#19:

"Why do you deny that you are dating?"
"Huh?" I stammered.
Lizet rolled her eyes, and made a face at me.
“You and Matt. You go out together, spend nights together. Today half the hospital saw you arrive together. Why do you continue denying you are dating?
I sighed in exasperation.
" Lisi, I'm not lying. Matt is not my boyfriend."
"Well, he seems so."

***

After drinking that creepy tea, I had fallen asleep and didn't wake up until six in the morning the next day. I was more than ready to make a big fuss of Matt, I was convinced either he or Mark had spiked the drink with some sleeping pill.
I was shocked, I was angry. I knew that perhaps they had done it with the most innocent intentions but…Matt wasn´t in his room.
He had vanished.
I climbed out from under the covers, still a little groggy, and then I thought, if Matt wasn't such a decent guy, I would have been an easy rape victim.
There were too many things I didn't understand. As I remembered, the twins did their shifts together, in all the rotations it had been like that, except now in surgery and that was suspicious to me.
I went out into the hallway, and began to open random doors. All the rooms were empty, except well, one, in which I found Ramses, who didn't even protest when I turned on the light.
In the end, I found Matt asleep on the living room couch. He had taken a pillow and a sheet and surely he had spent a most uncomfortable night, he slept lying on his back.
The sheet was completely wrinkled, as if he had spent hours tossing and turning, and besides, one arm was hanging out.
I tried not to, but I did it again. Contemplating his bare muscular chest, his arms, his neck, his relaxed face and his messy black hair… yes, I thought about it again. Matt Montalvo is a hot son of a bitch!
"Matt." I called him and he didn't even move.
"Hey, Matt, wake up." This time I shook him by the shoulders.
He responded by wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me up next to him on the couch. He slowly opened his eyes and smiled at me.
Oh no. I had already seen that movie and it didn't end well. I squirmed, and his kiss fell on my cheek, I squirmed again and the next kiss was deposited on my neck.
"Matt, wake up, damn it!" I barked and he compressed his lips. "You have to stop doing this. You have to stop "smooching" me when you're half asleep.smooching
He released me suddenly, sitting on the sofa and looking at me sideways.
smoochingYou won't let me "smooch" you while I´m awake either. You are unbearable. And besides, who the hell told you I was asleep?smooching
My jaw dropped to the ground.
" You WERE awake? But then you…I mean you don't…"
"I don't what, Rosario? I comfort you when you cry, I help you sleep, I leave you my room and I come here not to disturb you, I wake up and see you looking at me a hungry wolf´s face, and it's not the first time you've done it, the other time you slept here you were checking me too."
I swear my throat collapsed right then and there.
Matt looked at me with the face of the cat that is about to eat a canary and came back to me, leaning on his arms, getting into my personal space, and looking me in the eye.
"You do like me,"
It wasn´t a question but a statement
He bit his lip and stuck to me even more, leaving his mouth a few inches from mine, I swallowed dry.
"You like me, Rosy. Why do you deny it? - he whispered, sticking his wet and soft lips to the corner of my mouth.
"I wouldn't gain anything by admitting it," I whispered.
He kissed my cheek and caressed my leg slowly.
"Maybe not, but you might satisfy your curiosity."

***

"Rosy?
"Yeah?"
"You're weird today. Kind of …I don't know, uncoordinated."
" You thing so?"
" It´s obvious. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, some nonsense."

***

"Curiosity? What curiosity? I'm not curious at all.- I protested, getting up from the sofa and walking away.
"It's a shame because I am," he murmured, also getting up from the sofa and chasing me slowly. Like a shark circling a wounded man. Luckily he hadn't been naked under the sheet, but was wearing shorts. His eyes had gone darker, his face had a serious expression and I stood there dumbstruck at what he said next.
"I'm really curious about what it's like to be inside you."

000
"You've been strange today, Rosy. Something happened to you?"
Yunior was looking at me worriedly during lunch and I felt like my face was a volcano.
"No. It's just that I didn't sleep well."
"Nightmares?"
"Menstrual cramps." I lied, feeling my lips go numb.
"Ah, well." Yunior paled, becoming noticeably uncomfortable. "Have you takenanything...?"
"Yes, a couple of tylenols. Thei´re already working on me."
" Great."
I frowned. I couldn't stop thinking about Matt. His words in his house living room had left me dizzy. He wanted…he said that he wanted…OMG!
I knew Matt liked me, but it's one thing, knowing a guy likes you, keeping that information lying around somewhere in the back of your mind; and another very different thing is that he tells you to your face that he wants to…

***

"You're crazy!" I whispered scared.
"For a kiss from you," he murmured, sticking to me and imprisoning my hips in his arms.
"You can't…really? I mean it's a joke, right?"
"No, It is not. Since third year I fantasize about doing it with you."
I looked at him in horror and he twisted his lips.
"Why are you looking at me like that? Why does it shock you so much to hear me say these things? I like you and you know it, I like you a lot. It's only natural that I want to…love you."
I writhed in his arms and he bent his head to find my mouth.
"Why don't you let yourself be loved, Rosario?"
I huffed in exasperation, tearing my face away from his.
"What I don't let myself is to be "eaten", Matt.
He laughed and before I could get away, he put his mouth to my shoulder and took a bite.
"Ow! That hurt me! - I protested, caressing the skin of my shoulder that still had the mark of his teeth.
"All right. You win. No cliché romance with you, I was about to kneel down and start reciting poetry but since you dislike those corny things so much…from today on, every time I want to kiss you and you don't let me, I'll bite you."
During that week's seminar, the specialist was extremely pleased with how much I had improved my grades and even congratulated me in front of all my classmates.I must say that I flushed at volcanic levels.
What happened with Matt the last time we were together hadn't gotten out of my mind. Every time I looked at him he would stare back at me, wink at me or blow me a kiss.
I was beginning to feel strange. I looked at Yunior, the boy who had been my crush for so long and he still seemed cute to me, however when I looked at Matt the butterflies in my stomach turned into helicopters.
That whole situation was making me nervous.
I couldn't be falling for Matt Montalvo, could I?