"Seventeen Forever" -- Matt Espinosa One Shot / Imagine
“Just take the square root of that and that’s it!” your best friend says as you restlessly scribble down the final answer on your Trigonometry homework. She always helps you on your math homework over Skype because you have no idea what you’re doing for more than half the time.
Picking up your paper, you look at what you have written with uncertainty. You sigh in aggravation. “Unless the answer is seventeen and thirteen thousandths, I don’t think I’m right.”
“The answer is supposed to be four,” she declares slowly, making you feel worse about your lack of understanding for mathematics.
You groan and slam the paper down on the desk in your bedroom, causing the small yellow desk light to flicker. “Well, it looks like I’ll be failing that final miserably tomorrow. Thanks for your help, though.”
“Quit being so negative,” your friend encourages. “I mean, you never know. Maybe all of the answers will come to you just like that,” she snaps her fingers. You know she’s trying to make you feel better, but the tone in her voice tells you that she knows you’re screwed.
“Nice try,” you giggle, running your fingers through your hair. “Alright, I better get to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She waves. “Okay, bye!”
Moving your index finger along the mouse pad, you point the arrow at the “End Call” button and click it, then shut off your laptop. And once you put all of your homework in your backpack, you saunter over to the light switch by your door, preparing to shut it off and go to bed.
Something stops you in your tracks– a tapping sound at your window. You look over your shoulder, but you don’t see anything. So, you just shrug your shoulders and turn off your light. On your way over to your bed, you hear it again.
What the hell? you wonder, scrunching your eyebrows. You hesitantly move over to your window, your heart beating a little quicker because you’re not exactly sure what– or who– is doing this.
You just barely pull open your curtain to see what’s causing the tapping sound only to see one of your best friends, Matt, who is the culprit. You sigh in relief and find yourself with a smile. Opening your window, you rest your hands on the ledge and look down at the dark blonde haired boy smiling up at you with a couple of small rocks in his hand, which he was using to throw at your window in order to capture your attention.
“Matt, what are you doing? We have school tomorrow,” you giggle.
He shrugs and tosses the rocks aside, dusting his hands off on his khaki pants. “Do you know who you’re talking to? The last time I went to bed before midnight on a school night was the third grade.”
“Wow,” you roll your eyes both mockingly and sarcastically. “You’re such a badass.”
“Maybe you should be, too and come hang out with me,” he states smoothly. “You know– instead of going to school tomorrow. It’s the first night of summer.”
“Absolutely not,” you shake your head. “I have that trig test tomorrow and there’s no way in hell I’m missing that.”
He doesn’t say anything, he just looks up at you sadly. You look away and shake your head. He knows how to get to you and he uses that to his advantage.
“Stop looking at me like that,” you feel a warmth in your cheeks. Thankfully, he probably can’t tell since it’s dark out. Regardless of your pleas, he continues to look up at you with a pleading look until you agree, which you do. “Okay! Okay, fine,” you finally give in. “but how am I supposed to get out of here without my mom and dad hearing me?”
He smiles in satisfaction and then looks at you like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Just climb out of your window. It’s not that hard.”
You swallow nervously, unsure if you want to do that. You’re scared you’ll fall. “I– I don’t know–”
“Just sit on the windowsill and then climb to the roof,” he says.
Nodding, you hold up your index finger to let him know that you’ll be right back. You need to change out of your pajamas because, well, walking around at night in your pajamas isn’t the brightest of ideas. Knowing that it’s still fairly warm out, you slip back into the casual summer dress you had earlier worn to school that day. You let your hair down, making yourself appear much more together than you earlier were. And with that, you walk back over to the window and draw in a deep breath, preparing yourself if you do fall.
“Okay,” you whisper. “here I go.”
Easily, you make your way over to the roof without a problem. You’re pleased with yourself for only a second because then you don’t know what to do next. You look down at Matt questioningly, waiting for him to tell you what to do.
“You could climb down that vine or you could just–”
“Jump?” you finish his sentence, feeling a bit nervy about that idea.
Just do it, you think. It’s not that far of a jump, maybe seven or eight feet at most. Stop being such a baby and do it.
Sitting down on the ledge of the roof, you exhale and close your eyes. You then look down at Matt who is just below you, preparing to catch you if you need it. Using your palms, you push yourself up and outward. Before you know it, your feet are on the ground and Matt’s hands are on your hips to keep you steady. You open your eyes that were squeezed shut, only to see his smiling face before you.
“Was that so hard?” he mocked. You hit him on the arm playfully, feeling internally proud of what you did. You never did that type of stuff.
“This better be fun. I’m going to have to make up an entire final because of you,” you say.
He grabs your hand and begins walking quickly so that you’re trailing behind him. “It will be.”
* * *
You had been running behind him for about five minutes when you finally speak up.
“Would you slow down?” you laugh as you continue down the road. He still has your hand in his and is dragging you along to whatever destination he has planned.
He looks at you over his shoulder and you can’t help but feel overjoyed at the sight of his bright smile. “What, am I going too fast for you?”
You giggle. “A little bit.”
He slows down a bit and let’s go of your hand only to turn and face you. “Looks like you’re going to have to get on my back.”
“Matt,” you groan.
“Come on!” he urges. You roll your eyes and move around him, placing your hands on his shoulders. You jump up and wrap your legs around his waist, feeling him grip onto your legs with his strong, warm hands. Your arms circle around his neck and he turns his head to the side to face you from just centimeters away. “You ready?”
“I guess so,” you nod, feeling his cold breath on your lips. And without another word, he begins carrying you down the road. You don’t know why, but you occasionally feel him brushing his thumbs across your skin. For some reason, you don’t seem to care. You actually kind of like it.
You continued down the road and eventually, you saw the beach off in the distance. Not only that, but it looked like other people were there too. You knew that was the case when you saw a fire too. Clearly, there was some type of party going on and you knew that’s why Matt (literally) dragged you along.
“I should have known,” you tease when you arrive at the beach. He sets you down to your feet and smiles down at you. You walk over to the fairly medium-sized crowd of people, many of them excited to see the both of you there. Some of them are surprised to see you considering you’re a pretty good kid. They all figured you’d be at home studying for your exam, in which case, you were before Matt came and practically forced you out of your room.
As the late night goes on, you have fun with all of your friends and have a couple of drinks, but not to the point where you’re drunk. Just enough to loosen you up and make you forget about the test you’ll be missing in the morning.
You’re sitting with your friend, Cameron, at the fire, talking about what you have planned for the summer. He tells you he’s going to be traveling a lot and you’re intrigued by that. He tells you all of the places he plans on going such as California, Florida, New Jersey, and a lot more that you can’t even remember.
As you’re mid-conversation, you hear a familiar voice beside you. “Cam, do you mind if I take her for a second?”
You look up and see Matt. Before you can retaliate and tell him that you’ll talk to him in a minute, Cameron says sure and Matt immediately lifts you up bridal style, carrying you away from the fire.
“What are you doing?” you laugh as he continues walking. “I was talking to Cameron!”
He shrugs and you notice a sly smile appear on his lips. You scrunch your eyebrows, unsure of what to expect of him. He’s a fairly spontaneous kid, so even as his best friend, you just didn’t know sometimes.
Looking to your left, you notice that he’s taking you quite a distance away from everyone else. You end up towards the water and your eyes grow wide.
“Matt, don’t you dare!” you declare sternly, but he ignores you. You continuously plead for him to stop before he takes you to the water but he doesn’t say anything until you get as close to the shoreline as possible. “Matt, I swear if you even–”
“Relax!” he exhales, setting you down to your feet so there’s not a drop of water on you. “I don’t know how we’re friends sometimes. You need to loosen up a little.”
Raising an eyebrow, you cross your arms over your chest. “Oh, so you don’t think I can be fun?”
He tips his head as if he’s contemplating whether or not you’re capable of being like him– all spontaneous and free.
“Fine,” you shrug your shoulders. With that, you pull off your shoes and throw them down beside you in the sand.
He watches you, laughing softly. “What are you doing?”
“Showing you,” you say daringly as you grip onto the hemline of your dress, pulling it off of your body and throwing it down next to your shoes. You’re left in your bra and underwear, careless that he’s seeing you this way for the first time. “that I can be fun, too.”
His eyes scan over you, probably shocked that you’re doing what you’re doing. Even you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, but you don’t care because you’re kind of having fun. You turn on your heels and start towards the water, running in until you’re about waist-deep. You then turn around, seeing the tall boy who was good at pushing your boundaries. After all, he’s the reason why you’re in the ocean in your underwear on a school night.
“Well?” you shrug. You don’t have to say anything else because he’s already pulling his clothes off just as you had, preparing to come in after you. He strips down to his underwear as well and you can feel a knot tie in your stomach when you see his toned upper-half. You don’t have this feeling for too long because he’s running into the water too, getting closer to you.
The next thing you know, he’s lifting you up and slinging you over his shoulder.
“Matt!” you squeal as he takes you deeper into the water. “Matt, put me down!”
“If you insist,” he says simply, suddenly dropping you down into the water. You’re under for about three seconds and when you come back up, you draw in a breath.
“You jerk!” you splash him once, twice, and then three times until you find yourself doing it repeatedly to get him just as soaked as you are. You know you’re not strong enough to push him under, so this is the best you can do.
As you splash him, you feel him grab hold of your wrists to stop you. You’re both laughing hysterically at that point and you finally stop when his hands restrict yours from splashing him anymore.
When you look up, he’s a lot closer to you than you had originally thought. Your laughter fades out and so does his until his eyes are locked on yours, a soft smile left on his lips. You feel his soft breath on your lips, sending a rush of chills down your spine.
He lets go of your wrists only to bring his hands up to your face. He rests his hands flat on either side of your face, pushing your hair away from it. And with one fluent move, he has his warm lips over yours. You’re taken back a bit at first, but then you realize how right it feels. The way your top lip fits perfectly between his two and the way your lips move together in such a fluent way.
Bringing your hands up, you rest them on his bare chest comfortably. His drop to your waist and pull you into him tighter so that you can feel the outline of his abdomen on your own. Your fingers rake through his hair smoothly and when his tongue slips over your bottom lip, you open your mouth for him just slightly. His tongue explores your mouth slowly as he works his hands over your body.
You finally pull your lips away from his, feeling how heated the both of you have gotten. You’re both breathing heavily to catch your breath, but his nose continues to brush over yours playfully.
“Was tonight fun enough for you?” he whispers, a shy grin appearing on his face.
You run your tongue over your own lips, tasting nothing but Matt. You nod, not caring one ounce that you’re probably going to get in trouble the following day for skipping your exam. You only care about this moment with Matt, because you know it’s one that really matters.
“Good,” he breathes, leaning in only to kiss you once again. You drape your arms over his shoulders, loving the feeling of him kissing you more than you ever imagined.
