Chapter 57

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When I wake up on December 28th Matt is frantically typing away on his phone. I watch him for a moment trying to gauge his mood before I speak. "Good morning," I say softly, pulling his attention from the phone in his hands.

"Good morning my girl," he smiles down at me snuggled against his side, leaning down to kiss my head like he does every morning we wake up together. A hint of that still sleepy, deeper morning voice is evident, letting me know he hasn't been awake for too long. "Did you sleep well?"

I climb on top of Matt, laying on him as he playfully runs his hand down my back and grabs my ass. "I did, did you?" I ask to be nice but I already know the answer. Both of us sleep better when we are together and last night was no exception. We hadn't seen each other for 3 days so last night we were both pretty excited to have a good night's sleep. My grandparents didn't leave until late last night and Matt was working at the gym so we didn't see each other until almost 11:30. I think we said 3 words to each other before we completely passed out in bed.

"Always when you're here."

Matt goes back to typing on his phone and I wiggle myself up higher trying to see what he is doing. He turns his phone away from me and shakes his head. I move again to try and get a better angle but he turns his phone from me again, trying to fight a smile as I get a little frustrated he is playing games. "Not nice what are you doing," I whine giving him my best sad face.

"Planning our date for tonight, is that a problem?" I can't help the squeal that comes out as I sit up and start rapid firing questions at Matt. He sits up now laughing as I excitedly ask him question after question not even giving him time to answer. When he has finally had enough of my many questions he leans over and kisses me to shut me up. "Sydney, go on a date with me tonight?"

"I would love to Matthew."

"Perfect. Now how about we do Christmas gifts because we were both too tired to do them last night."

I agree and we both get up to grab the gifts and sit back in bed. The original plan was to exchange on Christmas Eve but one of Matt's gifts was delayed so we pushed it back. Shopping for Matt was difficult since I just got his stuff for his birthday a month ago. He got smarter after my crazy birthday spending and gave us a $250 price cap. I decided to go more practical this holiday and only got him one thing he hadn't already asked for. Looking at my pile of gifts, it is clear Matt doesn't believe I spent less than $250 but I promise before tax I did!

"Me first!" I yell, excited for him to open everything. I love giving people gifts, it is so much better than getting them in my opinion. I shove everything onto Matt's lap before he can object and he silently judges me, but I know deep down he finds my little quirks cute.

Matt opens his first gift which is more of a joke gift. It is two plain black sweaters but on the tag they say Property of Matt, but really Sydney. "Oh really?" he asks laughing at the tag, I nod and urge him to open the next gift. This one is just a few pairs of joggers which is almost a gift for me since his ass looks so great in them. "Thank you," he says as he puts them back in the box and picks up the third gift. They are a new pair of wrestling shoes he has been fighting if he should get or not. His are ugly but work and he only has about 5 meets left so he decided to wait until next season, but like I said his are ugly. "Oh thank God, I really wanted these!" he exclaims, cuddling the shoes to his chest. I grab them in fake jealousy and throw them across the room before climbing on his lap.

"My Matt," I pout knowing it will earn me a kiss. It does and I flip off the shoes laying on the middle of his bedroom floor. I hand Matt his last gift and he shakes his head.

"You broke the price cap."

"I didn't," I defend as I push the gift in his hands, urging him to open it.

"I don't believe you but I will let it go for now." He opens the last gift, pulling the wrapping off to reveal a black box. He opens the box carefully and I watch a smile slowly grow on his face. I am not even paying attention to the gift, but then again when Matt is around I am not paying attention to much. Things since we figured out we both felt the same way over a year ago when we met as strangers in the store have felt different. Everything feels more like this is how things are supposed to be and less like some random high school relationship.

I finally look down at the gold chain he is running his fingers over. It is the same one he had, like literally I stole his. The Saturday after I told Matt about Aaron we went to a party and his chain broke. He was pretty upset because his grandpa had given it to him for his 16th birthday. I stole it without him noticing a few days later and got it fixed and cleaned. He is still mesmerized by the chain and I sit there letting him take it in. Matt is still somewhat guarded with his emotions so I don't push him.

"I-. . . thank you Sydney. You have no idea how much I love this gift." I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him. He kisses me back roughly but I know that he is just desperate to show me how much this means to him. When we finally break apart I grab the chain and put it around Matt's neck.

"Perfect," I tell him, running my thumb along his jawline softly.

"Fuck I should have went first," he jokes handing me my gifts. I actually don't care what he got me, the fact he put time and effort in instead of doing what Brock used to do and just have me send him links to things means so much. "Open this one first," he instructs, handing me the biggest gift in the pile.

I rip it open excited and literally scream when I pull the shoe box open. They are the Nike Air Force 1s that I wanted, I had them saved to my GOAT account but I don't think I have even mentioned I had the app to him. I rip the shoes out of the box and inspect them before shoving them in Matt's face, like he has no idea what they are even though he is the one who bought them. "How?" I ask, still in awe.

"You mentioned them to Amanda once at your locker so I broke into your phone and sent myself the link. Anyways, next one." This one is little and I play with it in my hands for a second knowing what it is already. I pull the wrapping off and look at the small ring box in my hand. Matt is not the first boyfriend to get me a ring, actually he is the third, but this one feels different, mostly because the other two I had asked for one but this time I hadn't.

I open the small black Pandora box and can't stop the gasp that leaves my mouth. It is beautiful and not one that I had ever seen on their website. My hands are shaking and tears are threatening to break free as I pull the little ring out of the box and look at it more closely. It is two silver rings twisted together with little cubic zirconias around them both. I slowly slide the ring onto my finger and move my hand around watching the ring catch the light. "Matt," I breath out still in shock.

He grabs my hand softly and looks at the ring on my finger, "It's called Twist of Fate, which seemed fitting." I nod knowing if I speak I will most definitely cry. "Ready for your last gift, love?"

I nod and take it from him still shaking a little. When I open it I am absolutely speechless. It is a picture book like the one you get at a craft store and the front picture is the selfie we took together with Conor forever ago. I begin flipping through the book full of pictures of us, pictures of Malcolm and I, old texts, notes we've passed in class, and even a picture I didn't even know existed of Matt and I during his fight at the gym. Whoever took it captured the very moment we made eye contact, before he got punched of course. That very moment changed my entire life. I don't even realize I am crying while flipping through the book over and over again until Matt brushes his thumb under my eye and wipes away the tears. I put the little book down carefully before literally tackling Matt in the tightest hug I can give him. "Thank God I went first, I can't top this," I sob while he places small kisses all over my face clearly proud of himself.

After a while of me crying looking through the book and Matt just holding me letting me be an emotional mess, we finally get up. I picked up gifts for Malcolm and want to give him them so I skip downstairs to find him while Matt follows behind me amused. Celia and Nick are again gone on yet another romantic trip to, as Matt puts it "baby-make", so we have the house to ourselves. "Malcolm come here! Mommy got you gifts!"

"You know I got him Christmas gifts already, right?" I brush Matt off because I would be a horrible mom if I didn't get my new son anything on our first Christmas. I give Malcolm his new bandana first which he seems to like. Even Matt likes it, telling Malcolm how handsome he is. Second are bones I know he likes. I ordered a 6 pack off of Amazon and he tries to run off with them all. I open the first one and give it to him while Matt takes a picture of Malcolm and I. Once Malcolm is settled with his bone, Matt and I finally make breakfast.

We make omelettes, his with all healthy veggies and mine with bacon and a shit ton of cheese, because while we are very alike sometimes we are also extremely different . After breakfast Matt kicks me out and tells me to go home and get ready for our date. I whine still not knowing where we are going but he tells me to dress comfy and if I have any questions to ask Lily, she is allowed to help me.

I get home and take a shower, leaving my hair wavy for Matt and finally making a note on my white board to get it cut soon. After that I do my makeup, keeping it very casual with just a little bit of foundation and mascara and a cute lipgloss. I FaceTime Lily and we spend over an hour picking out an outfit but we finally finalize my look just as Matt texts me to let me know he is on his way. I picked a light cream sweater and black jeans, tucking my sweater in a little to show off my belt.

When Matt pulls up I grab my jacket and bag and head to his car so he doesn't have to get out in the cold. As soon as I hop in he kisses me and grabs my hand, ignoring me as I anxiously ask a billion questions about our date. "You look cute, I like your belt," he compliments as he gets onto the expressway. I mumble a thank you and look forward, trying to figure out where we are going. After about 15 minutes we pull up to this big building which offers me no help on what we are doing. "Come on cutie," he coos as he opens my door, reaching for my hand to walk inside.

I get out and admire his outfit. He is wearing light-washed jeans Celia told me she got him, with a blue and green flannel layered over a gray shirt. His sleeves are pushed up so you can see a little bit of his tattoo. "I want a tattoo," I blurt.

As he opens the door for me as he gives me a thoughtful look, "What would you get babe?"

"I am not sure yet something that is. . . me? You know?"

"Oddly enough I do," he tells me, wrapping his arm around my waist.

I look around and perk up as I realize where we are. "Go-karting!!"

"Oh did you think my first date ever I was going to do something stupid like dinner and a movie? Fuck Barbie, have a little faith in me."

"Last I checked Satan wasn't much of a romantic."

Matt laughs as we walk to the desk, "Well you might want to check again."

By the time we leave I am gloating over beating Matt. We raced three times, with Matt winning the first time and me winning the next two times. I am pretty sure he let me win that last race but I am such a sore winner I continue to brag anyways. It is nearly 7 by the time we get back to the car so I assume we are going to get food. Matt and I talk and laugh while he drives trying to finalize our New Year's Day plans. On New Year's Eve we are going to a party at Tom's, which is kind of a bummer because we have to act like we do in school and probably won't get a kiss at midnight, but all our friends are going so we pretty much have to.

As we finalize our plans for New Year's, including a very romantic dinner, we pull into another parking lot to another place I don't recognize. "I really need to get out more. I don't know any of these places."

"Guess we need to go on more dates then," Matt says smugly, enjoying my confusion. As we walk around the building to the front I notice the sign.

"DAVE & BUSTER'S!"

"Well duh, I have to redeem myself after you kicked my ass go-karting." I laugh and smile obnoxiously.

We get dinner first, deciding to get a bunch of appetizers instead of one meal. I make a joke that somehow ends with me throwing food across the table while Matt catches it in his mouth. That is going pretty well until he tips his chair and falls to the floor, making me laugh until I nearly choke on my chicken wing. After we both recover and finish eating we head down to all the games.

"Oh that one!" I yell pointing toward the basketball game.

"Are you even tall enough to make it into the basket?" Matt teases as we both take machines next to each other. I roll my eyes at him as the game begins but quickly realize I am not very good at this game. "Guess not," He teases again looking between our scores.

"Fine, this one," I tell him, dragging him over to another game. This goes on for a while, us playing games and teasing each other. I somehow convince Matt to play one of those dancing games but he is absolutely horrible at it. It was really funny to watch him struggle to step on the arrows and in the end I am glad he survived the song in one piece. I was honestly scared a few times he was going to twist an ankle.

We finally both decide to cash in our tickets and call it a night around 12:30. We have been playing games for over 4 hours now and we are both semi-delusional. We go to pick out prizes, deciding to get a video game, some candy, and a basketball hoop that hangs on doors so I can practice my shooting. Matt carries the bag with our stuff in his left hand while he puts his right arm over my shoulder, pulling me close as we step into the cold.

"Did I do good?" he asks and I can hear the nervous edge. The butterflies come alive as I think of Matt nervously planning this night trying to make it special. I can't believe this is his first date ever, this was perfect.

I grab his hand and squeeze it gently, "Tonight was amazing. Hands down the best date I have ever been on."

"Really?" he asks surprised.

"By a long shot. Do you know how many boring dinners I have been to? Or worse movies I didn't even want to see!"

"So does this earn me a second date?"

"Is that you asking me on one?"

"Definitely."

"Then definitely."

The drive home is short and quiet, both of us exhausted from playing games. When we get back to my house Matt carries me upstairs on his back and drops me into bed. He walks over to my dresser and grabs me one of his old shirts before kicking off his shoes and pulling his pants off. I follow, throwing my pants and sweater onto the floor and pulling on a Virginia Beach shirt he told me he got when he was like 12.

I look down at my ring again as we both get under the covers. Matt also looks at it carefully, twisting it on my finger. "Do you really like it? You can be honest with me, I won't be upset. I am not really good at this whole gift thing."

I turn to him confused, "Not good? Matt your gifts are the most thoughtful gifts I have ever gotten. I didn't need to pick it out myself or help you, you knew me well enough to do it all on your own."

"My mom helped, she took me to Pandora and pointed out a few to look at and I decided this one because I thought the name was fitting." I can't help but give him a little kiss as he tries to lie to my face that he isn't good at gifts. I know he is, even his gifts to his family were well thought-out and really sweet.

"Take the damn compliment for fucks sake Matt and let me thank you properly. Now hold my ring," I tell him as I dip down below the covers with a smirk on my face.

"Why do you need to take it off," he asks confused as he takes it and places it on the nightstand. I know he is only mildly curious since his body is already reacting to the mere idea of what is about to happen.

"Ever had your skin pinched by a ring?" I ask, popping my head out from under the blanket.

"Nooo," he replies more like a question.

"Ok well Brock has and there were a lot of tears. I am trying to protect little Matt here!"

Matt looks at me traumatized by what I just told him. "That sounds horrible."

"It literally bled, I wish this was a story I was making up."

"Jesus Christ. Anyways, enough about your ex," he says pushing my head back down under the blanket.

I laugh and pull his boxers down and wrap my mouth around him, living for the noises escaping his mouth as I move up and down. I make sure I give Matt the best thank you he has even gotten as he struggles to keep quiet with my parents across the hall.

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Please remember how cute this was while you're reading the next chapter and wishing death on me. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! 

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