She's a Little Bit Country, He's a Little Bit Rock N' Roll

I walked up the mirror to study myself. I was a mess…a hot damn mess. He is used to waking up next to Valary, who was the queen of hell but still beautiful all the same. Today he woke up to raccoon eyes, knotted hair and liquor tinted morning breath, because that’s attractive right?

I grabbed my toothbrush and started vigorously scrubbing the leftover vomit from the back of my tongue before everything hit me like a mack truck.

“Holy shit…holy shit holy shit holy shit!” I muttered walking to my phone as quickly as I could, still scrubbing my teeth.

I scrolled through my contacts and hit Pixie’s number, praying to the universe that she would pick up the phone.

“Hello?” She yawned.

“Pixie! I’m internally panicking and I need you to talk me down, man!” I mumbled as best as I could through the toothpaste in my mouth before I spit it into the sink.

“What’s going on?”

“Matt. He has no place to stay so I told him he could crash here until he found a new place. The engagement is off. What the fuck have I done? Valary was a bitch but I’m literally ruining people’s lives. Someone hates me!” I whined.

“Ivy, please sit the fuck down because I’m about to fuck up your beautiful brain with some truth. You did Matt a favor. Zacky and I talked about the shit that has happened between them over the years, and he agrees that you helped Matt out of a terrible life decision. You’re okay. If anyone hates you, it’s Val, but why the fuck does she matter? She made her hypothetical bitch bed, now she can lie in it.”

I could envision the shrug that came from her shoulders. I imagined she was sitting on her balcony smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee.

“So you and Zacky, huh? How’d that go last night?” I smirked, trying to relax and focus on the positive things.

I heard her excuse herself, meaning Zacky was still there with her.

“Oh my fuck, Ivy, best sexual experience of my life. I have no shame in admitting we fucked all throughout the night. Best decision I’ve ever made.” She chuckled.

I shook my head and chuckled at the idea of my best friend sleeping with the famous guitarist.

“Good for you, Pixie. I’m proud of your hoe status right now.” I grinned.

“What about you and Matt? I never heard from you last night.”

“Right, well he stayed the night. At the time I thought I was hallucinating the whole thing so I just went with it. Number one, please never let me drink that much again. This is the worst hangover I’ve ever experienced and I want to die. Number two, it was nice…what I can remember anyway. We stayed up talking for a while. I’m sure we’ll have to repeat some of the topics today so I can actually remember and register them, but from what I can tell it was relaxing. He woke me up with breakfast in bed today. It was extremely nice of him. I’m a little nervous for him to be staying here, but it’s exciting. Having someone new to talk to.” I smiled walking to the closet to pick out an outfit for the day.

“What am I? Chopped liver? Thanks best friend.” Pixie chuckled.

“You know what I mean, Pix. You and I know everything and anything about each other. We’ve been best friends since we were kids. Matt has so much to learn about me and I have so much to learn about him. Everything is fresh and I am just waiting to see where we go from here.” I shrugged.

I heard her start to giggle and I stuck my tongue out at the thoughts of what Zacky could possibly be doing to her.

“I’ll let you two horn dogs go, have fun. Tell me everything when you can.” I chuckled.

I hung up after hearing a loud shriek from her and headed to the shower. The warm water felt amazing down my back. My whole body was sore and my head was pounding. I desperately needed the pain medicine to kick in.

I hopped out and got ready as quickly as I could. Matt already saw me look like death this morning, so I least wanted him to have something nice to come home to.

Home…this was his home now…even if only temporary I was going to be sharing a space with
Matthew Charles Sanders.

It’s going to take quite a bit of time for that to fully register in my brain.

As soon as I finished my last touch of makeup I heard the door open and close. I peeked my head around the bathroom door to see him with a large suitcase and two other bags.

“Here, let me help you take these to the room.” I smiled picking up two of the bags while he lugged the suitcase.

“Thank you, beautiful. You look stunning.” He smiled.

My heart still sank at that smile just as it did when I saw it for the first time yesterday. I don’t think that feeling was ever going to do away.

“So are you going to tell me where we are going today? I don’t know if I’m dressed appropriately.” I chuckled gesturing up and down.

“You’re dressed just fine, but it’s still a surprise. Let me shower quickly and throw clothes on. I’ll be fifteen minutes. If I take longer, throw my shit out onto the steps.” He chuckled.

“I’m not throwing your shit anywhere you dork, take however long you need. I’ll be outside enjoying a cigarette and coffee.” I grinned slapping his arm gently.

I left my balcony door open to let some fresh air into the apartment. After a few minutes the smell of men’s cologne hit the air and traveled all the way outside to me. It smelled amazing.

I put my cigarette out and walked into the room thinking it was safe…but I walked into Matt with his back turned on me, stark ass naked.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry! Why didn’t you close the door!” I covered my eyes…kind of.

He quickly threw on boxers and jeans and told me he was decent.

“It was bound to happen sooner or later, roomie.” He chuckled, blushing slightly.

He had a nice body, and I could stare at it for days.

“Are you ready, sweet girl?” He smiled grabbing my keys.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I chuckled slipping on my sunglasses. I knew the sun was going to be killer today.

He walked over to my side of the door and opening it for me, helping me get into the car and slowly closing the door like a perfect gentleman.

“So our first step wasn’t originally planned, but I was looking around this morning and the idea came to me. I saw your artwork around your living room. It was all amazing, you have such a strong talent.
I also noticed all of the old materials in the corner that you use, so I want to get you new ones to keep creating. You could probably sell those and make a killer, you know?” He grinned pulling down a street that headed for the shopping district.

“Matt no, I can’t accept that. I don’t need new art supplies, I make do with what I have. Please don’t waste money on me.” I frowned.

I wasn’t exactly the easiest person to give gifts to because I always felt terrible that someone spent money on me. It’s odd, because I grew up in a wealthy family. Maybe it’s because my parents didn’t spoil me when I was a child. They always taught me that hard work paid off which is why I won’t let them pay for my student loans.

“It wouldn’t be a waste, Ivy. You’re helping me so much and you don’t even realize it. It’s really the least I could do. Plus, you better get used to money being spent on you today.” He smirked pulling into a parking spot.

“Matt…I…”

“Ivy…please?” He pouted.

This wasn’t fair. He can’t fucking do that. He can’t pout those perfect lips and bat those gorgeous eyes towards me. Fuck.

“I’m giving myself a limit, then.” I sighed.

“No.” He grinned.

“I’m not going to fucking win, am I?” I chuckled.

“I kind of have this thing where I usually get what I want, and usually I don’t have to fight over it. You’re the first girl to try to fight with me, and I admire that.” He laughed.

“Get used to it, stud. I’m not one to cave so easily.” I smirked.

“Oh yeah? You realize you already gave up on fight number one and your feet are taking you into this store pretty quickly.” He chuckled.

I hated him. I hated him so much.

I stuck my tongue out towards him like a child and he proceeded to pinch my cheeks. We walked through the doors and headed for the paint aisle.

“I just want to apologize for last night. I’m sorry if I said anything ridiculous or made a fool out of myself. I guess my tolerance for alcohol went way down once I traded liquor in for coffee and bar nights for all night study sessions in school.” I shrugged.

“You didn’t. Trust me if you did there would have been a lot of ridicule this morning.” He smirked.

I started walking around carefully, thinking of what supplies I needed. I didn’t want to buy anything at all, but I knew I wasn’t going to leave here empty handed with him hovering over me. I grabbed a set of new paintbrushes, a couple of blank canvases, and some new acrylic paints and placed them in the basket.

“Wait, that’s it? You do realize I could buy you think entire aisle right?” He chuckled.

“That’s all I need. You said you would take me shopping, but you didn’t make specific rules, so I’m only getting what I need.”

“There’s no room for loopholes in this agreement. I’m going to need you to get in the mindset of Val right now. Not that you’re anything like her. However, she would step into a store with my credit card and buy everything she laid her eyes on that she liked. She never cared if she would actually wear it or use it. She just wanted to spend my money. She never deserved it though, because she never gave it a second thought or even asked me. You’re so concerned about me buying you some art supplies to do something you’re clearly passionate about after you let me move into your home for a while. You deserve this more than anyone. So once again, get into that mindset. Don’t look at price tags or count how many items you have. Just grab them and throw them in the basket.” He grinned.

This was starting to get to me. I didn’t know how to react and the emotions inside of me were all over the place.

“I promise I’ll try harder at the next place. For now, this is all I want.” I half smiled.

I really wanted the whole damn store. Are you kidding me? Pulling a supermarket sweep in an art supply store is my goal in life. Well, one of many.

“Fine. I’ll take you up on the agreement in the next place we go.” He smirked.

We went to the checkout line and the total was a measly sixty bucks. I almost felt like Matt wanted to run back and get a couple of hundred dollars worth of more merchandise by his reaction.

“You deserve so much more than this. The next place we go you will have to do some damage.” He chuckled putting his wallet in his back pocket.

As we walked back to my car, I couldn’t imagine what kind of shenanigans we would be getting ourselves into today, but I honestly couldn’t wait.

Notes

Hello, all!

Here's the first chapter of at least two that I promised for today! This is mostly just a filler like the last one, but still important as far as character development goes. I will be updating another chapter by the end of the day! Right now I think I need a nap. I'm running on four hours of sleep right now and it isn't going so well (so forgive me if this chapter sucks!) Thanks so much for all your support. Remember to comment!

xxoo, Leagh