“Ella, you’re insane. I am not going to dye my hair right now.” Lacey shook her head at her friend intently, her eyes fixated on the box of turquoise hair dye she held in her hands.
“Come on, Lacey.” The other girl whined, the drunkenness noticeable in her slurred voice, “You’ve always said you wanted to dye your hair some crazy color, well now is the time.”
Though on the outside she stared at her best friend with dismay, Lacey couldn’t help but admit she had always found girls with intensely colored hair extremely beautiful. She liked the way it drew attention to them in a way that no one could quite stop themselves from staring. Of course, some, mostly older people, may look at them with a look of disgust written on their face, but to her it seemed as if the younger generation was slowly getting used to the idea of pink/orange or blue hair not being some sign of a punk rebellion, but more so a choice of style. It had been the same with Doc Martens and ripped jeans after all. Who these days was repulsed by either one of those? No one, because instead of being a fixed label to a group of rowdy rebels it was universal now. She guessed her fixation with noticeable hair originated from the fact that her own hair with its mousy brown shade was anything but an eyecatcher. Being recognized for your hair always seemed like an enticing idea to her, so much so that she had even put it on her bucket list. Hell, if they hadn’t been in a grubby old bathroom of some low-budget club, she probably would have had already agreed to the idea, but though the alcohol made it out to be a bit less shabby than it actually was – the unsureness of where and when Ella had gotten the dye threw her off.
It was a mystery to her really how Ella had suddenly come up with the idea. After their ‘reunion of the best friendship to exist on this planet’, as they had named in in a celebratory manner whilst downing several more drinks, the two had hit the dance floor – moving with every single tune until suddenly Ella was had been gone and instead, a guy named Paul seemed to move flawlessly with her. High on the alcohol and the emotions that raged inside her: from the hatred she felt for Matty for leaving her to herself, to the extreme love she felt for Ella for coming back to her; she simply had accepted Paul to be her new dance partner and had grinded against him effortlessly, not caring one bit if Matty saw. In fact, she had secretly hoped for him to be looking their way, he could have used some of his own medicine.
After a while, Paul had asked her if she wanted to grab another drink and her answer had been yes. Back in her mind, she knew she couldn’t handle that much alcohol, but the moment told her that yes, she could and that yes, she was going to drink even more. The both of them had made their way over to the bar and if there had been any doubt that Lacey hadn’t been completely hammered, what she had done next made it quite obvious that she was. Instead of having rounded the bar in order to get to the male bartender, she had simply hopped on a stool on the female’s side of the bar, right next to a giant guy with messy brown-blonde hair.
“Lace?” A familiar voice had asked, but Lacey had been too busy trying to get the bartender’s attention to go look who had been talking to her.
Paul, who himself had a bit too much in him, had slurred, “Yo, Lacey. I think that guy is talking to you.”
Following the direction to which his finger had pointed, Lacey’s eyes had landed on a concerned looking George with a rather mad looking Matty right by his side.
Instead of being drawn to him as she normally was whenever she laid eyes on him, her drunken brain only had had one reaction to the sight of the black-clad man and that was to escape.
“Oh shit.” She had muttered before she had awkwardly climbed from her stool, bumping into Paul quite a few times as she did so.
Grabbing her arm, her designated dance partner has questioned, “I thought we were going to drink something?” A ton of incredible confusion underlining his sloppy words, while he had held her in place.
Before she could have come up with a proper response, a sharp voice, which she had known to be either extremely soft or incredibly seductive before, had cut in, “She is not going or doing anything with you, mate. So fuck off.”
Paul had eyed the guy with the ridiculously messy hair and the overly skinny frame, calculating how his chances were if they were going to get in a fist fight. Once he had realized he probably had a bit more of a chance with his muscular arms, he had countered, “And who the fuck are you to think you can jump into my conversation with Lacey?”
“I’m her fucking boyfriend.” He had spat the word, already moving closer to the guy in the muscle shirt, knowing very well that he had been in enough drunken fights to give him an advantage.
Not letting himself feel intimidated by this dude who had seemed to think he was some sort of rock legend, Paul had turned to Lacey instead, raising his eyebrows in a questioning manner, “Is this guy really your boyfriend?”
“Actually.” Lacey had started and grabbed the hand of the muscular guy, ready to pull him with her, “He’s not anything.” She had finished, her eyes trained on Matty - showing him exactly how horrible it felt whenever she heard those words come out of his mouth.
With that she had started walking away from the bar, but had been stopped by another hand landing on her arm and a sing-songing voice in her ear, “You’re not going anywhere, well – you are, but only with me.” Ella, who had been the source of the new touch had announced, bizarrely waving around a Tesco bag as if it was some proud possession of hers.
Not caring enough to ruin her only chance of leaving the chaotic situation, Lacey had simply let Ella drag her into the bathroom, which brought her back to where she was now with a very expectant looking Ella demanding her final response as to whether or not she was going to become a turquoise haired beauty or not, “So?”
Trying to go through all points that spoke either for or against the drastic change as well as she could in her drunken state, Lacey gave up when she came up with only one, which she then also voiced, “It is on my bucket list.” She said suggestively, already hinting that her answer would in fact, be yes.
“I thought Matty finished that whole thing with you?” Ella furrowed her eyebrows.
Speaking of which, it was a bit odd that they hadn’t crossed off that point as well. After all, dying her hair would have been one of the easier points on the list compared to riding an elephant or even getting tattooed for that matter. It wasn’t as if he could have forgotten about it either: he had always been the one to cross of their accomplishments on that list, so he must have surely had seen it.
Not being able to make sense of the thoughts running through her head, she simply shrugged, “Not that one.”
“You know what that means?” Ella wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, “He either forgot about it or didn’t want you to do it because he digs your brown hair or simply hates crazy colored hair – which in my opinion would be even more of a reason to go turquoise.”
“No one likes my hair, it’s disgusting.” Lacey mumbled, before also her face brightened up, finally realizing through Ella’s words what her brain wouldn’t let her realize by herself: that Matty had done this on purpose, that he simply didn’t want her to change her appearance, “You know what? You’re right. If Matty Healy thinks he has the fucking right to decide over what I do or how I look, he can sod off. Let’s do this.”
Her friend jumped up and down, squealing in delight, “That’s my girl! Let’s show him who the real ‘Lace’ he’s dealing with is.”
Chuckling at her mentioning of the nickname, which to her drunken self sounded nothing but ridiculous coming out of Ella’s mouth, she demanded, “First we need to get ourselves some more to drink, this will take forever and I do not want to be sober for it.”
Pulling out a fresh bottle of vodka out of her Tesco bag, Ella rolled her eyes mockingly, “Who do you think I am? I’ve thought of everything.”
Shooting her friend a grateful glance, she took the bottle from her and twisted off the cap before taking a huge gulp of the burning liquid.
“And now dear Ella…” She grinned mischievously while setting the bottle back down, “Turn me into a fucking mermaid.”
~*~
After about an hour filled with gagging at the horrible smell of the dye, yelling at people who thought they had the right to use the bathroom when quite obviously, there was something way bigger going on in there and laughing at the sight of Lacey with a bathing cap on; it was finally time to wash off the dye in the grimy sink.
“If this looks like shit, I might have to sue you.” Lacey joked, though her expression stayed serious.
She couldn’t deny that she was scared of how she was going to look after this, even though she knew that there was nothing she could change about it now that it had already been done.
“Honestly Lacey?” Ella asked as she faced her best friend, nothing but drunken sincerity visible in her eyes, “I think you will look incredible, probably way hotter than ever before.”
She rolled her eyes, knowing very well that it had been supposed to be a compliment, which only came out wrong, “Why thanks, El.” She muttered sarcastically before a smirk formed on her face and she took the last swig of vodka they had left for exactly this moment when there was no turning back, “Here we go.”
Discarding her purple bathing cap, which she must admit she had grown quite accustomed to in the past one and a half hours, she held her head under the murky water of the running sink. As soon as her head was hit by the rather harsh water jet, an explosion of turquoise occurred. Instead of running back down the drain, the turquoise colored splashed everywhere – turning the old shabby bathroom into a colorful oasis.
“Ew, Lacey, god be careful.” Ella jumped as also she got splashed by some of the water, a stain already forming on her glittery shirt.
“Shut up and tell me the color’s run out.” Lacey groaned in response, her back already hurting from her awkward positioning, her head being trapped in the small space between sink and basin.
After a bit more time of groaning at the uncomfortableness and ruining the club’s bathroom, Ella finally announced, “I think you’re good.” As she turned off the water and immediately began patting Lacey’s head with about fifty paper towels, trying to get some of the wetness out.
Rolling her eyes at her friend’s ridiculous attempt, Lacey pulled her head out of the tiny space and instead walked over to the hand dryer. Hitting the round button, she smirked at Ella in a way as to say look El, there’s an easier way to do this, before holding her head under the stream of warm air.
Dumbfounded and also quite impressed by her friend’s way of thinking even when drunk, Ella praised, “You’re so smart, Lacey, I wish I was that smart.”
“Yeah, you really need to know how to blow-dry your freshly dyed hair in a club’s bathroom for the rest of your life.” The other girl laughed ironically as she ruffled through her hair one last time before deciding it was the best she could do in these circumstances.
Rightening herself, Lacey walked over to the bathroom mirror and was faced by what seemed to be a completely different person. Instead of looking at the brown-haired girl, whose appearance had already given off the vibe of being someone boring, someone who was fine with staying in the background, who would do anything to please other people; she now looked at a woman with vibrant turquoise hair that seemed to reflect the mix of blue and green in her eyes perfectly. The Lacey that greeted her now was far from being that insecure girl who spent her nights writing essays that were due in two weeks. Instead, the Lacey that was reflected back at her was exactly the woman she had become in the past few months: the girl who would do things on a whim instead of planning them for ages, the girl who didn’t hold back when she wanted to voice her opinion and most of all, the girl who had finally found herself. Thinking more about it, she realized what exactly had happened: the Lacey that stared back at her wasn’t Lacey at all, it was Lace.
Her friend hugged her from behind, smiling at her through the mirror, “You look incredible.”
Lacey returned the gesture and stared at herself for one more moment, trying to take every little detail about herself in before she turned to Ella and announced, “I think it’s time to go out there.”
Grabbing her hand, Ella agreed grinning, “I think you’re right.” Before looking at the mess they made, feeling bad for a second, but soon forgetting about it when a certain face popped into her mind, “Let’s let the bar bitch deal with this.” She chuckled and pulled Lacey out with her, leaving the chaos of empty bottles, used bathing caps and dye splashed behind them.
After about two seconds of them being out of the bathroom and back in the sight of the public eye, George spotted and walked over to them, “El!” He exclaimed as he pulled her in for a kiss, not noticing the turquoise-haired girl that stood behind her, “Where have you been? I feel like I haven’t seen you this whole night.”
“We were on a mission.” Ella smirked as she pulled away from him and instead, pushed her friend in front of her, so George could see what exactly that ‘mission’ had been.
“Oh fuck.” George blurted before he could think of a better choice of words, though he quickly recovered, “I mean, fuck in a good sense Lace. Like, fuck that looks good – you know?” He rambled, while scratching his head nervously.
“Don’t worry about it, G. I know you only have the best intentions.” She reassured him with a grin on her lips.
Grinning back at her, he stated his opinion one more time for good measure - just in case that this was yet another female trick of making it seem as if they didn’t care, when really they did, immensely, “Seriously though, Lace. That color suits you, gives you a bit more of a sexy vibe you know?”
Ella raised her eyebrows at her boyfriend, who seemed to be flirting with one too many girls in one night for her taste, “Are you seriously hitting on my best friend right now?”
He sent a small wink Lacey’s way, before centering all his attention back on the girl by his side, “No way, babe. Just telling her the truth.” He quickly kissed her head before his eyes fixed in on something or better said, someone who seemed to come up behind Lacey, “Hey mate.”
An arm was then put around Lacey’s shoulders and just as she was about to throw a fit at the guy who seemed to think he had the right to touch her without even exchanging a single word with her, she noticed a tattoo of an anchor that belonged to someone she may have exchanged a bit more than a few words with.
“Well, who’s this mermaid you’ve got here?” Matty’s slurred voice sounded in her ear, the amount of alcohol in his system very noticeable, “I probably shouldn’t talk to you seeing how I have rules and such, but since my girlfriend left with some fucking bloke named Paul-“ He spat the name in disgust, “I say it’s only fair I get to do the same, don’t you think so Arielle?”
Knowing that she was supposed to react, but simply being unable to after hearing the word girlfriend come out of Matty’s mouth in relation to her, she turned her head and stared at him – willing him to recognize her behind the new façade.
“L-lace?” He furrowed his eyebrows, stumbling on his words along the way, “Wait –“ He exclaimed and grabbed her by the shoulders almost presenting her to George and Ella, “Is this really Lace? My Lace?”
While George simply chuckled at his best mate’s bizarre behavior, Ella finally snapped, “You know what, Matthew?” She emphasized his name simply because she knew he hated it when someone other than his mother called him that, “Lacey is not your ‘Lace’. Hell, she is not even yours to start with. I’m growing sick and tired of you and I don’t even know you that well, but do you wanna know something I do know?” She huffed, before she let out what bothered her immensely about the black-clad guy with the messy hair her best friend seemed to have fallen for, “I do know that my best friend likes you a lot and I also know that you’re too much of a pussy to admit that you like her as well. And honestly? I think she deserves better than being toyed around by a guy who’s obviously still stuck in the kindergarten phase.” Shaking her head, she stepped out of the way of the now dumbstruck Matty, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have better people to talk to.”
With that, she pushed past him and made her way over to the bar – probably to try and regain a bit of her good mood after what had just happened.
George quickly followed her, but not before he told Matty, “You know what, mate? She’s right. Get your shit together.”
Not knowing what to say or even think of what had just occurred, he turned back to face the turquoise-haired beauty that stood before him, all thoughts except for her already forgotten, “I’m not sure what to think of this.” He mumbled as he ran his fingers through her hair, which to his surprise she let him do, “You don’t look like the Lace I met anymore.”
Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she muttered, “I’m not the girl you met back then.”
“You get snappy when you’re drunk.” He smirked though the spark didn’t quite reach his eyes, before he asked her, “Wanna go outside? I think I might need to sober up a bit.”
Knowing that he didn’t expect her to comment, but still wanting to she mumbled, “Yeah, you do.” Before she started walking towards the door, this time not looking back because she was absolutely sure that he was following her – much opposite to when she had left him standing at the bar to go dance.
The cold air hit her hard as she stepped out of the stuffy air of the club, showing her just how drunk she really was. Instead of being able to relish the cleanness of the air, she felt her head spinning and she had to sit down on the curb in order not to stumble and fall.
“You okay?” Matty asked as he sat down next to her, her sudden change of mood quite obvious.
Holding her head, she mumbled, “I’m fine. Just a bit dizzy.”
Silence spread out between them. It was clear that the high they had been riding on due to the alcohol was slowly crashing down. Instead of making them feel as if they were invincible and light as a feather, it only made them feel lonely and heavy as a stone. It was as if all the mistakes they had committed that evening came back into their mind showing them how much they had to regret and mostly, making them wonder whether or not they could be forgiven.
After a while, Matty finally broke the silence, “I hated seeing you with that lad tonight, Lace. I fucking hated it.” He mumbled, his hands forming into fists at the memory of seeing her rub against the other man, when really it should have been his crotch she had been grinding against.
She knew it was easier to point out other people’s wrong-doings first in an argument, but she had so desperately hoped he might begin their conversation by telling her he was sorry for how things had turned out before going off on her. Of course, she knew the whole act with Paul, who had meant nothing to her, had been stupid and immature, but his exchange with the bartender had started it all, hadn’t it? So why had her mistakes have to be the one to start the conversation? It didn’t seem fair.
Instead of commenting on his statement, she mumbled, “Well I hated seeing you flirt with that bartender while I was standing right next to you.”
“Lace, she practically flung her boobs out at me, what would you do if someone wiggled their dick in front of you?” He threw up his hands exasperatedly, losing a bit of his balance as he did so due to his still quite obvious drunkenness.
“Are you serious?!” She laughed sarcastically as she steadied him, not wanting him to land on her lap, “No one forced you to tell her she had nice tits. Hell, you’ve never even told me that when I wore shirts that showed off my cleavage.”
He scoffed, “Oh so now I’m supposed to tell you sexual things?”
“What’s that even supposed to mean?” She sighed, already being done with their argument and mostly, Matty’s immaturity.
“You usually hate when I mention anything that has something to do with your tits. Or anything else that might allure to sex for that matter.” He ran his fingers through his hair, grabbing at his locks as he did so, “Don’t get me wrong, Lace. I respect your not having sex rule – hell otherwise I wouldn’t have gone without it for three fucking months, but I’m still just a guy and if the girl I like doesn’t seem to want to be sexual with me - of course my hormones will come out if someone practically invites me to stare at their tits!”
Turning her head sharply, she exclaimed, “God Matty, have you ever thought about the fact that I don’t want to get intimate with you because it’s hard for me to stop? Because all I can think about when I’m lying in bed with you lying just meters away in Ella’s is how I want to have you on top of me doing god knows what?!” She shook her head, fighting back the tears in her eyes, “I want to have sex with you, Matty – so much I can’t stand doing other things with you, but I’m scared you’ll hurt me. That you’ll find a black-haired, full breasted woman who makes your ‘hormones come out’” She wiggled her fingers as quotation marks, repeating his ridiculous statement, “and you’ll leave me.”
“Lace, do you honestly think I’d disrespect you so much that I would fuck you if I had the chance?” He stared at her, before taking her hand in his, “As much as I would love to do it with you, I like you too much to actually do it. But not doing anything with you except for kissing and the occasional make-out session sucks. Hell, when was the last time you gave me a blo~wjob or let me go down on you? The night of the wedding?” He stayed silent for a while, letting it sink in for her exactly how long it had been, “I know you wanted more that night and I know you were mad at me when I didn’t give you the satisfaction of doing what you asked me to, but hell Lace – imagine what would have happened if I had taken you that night. I would have lost you for sure and I couldn’t fucking risk that.”
She let what he had just told her sink in for a moment. Never in a million years had it crossed her mind that he wanted to keep the rule up just as much as she did. She had always thought he’d be willing to have sex with her if she let him and when he hadn’t wanted to do it with her that night it had seemed like an extreme slap across the face, as if he had been telling her that he didn’t want her anymore. Knowing now that it had only been his odd way of showing her how much he cared about her, made her feel stupid for ever doubting his intentions.
Laughing sadly, she summed it all up in one sentence, “So basically what this is, is me being scared of breaking the rule because I’m scared you’ll walk out on me and you being scared of breaking it because you think I’d walk out on you?”
Smirking slightly, he kissed her hand, “I guess we have more in common than we thought, Lace.” He tucked a strand of her turquoise hair behind her ear in order to prevent it from falling into her face, “Why did you do that?” He mumbled as he looked at the strands that were tucked between his fingers.
“You mean the hair?” She questioned, subconsciously combing through it with her fingers herself.
He nodded, “Yeah, the hair.” While keeping his hand on her cheek, feeling himself relax a bit when her head leaned into it, showing him that she wasn’t mad anymore.
“It was Ella’s idea, actually.” She announced and saw him raise his eyebrows curiously, willing her to go on, “She bought the dye at Tesco since she knew I’ve always wanted to do it. I was drunk, I was mad at you and when she told me it might rub you off the wrong way, I was all for it.”
Correcting her, he mumbled, “You are drunk.” Before he looked back into her eyes, sighing, “I know it was on your bucketlist. I saw it before we went to Edinburgh, but I chose to ignore it. I liked the brown on you, I liked the rather shy looking Lacey. Though I have to say, you look madly hot now.”
“You know what went through my mind when I saw myself in the mirror for the first time?” She questioned, a smile resting on her lips before she told him, “I thought that I don’t look like Lacey anymore, I look like Lace.”
“Classy whilst looking incredibly hot.” He smirked, repeating the words from their very first night on top of the hill that had overlooked the city, before turning serious again, “You’ve always been Lace to me, though. You could have stayed that shy, studious girl from night one and would have still been Lace to me.”
Shrugging she leaned her head on his shoulder, not being able to stand the distance that had grown between them that night any longer, “I guess, I always thought you wanted someone more confident than me.”
He turned his head in order to be able to kiss hers softly, “I only want you.”
“Should I mention you calling me girlfriend before or let it slide?” She mumbled, finally feeling the familiar contentment that usually came with being with him.
“I’m surprised you even give me the chance to decide.” He smirked, before looking back down at her, “Let it slide.”
She nodded, but still had one more thing to say, “Just so you know, it felt good to hear that.”
“Just so you know,” He mocked her, “It felt like shit to hear you say I wasn’t anything to you.”
Lifting her head up from his shoulder, she smirked at him, “Good.”
He laughed before his eyes drifted back to her hair and he had the urge to run his fingers through it again, “Wanna get out of here?” He asked gently.
“Only if you let me blow you.” She smirked, a flush of red lining her cheeks – showing him that even though she might now look like a turquoise haired nymph, she was still the girl he had come to be so fascinated with.
Raising his eyebrows at her unusual directness, but knowing very well not to test his luck by commenting on it and having her shy away, he smirked, “Deal.”
With that he also got up and they started to make their way to a more crowded street to find a taxi to take them back to his place, both willing to consume each other in order to forget about the dramatics of the night.
A/N: First of all: this chapter had gotten marked as private which is why a bunch of you seemed to not be able to view it, so I've reuploaded it. Sorry for all the votes I have lost and the comments as well, but contacting wattpad to get it back to public seemed like too much of an act so I just reupladed. Now to the original author's note:
I'd like to dedicate this chapter to ChocolateFrogs, because she was the one who made me realize that I had missed a point on Lacey's bucket list - being the dyed hair as you probably have noticed haha x
I don't like this chapter at all, it's heavy and bumpy and rough and it took me ages. Any advice on what I could do to make it better? Or which parts should be rewritten? I would highly appreciate it.
thank you all for reading x m