*Matt POV*

I woke up, feeling even more sleep deprived than I have for the last couple days. I groaned and rolled myself off of my bed, catching myself on my feet. I trudged to the bathroom, rubbing the back of my neck. I looked at myself in the mirror and was taken back at how shitty I looked without sleep. My face was pale and the bags under my eyes were near black. I sighed and pulled off my boxers, jumping into the shower. I continued to dress myself for the day and headed downstairs, leaving my phone up in my room.

"Breakfast making, commence." I said to myself as I walked to my kitchen, my stomach growling. I pulled out bacon and ingredients for pancakes before getting out the utensils I needed. I started making the batter and laying out the bacon, swaying as I began singing. "I wish I could be the one, the one who won't care at all. But being the one on the stand, I know the way to go, no one's guiding me. When time soaked with blood turns its back, I know it's hard to fall. Confided in me was your heart..." I heard a noise and stopped singing and glanced up from my work, looking towards the opening of my kitchen. Brian was standing there, his face soft. I sighed and he stared at me.

"I know it's hurting you, but it's killing me." Brian finished quietly, not bothering to sing it. I pursed my lips, realizing it probably looked like I was a mess. Which, I mean, I couldn't say I wasn't. But I wasn't laying on the floor crying, which is good enough for me. I smirked a little and continued my work, glancing up at him.

"Why don't you guys ever warn me when you're coming to crash my house." I chuckled, sticking the bacon in the oven. Brian smiled and raised his eyebrows.

"I tried calling you." Brian informed me. I pursed my lips, realizing that I didn't have my phone with me. Brian smirked and leaned himself against the wall, watching me cook. "Is this not the first time someone has walked in on you singing and cooking?"

"You guys always walk in on me while I'm cooking and singing." I replied, rolling my eyes at him. He shrugged and I shook my head. "But just about two weeks ago Zach got to watch me sing, cook, and dance."

"I bet that was a sight to see." Brian mused, smiling. I nodded and went back to cooking my pancakes. It was silent for a few minutes before I glanced back at Brian, who was still watching me cook.

"I haven't seen you in a while." I commented, grabbing out two plates for the pancakes. Brian smirked and pursed his lips a little.

"All of us can say the same about you," Brian returned, uncrossing his arms and pushing himself away from the wall. I raised an eyebrow and he gave me a look. "No one has seen you in over a week. We all thought you were dead."

"Well, I am very much alive," I laughed, handing him a plate of pancakes. He happily took them and began cutting them up.

"You don't look like it. You look like shit, dude." Brian stated bluntly. I rolled my eyes. If Brian was good at anything, it was smirking, flirting, and being blunt. I gave him a look and he smiled.

"Well thank you captain dipshit for telling me this helpful information about myself." I retorted, trying not to laugh. Brian hit me behind the head and went to my fridge to pull out syrup, which reminded me to take out the bacon. I set the bacon on the stove while Brian put the syrup in the microwave. He turned towards me as he waited and smirked again. I scoffed and returned the smirk. "My God, Gates, do you ever not smirk?"

"I could say the same about you, Shadz." Brian replied, smiling. I rolled my eyes at him and finished making my pancakes. I grabbed a few pieces of bacon and put the rest on Brian's plate as he took out the syrup. We took turns smothering our pancakes in syrup before sitting ourselves down on my couch. We were quiet for a few minutes, enjoying our pancakes. I swallowed a bite of bacon and looked at Brian, who was shoving a whole pancake in his mouth. He froze and I gave him a look. He finished eating the pancake before smiling widely at me. I laughed and shook my head at him.

“Did you know that Zach doesn’t know how to make pancakes?” Brian asked, laughing to himself. I raised an eyebrow and he took out his phone. He brought up a picture of Zach, who was covered with flour all over his body.

“He was able to save one of my concoctions, but he can’t make pancakes?” I asked incredulously. Brian nodded and laughed. I shook my head and sighed. “Zach has got some issues.”

“I worry about him sometimes,” Brian added, sighing. It was quiet for a few minutes, and I was trying to think of something for us to do when Brian beat me to it. "Wanna go downstairs and fuck around on the instruments?"

"Sure." I agreed, standing up. We set our plates in my sink and Brian grabbed a beer before heading towards my basement door. I followed behind Brian as he walked down the steps and turned on the lights before walking over to the instruments set up in the back of my basement. I hadn't been down in my basement for awhile, so I looked around to refresh my memory.

It was a huge basement, but it didn't have much in it. Half of the basement was taken over by an at-home movie theater the guys and I set up together when I had first gotten the house. We all chipped in and got a huge-ass flat screen and stuck it to the wall, and then got a blu-ray player and about fifty of our favorite movies and TV shows. I had a small corner for weights, and then the other half of the basement was taken up by a small set-up of instruments. I made sure to soundproof the basement, so we were able to turn on the amps for everything and play as loud as we wanted.

"You coming, Shadz?" Brian called from his place in the corner where the guitar was. I nodded and walked over to him, grabbing my microphone. We warmed up a little bit before playing through random songs. We stayed in my basement for about three hours, getting lost in the music. Soon enough I had to stop since I forgot a drink and I felt like there was sandpaper in my throat.

"I need a drink or I'm going to die." I breathed, turning off my microphone. I retreated towards the door and Brian followed me after he turned off his guitar. I got myself some water and Brian grabbed himself another beer before we once again plopped ourselves onto my couch and turned on the TV. Brian and I made small talk when the thought of Kid came to my mind. She was most likely with one of the guys sometime this week, since I saw her pull out her phone when I left her outside days ago. Even though I tried to get myself to stop, I couldn’t get Kid off my mind. I turned to Brian and cleared my throat, planning to subtly see if he’d bring up Kid at all. “So what have you been doing for the last few days?”

“Just hanging out with everyone.” Brian answered simply, not naming names. At that I could tell he was probably trying to keep Kid out of our conversation, but right now I didn’t want that. Even though he seemed to be chill about everything, I couldn’t help but wonder if Kid sent him to try to talk to me like she had with Zach two weeks ago. Brian pulled me out of my thoughts by turning his head toward me and giving me a look. “What about you?”

“Creating a mold of my body in my bed, even though I can’t sleep for shit.” I answered lightly, although it was kind of true. I’d been lying in bed for the last few days, energy completely drained from me for some unknown reason. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why I’ve been so shitty recently, but whatever it is, it’s messing with my sleep and it’s pissing me off. Brian nodded and let out a small laugh, although he looked pretty entranced by the TV. I pursed my lips and decided to ask why he was here, because the thought of him being another pawn was eating me. “So why’d you decide to come see me today?”

“Can’t I come to hang out with my best friend?” Brian asked, chuckling a little. I shrugged and nodded, slightly happy that he didn’t say he was sent here. For being, well, Brian, he was actually pretty smart when it came to body language, because he gave me a look. “Did you think I came for some other reason?”

“No.” I answered a little too quickly, totally giving away the fact that I in fact did think he came for a totally different reason. Brian rolled his eyes and gave me an empathetic look before turning his attention to the TV.

“Kid didn’t send me, Matt. You can calm your tits.” Brian sighed, taking a sip of his beer. I nodded my head and Brian glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Actually, she’s the one that talked me out of trying to talk to you.”

“Really?” I asked, slightly taken back. Of all people, I did not expect Kid to be the one to tell Brian to leave me alone about this. She looked pretty heart-broken when I stormed inside, and I must admit that I felt kind of bad about it. But I just couldn’t believe she’d be friends with my ex-girlfriend, it just seemed like Kid would be smarter than that. I saw Brian nod and I stared at him.

“Yeah. She said when Zach tried to talk to you, you didn’t want to talk, so to just leave you alone about it.” Brian continued. I nodded again and bit at my lip. I felt an awkward tension that I was probably creating, so I grabbed out my Xbox controllers and handed him one. He smiled widely and we started playing Halo.

“I need to hang out with you guys soon, I miss you guys.” I said casually as we started a free-for-all game. I saw Brian nod, which made me distracted enough to be killed by him. He laughed and I groaned, watching as he had his avatar teabag my dead body. I punched him lightly and he laughed louder before shoving me.

“I know, dude. I was thinking of inviting you to hang out with us a few times, but…” Brian faded out, not wanting to say what I knew he would. Kid was there. It kind of irritated me that she had to take my friends from me; I mean, after all, they were my friends first. For a long ass time.

“Hasn’t she gone home yet?” I asked, irritation clear in my voice. Brian bit as his lip and shifted his body uncomfortably, allowing me to kill him. I laughed triumphantly and repeated what he did to me, and he shoved me. I stuck my tongue out at him and he glared before looking back at the screen.

“She can’t really.” Brian admitted. I stared at him in shock, not bothering to hide my guy or pause the game. Brian shot me a look before pursing his lips and looking back at the screen. “Emma told her she should stay with Jimmy, Zach, or myself because she can’t take being around her when she’s heart-broken and crying.”

“Isn’t that kind of a bitchy thing to do?” I asked incredulously, slightly angry with Emma for exiling Kid from their apartment. Brian looked at me and scrunched his mouth up a little.

“Well, you have to remember that they’ve been friends about as long as we have, so Emma was there to watch Kid cry over her four-year breakup and her parents divorcing.” Brian explained. I widened my eyes a little, forgetting about those factors. I nodded in understanding and went back to the game, thinking about what I’d just been told. Heart-broken and crying? I felt like an ass, and that concerned me a little. I usually never felt so much remorse for breaking up with a girl. It wasn’t because I was a heartless bastard, because obviously we had disproven the previous thought that I couldn’t show feelings towards a girl, but because of the fact that no other girl had made me have as much reciprocating feelings as Kid had. What the hell did that girl do to me? “But yeah, we can all hang out soon. I think Zach mentioned that his dad will be in town soon, so we could all hang out before then and then talk to James for awhile.”

“Sounds fun. You’ll definitely have to bring it up with the rest of the guys.” I agreed, going back to the game.

“I’ll be sure to do that.” Brian added, smiling. I smiled too and turned all my focus to the game, forgetting about everything else. “And one more thing.”

“What’s that?” I questioned, searching for a better gun. Right as I found one, I was killed by Brian. I stared in shock at the screen, since I hadn’t seen him come up behind me.

“Invisibility, mother fucker.” Brian growled, laughing evilly.

Notes

Okay, so I need opinions for future reference: smut chapter or no smut chapter?