13. matthew

I wake up to yelling and loud footsteps crashing onto the floor. My eyes slowly open when I notice I'm in bed alone. I sit up and move my hair back with my hand before turning on my phone. I notice a certain text message.

Text sent at 8:23 AM from "Morgan Irvine": Hey thanks for letting me sleep in your bed I had to get up and leave to make the girls breakfast. They're pretty hungover.

I yawn before getting out of bed. I put on a white t-shirt and grey cargo shorts with a grey necklace. I head downstairs and see the girls with barf buckets beside them.

"Morning, sunshine." I say to my sister.

"Leave me alone I have a pounding headache."

I look at Morgan and she shakes her head at me, signalling for me not to tease her.

"I made some eggs and bacon if you want a plate." She says.

"How will I ever repay you." I say grinning. She rolls her eyes and smiles.

When Hailey's friends leave. She grabs her suitcase and starts packing for the lake house. She hands me my suitcase and suggests I bring more than one pair of everything like I did last year. I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in." I say.

It's Morgan.

"Hey we're leaving at 1. Just thought I'd let you know." She says.

"Thanks. Want to help me pack?" I ask.

"Sure why not."

She hands me many sweaters and t-shirts. I insist I don't need them, but she tells me to take them anyways.

"Can you pass me a few pairs of underwear too?" I ask.

She looks at me with her face red.

"Uh, where's that?" She asks.

"In that drawer."

She opens it and laughs awkwardly. She hands me a few pairs and sits back down beside me.

"Are you packed?" I ask.

"Yeah of course. I brought my stuff over last night."

Last night. All the memories come flooding back to me. The fight, the cops, the moments i had with her. I look at her and she looks back at me with hopeful eyes.

"Yeah, last night." I say.

"Do you want to talk about what happened last night?"

"Yeah," I reply, "I-"

Hailey opens the door and sees us both sitting there, clearly having a moment.

"What's going on here?" She asks.

Matthew adjusts himself quickly and responds.

"What are you doing here?" He asks.

"What is she doing here?" Hailey looks at Morgan, who is suddenly stunned. She doesn't move a muscle.

"She's just helping me pack. Making sure I don't bring one of everything like last year you know." I reply, proud of how smooth my response was.

"Okay well she's my best friend. Stop stealing my friends."

"When have I ever stolen your friends?"

"Let's see," she says, tapping her head pretending to think, "you dated Georgia, Julia A, Julia H, and Fiona if I'm not mistaken."

"When I was in middle school. And I didn't even date them. Half of those girls just had a crush on me or I just like kissed them once. It was nothing."

Morgan looks at me confused.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing. Just that a kiss means nothing to you." Morgan replies.

"No that's not what I mean."

"Player." She says, pointing at me, clearly trying to release the tension in the room. I awkwardly laugh and signal Hailey to leave.

"Okay but I'm bringing Morgan with me." She says.

Morgan leaves with her and I finish packing up. I decide to clean up my room a little too since this is one of the last times I'll be in it before I leave for college.

We get in the car and drive off. My mom offered to drive but I insisted that I drive. She's sitting in the seat beside me and Hailey and Morgan are in the back.

"So, what do you kids plan on doing tonight?" My mom asks.

"Oh I don't know. Probably just relax." I respond.

"I was going to make some pasta tonight if that's okay." I knew my mom was specifically speaking to Morgan when she said that.

"Yes that's perfect thank you." She replies.

Morgan's always been super polite. She's never been reminded to say please and thank you like me and Hailey have.

I turn on the radio to see if any good songs are on. I flip through the stations until i find a pop station that has a song I like playing. I look in my mirror to see my sister and Morgan dancing to it. I turn it up and they start singing. They open the windows and start pointing at people while singing like they're at a concert. I smile and my mom is laughing.

When we're halfway to the lake house, we go to a gas station to stretch a little and for me to get some gas. My mom and Hailey go inside and Morgan just gets out for some fresh air.

"Can I help?" She asks.

"No it's all good right now. Thanks though." I reply.

"We never got to finish our conversation about last night." She says.

I look at her, surprised, and she's looking down at the ground.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I ask.

"Yeah kind of."

"Okay."

"We almost kissed. And then I slept in your bed."

"Yeah. You did."

"Yeah."

"Cool." I say.

"Hey, what are we?" She asks.

I look at her to see her looking at me this time. She looks hopeful but also hurt that I'm taking time to respond. I think I know how she wants me to respond to this, but I don't know if I can provide that response for her.

"I don't know, Morgan. I really like you, but you know, my sister. And well I don't know. I've known you for a long time and I don't want things to be awkward between us."

"Oh okay." She says.

I can tell I hurt her. I know she wants to be boyfriend and girlfriend but there's so many things that just make it impossible.

"My last intention is to hurt you. I know how I feel about you and I don't regret anything last night. I just want to take it slow if that's okay."

"Yeah. That's fine." She says.

I look at her and smile. I can't get over the fact that I hurt her. I don't know what she's thinking and I don't know if I ruined my shot with her. I hear the gas station store door open and look to see my mom and sister with bags of stuff.

"I should get in the car." Morgan says.

I get in the car as well and turn on the engine. The radio turns on and I turn it down. My mom looks at me and gives me a look, asking me if I'm okay. I nod yes because I don't want to worry her. All she does is worry for me and my sister because she loves us. She does so much for us and I don't want to put any more stress onto her.

I look back in the mirror and see Morgan with her earbuds in, looking down at her phone. I can't lie to her and say things I don't mean, and the truth will always hurt. I just don't want to hurt her.