mattheo riddle screwed up. in fact, he practically tied an anchor to his foot and drowned himself.

needless to say he felt horrible about it, after he had proposed for you for the yule ball and stood you up. he knew there was nothing worse that he could possibly have done. but the moment he stood infront of the mirror, in his suit with a rose tucked in his pocket, his hands beaded with sweat and his knees began shaking.

so instead of heading to your dorm to pick you up, he stripped off his suit and got lost in hogsmeade.

he couldn't pinpoint exactly why he decided to stand you up; perhaps it was the fear of embarrassing himself infront of his grade — but deep down he knew it was because he'd liked you far too much to mess things up. because that's all he did these days. mess things up. but of course, that's exactly what he did. and in the worst ever way possible, too.

it was a good two days after the ball, and now you must've hated him because you were avoiding him as much as he was avoiding you, but mattheo's guilt was clawing at his stomach and engulfing him. he knew he needed to do something, but what, he didn't know. he just. knew he needed to talk to you again, and he wanted to make up for it.

mattheo spent a long hour deciding what to do. he knew you liked grand gestures, but was it too extreme to do it under this context? what about a dinner date? in the end, mattheo took the single, slightly wilted rose from his suit, and made his way to your dorm.

as he waited for you to answer his knocks on the door, he played with the rose in between his fingers. mattheo couldn't think of the words to describe how guilty he felt.

after what felt like ages, your door slid open, revealing an angry you, and mattheo winced.

"...sorry?" he managed out.