It was a cold January, the year after I met Matty that night at the party. It was exactly five months since I had seen him. I was at some dodgy bar with a friend. I was still seventeen, but I used the ID of a girl who looked a bit like me. Courtney Love's voice engulfed the room as they played some Hole song. I was sitting at the bar, when some guy came up to me, he was towering above me.
"I'm George." He told me.
"How tall are you?" I asked him, he just laughed.
We spoke for a while, George told me about his band, how they got booked to play at the bar we were at, but they were worried everyone would hate them.
I told him, "Why would someone book you if you suck so bad that you're worried people will throw their drinks at you." He laughed loudly and said, "That's what I thought, too."
So I told him I would go to his show. He was nice enough. He gave me his number and asked if we could meet up after the show for a drink. I told him we could meet, but not for drink as I was underage, he laughed. He always laughed at my jokes. That night I went home by myself. Of course, my friend had gone home with another guy.
It was a week later and I was at the bar, alone. I was used to being alone. I spotted George behind his drums, opening the song with a hit on his drum kit. A strum of a guitar came from the left of the stage, some lanky guy. And there was the guy playing bass, growing a little bit of a beard.
Then there was him. Fucking Matty. He grabbed his guitar that was wrapped around his small frame and strummed a few chords before singing the first lyrics into the microphone. Just my luck, right? This band I happened to agree to come see, turned out to be Matty's band. The band he told me about the night we met.
But God, he looked beautiful on that stage. He sang so beautifully. It was like I was falling for this guy that I hardly knew anything about. I was being pushed around in the rough, drunk crowd. A few older guys were surrounding me, some girls in there twenty's were around the place too. I watched him the whole night, practically prancing around the stage, loving it. And then it ended, they ran off stage and my phone buzzed.
'Are you here?' It was from George. I told him I was, and he told me to meet him out the back.
I pushed the heavy exit door and almost stumbled out from how hard I pushed it. I saw the four of them in the near distance, smoking. I took a deep breath, contemplating just leaving and forgetting about George, and Matty. But I went up to them, standing there awkwardly before George noticed me.
"Tati!" He exclaimed, wrapping me in a hug.
"Tati?" I looked at Matty, he looked confused, but he had that little smile on his face that he always has.
"You know her?" George said to Matty.
"We met at a party last year, nice to see you again Tati." He hugged me, it was the best hug ever.
"I'm Adam, this is Ross." The lanky guy introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you." I smiled. "Good show, by the way."
Matty's eyes lit up, "Really?" I nodded.
"Let's get food. You coming Tati?" George asked me as they were about to start walking to their van.
"Uh, yeah. Sure." I followed them, taking a seat next to Matty in the back. He put his hand on my knee gently. I'm fairly sure I started falling for him that night, really falling for him.
"I'm with the band! I'm with the band!" Nina was walking around the house, getting ready. Ever since I told her and Lionne we were having drinks with the four guys, she's been saying, over and over, 'I'm with the band'.
"We fucking get it Nina!" Lionne screamed from the bathroom, mid-eyeliner wing.
Nina stuck her head in the bathroom door, "I'm with the band."
"I'm going to kill you!" Lionne chased after her, they were both screaming.
I finished covering my eyes with silver glitter, and started straightening my hair, or 'taming it'.
I looked down at my phone as it lit up, notifying me of a new text message.
Matty: 'White or black t-shirt? To wear with the jacket you made.'
I replied, 'White.'
'I guess I'll be a little crazy and wear white.' He replied instantly.
'Yeah yeah see you soon.' I locked my phone and turned off the straightener, walking out of the bathroom.
"Lionne get off her!" I shouted as Lionne was practically wrestling with Nina.
"Not so fast, she needs to escape this head lock first!" I rolled my eyes and sat on my bed.
I opened my phone, seeing a new text from Matty.
':)'.
I replied straight away.
'Stop flirting'.
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classic pic of Matty and George above ^^ which is how they look when they meet Tati
