Matthew was up working on the manga from three to eleven in the morning. He disregarded his sleep, electing instead to think about what had just happened to him. He was reminded of Adrianne and had a nervous breakdown with Milly literally sitting on his lap. What would Adrianne think of this if she knew? Now he had a girl who thought he was in love with her sleeping in his bed. Matthew's thoughts dispersed every time he thought about that, because he didn't know for sure that he didn't like her, but he wanted to make sure that if he did it was for the right reasons.
Milly woke up at the aforementioned eleven O'Clock, clad in nothing but a bra and panties. When Matthew heard her, he didn't look, so he didn't know she was basically naked, but it wouldn't have really effected him. She walked over and looked at everything on the table.
"You really worked like a freight train. How long have you been up?"
"Three."
Milly put her hand on Matthew's back and started to rub, almost massaging him with the force she was using. "You had a lot to think about, I take it?" she asked as she sat.
Matthew shook his head. "No."
She rested her head on her elbow, which was on the desk. "You wanna talk about it?"
Matthew shook his head again. "Not really."
Milly sighed. "You know I'm willing to be there for you, right?"
Matthew was silent.
"I know we just met, but I don't like it when there's an obvious lack of communication between two people. It paves a path to trouble and arguments."
Matthew looked over at her, and leaned his head on his hand. "Imagine that there's a monster under my bed. Gnarly fangs... Jaw like a can opener... Eyes that could laser straight through you without a second thought or blink of an eye."
Milly gave him a confused look.
"The monster," Matthew continued, "Is always going to be under the bed. You can assume that it's there, but you will never truly know for sure. The fact is, only I know the monster exists, all you know is that I'm losing sleep, and I wake up every day with bags under my eyes. There is a problem, you know it... But I tell you that I just don't sleep well. He is keeping me up at night in fear. But there is an unspoken agreement between the three of us. If you don't ask about the monster, it won't come out."
Milly blinked a few times. "Are... Are you sleep deprived?"
"Very," Matthew yawned, falling out of his chair.
About an hour later, Milly said she was going clothes shopping, but Matthew said he wanted to take her. He opted to drive if she wanted, and she reluctantly obliged to let him. He hopped in his car and drove with her to a local clothes store she happened to like, despite her objections because of how tired he was.
Once they were inside, Milly began to look at some dresses. "What do you think of this one?" She held it up to herself, and Matthew cleared his throat nervously.
"It's really pretty."
Milly pursed her lips jokingly. "I'm sure you just think it's pretty."
"I just chose the second thing that came to mind to avoid the elephant in the room," Matthew defended jokingly.
Milly looked at another dress, and took the hanger off the rack. "Speaking of elephants in rooms..."
Matthew nodded slowly and nervously. "Yeah...?"
Milly smiled as she asked, "So what is this whole thing about me being the prettiest girl in the whole world?"
Matthew shrugged. "In situations of stress, my mind fucks with me and certain feelings I don't normally feel in the open are brought to the forefront.
"So you do think that?"
Matthew looked away, wincing. "Caught."
Milly giggled. "No judging from me. It's actually quite flattering that you think so."
"Well," Matthew rebutted, "In my mind, sometimes I'll be stressed and prioritize how hot a girl is, or... you know..."
Milly placed a dress over her boobs, and realized that it wouldn't work for her. "That stinks. But you're not like that, right?"
Matthew shook his head. "Of course not."
"So you like me for my personality then?"
Matthew nodded. "Right... Wait! I mean no! I mean—"
Milly shushed him and wrapped an arm around his neck. "So is it my boobs you like?"
"Yes! Fuck! No! Dammit!"
Milly giggled devilishly. "Matthew, I won't stop you from grabbing me. In fact, I would rather you do. It would prepare you for milking me."
Matthew looked at her with wide eyes. "For real?"
Milly nodded. "Of course."
Matthew looked at all the dresses, then at Milly. He got behind her and cupped his hands around her boobs, feeling her up through her bra. "Is this bra comfortable?"
Milly shrugged. "It's a little small."
Matthew stopped groping her and went around the whole store, looking through every dress he thought she might be able to wear. There were only three, and one was ugly af.
"Here." He handed her the two that were left after he got rid of the ugly one, and she held them both up to herself. "Wow, these are pretty. And possibly wearable."
Matthew smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. "I think I should go back home and take a nap when we're done here. Don't get me wrong, take your time, but I just need a nap."
Milly nodded. "Of course, you look as dead on the outside as you probably feel inside."
What was the monster? She had been asking herself this question all day. She was coming to terms with the fact that she'd likely never know, but she would never, in good conscience, give up trying.
Milly walked into Matthew's room, ready to lie down, and noticed that Matthew seemed to be having a nightmare. She lay next to him and rubbed his back, shushing him even though she knew he wouldn't hear. Much to her surprise, Matthew wrapped his arms around her slowly and held her close to himself. "I'm sorry," he muttered, "I tried to help..."
Milly ran her fingers through tufts of his hair, whispering "It's okay."
Matthew's frown seemed to lighten after a few minutes, turning into a normal resting face. Milly lay next to him, drifting off to sleep with Matthew in her arms.
Hey! Author here. Feel free to skip this part of you like, but this is my attempt to reach out to my audience. I recently made a switch from Wattpad to Webnovel, and I love the story writing and organizational capabilities this app carries. I'm still not sure there's a way for people to comment, but if not that's okay.
I hope you all are enjoying this story. I kind of threw it together on a whim, but it's going okay for now. I gotta say though, I feel like Webnovel inflates the view count. After like three days, this story has over "1000" views. My most popular story on Wattpad was a story involving Samus, Palutena, and Lucina, and it got barely more views than this has, and the time difference is close to three or four years. Versus like three or four days.
Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I have a Twitter. I will generally be performing a combination of drawing, writing, reposting genuinely funny shit, and keeping terrible opinions (or opinions at all, really) to myself. If you want to hop on over, You can find me at SlaughterBottle, possibly with an underscore between slaughter and bottle. If you can and want to, leave a comment. If you literally say hi, I might literally say hi back. If you suggest a cool idea for a story, I may (or may not) write it. We'll see. Stay safe, I'll see y'all later.