Fell In Love In Stages // a matty healy fanfic

Confessions

It was dark inside the bar and crowded. People were pressed shoulder to shoulder, but still somehow managed to move rhythmically to the music. It seemed like the band's popularity was rapidly growing. A girl with a sharpie'd "DLID" tee walked past just then, as if to confirm my assumption.
"People usually come here for the cheap alcohol. But tonight, it appears they're here for the boys" Sophie spoke into my ear enthusiastically. I couldn't help but smile.
The band sounded better than last time, and Matty, ever so charming up on stage.
But the thought of Molly kept gnawing at the back of my mind.
I couldn't help but wonder where she was. If she was standing closer to the stage; getting a better look at my Matty. But I couldn't see past the crush of bodies.
I felt Lacy's hand on my elbow. "Come on," she said. "Let's go closer"
We squeezed by a high-top table full of people doing shots. One of the guys fell back on her, and Sophie nudged him back up with a tight smile.
"Is it always this crowded?" I asked.
"I've seen a lot of bands play here, but the crowd is never quite like this" she says looking pretty impressed.
"Hey," somebody said.
All three of us turned. A chubby significantly older gentleman with a stubble stood a foot away, nodding his head at us. He curled his lip and grinned. "You're Marjorie's kid, yeah?"
For a moment, I thought he was mistaken until Lacy answers from beside me.
"Um, yeah? And you are?"
"I thought I recognised you. Your mother and I were intimate, remember?" he lingered on the word.
"Creep," she says, turning back to the stage.
"You've taken after her" he continued, unfazed.
"Fuck off" I say this time, getting real sick of this shit.
"And who are you?" He says, eyeing me now.
"Don't even think about it, perv" Sophie chimes in equally annoyed.
A couple heads turn toward us in the sea of people in our corner.
"Do we have a problem here?" Peter steps from behind the guy.
"Who the fuck-" the man starts rather aggressively, but trails off when he turns around and sees Peter towering over him, his hands gripping his shoulders firmly on either side.
"Guys, let's take this outside," I say, not wanting to disrupt the bands important night.
"Hey man, let's just drop this" the stranger says to Peter, looking pretty sobered up. Fear will do that to a man.
"Good," Peter says with a smile, easing up on the grip and patting his shoulders with a little too much force.
"What's all this then?" someone asked. I spun around. Molly.
"It's all good, sissy" says Peter.

I hadn't noticed this before, but now that I had, I wondered how I missed it in the first place.
Now standing side by side, Peter and Molly looked damn near identical. Two perfectly tall, perfectly blonde set of twins stood in front of me.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?" she motions her head towards the back exit of the venue.
"Of course," I say, a bit apprehensive.
As we make our way to the door, I turn around to face Lace and Soph and they raise a hand as if to ask where I was going and I just shrugged. The exit was adjacent to the stage and as we walked past, I saw Matty do a double-take when he noticed who I was with.

As I stepped out, a cold gust of wind sent my hair into a frenzy.
"Do you mind talking to me for a few minutes?" She asked with a cigarette in her mouth, desperately trying to light it.
"Sure, we can talk" I say, my stomach twisted nervously, but my hands cupped around her lighter, still.
"He so rarely leaves you alone, "she said while offering me a puff, "I figured I'd make the best of this opportunity."
What did she say that couldn't be said in front of Matty? My hands twisted and untwisted around the strap of my bag.
I politely declined and she took another long hard drag before speaking again.
"Please don't think I'm horribly interfering," she said, her voice gentle and almost pleading. "I'm sure this is weird enough as is"
"It is a bit weird, yes, but go on" I say
She laughed a little, sounding oddly embarrassed. "I'm going to try to tell you why I think you should stay away from Matty- why I would stay away if I were you."
"Oh."
She smiled at the shocked tone of my voice, and then she sighed.
"Did Matty ever tell you why we broke up?"
"I, um, didn't know you dated" I said, my voice blank with confusion.
She expelled the smoke from her mouth and smiled at me; it was a harsh, bitter -but still stunning- expression.
"Yes well, above all else, we were friends."
She stared up at the dark clouds swirling above head, her expression far away.
"My father was a producer on Denise's show in the late 90's so our parents ran in the same circles. Matty and I became fast friends. One night at a premiere party, a bunch of older kids thought it would be funny to play a prank on me. Matty was at the dessert table at the time and that seemed like the perfect opportunity for them. They thought it would be funny to lift my dress over my head and when they did, I ran away and hid in a closet. We were at that age where even the slightest thing was deathly embarrassing." she laughed without humour.
"When I had gained the courage to leave my hiding place and go back outside, I came to find Matty being plundered by a group of kids. The adults got involved and broke the fight and when I asked him what happened, he answered very matter-of-factly that he had smashed a slice of pie on the face of the guy who lifted my dress. At that very moment, Denise came up to him and dragged him away to the car. As the car drove away, I noticed Denise was shouting at him but he had his back turned towards her, and his face was gleeful and smiling at me.
And that was when I knew I was in love with Matty Healy." She broke off suddenly, and she glanced down at me.
I tried my best to remain indifferent but my furrowed brows must've given away my true feelings because she then said, "But Matty Healy wasn't in love with me" she sighed.
"All through middle school we'd hold hands in the halls and when we got to high school we'd smoke up in his room and make out occasionally.." she paused when I flinched.
It was hard to tell in the moonlight, but it looked like her bone white face got paler. "This next part isn't my story to tell so I won't get into details but we partied hard and one night when I was intoxicated I blurted out that I was in love with him and had been since that night at the premiere party and he just... he left me there."
She looked at me with unfathomable eyes. "I don't think Matty loves anyone as much as he loves himself" she smiled softly, amused by her own evaluation.
I look up at the sky, the clouds thickening and the wind picking up. I felt a storm brewing. It was hard for me to imagine the version of Matty Moly experienced. This couldn't have been the person who took care of me when I wasn't feeling my best, or the person who showed me the most vulnerable parts of himself.
"Everyone has their own demons they're silently battling. Doesn't mean he's inherently a bad person." I say, my tone coming off more defensive than I would've liked.
She sighed, and when she spoke again, her voice was different, the wistfulness gone.
"I OD'd that night" she deadpans. "He was there when we were doing lines, I told him I loved him, and he got up and walked off to god knows where. I was so lucky George found me. If it weren't for him, I don't know what could've happened. He didn't visit me at the hospital either. The next time we met was 2 weeks later when i rejoined school. He didn't even bother to ask me how I was- instead he just avoided me in the school halls."
Molly looked at me suddenly. I was sure my face was as white as hers. Unless it was green.