this is how it starts || m.h

12) midnight

"What am I doing?" I sighed, absentmindedly twirling a strand of Matty's hair around my finger. "I must be mad to be running away with you."

"I'm mad for even asking you." Matty responded, chuckling.

"Then why did you ask me?"

"I don't know." I could tell from the look on his face that he wanted to say more than just that, but I didn't push it, instead choosing to say something else.

"For all you know, I could be like some obsessed fan." I joked, grinning at him. "You could be playing right into my hands."

"Well for both our sakes, I really hope you're not."

Before any of us could say anything else, I heard my phone vibrate from where I'd left it on the nightstand. I reached over to find a text message from Addie.

won't be back tonight. see you in the morning though x

"Brilliant." I sighed, putting my phone down and turning back to face Matty.

"What?"

"Addie's not gonna be back till tomorrow." I told him, sitting up.

"What're you doing?"

"Getting up. There's no point hanging around here now."

"Well I mean, there's no point leaving either. What time is it?"

I looked back at my phone, the screen illuminating my dark room. "Midnight."

"Alright, well let's just stay here and get a lift back to the hotel in the morning."

"Alright, fine." I sighed, getting up from my bed. "But if we're staying here, then I'm having a shower. And before you say anything, no I don't want company."

"So you won't allow me to shower with you, but you'll invite me into your bed?" He questioned, his lips twisting into a smirk as he watched me from across the room.

"Exactly."

───

This had gone way too far.

How had I reached a point where I was running off with my one-night stand? Who couldn't even be considered that anymore, considering the amount of times I'd stumbled into bed with him.

The more conerning part of all this was that I hadn't even considered that this might be impractical.

It was only mere hours ago that I was promising Addie that I'd be good from now on, and now here I was, standing in my shower at midnight, whilst Matty waited in my bed.

It wasn't that I didn't want to go with Matty. I suppose I was just worried that this would all end up blowing up in my face; my barely thought out plan to 'learn the ropes'.

I almost slipped on my ass when I heard a sudden knock at the bathroom door, Matty's muffled voice following. "Serena? You alright in there? You've been a while."

"I'm fine!" I called back, shutting off the water finally and wrapping myself in a towel.

When I stepped out into the hall, I found Matty leaning against the wall, dressed in just his boxers now, his hair still seemingly perfect even as it was sticking up everywhere.

This man was going to be the fucking death of me.

He silently followed me back to my bedroom and sat on my bed whilst I routed through what was left of my drawers, eventually finding a pair of leggings and a jumper. I really had packed almost everything.

"So, you can sleep in my bed, if you want." I started to say. "Or you could sleep on the sofa. Your choice."

"Isn't your friend going to be out all night? Couldn't I sleep in her bed?"

"Not a good idea. She doesn't like people going in her room. Doesn't even let me in there."

"Fair enough. Then I guess I'll be sleeping here."

"Great, that's that sorted then." I answered, dropping the towel from around my body and proceeding to pull my clothes on. I wasn't exactly shy about changing in front of him now, considering the amount of times he's already seen me naked.

"Alright, so do you wanna go face to face, or head to toe?" I asked him, gesturing towards the bed, although personally I wouldn't appreciate having to sleep with his feet beside my head.

A low chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head at me. "We're not children, Serena, I think we can sleep face to face."

I let out an audible sigh of relief to that. "Okay, great, because I wasn't sure I'd be able to spend the entire night with your toes in my face."

"You really do flatter me, Serena." Matty joked, slipping under the covers of the bed.