𝐍𝐎𝐍-𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒

A pair of frozen hands to hold

LONDON, UK
A month later, November
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I was wearing a leather jacket and a plaid skirt on a early November night. I shivered from the cold.

"Oh, she's so southern so she feels the cold" Charlie sang.

"I was waiting for the first asshole to sing it. Thank you, Charlie, I knew you were the superlative cunt of the group"

"Arianna's charm made Matty Healy fall at her feet" he said to Molly, the brunette who was now his girlfriend.

"Oh, my God. I though it was a rumor" she gasped. "You're so lucky"

I laughed at Charlie. "Have you heard? Lucky me!"

He looked at his girlfriend, offended. "He looks like a drug dealer, what are you talking about?"

Sadie rolled her eyes and interrupted him. "Uhm, why don't we stop talking about rats and enter to the bar instead?"

"Yeah, let's go!" the redhead beside her responded. Cindy was now her girlfriend. Sadie left Amsterdam to come back to her.

"Okay, so is someone up for karaoke later?" I suggested. Again. No one seemed in the mood, but I hoped that if I kept asking it, I would have exasperated them to the point of making them say yes.

"No, Ari, karaoke with 80s tunes will always be a no", Keith sighed.

I pouted. "Maybe next time, honey" Natalie promised me.

We entered inside the pub. We were a clique now, sort of. Molly was so sweet, and, whoever had the patience to deal with Charlie had my respect. Cindy was a "freak", Sadie told me – "freaker than me". She was, indeed. She was a bomb of constant excitement, and in front of her even Sadie struggled to keep up. We all started to hang out together since the tour finished. Couples were popping out around me, but they weren't a sour reminder I had no one by side. Alex didn't have a partner either, but he spent almost every night with a different girl. As for me I didn't want to see anyone. I didn't need it. I was quite content with my life now. We didn't record anything new yet but I never stop writing. In a few weeks I was going back to Rome to see my friends. Everything was fine. I was slowly feeling like myself again.

I really got my shit together so I didn't expect to actually see Matty Healy at the counter, drinking, laughing with his mates.

His hair were curly again.

Holy shit.

I wanted to bury myself in a hole. I tried to hide behind my hair, covering my face with the sleeve of my jacket.

"What the hell are you doing?" Natalie asked me, then she looked up and pull my arm. "Oh my God. Is that Matty Healy?"

"Shut up"

"No way!" Sadie giggled.

"Of all the pubs of London, he decides to come here tonight" Keith commented. "What is this, a fanfiction?"

"You know, you should bite your straw suggestively and pull your skirt when he looks at you" Sadie told me. "And then smirk at his friend. Just like that. To show him what he had missed"

"Wasn't she the one who told him that 'I like you but don't call me' bullshit?" Charlie asked like I wasn't there. "It's him that should tell her 'look what you missed, bitch'"

"I thought you didn't like him?", Molly pointed out.

I wasn't listening to a word they said. Damn. I was damned. He looked too good. He was laughing in his own way, loudly, his eyes reduced to two slits, slamming his hand on his thigh. He had a black sweater and he kept pulling his sleeves over his hands, and I hated him, cause that was cute.