up with her so many fuckin’ times. She just won’t get the goddamn message.” His voice rose slightly with his anger. He snorted an angry laugh. “I mean, I’ve told her, straight up, that I don’t want to see her anymore and what does she do?” He asked me rhetorically.

I just sat there not saying anything.

Matt continued after a slight pause. “She asked me what we were doing later that night.” His hands balled into tight fists and I could feel the tension rolling off of him. “Like I hadn’t just broken up with her and everything was just so fucking great in her little fantasy world.

“She just doesn’t get it. Or she doesn’t want to realize that it’s over. And I don’t know what else I can do or say to her to get it into her head that I don’t want to be with her anymore. I just can’t seem to get rid of her. She’s like a boomerang and no matter how far I toss it, it just keeps coming back.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted with a slightly confused smile. “Why do you think I can help? Did you want me to talk to her or something?”

“No,” Matt said.

“Well, what do you want me to do then?”

Matt looked straight into my eyes. “Be my girlfriend.”

My mind blanked at Matt’s words and I blinked, hard, thinking I had misheard him. I swallowed to rid the sudden dryness in my mouth before I tried to speak. I shook my head slightly thinking it would help me get a grip on reality. There was no way Matt just said what I thought I heard him say. He couldn’t have. Never in a million years would Matt say those words to me. Ever.

Times a billion.

It just wasn’t conceivable.

Matt just looked at me with a slight smile on his lips. He was waiting for me to say something, anything. I still couldn’t get my brain to work to send a message to my mouth to get sound to come out in the form of something intelligent.

“Huh?” I asked finally. I mentally slapped myself. Real smooth, Liv, you dumbass.

Matt chuckled. He actually chuckled at me.

“Matt, I have a boyfriend.” There, an actual sentence that made sense.

“You mean that Vaughn douche?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Tyler Vaughn.”

“I know.”

“So I can’t be your girlfriend.”

Matt smiled once more. “Liv, I want you to pretend to be my girlfriend.”

“Ohhh,” I said. “Nope, still don’t get it. Help me out here, would you?”

Matt licked his lips before speaking. “Look, after Tiffany, I’m swearing off girls for a while. I don’t need to deal with anymore psycho drama. But, if you pretend to be my girlfriend, she’ll think I’m cheating on her and she’ll dump me.” He grimaced slightly. “At least, that’s the plan. I don’t want her to think I want some sort of polyamorous thing instead.”

“I’m still not following,” I said after a moment.

“Tiffany told me a while back that the one thing she can’t stand is for someone to cheat on her. So if she thinks that I cheated on her with you, she’ll dump me and I’ll finally be free of her and all the craziness involved with her.”

“If that’s true, why not just cheat on her with some girl?” I asked.

“I don’t really want to screw some girl just to get rid of another. I don’t like using people like that,” Matt said.

I found myself nodding. “Makes sense, I guess. But why ask me? I mean, couldn’t you ask one of your other friends to do this for you?”

Matt shook his head. “Tiffany is the jealous type and made sure all of my friends knew it. Most girls won’t even talk to me now. Besides, this was hard enough to ask you to do for me, I don’t think it’d be any easier to explain to anyone else that this is just a show to get her off my back.”

I bit my lip as I thought silently.

“I know this is a big favor to ask you considering we’re not really all that close or anything, and if I could’ve thought of anything else, I wouldn’t be asking you to do this for me, but I’m really desperate. Will you do this for me, Liv? Please?”

Again, the desperation in Matt’s eyes and voice, twisted at my heart a bit. “There’s no way she’ll believe that you’re into me. She’s so pretty and I’m not. She won’t buy that you’re moving on from her to me,” I said in a flat voice.

Matt grinned widely at the meaning of my words. “So you’ll do it? You’ll pretend to be my girlfriend?”

“I didn’t say that,” I said quickly.

“But you will, won’t you?”

Matt didn’t stop smiling at me. I could see hope shining brightly in his eyes and I didn’t want to be the reason that made that fragile thread of burgeoning hope fade. I bit my lip and nodded. “Yeah, Matt. I’ll help you by pretending to be your girlfriend.”

“Thank you, Liv!” Matt said as he crushed me to him in a hard and bruising hug. “You have no idea what this means to me. Seriously, I owe you.”

After Matt let me go I smiled shyly at him. “Let’s just call it payback for rescuing me all those years ago on the playground.”

“You’re the best,” Matt grinned at me. “Seriously.”

“How are we gonna do this?” I asked. “I mean, there’s no way Tiffany will think we’re together.”

“Well, we’ll just really have to sell it and make her believe it,” Matt smirked. “I think I have an idea that’ll work but we’ll talk about it later. And, Liv, for the record, you are pretty.”

I blushed furiously at the compliment and I couldn’t speak as I looked at anything else besides the hazel-eyed boy sitting down next to me. Matt had never complimented me before now and I was sure my face would get a tan from my insanely hot, burning cheeks.

“And you’re not a total psycho bitch like Tiffany,” Matt continued as though he hadn’t just called me pretty and made me blush like crazy. “Which makes you the coolest chick on the planet as far as I’m concerned.”

I grinned at Matt. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

“So,” I said after a moment. “I think I should get to bed now. It’s getting late.”

“Oh, yeah. That sounds like a good idea. So we’ll talk about everything soon. Like tomorrow maybe?” Matt asked.

“Yeah,” I said putting my stuff together. “Tomorrow sounds great.”

“Thanks, Liv,” Matt said putting his hand on mine stilling my movements.

Matt’s cheeks reddened slightly as I finally met his gaze.

“I—uh,” he stuttered for a moment. “I really appreciate this especially, when you don’t have to do anything for me.”

“It’s not a problem, Matt,” I slung my backpack onto shoulders. “I’m really happy to be able to help out.” I smiled at him. “I’m going to go to bed now. See you in the morning.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

Matt shot me a little wave with an awkward smile as he remained seated and I walked out of the living room, leaving him in the semi-darkness alone.

I walked up the stairs with my laptop cradled against my chest and thought about what I had just agreed to do with Matt, for him and wondered briefly if I had made the right decision.

I quietly entered Kara’s room and put my things down before finding my toothbrush and makeup wipes and going into the bathroom in the hall. I brushed my teeth in a daze as my mind continued to work through my newly formed agreement with Matt.

I was in an amazed shock as I lay down in the sleeping bag on the floor beside Kara’s bed as I stared up at the ceiling with a bemused smile on my face.

I had agreed to be Matt’s “girlfriend” to help him get rid of his real—and apparently “psychotic”—girlfriend.

And, Liv, for the record, you are pretty.

The smile remained etched on my lips as I closed my eyes. For the life of me, I really couldn’t stop smiling at the compliment Matt gave me. Only one thought entered my mind before I fell asleep: what was Kara going to say when I told her about my situation with Matt?
♠ ♠ ♠
Hey guys, due to someone, BeenDownThatRoad, commenting and asking me to put this story back up, I decided to do so.
I will be posting one chapter a day so you can reread this story and hang out with Matt and Liv again. :)
Also, if this is your first time reading this story, (or if any of my older readers are reading this again), please don't hesitate to comment. I really want to know what you think of my story. Is there anything you like or don't like? Is there something that you think I left out of the story? I will answer any question I can, however, if you ask something and the answer will give the whole story away, I'll probably just reply with a vague, "Keep reading and you'll find out,". ;)
Don’t forget to check out my other story, Cowboy Up. That story isn’t complete so updates won’t be as frequent as they will be for this story.

Anyway, sorry for the long A/N.
Thanks for reading, commenting, subbing, and recommending,
Hope everyone is having a great Saturday.

P.S. If anyone is interested in making me a new banner, please pm me. Thanks again.
P.P.S. Does anyone read on wattpad and want me to post MHHWSAGI there? Let me know. :)

xo, marriah