A/N - Surprise! If it wasn't obvious, that wasn't the end. :P Both @tooshhhy and @imagine-that-100 on tumblr sent me the same context of " I'm drunk on public transport and you're high and we both keep looking at each other knowingly" and the more I thought about it, the more I was like "Hm. I can make these link up." which was why it was taken a 'smidge in my own direction' lol. So, here's the second prompt from my fantastic prompt list.
It hadn't been a great idea to down that last drink before I left the bar. I didn't feel nauseous (thankfully), but I sure as shit felt lightheaded. My co-workers had wanted to go out after work for a drink, since a bunch of us had the day off tomorrow. Which was nice, until it got late and they wanted to bail and head home for the night. I wasn't going to waste half a pint that I'd paid for. That's ridiculous. However, we'd been out since we knocked off, and it was nearly one in the morning now. That was a decent while to have been drinking. I probably should've allowed myself to waste that money and leave the half-drunk pint on the table. Because now, sat on the tube on the way home, having the carriage spin slightly every time I moved my head wasn't an ideal situation. At least I could be grateful that it was fairly empty and I could wallow in my thoughts in peace and quiet. But that peace was short lived.
I was snapped out of my drunken haze when a man got on at the next stop and sat across from me. His unruly curls were a fucking mess, his leather jacket looked well worn, and the sunglasses sitting on the bridge of his nose just came across as obnoxious. But that... that looked like Matty. His hair was different, and he didn't usually have stubble adorning his chin like that, but I was about 98% sure that was Matty. He must've been high, or drunk, or something, there was no other reason that he'd be wearing such dark shades at this hour. Which was annoying because it meant that I couldn't tell if he was looking at me or not. If he'd even recognised me or not. I hadn't seen him in years. Despite that it was me who had suggested the distance between us, it had been him who ultimately enforced it. As tour took off and the full-length album came out, he was suddenly incredibly unavailable – even if I had wanted to hang out. Time differences and busy schedules meant that we lost touch, and things just... fizzled out. Ross was the only member of the band that I still kind of kept in contact with these days. I had all but forgotten about that drunken night where I passed out at his place. But now, being faced with the man in question, everything was being dredged up again. This was the absolute last place I wanted to be. As I sat there over analysing this development in my Wednesday night and progressively sobering up the more that I realised the situation, I was suddenly even more mortified when he got up and crossed the carriage.
I shrank back in my seat as he sat next to me. "Hey." He said quietly, without looking at me.
"Hi." I mumbled back.
"Been keeping well?" He asked.
I just nodded, letting the silence linger for a second before deciding it was probably polite to ask him as well. After all, we were stuck here together and it was likely he wasn't going to go away, if the things I knew about him still rung true. "You?"
"Pretty good, y'know, touring and stuff." He said with a dry chuckle. "Things are pretty different these days." He added with a shrug.
"I can imagine." I agreed. This conversation made the whole damn train carriage feel stifling. Why would Matty have thought that this was going to be anything other than awkward when he came over here? He should've just left it. Should've just continued in awkward silence and left without saying a word. That would've been much easier on my brain. That would've been a million times-
