"Jade! You're cheating." Anders hissed.

"What? I am not." I said. "Your wife does!"

"I am not!" Tori barked back.

The four of us are playing poker for an hour and a half now after dinner. This is the first time the four of us hangout since Anders and Mat are always on the road. Tonight, my cousin Tori used her pregnancy card to get us all play poker in the living room.

You can't say no to a pregnant lady, as what Anders always says.

"I don't like this at all!" Anders officially announced because he's clearly losing. Everyone snorted and I suddenly caught Mat beside me doing something fishy.

Before I can react Anders busted his balls, he saw what Mat did too. "Dude, you're the one who's cheating these entire time!"

And Mat laughed hard. "You guys are so funny to watch blaming each other as cheaters. When I am the one who's cheating!"

"You're an asshole!" Tori said dropping her cards on the coffee table.

"You know what! Let's play some board games." Anders announced rising to his feet.

"What sort of board game?" I asked.

"Snakes and Ladders." Anders dropped which made me and Mat laugh.

"Dude! That's the lamest game ever suggested." Mat announced.

"Tori, why did you married this man again?" I asked Tori who's also giggling with us.

"You two are the worst!" Anders said. "Snakes and Ladders is not a lame board game."

"Trust me it is!" Matt replied.

"Says the man who enjoys coloring books back in Seidenberg's house!" Anders rebutted which earned a loud snort from me.

Matt looked at me and I couldn't ignore how he looks at me this past two days. When he said I am his girlfriend my whole self came to life. The dead butterflies, trees and all the forests deep through me were reborn.

I can't believe I have a boyfriend now. I can't believe that Mat Barzal is my boyfriend. I still keep on punching myself to wake myself up but I guess everything that is happening right now is true.

"Where did you keep it honey?" Anders asked Tori.

"On my desk drawers." Tori said standing up from the couch. "You go look for it. I gotta go pee."

When the couple left the room, Mat didn't waste his time on standing up from the floor joining me at the couch and snuggled me kissing my jaws. He loves to kiss my jaw, I don't know why.

"Hey." I said. "You don't have plans on surprising those two especially the pregnant lady, aren't you?"

He looked at me with a serious face lacing our hands together. "You want me to tell them?"

"I'll tell Tori." I said squeezing his hands. "Maybe one of these days, I don't want to freak her out. She's fund of overreacting these days."

He nodded sighing with a grin.

"What's up?"

"Nothing." He said and kissing me on my nose and sat again to the floor. "We don't want them to caught us. So keep it to yourself Jadey!" He said chuckling.

I kicked his head lightly with my foot. "Shut up!"

"Viola!" Anders shouted raising the lamest board game ever suggested.

"I'd rather watch Tom and Jerry than play that Captain!" Mat mocked.

"You play the game or you'll be homeless. You choose!" Anders challenged. "Same question goes to you Jade."

I only raised my hands signaling that he wins. While Mat sighs shifting on his sit. "Snake and Ladders it is!"

The lamest board game ever suggested became the funniest one ever. We played it for like five times now.

Anders and Mat are both perfectly competitive. However, Mat who's been mocking Anders and calling the game lame end up enjoying it demanding another round because he also can't accept the fact that he's always the slow one to progress.

"Mat, you're a loser!" Tori commented when we officially ended the game since it's already past ten.

"Yeah. Called the board game lame? Now that's karma right there." I agreed.

Mat just giggled. "I guess I'd take that back now."

Anders just snorted.

"Come on Victoria. You need to rest." Anders called his wife.

"You guys too. Early work tomorrow." Tori said.

Few moments later, Mat and I ended up crashing into my room. Kissing me hard and only was stopped when I bumped into one of the huge boxes I have inside my room.

We both snickered.

"Why can't you just get rid of these boxes!" Mat commented walking towards my bed and settled himself.

"Are you kidding me? Those are my things!"

"Anyway, have you found a place yet?" He asked.

"Not yet." I said and disappeared on the bathroom to change for my usual baggy shirt and sweatpants. When I went back Mat is on his phone.

I settled next to him.

"What's that?"

"Checking out the game schedules. I'm going home for Christmas." He answered putting his phone away and let me rest on his arms holding me close to him. "How about you?"

"Same. I'm planning to go on leave for three weeks. So that I'll spend the entire holiday season with my family." I said closing my eyes, nuzzling on his neck.

"You're from Boston right?" He asked.

"Hastings." I corrected.

"We're playing Boston a week before the holidays." He announced.

"Really?"

He nodded.

"Oh my god. I can't wait! It's been awhile since the last time I watched a Bruins games."

Mat squeezed my butt. "Hey! There you go again. Rooting for other teams!"

"Sorry Barzy but my loyalty belongs to the Bruins." I said giggling kissing him. "But don't worry I'll cheer for you guys, secretly."

"Yeah you should!" Mat said and in just one blink he's already lying on top of me burrying his face on my boobs.

"God, I missed this!" He commented and I obligingly let him do his thing.

I love being around this guy. I love the way he makes me feel..

He makes me feel so damn good.

-

After Collins and I took Tori to her OB's appointment. We decided to throw some steaks on the grill for lunch since Collins insisted to celebrate Tori's seven months of being pregnant besides, it's been awhile since the last time the three of us hangout, so we're having a girls day today.

Yup! Girls. Collins is a girl... Girl at heart and we love him for that!

I decided to change for some comfortable clothes first right before joining them and when I arrived at the kitchen Tori is already busy preparing the ingredients for the salad while Collins started to prepare the steak.

Both of them are giggling when I arrived.

"What did I miss?" I asked.

"Nothing." Collins answered and went outside to start grilling the steak.

Tori is still grinning at me when I reach for the knife and chopping board and started cutting some onions.

Few seconds later and Tori is still looking suspiciously at me I dropped the knife and looked straight to her. "I swear to god Tori if you won't spill that out I'm totally gonna have a panic attack right this second."

She sighed still plastering those grins and sat on the breakfast bar in front of me.

"What's going on between you and your roommate?" She asked which immediately send a wave of anxiety right to my system.

I blinked rapidly and started to chop another piece of onion, I'm even surprised I'm not crying because of it by the way.

"Oh! Uhm... About that." I said not looking through her eyes because I was caught off-guard.

Mat and I have talked about this last week to let the couple know what's up with us. We're official now so it is the right time to tell them.

But damn! Being on a hot seat kills me. Adding the fact that Collins just joined us back in the room with a mocking face. He doesn't know yet about me and Mat being a boyfriend/girlfriend now.

"Jade Angeline Kaufman. I've known you since we were babies, I know that you're keeping secrets with me." She spats.

I sighed dropping the knife once more. "Collins told you, didn't he?"

"Even if Collins didn't told me, I already smell something fishy between you two." She answered which surprised the hell out of me. "You two live in my house Jade, I already knew that something is going on ever since the Islander's dinner and those Instagram posts from Rebecca and the Islanders account? I'm not living on a cave darling."

I sighed because I have nothing else to lie about. She already noticed and knew everything, I remained silent.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tori asked.

"I was going tell you." I answered. "But... Mat and I are looking for the right time to tell you." I sighed once more. "We don't want you guys to freak out, especially you Tori."

She's silent for a bit and still her eyes are all glued on me.

"Are you mad?" I asked her.

"No." She said and helped me chop some more ingredients. "Just kind of upset that you didn't told me right away."

"I'm sorry." I apologized. "I'm just kind of embarassed with all of you guys and at the same time, things just happened so fast."

"You like him?" She asked smiling this time.

I giggled like a five a year old while answering yes. "A lot. But--"

"But what?"

I sighed. "But I don't know! After the Pauline incident I'm kind of still figuring out how to trust him wholeheartedly."

Collins smirked. "You have major trust issues, girl."

"I know." I chuckled. "Plus, severe anxiety. So screw me!"

To be honest, there are moments where I always think that I am not good enough for Mat. That he and I aren't meant to be together.

We both came from different worlds and I haven't figured out on how to met those worlds together yet. But I'm way too excited to see.

I like Mat, a lot. He makes me so special, he makes me calm every time my anxiety gets the better of me, and he makes me strangely happy. Which somehow makes me scared because, what if everything comes to an end too soon and I'm not yet prepared?

Yet again, I'm hoping Barzy won't let me down.