Speak Now (Matthew)

Ari had been doing so much better! She was talking, and her and Derek were doing fantastic! The only problem was... Matthew. He was completely oblivious to the entire situation. It was also kind of her fault. She hadn't flat out told him about her and Derek, but that was also on him since he had been no where to be found. She also wanted to surprise him with her voice and annoy the shit out of him with her singing. Singing was probably what she missed the most when she wasn't talking. She mouthed words when she was in the mood, but it just wasn't the same. She missed saying words.

So, as a nice surprise for Matthew, she decided to write him a letter saying to meet at the stone bridge. She was going to talk, and REALLY talk to him about her and Derek. He was so frustrated with her that day when they skipped potions together. She was just writing stuff down, and now she realized how annoying it was. She appreciated Derek being there for her, in her time of need and mid-life-crisis. Since this technically wasn't in the middle of her life, would she not have a crisis later? She looked down and pushed her long hair behind her ears. They had just got done with lessons, so she was still in her robes.

She turned around getting dizzy from the view, and looked at her shoes. She hoped he wouldn't stand her up. This was important to her. She looked around, she was a tad early, so she didn't expect him just yet, but she was getting impatient. She looked around again, and spotted him walking in the distance. She waved as he started getting closer. Then she said, "Matthew!" It felt so good to talk again!

Matthew stared at the letter in his hands, and wondered why he hadn't burned it yet like he should have. Ari wanted him to meet her on the stone bridge. She'd sent him a letter saying so, which was stupid because she saw him all the time and she could have just told him. And he obviously wasn't going to go, because he'd been way too nice to Ari for the entire term so far, and he really needed to get his shit together and stop. Because Matthew wasn't supposed to be nice to Ari. End of story. So, with that, he set the paper aflame, watched it burn to ashes, and then - grabbed his cloak and headed out of the common room, begrudgingly making his way to the stone bridge.

When he got there, Ari wasn't at all hard to spot. Her crimson hair stood out vibrantly against the gray stone of the bridge. With a sigh, he stepped out onto the bridge, walking toward her. But he actually stopped in surprise a few feet away from her when she waved and called out to him. Wait, had she just talked? Did she know that she'd just spoken, or was it an accident? "You're talking again!" he exclaimed in surprise. Without really thinking, a grin spread across his face, and he stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her waist and spinning her in a circle. But then, halfway through, he realized what he was doing and let go of Ari so fast that he almost dropped her on the ground.

"Um, sorry, I didn't mean to - " he said quickly, backing away quickly instead of reaching out to help her keep her balance. Matthew was pretty sure he'd never felt so incredulous toward himself. He'd never keep Ari from bothering him all the time if he went around hugging her! Completely thrown off by his own actions, he decided the best thing to do was act like it never happened. "Er, how come you're talking again?" he asked, hoping that his smile made it look like nothing weird had taken place. And it was weird. Maybe now would be a good time to hit Ari with the water spell - just so that she didn't get any ideas that he actually wanted to hang out with her or anything. But after nearly dropping her, that was probably a little too mean. He'd just have to do it later, when she'd forgotten about the dropping thing.

Did he just use a floating spell on her??? Ari was so confused. Or was it gravity failing? She had just floated upwards and nearly fell on her ass. Then she looked at Matthew and realized that it was his hands that had lifted her in surprise. She smiled a little bit. Of course he should be happy to see her! She was doing something she hadn't done in a long time, so naturally, she should be the most important thing in the world at that very moment. She laughed when he stated the obvious. Did he actually think she would go through with it? Of course she had made it from the middle of summer until about a week ago, so she could see why he thought she would go through with it. It was then she realized she hadn't spoken yet, or explained herself. She said, "ya! DEREK got me to talk! Actually wanted to talk to you about him..." Was that too sudden? Should she bring it up randomly after talking to him a bit? She didn't want to be so blunt about it. But with Matthew she needed to be blunt. He didn't understand things right away, especially love and relationships.

She looked at him waiting for his reaction, and then decided to continue. She said, "there's a time in life when two people meet, and they have a connection...." That sounded like she was giving him the talk. And he definitely wasn't ready for THAT yet. She continued, "uh, scratch that. But. You know DEREK and I, have gotten along better since you've seen to have disappeared. He helped me talk again, he's helped me move on from her (meaning aunt EVELYN), he's helped me a lot these past few days in ways I wish you would have. But um..." Why was she do nervous to tell him? It was easy to say to any other person that she was in a relationship with him. so why was it so hard to tell Matthew? He was her best friend. She should be able to tell him anything. They had bonded a little while when Ari wasn't speaking, and the fact that both of them had somebody that left that was a major part in THEYRE lives. So why not this? Why couldn't she just flat out tell him?

She ran her hands threw her hair in frustration. Not at Matthew, at herself. Here she was the most intelligent, smart, and beautiful person in the world, and she couldn't tell her best friend that she might be in love. Well. Love was a big word for this relationship. There wasn't a word to describe it. So she decided to just blurt it out. She said ,"iminarelationshipwithderek." There. Hopefully he understood that jumbled up mess. If not, she didn't know what else she could do to tell him. If she had to explain the relationship part, she would be done. She would jump off that bridge. Na she wouldn't jump off the bridge. But she would be done. She looked at him to see his reaction. If he understood, she would tell him how it happened. If not, she completely gave up.

Okay, that conundrum was over at least. She hadn't fallen down, and she didn't seem to notice the awkwardness and she completely fell for the act like it never happened trick. Now, he would just have to go back to his dorm and slam his hand in a drawer or something as punishment to remind himself that he should probably never hug Ari again. That was how the house elves were always so well behaved - maybe it would work for him, too. But then she was talking again, and Matthew got even more confused because something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong. Her voice was... not annoying him. But that was impossible! Ari's voice was the worst thing ever. It was so shrill and terrible and ear piercing and annoying! But after all that time of not hearing her speak, all of a sudden it wasn't so bad. It was actually kind of - nice to hear her talk.

When she finished her sentence, Matthew realized that he actually hadn't heard a word that she'd said because he was too busy being completely appalled at himself. Maybe his hearing was starting to go bad? He was going deaf? And Ari only wasn't annoying because he couldn't hear her properly? But before he could ask her to repeat what she'd said so he could hear it, she was talking again. Something about two people meeting and having a connection. And it all sounded a lot like when his parents had sat him down to have that girl talk with him that resulted in him setting half the house on fire for the next few days to get the awful things they'd told him out of his mind. "Wait, what?" he said finally, his voice sounding completely appalled. Was this why she brought him here? Was this what his parents had warned him about? He just stared at her for a minute, mouth slightly agape, completely horrified. Okay, now was definitely time to do the water spell. Definitely time. This was what he got for being so nice. His hand finally reached for his wand so that he could blast her and make a quick escape, but then she was talking again.

And again, Matthew couldn't find it in himself to be irritated by her voice. But at least this time, he was prepared, and he actually caught a bit of what she was actually saying. Wait, what? Derek? "Wait, what about Derek?" he asked, now absolutely thoroughly confused. But she kept talking, mostly about Derek, and Matthew furrowed his brow in confusion but made the decision not to squirt her with water, because he was starting to think that maybe he'd jumped to the wrong conclusion. He actually felt a little bit annoyed when Ari said Derek had helped her and Matthew hadn't. Didn't she realize how nice Matthew had been being to her?! For absolutely no reason at all - and despite his best efforts not to be! And why did it even bother him that she didn't recognize it? When she trailed off again, he just stared at her, getting a little frustrated with her rambling now. "Ari, what exactly are you talking about?"

Her answer was almost completely indecipherable. Something about Derek and relationship and - and - "Ohhhhh!" Matthew exclaimed, finally actually understanding what was going on. He was sure his voice was a mix of disgust and relief. Disgust because that was disgusting. Relief because at least she'd been talking about Derek and not him. "But... and no offense, but... Ew, why?" he asked blatantly, scrunching his nose up to demonstrate how he felt about something like that. "Or, I mean, congratulations," he added hurriedly, deciding that he really didn't want an answer to his question. "But that's still disgusting," he added, nodding his head as if he needed to confirm it to himself. Because this whole beginning of term with Ari had been weird and he didn't need to be any more confused than he already was.

Ding ding ding! Ari smiled from ear to ear when he finally understood what she was trying to say. She was so happy that she actually didn't have to explain what was happening with her because frankly, that would've been completely awkward, and she didn't need that awkwardness in her life with her best friend. She realized that some of the things she was saying was probably hurting his feelings. Matthew had helped her a lot. They had gotten closer she felt, and had actually formed a bond with him that they hadn't had before. And that was very special to her. She said, "It's not that you didn't help me. You did, a lot. And I appreciate it. But Derek pushed. True, he just asked me out, but I mean, who wouldn't want to ask me out?" She smiled to herself for a few seconds. She continued, "He asked me out when we got on our break at work! I couldn't say no! He was so sweet you should've been there!" Ok, maybe he shouldn't of been there, that would be too awkward, and she could tell that Derek was getting a little jealous of her following Matthew around all the time. But she can't help that Matthew was her best friends, and Derek wasn't.

Ari made a face at him when he said that it was disgusting that she had found love. Or what ever it was called. She didn't officially understand it with the great roll models in the love department she had. She wasn't sure if her own parents where still in love. She barely saw them, and when she did, they always fought. She said, "It's not disgusting! You try it! It's really fun! He buys me things, and he's really sweet! And holds my hand!" It was probably more information than Matthew's very naïve mind could handle, but he needed to be shoved into reality every once in a while. And love was definitely reality. Well, in her world it was. And everybody lived in her world, and she was the queen of it. She was positive of that much. And if that was false, she wasn't sure what she would do. Aunt Evelyn would officially be cut off from her life for lying to her.

Ari looked down and took a more serious turn in her catching up with Matthew talk. She said, "I've decided to write a letter to my Aunt. I realized I have missed her. And that she probably needed to get away. As she is an adult." Ari nodded. She felt confident that this was what she needed to do. She needed the closure. So that way she could start something new with Aunt Evelyn. That maybe things could go back to the way they were. Maybe not all the way, she would have some trust issues, but it would be almost the same. She was just glad that she had best friends like Derek and most of all Matthew to help her through these tough times. She smiled and wondered if Matthew would hug her again like he had before. That would be amazing. Because, who wouldn't want to hug her?