The City // Matty Healy // M.H

An Encounter

Today was the first day of going to UCLA. Lexie and I had gotten everything moved to out new apartment, with the help from her new 'friend' who she's been talking to for the past couple of months.

"Let's go get coffe before our first class." I told Lex.

"Okay, yeah sure. Let me just grab my backpack." She said, heading back up the stairs. When she got back down we walked out to the car and drive to the closest coffee shop.

When we walked inside, scattered across the room were college students. But the thing that caught my eye was the group of three guys, most likely in their 20's, sat at a table near the back.

Lexie and I got into line behind a guy who was ordering. He wasn't short, but he wasn't much taller than me. He had curly dark hair and when he spoke, he had a british accent.

When he was done ordering, he turned around he caught me staring at him. "Hello." he said, waving his hand in front of my eyes.

"Hey, sorry." I said, looking away.

"It's all good." He laughed. He said and made his way back to the group of three, with drinks in his hands. When he sat down he looked back at me but I quickly looked away, embarrassed by bring caught staring for the second time.

I turned back around and stepped up next to Lexie. After Lexie ordered I said, "and I'll have a vanilla cold brew please." I dug through my purse for my card and eventually found it. I handed it to the lady who took our order and Lexie looked at me.

"I'll get the next one then." She laughed, putting her card back into her wallet.

"Sorry, I'm totally out of it right now." I laughed.

"Yeah, I saw." She said, sitting down at a table after we grabbed our drinks.

"Ha ha. Funny." I said, taking a sip from my drink. I glanced over towards the guy and saw that he was looking at me. I turned back to Lex and said, "so what are you plans for tonight?"

"Oh shit I totally forgot to ask you. Ethan and I are going to this concert tonight and I wanted to know if you wanted to go with us, he got an extra ticket on accident." Ethan was her 'friend'.

"It's a Monday. There's literally a concert on a Monday night?" I asked.

"Yeah, so do you wanna go or not?"

"Who's the band?"

"I don't really know, some indie band, the 1975. You've probably never heard of them. They have like one hit song, I think its called chocolate."

I thought about it for a minute, trying to think of the song but I eventually gave up and decided to just play it on my phone.

I listened to the song for a second and immediately recognized it. "Oh yeah I know this song. Sure I'll go, it sounds like fun." I smiled.

"Ok great." She looked at the clock on the wall and then back to me. "We should probably get going. Don't want to be late on our first day." She grabbed her stuff and I did the same, following her our with one last glance to the strange guy in the back of the room.

After all of our classes were over for the day, we made our way back to the apartment to get ready for the concert. I decided on wearing a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a hoodie with a denim jacket. Before we left I pulled my hair up into a messy bun and threw on my vans.

Both Ethan and Lexie had voted on me being the designated driver, which I guess wasn't that bad since I most likely wouldn't be drinking anyways. I got into my car and started it, waiting for then to come down.

I pulled out my phone to check the time, and saw I had a message from my brother.

Hey Iz, we should talk. Call me soon, I love you.

I decided not to text him back until tomorrow. Tonight was supposed to be fun.

Eventually Lexie and Ethan finally made it down to the car, so we could finally leave.

When we got to the venue it was packed, and I really regretted driving down. After finding a parking spot, and paying 15 dollars to do so, we got into line to get into the concert.

Leaving me in line, Lexie and Ethan decided to go get alcohol. I sat there, looking around the room. It was a cement building and on the walls were screens previewing upcoming shows.

On the screen next was the slide that showed the 1975. On th screen was four guys, but the picture was too small to make out the faces.

Soon Ethan and Lexie came back holding three cups of beer. "You get one, and one only." Lexie said handing me the cup. "God your mom would kill me if she knew I was supplying you with alcohol." She laughed.

"And that's why she's never going to find out." I said taking a sip of the beer.

"So are you excited for the concert?" I asked them. They both nodded in response.

"Yea the 1975 have been my favorite band for the last couple of years. This will be my first time seeing them live though." He said.

"Oh that's cool." I said.

The mine began to move and soon we were into the small room where the band would play. We were lucky enough to be near the front of the room, right up close to the stage.

"Wow this is so cool!" Lexie exclaimed. "I didn't think we got here early enough to be this close."

"I guess it's just our luck." I laughed.

After a while of standing, the lights went out and music started to play. I saw four guys walk out onto stage and the one who stood right in front of me was the lead singer with curly hair. When the lights came back on, I immediately recognized him from the coffee shop this morning, and when he spoke it was the same voice.

I looked over at Lexie and we both shared the same, what the fuck look. Ethan looked at us strangely and then looked back to the show.

While he was singing, he looked down and saw me, our eyes locked and I could tell that he recognized me. I guess we shared the same confused look because I heard Ethan say, "Okay. What the fuck is going on."