My Second Heartbeat

The next morning I woke up, still in Matt's arms. I smiled and took a deep breath, taking his scent in. He smelled so good literally all the time. I reached up and kissed his cheek softly. It made him stir a little and eased up on his embrace. I slipped quietly out of his arms and my bed. I stopped to admire him one more time before I headed towards the kitchen.

As I walked to the kitchen, I noticed a sleeping Brian on my couch. “He must have stayed the night too. My mom was okay with this?" I wondered. I shook my head and chuckled quietly.

My head was hurting, a small hangover from the night before. I took an Advil and started coffee. I sighed with relief. I felt so calm.

I decided to make breakfast for everyone while they slept. I made a bunch of pancakes and fried some bacon. As I was setting the table up with the food, in walked a sleepy Brian and Matt. My mom was just behind them.

“I smell bacon..." Brian mumbled sleepily as he rubbed his eyes.

" This looks and smells great, babe. You're seriously a doll.” Matt said as he came over to me and kissed my cheek.

“Well, if I knew having your boyfriend sleeping over would encourage you to cook, I guess it will have to happen more often.” She laughed.

I rolled my eyes and laughed too. "Enough chit chat! Eat before it gets cold!"

We all sat down and started eating. It was mostly quiet while the guys stuffed their faces. We were laughing and joking about it while the boys helped me clean up the mess.

Knock, knock, knock.

My heart sank to my stomach. “Please don't let that be Bill back for us…” I felt sick to my stomach.

Matt saw the terror on my face and hugged me close to him. “It's okay, babe. I'll go answer it." He said softly.

I nodded my head and he went to slowly go answer the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

I flinched. Brian came to my side and hugged me to him. “It's okay, Rori. We won't let anything happen to you or your mom." Brian said, consoling me.

Matt cracked open the door and talked to the person on the other side quietly. He nodded and opened the door to let the person in. It wasn't Bill at all. It was my best friend Kat from Ohio!

Her face lit up as she saw me and ran to hug me. “Oh my God!" I screamed as I ran to meet her. We hugged each other tightly.

“Kat, what are you doing here?” I asked.

" I turned 18 two days ago. I missed you so much and I hated Ohio even more without you. So, I took a few busses to get here with my birthday money.” She explained.

"But, what about school? It’s our senior year! Where are you going to stay?” I asked, worried.

“I actually wanted to talk to your mom about that..." She said as she looked around. Her eyes landed on Matt and Brian who were watching us with smiles on their faces.

Kat turned me to face away from them and whispered to me, “Okay, I barely noticed earlier because I was so excited. But who the hell are these gorgeous guys, Rori?” She blushed.

I smiled at her and turned her around. “I would like to formally introduce you guys. Kat, this is Matt and Brian. Guys, this is Kat. She's my bestest friend from Ohio. She moved here and you better be nice.” I said with a smile.

Brian stared at Kat for a few moments. When Matt decided to speak up first. “Any friend of Rori’s is a friend of ours.” He said as he hugged her briefly. Brian was still staring at her and he had this interesting look on his face.

“It's, um, nice to meet you, Kat." Brian said as he shook her hand. I could see that his cheeks were turning red. I looked at Kat and her face was matching his. I smiled at the realization. They liked each other!!! “Ohmygod! We could double date!" I nearly jumped from excitement.

" It's nice to meet you both.” Kat said shyly. " Rori, where's your mom?” I pointed towards the kitchen. Kat headed towards there and hesitated when she had to pass Brian. It was so adorable.

“Matt, can I talk to you a second?" I asked.

Matt nodded and headed for me. Brian groaned, " So now I'm gonna be left out of everything since you're love birds now?" He crossed his arms as he sat down. He found the tv remote and turned on the TV. He flipped channels before landing on VH1.

“What's up?" Matt whispered to me.

“I'm like 100% sure that Brian and Kat have a thing for each other. I am literally so excited! We could double date!” I whispered excitedly.

Matt looked at me and smiled big. " You are so adorable. I can tell Brian has a thing for her. He doesn't act that way unless he likes someone. So it's possible it might happen…” Matt trailed off. A Pantera music video was playing and he went to join Brian on the couch.

I shook my head and laughed. Boys are so funny sometimes. I went to find Kat and my mom talking at the kitchen table. Kat had tears streaming down her face.

“Kat, what's wrong?" I asked as I sat down beside her.

" I ran away once I turned 18. You know how my dad is. I couldn't take it anymore." She said through her tears. We both had asshole fathers and bonded over it through the years we've been friends.

“Oh, hunny." I said as I hugged her tight.

“Aurora, I decided that I'm going to let Kat stay with us. Especially while you both finish high school and you guys figure it out. Is that okay?” My mom asked.

" Is that a real question? Because of course it's okay!” I said excitedly. " We have a spare bedroom that you can have! It's right next to mine.” I smiled at her.

" Oh my god. Thank you so much, Mom!" Kat threw her arms around my mom. We were so close that she called my mom her mom. My mom adored her and I loved it.

“Speaking of school, I need to head over to the high school tomorrow and register you both so you can start on Tuesday. I heard that it's the first day back from summer break. Did you bring your transcript and immunization records, Kat?”

Kat nodded and fished them out of her bag. Mom took them and went to put them with mine. Once she was out of the kitchen, I grabbed Kat's hand and pulled her to my bedroom.

“What's going on?" She asked, looking at me suspiciously.

" So Matt is kind of my boyfriend? And we've only known each other a couple days? I mean, he hasn't asked me to be his girlfriend or anything. But I can feel it.” I bit my lip as I gushed to her.

She squealed from excitement. " That's fantastic, love! He's super hot. You go for him!"

“So, I can tell you like Brian. And I'm pretty sure he likes you too.” I said teasingly.

Kat turned bright red. " Shut up! Nuh uh!"

There was a light knock on the door. “Come in!" I yelled.

Matt walked in. “Hey babe. Brian and I have to go meet up with Zacky and Johnny at the bar. You're both welcome to join, but I understand if you would rather spend time with Kat and catch up.” He said as he walked over to kiss me on the head.

“Kat, do you want to meet the boys?" I said with a raised eyebrow.

Notes

Thanks for reading guys! Let me know what you think (: