#i can't put this under a read more because the pictures would get squished lmao sorry

[softpine]

can you go into more detail about what matt meant by stevie not being who we thought she was? i'm still in shock lmao u can't just drop this bomb (we all saw coming but were in denial about) and not give a bunch of background info

DID YOU SAY MORE DETAIL??? 📢

this is not the last time we’ll ever hear from matt, so i’m not going to say anything here that will be said later. but somehow this still turned out to be a very long deep dive into the MANY miscommunications that lead to this outcome fjksjds so let’s dive in

(white text = stevie, yellow text = matt)

right off the bat, we know matt has, at the very least, paid attention to stevie for many years.

later:

so this is where matt starts formulating an opinion of stevie, simply based on what he sees at school, in public settings, etc. he doesn’t know her, but he thinks he does. he didn’t mean to, but he manic pixie dream girl’ed her :/

they begin their relationship in an undefined way:

their first few dates are all really exciting and fun. they go ice skating, then to the winter dance together, then frog catching. this is exactly what matt expected dating stevie would be like.

bear in mind, this is after stevie just witnessed another traumatic death with her own eyes, but she’s still acting like her normal, bubbly self, so matt assumes that this is just how she is all the time. he doesn’t realize this is literally a response to her trauma. stevie even says it herself:

but this is what matt means when he later says “I never saw you get sad about anything. You were always laughing. I thought that was for real.” because, before they got really close, he hadn’t seen stevie at her lowest point. he never saw stevie cry or yell at her parents or get annoyed about small things. all of those things are very human behaviors, but they didn’t fit into the mold matt had created for her in his mind.

then there’s the infamous “couples shit” argument, which stevie herself mentions in the latest post. stevie invited matt over to meet her dad, because to her, that’s what it means to be a real couple. matt was confused by that, because he didn’t think stevie even wanted to be a real couple:

stevie cuts the discussion short because she’s terrified of becoming her parents and arguing constantly, so she’d rather just drop it and live in uncertainty.

after matt witnesses stevie’s parents fighting for the first time, he tries to sneak out the door without interfering, but stevie catches him. instead of admitting that he was overwhelmed and felt weird about being in the house while they fought, matt lies to her and says he was actually trying to sneak stevie out:

matt doesn’t think stevie sees a future with him:

but we know that this is what stevie was really imagining... she just never told him:

(unimportant side note: this daydream happened before matt let his curls grow out, so you can assume stevie told him to do it lol)

matt thought stevie has been dating other people this whole time:

the expression on his face when he says “you wouldn’t be [a bad girlfriend]” was meant to convey guilt, because he was starting to feel like things might get messy...

but there’s a valid reason why he thought they were non-exclusive! a longgg time ago, stevie had this conversation with matt’s friend, bela:

bela was just joking around, but stevie was serious. her feelings only changed later, when she realized she does want to be exclusive, she’s just worried that she’ll be unable to commit to a relationship, like her parents.

and finally... we can’t ignore what alisa, a literal psychic, said about matt when she met him:

matt never wants to hurt anyone’s feelings, especially not stevie’s, because he does love her. he was content to keep telling little white lies or lying by omission to protect her feelings, just waiting for the day when she would get bored and break up with him first. but he knew he went too far when he said “i love you” back to her.

in conclusion: stevie thought matt has been patiently waiting for her to take the next step. matt thought their relationship was just temporary, not serious, and that they would amicably split someday, but continue to be friends. they both completely blindsided each other 😭