“Where on earth have you been?! I’ve sent you about twenty messages and I’m pretty sure you could have at least taken the time to reply to one of them!” Ella yelled at Lacey as soon as she walked through the door.
She wasn’t in the mood to argue with her best friend, plus she knew Ella couldn’t have possibly been that worried about her. After all, when she came back home for a quick change of clothes that morning, Ella was nowhere to be seen and her bed looked untouched.
“I’m sorry, things got stressful.” Lacey shrugged. She began taking off her clothes as she made her way to the bathroom, ready to finally wash what remained on her skin from last night off of her, “I’m gonna go shower now, we’ll talk later okay?”
Ella yelled something after her, what vaguely sounded like ‘where the fuck do you think you’re going’, but Lacey was too exhausted to care. Her meeting with her professor was a total failure thanks to Matty. She couldn’t concentrate on a single thing that was being said to her, because her mind was clouded with thoughts of him. She might as well could’ve stayed at home or with Matty himself for that matter. Matty, there he was again. Sighing she stepped under the hot stream of the shower, hoping irrationally that her memories of him would wash right away with last night’s smell that still lingered on her body. An eternity seemed to pass as she recalled a few of last night’s events in her head. The way he had put her arm around her and held her tight as he noticed she was shivering. The way he had listened so intently to her even as she told him the silliest things, like how she felt when she got her first and only pet: her hamster Eddy. Or the way he had told her about his cocaine addiction and how he had been sober for six months now. And how proud she had felt in that moment, even though it was completely absurd since she hadn’t even known him in his times of struggle.
She jolted out of her daydream, as Ella knocked viciously on the door, yelling, “You know you don’t live here alone right? I need to pee and you’ve been in there for half an hour! Hurry up!”
“I’ll be out in a second!” Lacey yelled back as she turned off the water and stepped out of the shower to dry herself off.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she cursed the rings that had formed underneath her eyes. She hadn’t had much sleep that night with all the talking between her and Matty and surely all the worrying about how things had ended between them that morning hadn’t helped either. Still, she hoped she had looked at least a bit better when she woke up next to him in the morning. Not that it mattered now anyways.
Not wanting to waste more of Ella’s time, she opened the door to see her standing in their bedroom, only she wasn’t alone. One of the guys from last night, the one with the tattooed arms and dreadlocks, was with her laughing at something she said. Since they only had one room together, as was typical in college dorms, she would have to somehow brush past them to get her clothes before being able to run back to the bathroom. As she planned her move, the eyes of the stranger suddenly landed on her. Cursing herself, Lacey knew that she had to go in now. No matter how awkward it would be with her only wearing a towel and another one as a turban on her head.
Before she could even think about some opening line, that would make her look at least a bit cool, dreadlock guy already stepped closer to her and offered her his hand as a greeting, “Hey, you must be Lacey. I’ve heard tons about you. I’m George.”
After making sure her towel was secured with only one hand holding it in place, she shook his hand, “Uhm hey, yeah I’m Lacey.” She laughed nervously, “I hope you only heard good things?”
George laughed, “Well I only heard good things from this one,” he smiled as he put his arm carelessly around Ella who in return smiled up at him, “Can’t really say that about Matty though. He was, uh, a bit more critical of you I guess.” He smirked.
Lacey felt her heart sink into her stomach, even though she shouldn’t have expected anything else, “Oh, uhm okay.” She stuttered and then made her way over to her closet before any tears could form.
Seeming to notice her sudden change of mood caused by his words, George exclaimed, “Oh! Well no it wasn’t like he hated you or anything. He was just pissed, I guess. He didn’t really wanna talk much. Plus Ella was there so it was kind of an awkward situation.”
Raising her eyebrows at Ella, who seemed to turn about ten shades redder at that, Lacey laughed nonchalantly, “It’s no big deal anyways.” Then she pointed down at the clothes she held in her arms now, “I’m gonna get dressed now if you’ll excuse me.”
She had already reached the bathroom door, when her roommate called after her, “Hey Lacey, the guys have a gig tonight at eight at the pub downtown, you’re coming right?”
Confused, she simply asked, “The guys?”
“Yeah, the guys.” Ella laughed, “You know George and Matty and their band, The 1975? Matty must have told you about them right?”
Lacey did indeed remember him telling her something about a band, but they had talked about so much else that night that it must have slipped her mind. Even so, she didn’t feel like watching Matty perform with some band of his. He made it pretty clear that he didn’t want to see her again, so why should she go to some gig of his when he obviously didn’t want her there?
“Uh, yeah he mentioned something like that…” She mumbled to earn herself more time to come up with some lame excuse as to why she couldn’t come, “I can’t come though. I really need to finish my history paper, it’s due Tuesday.”
“And today is Sunday and you only need two more pages.” Ella rolled her eyes, “What’s the real reason that you don’t wanna come?” She softened her tone a bit, “Is it because of something that happened between you and Matty?”
Feeling utterly vulnerable standing there in only her towel with both of them staring at her expectantly, she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, “Yeah it’s because of Matty.” She admitted, “We got into an argument this morning and he made it pretty clear that he couldn’t care less about me and that he didn’t want to see me again. So going to a concert of his band doesn’t really sound like a good idea to me right now, sorry.”
Before she could slam the door to the bathroom shut, George sighed, “That does sound like Matty, but let me tell you he probably likes you if he acts like that. If he didn’t care about you or just wanted a one night stand, he wouldn’t have bothered arguing with you at all.”
Immediately latching onto that single strand of hope, Ella exclaimed happily, “See? He likes you!” Ignoring George’s shocked face at that, she walked over to where Lacey was standing and hugged her, meanwhile whispering in her ear, “Please come with. I don’t want to be alone there backstage. I only know George and it would be so awkward, please please please.”
Pulling away from the hug, Lacey looked at her best friend and sighed, knowing she couldn’t disappoint her again, “Fine. I’ll go with you, but if Matty acts like the asshole he was this morning I’m out of there in a second.”
Smiling happily, Ella kissed her best friend’s cheek, “He won’t, I’ll make sure of that.”
With that Lacey finally closed the door to the bathroom, wondering what on earth she had just gotten herself into.
A/N: I know this chapter isn't incredibly exciting, but I needed something inbetween. I'm also sorry if the writing sucks a bit. I got my wisdom teeth pulled this morning, so I'm a bit in pain plus I constantly have to press ice to both of my cheeks which makes typing a bit harder. ;) Good part about not being able to do much except lying on the couch is that I'll probably have tons of time to write. So yeah, hope you enjoyed the chapter and it would be lovely if you could vote or comment just so I know if you want to keep reading on. Thank you, m
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Lacey // (The 1975 / Matty Healy fanfiction)
Fanfiction"Tell me something about you, Lace." "I don't like when you call me that." He raised his eyebrows, smirking at her attitude, "Why?" "Because it doesn't suit me," She shrugged, "I'm not seductive or even interesting in that matter. I'm just plain and...
