SETTLE DOWN, matty healy

Chapter 1: An Encounter

Song Selection: Hand in my Pocket by Alanis Morissette

"Here lies the grass beneath my feet
I lie down and begin to ponder its meaning
Begin to transcend away from the stress
Away from all the mess-"

"Mess and stress? Really," I cursed under my breath and crossed out the line with my pen, heaving out a deep sigh. My phone started ringing suddenly and I grabbed my bag to make my way towards the front door. "I'm on my way now," I told Anna over the phone and kissed my mom and dad on the cheek as they continued sitting on the couch while I left.

"How'd you figure I was even here already," She said, her red hair visible as her windows were rolled down for me to hear her. I chuckled and tilted my head to the side. "You're right, it's what I always do. Now get inside." I did so without a second thought and she drove off.

The mall was only a short drive from my house, enough time for us to appreciate the last bit of summer weather before we were inside. I opened my phone to the Google Classroom page that the counselors gave us during registration that indicated what we needed to buy. "I already have an excess of highlighters, notebooks, and post-it's, so I just need to buy those books for English Lit.," I said aloud.

I looked away to notice Anna already making her way towards American Eagle, the eagerness visible in her eyes. "Anna!" She turned instantly and pouted to me. "We still need to buy those books, you know? Can't waste your whole check on just clothes."

"On the contrary actually, my darling. I am only going to buy that white, string tank top and those rose stitched jeans...probably," Anna said and turned back to the store.

I couldn't help to chuckle and simply waved her off. "Just meet me at the Barnes and Noble when you're done," I said and she nodded to run inside while I continued on my way to the back of the mall, seeing the rather empty bookstore. I sighed to myself and held onto my purse tightly as I passed by shelves throughout the store.

My phone was open once again to the short list of books I needed to buy, biting my lip as I continued to look for where they would be on my own.

I finally found a small sign labeled Literature and felt at ease, walking towards it. "Austen, Shakespeare, Shelly," I muttered under my breath, now in my hands copies of Romeo and Juliet, Frankenstein, and Mansfield Park.

As I neared closer to being able to pay, Anna walked in with her usual confused look, only making me laugh. She caught sight of me and started to blush in embarrassment as I tossed her her copy of books, and also seeing now in her hand two bags from American Eagle and one from PacSun.

I raised a brow and she simply shrugged her shoulders. "There was a sale. Besides, I haven't spent much of my money most of this summer so," She explained.

"Whatever you wanna tell yourself," I told her and stood up next to pay, "Are you still gonna have enough for coffee? Because if you don't I can chip-"

"I have enough. You just pay, don't worry," She told me and nudged over to the Starbucks, "Find yourself a Henry David Thoreau while you're waiting for me also why don't you." I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag of books to start heading over there.

The shop itself was seemingly quiet in its corner of the store, despite the sounds being made by the baristas when using their machines-

Why is he looking at me?

At the corner in one of the booths were a pair of dark eyes trained on me, a book raised in front of him to cover the rest of his face. I looked behind me in confusion, seeing a small grin spread on his face suddenly. My nerves kicked in and I rushed away from his gaze to hurriedly order a Caramel Macchiato on ice.

As I waited for the drink to finish, I couldn't help but to turn a bit in interest towards the man again, noticing that he was still reading his book. Every so often he would put it down to make marks in it, but I couldn't tell from where I stood what book it was. He looked back up to me, causing me to be distracted enough to ignore Anna calling out my name. "Emma? You alright?" She asked me, standing by me to wait for her own drink.

I nodded simply and grabbed the drink the barista handed to me. I quickly glanced over Anna's shoulder to see he was now on his way out, taking his book and half-empty coffee with him.  That's when I was able to finally focus on Anna staring me down. "Daydreaming? What's going on in that creative head of yours?"

"Besides the fact that classes start again next week? Nothing else," I said and smiled, "But at least we'll have English Literature together."

She nodded and heaved out a small sigh. "Ah, Junior Year. Such high expectations yet so little time," She said and grabbed the frappe being handed to her. A smirk came onto her face suddenly as she faced me properly. "Oh, I almost forgot that we're going to be taught such beautifully written literature by the beauty himself, Mr. Healy- God my heart is not going to be able to handle that class without blushing the first few months."

I looked to her confused, tilting my head. "I only ever heard others talk about him, but I never seemed to see him on campus."

Anna chuckled and linked arms with me to lead us out of the store. "Oh my sweet and innocent Emma, the first day is going to be especially interesting this year," She said, "I guarantee it."