Fell In Love In Stages // a matty healy fanfic

Bunny

It was almost nine when we got to the venue. Parking was ridiculous. The whole street was lined with bars, block after block of them so we had to park quite a ways from Lucky's. I was glad I wasn't wearing pointy, high-heeled boots like Lacy. But she made it look effortless.
"Wait!" Sophie halts Lacy with one arm when she gets out of the car. She takes her shoulders, pulling her head down and shaking her hair out at the roots. "If you're not gonna blow it out, you may as well look like you've just been fucked"
"Jesus," Lacy says, pulling her head back up. "That's genius"
The crowd of people grew thicker as we neared the venue. "Hold on, let me text Adam" Sophie said, pulling out her phone.
After a couple buzzes here and there, she says, "The guys are at the lot behind the bar. They've asked us to meet them there" and I feel a sizeable knot in my stomach beginning to form.
Sophie intertwined her arm in ours on either side and we walked towards Lucky's. A dozen girls spilled out of the doorway ahead of us. I glanced up at the neon sign over our heads. Only the ucky's and a four-leaf clover lit up. We walked passed the majority of the crowd and turned the corner towards the back lot reserved for the staff and performing artists.
Lacy and I stuck close behind Sophie, so she saw them before we even made the turn.
"Shit", I heard her whisper. She squeezed Lacy's arm in a panic to warn her, but it was too late.
Right in front of us stood a sizeable man. He was tall with broad shoulders. Sharp pointy features that looked all too familiar, but I couldn't quite place where I'd seen him before. His golden blonde hair was slicked back with expensive smelling hair gel.
"Soph? Is that you? Come here," he said grinning and holding out his arms.
"Hi Peter" she says without an ounce of emotion, ignoring his hug and walking past him.
He feigns a shiver. "Lighten up sweetheart" he calls after her to which she scoffs.
He then turns around to face Lacy and proceeds to place both his arms on either side and says with a smile, "Lacy. My special girl. You'll give me a hug, won't you?"
"Hi Peter" she squeaks timidly from under his embrace. "Long time"
He pulls away from her, arms still on either side and says "Long time indeed. Look how you've... grown" while staring directly at her chest.
I could stomach this objectively good looking, yet vile human being no longer. I tug at Lacy's elbow and say, "Hey the show's about to start" to which he replies, "Oh and who are you?" while eyeing me like I was a three star Michelin meal, practically salivating at the mouth.
"Not interested" I say promptly and drag Lacy away from him and towards the familiar group of people.
"He is such a creep" I whisper sharply through my teeth once we get far enough.
"But so hot, right?" she says biting her lip, to which I just roll my eyes.

As we get closer, I see Sophie helping Adam and Ross unload the equipment from the van while George was chatting up a skinny brunette. Matty was next to him, leaning against his car. (Matty. Always leaning.) He had a bottle of beer in one hand, the same hand he was pressing into a girls back as he whispered something in her ear. She had her back turned towards us but I could see her throw her head back and laugh out loud.
My feet continued moving towards the group the entire time, as if they had a mind of their own. Once there, she turned around to face us and that's when it registered. The girl whose picture I'd seen on Matty's MySpace had materialised in front of me. My stomach had just realised what was happening. It twisted painfully and I could feel my breath coming and going too soon. Everything was moving in agonising slow motion. Matty met my eyes just then and his mouth parted slightly but before he could say anything, the girl fully pulls me into an embrace. The ringing in my ears had muffled the noise around me and she must've said something I didn't hear because just then things started moving in normal speed again and she re-iterated herself.
"You're Trinity, right?" said a musical voice.
Up close, she was devastatingly gorgeous. She was six inches taller than me with golden hair, gently waving to the middle of her back. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. I'm not proud to admit it, but my self-esteem took a hit tonight. Her face was friendly, open, a wide smile on her glossy lips. But her eyes were careful.
"I'm Molly Piper," she continued. "I've heard so much about you from our little Matt here" she bumps her fist on his shoulder.
My head was spinning. I couldn't think of anything conventional to say so I said, "It's Matty" at the same time he did and our eyes met again and we shared a knowing smile that put me a little at ease.
She saw this exchange and her smile dropped a little, but dialled it back up to a hundred to say, "Matt, Matty, Matthew. It's all the same to me, bunny. Right?" she turns to face him and I see him physically cringe at the word. "I said, right, bunny?" She doubles down. Her smile never left her face but her voice had a menacing undertone. Matty sighs. "Right." I wanted to wipe that smug smile right off her face, but I kept my composure.
"Hey T, can I talk to you for a sec?" Matty asked, ushering me a few steps away from the rest of the group, to Molly's vexation.
"Sure," I said, trying to sound super-casual, but aware that my voice was coming out super-high-pitched and indeed, somewhat shrilly.
"I've been meaning to talk to you about this morning"
Me too, I wanted to say. I think I'm afraid of commitment, but for you, Matty, I'm willing to give it a real shot, is what I should've said. But instead, the only think that came out of me was, "Who's Molly?"
Logically, based on what I knew about boys generally and specifically Matty, I would've expected him to bolt in the opposite direction at this point.
Instead, he said, "She's just a friend," in a defensive tone.
It was rather awkward, insofar as we were both teetering between the possibility of something and the possibility of nothing.
But before either of us could say anything else, the back door swung open and a burly man covered in tattoos called out a two minute warning before the band went on stage.
He sucked in a deep breath. "To be continued?"
I nodded. He took a step towards the door, paused, took a step back to where I was standing and inclined his head slowly until his cold lips grazed mine softly, playfully. He was so good at making me feel all the things I've been trying so hard not to feel.
When we separate for air, I hear hoots and whistles in the background (from George, no doubt) and we laugh, our foreheads still touching.
"You look so good" he snarls flirtatiously in my ear.
"Go," I say, still smiling. "Kill it."