Empire High Elite (Empire High #2) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,112
monster.”
“Yes you do. You don’t answer my texts. I’m a monstrositor. Monstrocitini. No. That’s not it.” He snapped his fingers. “Monstrosity.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He wasn’t a monster. He’d gotten caught in Isabella’s path just like I had. I didn’t know how to explain the last week. I should have looked at my phone. But I was angry and hurt. “I was terrified living at the Pruitts’. And you disappeared on me. You didn’t explain to me what happened. You just let me sit there thinking the worst. I thought you hadn’t been keeping the secret to protect James. I thought you’d been keeping the secret to protect yourself. And you didn’t care that you had to keep me a dirty little secret in the process.”
“No. No.” He grabbed both sides of my face. “Didn’t you hear my song? You’re not a dirty little secret. That was what the song was about. I should really sing it again…”
“Matt. You made me feel like one.”
“No. No, that’s not how you were supposed to feel. You’re supposed to feel loved. Because I love you.”
“I didn’t feel loved. You acted like you loved me in private. But then whenever we were in public you treated me like nothing. Like I was invisible. No one should be treated the way you treated me. That wasn’t love.”
He breathed in and out slowly, tickling my skin with his breath. “I’ll love you out loud then. I’ll tell you all the things I love about you right now. I love how soft your hair is. And I love that you put me in my place when I’m an idiot. I love that you laugh at my jokes even if they’re not funny.” He laughed like his own comment was funny and then looked serious again. “I love playing football. And barbeques are great because of all the burgers. Wait, I’m supposed to be talking about you.”
He took a deep breath. “I love the way you look at me. I love the way you look when you look at me…like your whole face lights up.” He put his hand on my face, covering my eyes. “Oops.” He removed his hand. “I think I probably look like that when I look at you too. And I love your skin.” He ran the tip of his nose across my cheek. “It’s even softer than your hair. And you always smell like fresh air. Even when it’s hard to breathe in the city. I love that you don’t care about money like everyone else in my life does. I love that you haven’t asked me once what I want to be when I grow up. For the record, I want to take over my dad’s company but he’s going to give it to Mason. Which isn’t really fair because I think I’d be really good at it. But I won’t even get a chance. A few months ago I even did a SWOT analysis for why he should be doing more digital advertising than traditional print advertising. I made a stupid slide show and everything. And he told me he didn’t have time to even see it. Digital advertising is the future and he doesn’t believe in me enough to even hear me out.”
God, Matt. He was rambling, but I didn’t want him to stop. I wanted to know every confession he had. Drunk Matt was honest and talkative. Not angry.
“I love that you don’t care about what other people think of you. Not even me. Especially not me when you’re mad. I kinda even love when you’re mad. Because you stare at me with all this heat in your eyes and it makes me hard. It’s so hard to control myself around you because you’re so beautiful. I love talking to you. And I love that you’re wearing sneakers with your dress. It’s cute but somehow fucking hot too. You look amazing.”
I looked down at my Keds. He was the only one that noticed them all night. He was drunk. I knew that. But he still noticed things about me that no one else did. He saw me. He knew me. And he wasn’t embarrassed of me. He was just worried about his friend. Ex-friend. He’d made a few mistakes, but I certainly had too.
“Does that answer your question?” he asked. “I don’t remember what you asked. Did you even ask a question?” He laughed and put his chin on top of my head again. “Your