Page 56 of From Drummer to Gamer

“I do.” He nodded with a gentle gaze. “I wouldn’t have let you stay with me if I didn’t. I wouldn’t have let you help me pick out the label name if I didn’t, and I certainly wouldn’t have let you make me food if I didn’t.” His voice softened over the last sentence.

An arrow flew straight through my chest.

“Okay,” I said, patting myself on the back for the steady tone.

And with a curt lift of his chin, he spun around and walked out of the hallway like he didn’t just say the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me.

With a breathy sigh, I closed the door and crashed into my bed—only this time with a flutter in my heart, unlike the heavy blanket from last night.

Here I was again. Just a few words from him and my insides were dancing like a teenager who just discovered rock music, which I technically was, but still…

He shouldn’t be allowed to have such a profound effect on me.

Harsh words and I crumbled.

Simple words and I melted.

He acted like any other decent human, but to me, it felt special.

It was special.

Because it washim.

And I just couldn’t help it.

I could feel the walls around my heart cracking, slowly but surely like an iceberg calving from the tip of a glacier. It was inevitable.

Matty was worming his way into my heart, and all I could see were blaring red sirens flashing before my eyes. A clear warning to caution tape my heart.

Because Matty Evans having a place in my heart could end terribly disastrous or terribly amazing.

And I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that.

MATTY

One last tug around my bowtie and I was done.

Ready for the night that commemorated a new beginning.

A dream that had been brewing in my mind for years, and now the world got a glimpse of that.

My palms smoothed over the lapels of my jacket, straightening it out before I exited my room. My sister was huddled over the couch, fiddling with her phone as I arrived in the living room. She was all dolled up in her classic Katy look of a simple red dress and red lips.

“Hey, Matty,” she mumbled, sparing me a glance before she went back to her phone again, her face pinched in a frown.

A flare of worry hiked up my gut. I just wanted to shake her and ask what was wrong, but guilt stopped me, guilt that I’d somehow let my sister down and couldn’t see it earlier. But most of all, it was the fear—fear that my sister didn’t need me anymore.

“Yo, big man, I look hella dapper, don’t I?” Raphael sauntered in with an air of cocky confidence and a winning grin.

I was so used to his behavior that I didn’t bat an eye nor did I give in by uttering a single word. I learned that Raphael clearly used bait to taunt you into his lunatic conversations that ended nowhere nor taught you anything. I wasn’t interested in his endless rambles, but his sister, on the other hand, was a different story.

Sierra could talk about floppy disks or ants roaming the ground, and I wouldn’t miss a word. I would hang onto it like it was the last thread dangling my soul from heaven.

“K, I need to do your magic and land me the role of the next James Bond. I’m going to be perfect for it,” Raphael announced with pride.

Katy paused, setting her phone aside as her baffled eyes met mine. “He’s not serious, is he?”

I shrugged.