In Waves | ✔️

61 | happy

Staring at Matt staring at Carter's phone, it feels as if someone has poured wet concrete over me. Dripping over my nostrils, pooling around my feet. Drying by the second.

"Leave," Matt eventually says.

Carter looks at me, pressing a paper towel to his stab wound. "You heard him."

"Not her, Jay." Matt's voice is jarringly calm. "You and everyone else. Take them all and get out of my house."

"What? But I-"

"Did I fucking stutter?" Matt barks, giving him a hard glare. A shiver of dread ripples through me.

Carter seethes and walks over to take his phone back, but Matt holds it out of reach, shooting him a warning look. Carter sighs and leaves the kitchen, whistling, shouting at everyone and rounding them up. The music dies, the sound of groans and scuffling feet. Packing it in and moving onto another house or Stingray. I'm supposed to be sleeping at Rachel's tonight, and I imagine Carter stopping her from coming to find me, telling her there's been a change of plans.

Matt stays in stony silence, watching the video on repeat until the very last car has pulled out of the driveway. Watching me wrapped around Nate in that pool.

"Matt, I can ex-"

"Don't." He rips his eyes from the screen, finally looking at me. "Don't you dare. God, I should've known! Everyone told me I was insane for letting you hang out with him all the time. Here I was thinking he's been waiting to swoop in at the right moment, meanwhile you're the one spreading your fucking legs for him!"

"I never! Matt, that video-" I attempt to gather my unraveling thoughts. "That video was taken way back at Rachel's party. It was only that night with him, and I didn't tell you because I knew you'd be done with me. I liked you so much and I didn't want to lose you."

He spurts out a cold laugh. "Oh, you liked me? Not enough to refrain from screwing Nate Miller, though, right? Were there even surf lessons, or were those just fuck sessions?"

"I didn't have sex with him, Matt! I'm still a virgin!"

"Are you?"

"Yes!"

"Then what happened in that pool house?"

"Nothing! We drank, we made out a little, and then we fell asleep! That's it!"

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because I'm your girlfriend and you know me! This isn't something I'd lie to you about!"

"Do I know you?" he retorts, his shoulders tensing. "Because the girl I know wouldn't be attacking my best friend and getting him to keep this from me!"

"Seriously? How would I even get Carter to keep this from you? He took that video and he blackmailed me. For my freaking underwear! And I stabbed him because he wanted nudes and when I said no he literally got under my shirt! Your best friend is sociopath!"

He gauges me. That might be the only thing he believes in this whole situation.

"Are you okay? You know..." Matt gestures to me as a whole, tiptoeing around the specifics.

His concern catches me off guard. The fact that he's pressed pause to check in with me before we continue this fight makes my chest ache. I don't know how much he actually saw before he tackled Carter. If he saw him groping me or if he just saw him getting too close. He knows it was enough to make me reach for a fork.

"I'm okay. Thank you." My voice boarders on a whisper.

I suddenly wish he would close the space and hug me so tight I'm lifted off my feet. So I don't have to keep standing or fighting. So he can replace the crawling touch that Carter left. But he doesn't. He's tucking the phone in his pocket, the space between us somehow growing.