I breath in the damp air, the rain bouncing off the ground surrounding me. I pull out a slim white box from my coat pocket, it's contents so tempting.
I place the cigarette between my pale lips, inhaling as it lights, the familiar smoke guides it's way to my lungs. I can still hear the terrible music from inside, I cringe at the drunken girls giggling to their friends as they dance around their "too drunk to walk in" heels. I view them again and glance at my own outfit, I should leave. I swipe the dried dirt off of my Docs, take another deep drag from my cigarette and begin to walk towards the front door of the pounding house, so I can inform my 'friends' that I'm going home. A thin figure with a dark mop of curls stops me. He views my long messy hair, my eyes, my lips, down to my shoes and dragging his impassioned eyes back up to the lipstick stained cigarette in my hand.
"Don't rush it love, I'll join you for one." He was smiling but I could see the pain behind his deep brown eyes, it's a familiar sight yet there was something different about his expression.
"It's alright, I was just about to leave." I say rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand. The pain became more prominent in his eyes.
"Babe, stay." His voice is so soft, so rich. He releases the hand that is entangled in my hair and holds it. Those few, short seconds were all that I needed to persuade me to stay. As we sit on the front steps of the loud house I put out my cigarette and dive back into my coat pocket to retrieve the packet of quickly decreasing cigarettes. As I place the slim white stick in between my lips the un-named guy beside me flicks his lighter and ignites the end. I inhale and thank him.
"My name's Matty by the way, sorry I didn't say before." He suits his name, I view his outfit and realise he's wearing a black shirt that drapes over him perfectly, it looks like a female's blouse but it seems too rude to ask. His skinny black jeans have a rip in one knee, I question myself if his knee is cold and laugh slightly.
"What?" He seems confused at my laughter.
"Oh- um, nothing." He nods and continues to smoke. Matty. He looks amazing, nothing like anyone here, its intriguing. I realise he doesn't know my name so I inhale and begin to tell him.
"Oh,Poppy- my name's Poppy." His smile is so genuine that it makes me smile slightly too. "Why did you come outside?" I continue, "Are your mates being drunk tits too?" He laughs and takes a long drag from his cigarette.
"Pretty much..." He runs his hands through his hair, and bites on his lip slowly. "You from London?" For the first time I notice his accent. His hair, oh god his hair, as he runs his hands though it, single curls wrap around his fingers.
"No, just studying here." I inhale on my cigarette, "I'm from Scotland, Glasgow actually."
"Thought I heard the accent, d'you miss being at home?"
"A little, I miss seeing my family all the time but I try to go up as much as I can during the holidays." I tuck my hair behind my ear, "I've not got many mates here so it does get a little lonely at times but as you can see, I'm a huge party animal." We laugh, he takes the last puff of his cigarette and throws it on the ground, a faint sizzle comes from it as lands on the wet pavement. I put mine out too, he reaches out his hand towards me inviting me to hold it, he pulls me up and we begin to walk back into the house. The smell of cheap alcohol drowns every room, I stretch up to Matty's ear and cup my hand over it beginning to speak.
"I'm going to try and find my mates and let them know I'm leaving, Are you staying?"
"Nah, I'll do the same, I'll get you outside." He replies, bending down to cup my ear, the richness of his voice secretly making my knees weak. As I look around the house to find Olivia and Lucy all I can think about is how amazingly intriguing Matty is. I finally find them smoking and drinking with boys who are obviously trying too hard to be cool.
"Lucy, Liv! I'm-" Before I can finish I am abruptly cut off by Olivia's drunken slur.
"Pops! Poppyyyy..." Her voice trails as she attempts to speak.
"Liv, I'm going to go, ok?" I tuck my hair behind my ear as it starts to fall in front of my face while I lean down to speak to the intoxicated Olivia, now lying against a chest of drawers in this unknown bedroom. I try to steady her as her head bobs unconsciously. "Get a taxi home later and at least attempt to text me when you get in safe, yeah?" I realise I am beginning to sound like her mother so I kiss Liv's head and smile towards Lucy who seems to have her mouth full of some guy's tongue. As I'm leaving I spot a bottle of red wine on the floor beside the giddy Olivia, I grab it and eventually leave the smoke filled room.
Taking the last steps out of the now booming house I notice Matty's mop of hair partly covering his face as he lights his cigarette, while he inhales he looks towards me and smiles.
"Brought one for the road?" He laughs referring to the tall bottle I grip in my hand.
"I only really like wine and no one seemed to be drinking it so I thought we might as well put it to good use." I walk closer towards where he is standing and he pulls the packet of cigarettes out of his leather jacket and offers me one.
"Save yours, love. I've got plenty." I thank him and take one out of the gold rimmed pack, as I place it between my lips he already has his lighter at the end, igniting the cigarette as I inhale the smooth smoke. He takes my hand and we begin to walk away from the messy party and towards somewhere currently unknown to us both.
// Author's Note \\
Thank you so much for reading! I've been procrastinating over publishing this first chapter for a while now and hopefully it wasn't too boring of a read. It's just a slight introduction to Matty and Poppy as characters. I have plenty more chapters to come and I'm so excited to hear any feedback on this, so I'd love it if you left some comments (: thank you!!
Love, mollie xo
(I also apologise for any spelling errors, I cant spell to save myself)
