Fell In Love In Stages // a matty healy fanfic

M.T.H

I never saw him in proper lighting so I never fully noticed just how good looking he was. His jawline. His provocative hair. His smile.
And his voice. Dear god his voice. I liked him being on stage. This way I could look at him as much as I wanted to without being seen.
To see him in his element. I must say it did something to me.
The song ends and I see him take a swig out of the bottle of wine next to the mic stand.
I smile to myself. I like his style.
The people-sea surrounding the bar parts and Charlie gets a couple beers, offering me one. I decline. "How do you know George?", I ask Lacy. "You see that guy on the guitar?", she points at a tall fellow on stage, "that's Sophie's boyfriend. She introduced me to his band mates and George and I hit it off" she squealed. I resisted the urge to ask about the vocalist, with Charlie standing next to us.
I say, "actually, I will have a beer", mostly because I want something in my hand. Charlie hands me the one he's already started in on, and then I go back to gawking at the boy on stage.
They play a couple more songs and end the set.
"Thanks, we've been Drive Like I do"

George makes his way across the crowded room and lifts Lacy in a hug.
"I'm so glad you could make it. How'd we sound?"
"The drummer was exceptionally good" she giggles
"I thought he was shit" Charlie scoffs
"Well I heard he did a bloke in last night" George says, laughing with his tongue out.
Charlie attempts to lurch at him but I grab his shirt and hold him back.
"Down, boy" George flashes an evil grin
Just then, I see him walking towards us.
This is the moment I've been dreading.
"George, hand me the car keys, I need to get something" he says, not even looking my way and then saunters off the back exit.
I stand there stunned. Did he not see me? So he's not even going to acknowledge my presence? I feel a hot rage boiling deep within me. I quickly remind myself that this was exactly what I wanted. For him to not make a scene. And now that he's done exactly that, I feel... mugged off?
"I need some air. Lacy come with me" I mutter
"You want me to come with you?" Charlie asks
"No", I reply curtly.

"Is something wrong?" Lacy asks once we're outside.
I say nothing. I just walk straight to the car park and keep walking without a word till I see the black mustang. He doesn't even notice me till I tap on the glass window. He looked rather taken aback, quickly pocketing whatever he was fiddling with. I motion with my hands for him to roll down his window and he looks confused. He gets out of the car and casually leans on the door.
"Hey"
"Hey?" I say, unable to contain my annoyance. "I would like to know why you snubbed me in there."
"Uh, I'll give you guys some space" Lace says meekly, before walking away
"Snubbed you?" he asks, amused. "Ehm, I wasn't trying to snub you back there. It's just when you left with that cunt last night it was obvious he didn't know about us. And then I saw him with you today and I just didn't want to put you in an awkward position is all" he says cooly.
"Oh" is all I managed to get out. Redness from the embarrassment creeping onto my cheeks. "That will be all" I say, absolutely mortified and do a full 180. But before I could take a step, he grabs my hand.
"Why, you miss me?", I couldn't see his face but I could hear the smugness in his voice. We stand there like that for a moment, me not being able to turn around and face him.
"Hey, why do you have my initials on your wrist?" he asks surprised.
I turn around and see him looking down at the wrist he was holding on to.
"Your initials? Those are my initials"
"Stop it"
"It stands for Max Trinity Hastings. Yeah now that you mention it, what is your name?" I'm baffled by how long it took me to ask him that.
"You're not going to believe this. Matthew Timothy Healy. But it's actually Matty, if we're going to do this right"
We just stare at each other for the longest time, our expressions tainted with both surprise and disbelief.