Jill and Matt

Jill woke in the morning to the sound of her door being rapped on. She placed her hand to her head to help calm down the headache from the drinking the night before. “Jilly, will you get your bum out of that bed, please?!” her friend Loz shouted through her door for the third time that morning. Jill loved Loz, but she regretted the day she agreed to move in with her; she was never one for early mornings – the complete opposite to Loz. Jill often wondered how she could wake up at 7.30 in the morning and be bright and cheerful – another thing Jill wasn’t used to. These days, bright and cheerful wasn’t really her thing. She sighed to herself and shoved the pillow over her head to cover the shouting. “Jill, what is up with you?!” Loz opened the door and barged in grabbing the pillow from Jill. “Seriously, get you’re a*se up!” Jill moaned and gestured for Loz to go away. “JJ, if you don’t get up, there’ll be no party tomorrow…” Jill sat up with a start. “I’m up! I’m up! Happy now?” She laughed slightly. Loz walked over and sat on Jill’s bed next to her and threw her arms around her neck happily. “Babes, it’s your 21st tomorrow – cheer up! Be happy!” Jill broke away from the hug with her best friend, which was just what she needed. She smiled, grateful of the support that Loz gave her whenever she felt low, and clambered out of bed, picked up her dressing gown from the bedroom floor and put it on. “Yeah – not got much to be happy about, though…” Jill said, looking to the floor, a single tear falling down her face. Loz looked at her and laughed – she had always been slightly jealous of Jill – she had the perfect figure, perfectly tanned, blemish-free skin, gorgeous sun-kissed hair, and she’d always had one guy or another after her…like Gary. Loz stood up and put a sympathetic arm around Jill. “Hey, he wasn’t good enough for you! You deserve way better than Gary, you know you do!” Jill rested her head on Loz’s shoulder and let the tears flow from her eyes. She spoke through the crying. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Loz, I love you! You’re the only thing I’ve got since Gar…” Her words broke off at the thought of Gary – the guy she had loved for so long more than anything, but he still treated her like dirt. Loz pulled Jill back to look at her and smiled while wiping her tears away with a tissue from her pocket. “Hey, how about…you go get a shower and get dressed and I’ll straighten your hair for you, yeah?” They both laughed and Jill wiped her eyes and smiled. She kissed Loz on the cheek and hugged her before placing her hand on the door handle and turning it. Before making her way to the bathroom, she put her head around the bedroom door, smiled, and mouthed the words “thanks, babe” to Loz. It was times like these that she really appreciated having a great friend like her.

Jill appeared from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and one around her head to see Loz walking up the stairs towards her. “You better now?” Loz said smiling at Jill. “Yeah, thanks,” Jill replied smiling slightly. Loz reached the top of the stairs and turned towards her bedroom. “You go sort yourself out, call me when you’re done and I’ll come and straighten your hair for you – then we can go out shopping for outfits for tomorrow night! You’ve got to look extra good tomorrow night…” Loz smiled at Jill as she looked confused. “Why, exactly? Who’s coming?” Loz winked at Jill and smiled cheekily. “Oh, you’ll find out!” Jill looked at her strangely and laughed. They both turned towards their bedrooms and opened the doors. Just before closing her door, Jill called out to Loz. “Oi…” Loz looked back as Jill continued. “…since when do I not look extra good anyway?!” They both laughed and turned into their rooms, shutting their doors behind them. In her room, Jill leaned up against her door as a tear fell down her face. She wiped it away, determined not to let things get the better of her: she was stronger than that and, deep down, she knew that. She walked over to her chest of drawers and pulled out a white vest-top and jeans. She put them on and look at herself in the mirror and smiled feebly. The smile immediately faded when she saw a picture of herself and Gary in each other’s arms, which was stuck to the mirror. She took it off and held it in her hands looking at it, her hands shaking slightly. “Thanks, ‘babe’” she said sarcastically to herself as she looked at Gary in the photo. She stared for a second and then ripped it up and chucked it into the waste paper basket by her bedroom door. She decided to look for her straightener, so sat down on the floor next to her chest of drawers and opened the bottom drawer. She started to rummage through the clutter of stuff and spotted a photograph. She moved all of the stuff out of the way and picked up the photo: it was of her and Matt – the boy she had spent all of her secondary school years in love with. Unfortunately for her, the love was one-sided. A tear fell down her face and to the floor, as did her heart, as she remembered all the nights she spent texting him on her phone until 2 o’clock in the morning, how much she fancied the pants off him whenever she saw him, how he made her feel all gooey and hot whenever he walked into the room…how he was so horrible and mean to her most of the time that it made her feel so low she didn’t know what to do with herself. She wiped the salty tears from her eyes and laughed slightly to herself at her own craziness from those years ago. Suddenly, without warning, all of the feelings she had felt before came flooding back. She stared at the photo, deep into Matt’s gorgeous brown eyes and stroked the image of his face before her, and smiled at it through tears.

A knock at the door tore Loz away from her shower. She quickly wrapped a towel round herself and went downstairs. “Hey! What are you doing here?” she said, opening the door to reveal James standing casually and smiling. “Do I need a reason to come and see my two best friends?!” They both laughed. “Actually, I just came to see if you needed any help for tomorrow,” he said, while giving Loz a friendly hug and walking into the house. Loz shut the door. “Nah, we’re all ok, thanks!” James looked into the kitchen and back at Loz. “Where’s the other one then?” his face lighting up at the thought of Jill. Knowing he was talking about her, Loz replied. “She’s upstairs. I tell you, she’s been miserable all morning! I swear, if I ever see Gary again I’m going to give him a bloody black eye and I’m not joking. No one deserves that, least of all Jill.” James replied sounding concerned, “yeah, I know. Creeps like him deserve all that’s coming to them. D’you think I should go up and see her, maybe it would cheer her up?” Loz smiled at James. “It’s worth a try, I suppose. Seriously, if she’s like this today, what’s she gonna be like tomorrow? She can’t be like this tomorrow night…” James smiled and made his way up the stairs. Loz looked at him and laughed to herself. She knew how much James liked Jill – from the day they met he was totally smitten. She was all he thought about day and night but he couldn’t bring himself to do something about it. Loz had tried to persuade him time and time again to tell Jill, but he knew that Jill only liked him as a friend, and as he once said, “it wouldn’t work out anyway – best friends becoming lovers just doesn’t work,” to which Loz’s reply had been, “it worked for Chandler and Monica, didn’t it?” There had been many plans to tell her how he felt, but, James being James, he chickened out of them. He didn’t want to spoil the friendship he had with her over some stupid crush…that had now grown into something much more.

James knocked on Jill’s bedroom door lightly and entered cautiously. He smiled to himself as he saw Jill asleep on her bed facing the opposite direction. He walked in over to her and peered over at her face and smiled. He noticed she was clutching a photo to her chest. He gently took it out of her hands and looked at it. He had heard all about Matt and how much Jill had loved him, but he had never seen him before. Now he had, he felt that Jill could never love him the way that he loved her – he thought that Matt was so much better looking than he – if Jill had to choose, James knew that she would pick Matt for sure. He looked at the image of Jill in the photo and smiled to himself. His eyes welled up with watery tears as he raised his hand to rub them away. He put his finger to his lips, kissed it and printed it onto Jill’s face in the photo. He stroked the image of her face, just as Jill had done to the same photo. He placed the photograph back onto the bed next to Jill when he looked to her face and saw a single tear resting on her perfectly formed cheekbone. He leant down slowly and kissed it away gently, trying as hard as he could not to wake the sleeping beauty lying before him. He softly swept the hair away from her face and whispered the words, “I love you, Jill”, as Jill turned over to face him, still asleep. She put her arms out in front of her and relaxed as James looked at her face and smiled, making his way down her body, knowing that what he saw could never be his, however much he wanted her. It made his heart yearn. His eyes moved back up her body and down her arms, but stopped at her wrists. His look of love turned into one of shock when he saw cuts on her wrists that hadn’t been there before. He looked at her face and wondered how someone so beautiful would want to do…THAT…to themselves. He looked at her other arm and saw the same thing. A look of worry crept onto his usually happy face as he made his way out of Jill’s room, shutting the door behind him, and going downstairs. Loz looked up from the T.V and smiled at him. “Is she ok?” She frowned at James’s fazed look as he sat on the sofa next to her and looked into space in front of him. “James, is she alright? What is it? What’s going on?” Loz said, confused and concerned. James tried his best to put his words together in a sentence, still looking straight ahead, trying his best to keep his cool. “Uh… she… she’s… she’s got… she’s got… cuts…” He looked at Loz worriedly as he continued, “…um…on her wrists…uh…” Loz looked shocked as she replied looking as worried as James. “What?…you mean…what – she showed you?” She looked confused as James answered her. “Nah… I went up there… she looked so beautiful… she was asleep… and then… I saw… she don’t know I was there…” Tears started to form in his eyes as he carried on. “What… why… how…” He broke down as he put his head in his hands and rested his elbows on his knees. Loz leant forward and placed a friendly arm around him, tears developing in her eyes as well. “Oh my God.” James rubbed his eyes, trying to fight the tears, but losing the battle. “Why didn’t she say anything? Why did she do it?” “I don’t know,” Loz replied, rubbing her own eyes and sniffing as James sat back into the sofa. “There was a photo… she was holding it when she was asleep… it was that… that ‘Matt’ guy…” He rested his elbow on the side of the sofa and placed his head on his hand as Loz closed her eyes and looked down. “Not again…” James looked at her stunned. “What d’you mean – ‘not again’?” Loz breathed in deeply. “She tried it before but I stopped her – it was ages ago – when he was really horrible to her – she didn’t wanna carry on…” James looked confused. “What d’you mean? Carry on with what?” Loz sat back in the couch as James had a few minutes ago. “Life…everything. She couldn’t take it, but I thought she’d got out of that…she got better…” James looked distraught at Loz. “I don’t think she’s done it before now – they looked pretty fresh…” he said, breaking down again. “God I love her so much, Loz what are we gonna do? I’m really worried about her…I wanna help her…what are we gonna do?” Loz sat for a second thinking before sitting up. “Wait…” James looked at her as she went on. “Matt’s coming tomorrow night…” James looked confused at her. “What?” “He’s coming… to the party… I invited him… but she doesn’t know, it’s a surprise.” Their conversation was interrupted as they heard a door shut upstairs and footsteps began to make their way slowly down the stairs. Loz looked up the stairs to see Jill’s feet and looked at James. “Look, forget it. Let her sort herself out.” She took his hand and tried to smile. “She’ll be ok…I know she will…just be normal.” James nodded his head in agreement knowing that he couldn’t be normal – not anymore. He loved Jill more than ever right now, but with the news that Matt was making a guest appearance at the party the following night, his dreams of being with her were shattered.

“James! What are you doing here?!” Jill said as she ran down the stairs towards him, arms outstretched. James tried to be as normal as he could and stood up and engulfed Jill in a tight, yet friendly hug. “Hey. How are you?” he said smiling as naturally as he could. “I’m ok. Been better, but hey, its my birthday tomorrow so I don’t care!” She laughed as she sat on the sofa. “You are coming tomorrow night – right?!” she questioned James. “Yeah, course! Girls, drink, music – what more could I want!” he replied, smiling more naturally at the thought of a party – he had always been the fun-loving type, as everybody knew. Loz interrupted James and Jilly’s screams of delight. “Hey are you gonna get ready or what – we got some shops to hit!” The girls smiled at each other as Jilly made her way up from the sofa. “Yeah just let me get my bag…” Jill walked into the kitchen as James made worried eyes at Loz, whereas she smiled back. “See, she seems ok, right?” James nodded and replied, “yeah, but…” “Look, she’s ok! She seems happy so just forget it! She’s got through it once, she’s gonna do it again……I know her……just forget you ever saw it – she won’t want the confrontation…she’s better off not knowing you know – she’ll appreciate it.” James looked still concerned. “Yeah, I know but…” Jill interrupted their conversation walking into the room jumping about excited about her birthday. “Come on, let’s go!! There’s that new top I wanna buy…wait, JimmyJaffa, are you coming with us?” James replied smiling crazily at Jill. “Yeah! Like, oooooooh my god, there’s those new shoes I wanna buy – you know the Gucci ones with the little sparkly bits on them – they are just soooo divine!! Like, oooooooh my god!” They all laughed and made their way out of the door. “So you are coming then?” Jill said to James smiling. “Well, duh –“ He winked at her. “If you’re trying on tops, I can sneak into the dressing rooms and see you, innit?!” He smiled jokingly as Jill hit him lightly on the arm. “You even try it, sonny Jim and I’ll make you try on a boob tube…” Jill answered, as they all laughed and got into the car.

Jill, Loz and James entered the girl’s house armed with a dozen carrier bags full of goodies. They all dumped the bags on the floor and flopped onto the sofa. “Right, I think it’s safe to say that you two are thoroughly prepared for tomorrow night!” James laughed and got up from the sofa and walked towards the door. “I’d best get going. I’ll see you girlies tomorrow, yeah?” Jill replied smiling, “Yep! ON MY BIRTHDAY!! Make sure you wear that mini skirt I bought you today to the party!” She giggled as Loz joined in. “Yeah – and the high heels I bought you!” James laughed. “Don’t say that – cause I might just do that!” They laughed and James left, shutting the door behind him. Jill got up from the sofa and picked her bags up. “Right, I’m gonna go to bed – got a big day tomorrow!!!” She smiled excitedly and hugged Loz. “Yeah, very true! Have a good night!” “Yeah, you too. Night." Jill left Loz watching T.V and made her way quickly upstairs with her bags and into her room. She dropped all the stuff on her bedroom floor – she was too tired to unpack it all now. She got ready for bed and picked up the photo of her and Matt on the bedside table and smiled weakly at it before placing it back on the side and getting into bed. Due to her tiredness, she was asleep in a matter of minutes.

The day passed quickly just as any other day. It was now just an hour to go before the partygoers arrived and Jill was sitting in her room on her bed with Loz sitting behind her, curling Jill’s long gorgeous hair for her. “Aw, thanks for doing this for me, babe! You know how crap it comes out when I do it!” Jill smiled as Loz replied. “Well, I kinda had to, seeing as without my excellent talents as a hairdresser, you would look like an amateur!” Both girls laughed as Loz picked up a mirror for Jill to look in. “What you think? Good enough for your Highness?!” Jill looked in amazement at her reflection. “Oh, my God Loz, its wicked!” She smiled cheekily at Loz’s reflection and continued. “Dammit, I look good, don’t I?!” Loz laughed. “Yeah, the best! But now for make-up! You wanna be Barbie or Britney?” Loz laughed. “Uh…Britney, thanks!” Loz rooted through the massive pile of accessories and make-up on Jill’s bed and picked up foundation and a brush. “Right, prepare to be dazzled!” She started to put the foundation onto Jill’s perfectly formed face and smiled to herself at how proud she was of her friend. Only yesterday morning she was so down in the dumps she didn’t think she would make it through, and now she was as happy as anything, looking forward to her 21st birthday celebrations ahead. A knock on the door interrupted their makeover session. Jill looked at her watch. “Who’s that? You told everyone 9, right? It’s only 8! Oh my god I’m not ready what am I gonna do?!” Loz laughed at her friend while getting off the bed. “Stop panicking! It’s probably your Mum or something…” Jill looked at Loz in amazement. “YOU INVITED MY MUM?!?!” She panicked as Loz laughed. “Jeez, relax! Course I didn’t! Seriously, calm down!” “Sorry, I’m just nervous!” Loz looked sympathetically at her friend as she opened the bedroom door. “Well, don’t be! It’s gonna be fine! You’ll have the best night of your life, I can guarantee that! I’ll go and see who’s at the door.” Loz walked down the stairs, leaving Jill looking into the mirror and applying her make-up – she decided to go for the natural yet glamorous look, and smiled at how excited she was about her party. Loz opened the door. “Am I early?” said James, walking into the house holding bottles of Archers Aqua. “Err…yeah just a bit! You can help me set up though if you want. Nice to see you bought refreshments!” Loz laughed as James held up the bottles and kissed one of them. “You know me and my drink!” He placed the bottles on the dining table and rubbed his hands together. “So what do you want me to do?” Loz disappeared into the kitchen and came back holding balloons and banners. “Right, I need you to put these up and put the banner up over the fireplace. Can you handle that?” James smiled. “Baby, I can handle anything!” Loz dumped the decorations in James’s arms and started to run up the stairs. “I’ll leave you to it then. We’ll be down in about 10 minutes, ok?” James nodded and started to sort out the decorations. Loz opened Jill’s door and saw her standing in front of her mirror looking at her reflection. Loz gasped at how nice she looked. “Wow, JJ, you look soooooo good! Matt’s so gonna love you!” Jill’s head turned as quick as lightening to Loz. “M…Matt? What…why Matt?” Loz looked down realizing she had let Jill’s surprise out of the bag. “Oh, bugger. Well, it was meant to be a surprise, but Matt’s coming tonight! I tracked him down a few weeks ago and asked him if he wanted to come to the party and he said he’d love to! So…he’s coming.” Jill’s jaw dropped to the floor and her face went blank. “Matt’s coming? Oh my God! But…” Her expression turned sad. “He probably only wanted to come so he could see that I have done nothing with my life and to laugh in my face…” Loz interrupted and sat next to Jill on the bed. “No, he sounded like he really wanted to come! He said he really wants to see you again…Jill, I think this is what you’ve been waiting for…” Jill looked at Loz and smiled slightly. “You think?” Loz looked at her watch. “Well, I suppose you’ll find out in half an hour!” Jill stood up quickly and rummaged through her clothes drawers. “Well, I’ve gotta change then! I can’t wear this!” Loz grabbed Jill’s arm lightly and smiled at her. “Jill…chill! Don’t change a thing! You look wicked! Ask James – he’s downstairs.” Jill smiled at Loz and ran downstairs to James. He look up at her from the sofa and sat up straight. “Whoa…you look…” “Crap? Horrible? Ugly? Tell me – I can’t stand the suspense!” She looked worriedly at James as he stood up and smiled at her. “…beautiful… gorgeous… fantastic… stunning… excellent.” He smiled at her sweetly, his heart sinking inside as he realized his love for the girl standing before him. Jill smiled nervously and walked towards him. “You really think so?” James replied quietly, “Hell, yeah…” He smiled and she ran towards him and hugged him. “James pulled back slightly and handed Jill a small black box. “Oh, I got you a little something. It’s not much, but, you know…” Jill looked at James, smiled and opened the box to reveal a gorgeous gold necklace in the shape of a heart. “Oh wow, James, you shouldn’t have!” “Oh, ok then!” James smiled cheekily, taking back the box. “Oi!” said Jill, snatching the box off of him in a friendly way and smiling. James laughed as Jill looked at the necklace. “Turn it over…” Jill did as she was told and turned the heart shaped pendant over and read aloud. “‘’Jill, happy 21st, love you loads forever, love JimmyJaffa XxX.’ Oh, JB!” She hugged James tightly, thanking him over and over. “It’s gorgeous! Aw I love you, too!” She kissed James on the lips and hugged him. James smiled to himself as Loz came downstairs. “You alright, there, guys?” “Yep!” replied Jill, smiling at Loz and showing her the necklace, which was now around her neck. Loz spoke smiling and looking at the necklace, then at James. “Wow! You know it’s my birthday next month, James…” She smiled cheekily as there was a knock on the door. All three looked at each other and smiled. “Jill, you get it – it’s your birthday!” said James, running into the kitchen grabbing the first bottle of Archers before anyone else got to it. Jill opened the door to her mate Mel screaming “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!” Jill laughed and hugged Mel, who jumped into the house running around crazily. “Right, let’s get this party started!!” They all laughed as Loz put on some music and more people knocked on the door.

A few hours into the party, many more people had arrived and the party was in full swing. James, who was a bit drunk, was dancing with Mel to Blink 182. Various people at the party were also dancing and chatting over the music. Jill was sitting on the sofa looking casually around at everybody having fun, as Loz, who was leading a conga line, slumped down next to her and shouted over the music. “You alright, Jilly?” Jill looked back and smiled slightly. “Yeah……Matt used to love this song……I knew he wouldn’t come…” She looked down at the ground upset as Loz got grabbed up to join the conga line again. “Hey don’t worry – he’ll be here! I know he will!” At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Jill looked up at Loz, who was now being dragged away into the crowd. She got up and walked to the door, past the rabble of people. She opened the door to reveal a man – someone she recognised. It was Matt. He now had dyed black hair formed into sexy spikes, and had grown a lot since he was a kid – Jill noticed he had the perfect physique, although he wasn’t that different when they were both at school together. He smiled at her and stood up straight as he was leaning on the doorframe. “Hi…” he said. Jill’s heart dropped and a lump formed in her throat – after all the years that they hadn’t seen each other, he still had a way of making her feel brilliant inside. To Jill, the noise of the party seemed to disappear as she looked Matt up and down as he did the same to her. Matt spoke as Jill hadn’t been able to find her voice. “So, you gonna invite me in or what?” Jill simply took a step back allowing Matt to walk in, still not speaking, but keeping eye contact with him nervously. “Happy birthday, by the way. Sorry, I didn’t really get you anything…I didn’t know what sort of thing you liked nowadays. Um…” He kissed her on the cheek quickly. “Happy birthday.” Jill found her voice, but spoke quietly while looking Matt straight in the eyes. “Th…thanks.” She tried to smile at Matt, but wasn’t successful. She walked into the kitchen embarrassed, but was followed by Matt. She leaned on the surface looking out of the window. Matt shut the door and stood behind her. “Um…so…how have you been?” Jill sniffed thinking, millions of different feelings going through her body – some of hate, but some of love for Matt. After no response from Jill for some minutes, Matt spoke again while sitting down onto one of the chairs in the kitchen. “Look, I am sorry, you know. For everything. I really am…” Jill still did not look round to Matt, but looked down, still leaning on the kitchen worktop. She sniffed. “Yeah…” “You don’t sound too convinced…” Matt said, looking at Jill’s back and wondering why she was not speaking. He got up and stood directly behind her. “I am sorry. I hate myself for how I treated you in school. I didn’t want to – believe me…it’s just…” Jill turned round and came face to face with him. She tried to stay strong and not show how she was so hurt, in more ways than one, by how horrible he was to her. “Just what?” She looked into Matt’s eyes, hoping that her look meant business, knowing inside that she just wanted to accept his apology and leave it at that, but she wanted reasons. Matt looked to the floor. “I…I…I dunno.” Jill turned back round to face away from him and looked out of the window into the night sky. “Matt, why are you here?” Matt looked up at Jill’s hair and noticed how beautiful she looked from the back – but inside he was thinking how beautiful she looked from the front, too, and how he had thought this from the moment he layed eyes on her way back in their first secondary school year. “Because…because I wanted to see you again. To say sorry and to…” Jill turned and walked past Matt towards the kitchen door and put her hand on the handle. She was about to turn it when Matt spoke. “Jill don’t do this…” She turned and looked Matt straight in the eye. Anger now built up inside her. “Don’t do what, Matt? It’s not me who started this! I loved you from the first time I saw you – there’s part of me that still does, but you knew that and used it against me. I didn’t ask you to be nasty to me most of the time in school. Come to think of it – I didn’t ask you to come here. Maybe it would be better if you just went.” She looked to the floor half proud of herself for finally standing up to Matt, but half upset that she had possibly ruined any chance of forming any sort of friendship again with him. He also looked to the floor and placed his hands into his pockets. He walked past her and put his hand on the door handle as Jill had done. He hoped for her to call him back, but she didn’t. She stayed turned away from him facing the window. He made a snap decision and decided to do something he had longed to do since the two first met. He turned round and walked behind Jill, took her hand and swung her round to face him. Before she had time to talk and question his action, he leaned in, placed his hands lightly to her face and kissed her firmly, but softly on the lips. Jill did not respond at first as she was so taken aback by what Matt was doing – it was the last thing she expected from him, but as she began to take in what was happening and was starting to respond, the door opened, interrupting them. “Damn, sorry!” Mel said, looking embarrassed and shutting the door disappearing back into the living room. Matt pulled away gently and opened his eyes and looked back at the floor. “I’ll be going. It was good to see you again,” he said as he turned towards the door and opened it. “Wait…” Jill called after him, walking a few steps in his direction. He turned back and looked into Jill’s gorgeous eyes, now suddenly realizing what he missed all through school. “Why did you do that?” Jill said, looking confused, but trying to sound calm, even though her feelings were tearing up at her insides. Her love for Matt had now replaced every ounce of the anger and hate she had felt towards him just two minutes ago. Matt replied smiling and laughing slightly. “Are you kidding? I’ve wanted to do that since I first layed eyes on you…but I never had the guts, so I was horrible to you…don’t ask why…it just happened and I couldn’t stop it. It was the only thing I could do to try and get over you……but it didn’t work.” Jill stared at him in amazement. “Sorry if I ruined your night. I’ll go – I’ve said enough.” He walked towards the door for the second time. Jill tried her best to keep him from leaving her again. “Do you want to go?” He turned back again and smiled. “You know I don’t, but…” She interrupted him by walking to him and placing a finger over his lips to shush him. He looked confused. Jill smiled. “Don’t then…” She took her finger away and with the other hand, took Matt’s hand and kissed him. He placed a hand to the back of her neck and started to kiss her back properly and he linked their fingers together. They broke away and Matt smiled at Jill cheekily. “Bet you’ve been wanting to do that for ages…” “Yeah, I know…” She smiled back. “You wanna get back to the party? I am the hostess with the mostess after all!” Matt replied quietly while opening the door. “I’ve got a better idea…” He smiled at her and kissed her briefly on the lips before walking through the living room with Jill following him, holding her hand. He started to walk up the stairs. James got up from the sofa to walk into the kitchen and saw Matt and Jill walking upstairs. He laughed to himself – he knew this was going to happen and thought that maybe this is what he needed to finally get over her. He smiled to himself and Mel, who was sitting on the sofa next to him, grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down and kissed him. He thought to himself, ‘ok, so I might never get properly over Jill, but this might be a start…’ and kissed Mel back.

Not knowing where he was going, Matt looked to Jill. “It’s this one…” she said, while opening her bedroom door and switching her light on. Matt followed Jill into the room and smiled at her, before walking over to the window and shutting the curtains. He looked back to Jill, who was now sitting on the bed, looking nervously back at him. He smiled and sat next to her and placed his hand gently on her short-skirted thigh hesitantly. She looked at his hand, then at him and smiled sweetly while placing her hand on top of his. He leaned in and kissed her passionately while gently stroking the rim of her skirt. He lay her back on the bed and leaned down and kissed her quickly again and looked uneasily down at her. “You do want to do this, right? I mean, I’m not the only one?” She smiled up at him and started to undo the buttons of his shirt while he looked down lovingly at her. He ran his hand gently a short way up her skirt and back down again wondering whether he was doing the right thing or not – did she really want this? Was he being too forward and not really paying attention to her? Noticing the look on Matt’s face, Jill stopped. “Matt, do you want this or not?” He looked down into her eyes. “Well, yeah, but…I don’t want you to think I’m being…well…I dunno.” Jill laughed. “Matt…shut up.” She pushed the shirt back off of his shoulders and smiled as he took her top off. Matt smiled while unbuttoning her skirt as she undid his belt. Matt spoke, breaking the silence in the room apart from their breathing. “I’ve wanted to do this since year 7…” She looked back up at him seriously into his gorgeous brown eyes. “Me too…” Matt leaned down and kissed her before climbing on top of her.

Once they were done, Matt gently kissed Jill’s neck before rolling off her. She looked back at him and smiled. “Wow,” they both said simultaneously and laughed slightly. Matt leaned on his arm looking down at Jill while stroking her face delicately. “Jill…I think I love you…” Jill raised her eyebrows not expecting to hear those words coming from Matt’s mouth, especially not aimed at her, but then smiled, realizing the serious but cheeky look on his face. “I know I love you…” “Sweet…” He leaned down and kissed her before laying back down and placing his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him. She put her arms around his waist, not ever wanting to let him go, him feeling exactly the same, and they fell asleep in each others arms before being woken up at 7:30 in the morning. “Rise and shine, babes!” said Loz, not realizing that Matt was with Jill in the bed. “Oh…er…sorry! Didn’t see you there, Matt. I’ll just leave now before things get awkward!” Loz laughed as Jill sat up resting elbow on the pillow by Matt’s head and putting her head on her hand, and called after Loz before she left the room. “Loz…” Loz turned back and looked at Jill and smiled. “You know you said I’d have the best night of my life?…” “Uh-huh?…” Jill looked down at Matt and smiled. “…I really did…” Loz smiled and left the room leaving Matt and Jill together. Jill layed down and Matt put his arms around her. “Does this mean I’m forgiven then?” Jill looked up at Matt and smiled. “I guess so…”