**November 1999**

Matt rolled over on his bed, looked at the clock and sighed. It was 2:47 in the morning. He was exhuasted. He had a real stressful week with everything that was transpiring in his life at the moment. He had been talking to Beyonce ever since 4:07 yesterday morning. It wasn't as if Matt was sick of her, it was just that he had tons of errands to run. He would have to fly out to New Jersey for the weekend's house shows the day after tomorrow. Yet, Beyonce showed no signs of getting better. She just continued to pray and weep. She had been in bed for about four weeks now. Throughout this time of struggle, she just depended on her pastor at her church, St. John's United Methodist Church. She wouldn't talk to her parents, Solnage, Kelly or anyone else that wanted her to feel better. Matt learned from his mistakes with Amy and had been sacrificing tons of his time to be there for Beyonce. This was really when she needed him the most and she honestly would have killed herself long ago if Matt hadn't had been there. Despite Matt's stress, he was gonna keep talking to his girl until she got back to her normal self.

"Beyonce, honey, you've been in bed four weeks now. You're gonna make yourself more sick than what you already are." Matt spoke into the phone.

"What's the point of getting up if I can't sing? None whatsoever. It would be worthless and I don't wanna waste nobody's time."

"You owe it to God, yourself and to me to get up. I'm telling you, Bee, Destiny's Child ain't over. I just know it. You've gotta believe in yourself like I believe in you."

"I love you for that, Matt. I really do. Somehow, I just don't see things the way you are. I mean, I've made calls to see if anyone would be interested in joing the group but they haven't gotten returned. My life is miserable without no Destiny's Child." Beyonce sobbed.

"Exactly. Your life is miserable because you won't get out that bed! You have to get up, put on a happy face and re-create Destiny's Child. You have to forget about the past. You've gotta leave that old shit behind. You've come too far to turn back now. God still wakes you up every morning so your purpose for Him obviously ain't over, girl. You've come so close to committing suicide but you've always changed your mind at the last minute so you must know it in your heart as well as I do."

"You know, I absolutely feel the same way you do when Pastor Rasmus is counseling me. Yet, after awhile, I'm depressed again."

"Yeah, every time we talk after you go to his appointments, you sound great. Your relationship with God is amazing but it could be stronger. I think when you reach that level, you'll be the same again. You'll probably even change. How's Kelly?"

"I don't know. We're dealing with this by ourselves. I only see her at church. We're just getting some space from each other right now."

"Are you still not eating?" Matt asked as he kept turning the channel with the television remote.

"I hear mama call Solange and Kelly for dinner but I just stay up here and cry or tlak to you."

"That's not healthy, Bee. You need to eat something. You can't let this get the best of you and that's exactly what you're doing."

"Can you blame?! I'm just...I'm...so confused." Beyonce cried again.

Matt sighed, got up, left his room to go to the bathroom, he turned on the sink and splashed some water on his face. He honestly didn't know what to do. He would give anything to make his girlfriend feel better but it was like his words went into one ear and went out the other. He sat down on the bathroom floor and leaned against the door.

Jeff was just about to walk out of his room to pick up his girlfriend, Beth, from the airport, when he noticed Matt with a sad look on his face. He looked at Matt for a minute and noticed something. He looked the exact same way he did when Amy dumped him, except this time, he looked worse. The look on Matt's face scared him. It really did. He had never seen Matt so sorrowful. Matt's matches hadn't exactly been their best ever since Beyonce became depressed. It was as if they were going through the exact same thing. Jeff had the feeling that something bad was gonna happen but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Look, Beyonce, I really want nothing more than for you to get better. I'm trying my best to do my responsibility as your boyfriend to help your achieve that but all I'm trying to say is this has gone on for too long. You are a very strong female and I know you can't see it but I can. You are going to get through this. Something or someone is gonna come along to stop all your problems. I can gurantee that to you and until that happens, you really need to wake up and realize that God ain't gonna do all the work. You have to put forth some effort to get through this too."

Matt sat scared for awhile since he heard nothing but silence for a minute. He hoped he hadn't had upset Beyonce. That's the last thing he needed now. After awhile, Matt broke the silence.

"Beyonce, what are you doing?"

"I just...got up out the bed and opened the door."

"Are you serious?!" Matt asked hapilly as he got up quickly.

"Yeah."

"What changed your mind?"

"What you just said. I don't know what it was about what you said but...it just felt right. It was so true. I thought about it and just got up. God has another plan for Destiny's Child and I have to accept it, not reject it."

"Now, you are talking some sense, baby."

"I think-"

Matt listened as he heard a door open on the phone.

"Who is that?"

"I'm going into Kelly's room. Hold on."

Matt could tell she put the phone on the carpet but he could hear every word they were now saying.

"Hey, Kelly."

"Oh, my god! You came out your room! You came out! What changed your mind...wait a minute, there go the phone, it must have been Matt."

"Yeah, my baby."

Matt blushed and went back into his room to play his PlayStation.

"I was just getting dressed for our appointment with Pastor Rasmus."

"Oh, yeah! I forgot all about that!"

"Wait! Wait! Before you go, I god some good news. Apparently, someone called back Matthew and there's two people who want to be in Destiny's Child."

Matt smiled and silently said "Yes" as he continued to listen to their conversation.

"You're kidding me!"

"No, their names are Tenetria and Farrah. I was gonna tell you earlier but you were locked up in that room for about a month. I'm really glad you came out, Bee."

"This is just amazing. In such a short amount of time...so much has changed for me."

"Let's go talk to Pastor Rasmus about it."

"Okay, girl. Let me go get dressed....hey, Matt?"

"Yes?"

"I'll call you later after I get back. I have a lot of things to talk about. Thank you so much for putting up with me, baby. I really appreciate it, boo."

"No problem at all. Anything for you. I'll be waiting for your call. Love you."

"I love you too. Bye."

***********

Matt sat in his room three house later, still waiting for Beyonce to call. He had figured they would be back sooner, but he still had gotten no word.

To say he was a bit worried and a bit hurt would be an understatement. His world had revolved around her for the last month. Every free moment had been spent calling her, worrying about her, cheering her up, and just plain wanting to be with her. It was as if he had been replaced in a matter of minutes.

Cursing when he heard someone knock on his door, he got up, reluctantly letting the phone go from his grasp. He pulled the door open, fully intent on telling the person who was behind the door to leave him the hell alone, he stopped when he saw that it was Amy, who was wearing tight blue jeans and a white tank top.

“Hey.” He said quietly, throwing the phone behind him, not wanting to appear as dependent on his girlfriend as he really was.

"Hey, I just wanted to come over and check on you."

"Thanks. I appreciate that, Amy. Come on in."

Amy knew her way around the Hardy household so just went on in the always clean living room and sat down as Matt followed.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"No, thanks. Matt, I came here 'cause I'm worried about you. This thing with Beyonce is really stressing you out."

"Yeah, it is. There's a reason for that though. I mean, this whole time, I haven't really had the chance to talk to anyone but Beyonce. It's just that...everyone is so busy."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Matt. I had no idea." Amy said as she put her arm around him.

"I'm not mad at them or anything. I understand that they don't have the time. I would talk to dad but he's still trying to accept the fact that I'm with Beyonce. He had his heart set on me and you staying together. So I don't wanna make it any worse for him right now. Jeff has been spending all his free time with Beth and I can't really talk to him on the road since he's sleeping every chance he gets. Shane is too busy with WCW and...you've been too busy getting all your contracts straight with the WWF."

Amy felt awful. She had no idea that Matt wanted to talk to her when he needed her the most just like how Beyonce needed Matt. She just took Matt in her arms and held him for a minute.

"This is really hard for you, isn't it?"

"Yes, I don't want Beyonce to end up doing something stupid. If I were to tell her my feelings about all this, she would be more depressed than what she already is. So I've had to keep them all to myself."

"I'm so sorry. If I would've known, I would have put everything on hold just for you. Why didn't you tell me you felt this way earlier?"

"I don't know. I hurt you so bad before that I didn't wanna do anything to mess up the friendship we have now."

"Exactly. We have a friendship. I don't give a fuck what's happened in the past, you come to me when you need to talk to me. Don't you ever think like that again, Matt."

"Okay, it's just been hard for me knowing that none of my friends can be there for me."

Amy got up quickly and looked at Matt.

“Look, we gotta change this sad mood of yours, man. I want you to join me clubbing. If not, I have to go by myself, something I don’t wanna do.” She said smiling down at him.

He had to admit, her idea was appealing. Jeff was busy with Beth who had flown in that morning and he was feeling pretty much like a pansy sitting around waiting for Beyonce to call.

Matt looked back at the phone and then back at the woman in front of him. It was as if he was dealing with his past and present all at once and he wasn’t sure which way to go. His heart yelled for him to stay and wait for Beyonce, but his head yelled at him to not sit around and wait for her.

“Let me get my jacket.” He said as they smiled at one another and left arm in arm.

***********

They arrived at the club, both bobbing their heads to the beat of the bass pounding from the speakers located all around the club. Seeing no one that they knew, Amy held out her hand to his.

“For old times.” She said as an explanation.

He hesitantly took her hand and lead her onto the dance floor. Thoughts of Beyonce were fleeting as he felt himself get lost in the music. They had always danced well together, he and Amy, forgetting everything that was going on with the outside world. Looking into her eyes, he was pulled in. He felt the familiar pang of love that he had felt earlier with her. As their lips were about to touch, he heard Beyonce’s voice over the speakers and pulled back, eyes wide.

“Matt, I am so sorry I don’t know what came over me.” Amy said putting her hand over her mouth.

Matt smiled wide, as he put his hand up to her.

“It’s alright because you know what? I just learned something. The minute I heard Beyonce’s voice I realized that you two are the most important women in my life and that I'm so grateful to have a friend like you.” He said twirling her around, laughing at the discovery he had just made.

"Well, I'm glad you feel that way, man. I couldn't be more happy about the fact that I just cheered you up. That's the smile I don't see enough of."

Matt smiled as he and Amy kept dancing to the Destiny's Child song. As he was dancing, Matt realized that he had never been this happy in awhile ever since he hooked up with Beyonce. His life, at the moment, couldn't be better with Amy there and that was when he knew something he had always known, Amy still had feelings for him...and he did too.

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