CHOICES (Matty Healy fanfiction)

Chapter Eight

"So we met when we were eleven and just instantly vibed with eachother..." Anna drawled, taking a swig of her gin & tonic before continuing "...basically lived at eachothers houses, didn't we Rach?"

Rach nodded slowly, not looking up from her phone.

I'd been trying to catch her eye for hours but it was pointless.

"So when we were like fifteen...maybe sixteen...I decided to get into tattooing and I brought a tattoo gun and just fucking drew on Rach's arm and -"

"FUCK!" Rach almost yelled, chucking her phone onto the table.

"What's up?" Asked George, looking thankful for the distraction from Anna's dismal story.

"My fucking phone is dead. Anyone have a charger?"

Everyone solemnly shook their heads.

Rach scowled and left the table, making her way to the bar.

After an appropriate amount of time, I wandered over to the bar to find her sat at a bar stool with a half-full pint of Guinness, staring at the wall.

"I know I've been annoying as fuck today," I said quietly. "If you want we can just forget last night ever happened...whatever it was,"

For the first time all evening, she looked me in the eye and smiled slightly.

"Thank you, Matty." her voice was the smallest and quietest I'd heard it.

I pulled up a stool, and sat down.

"I've been such a bitch, I'm so sorry," Rach sighed, miraculously still making eye contact. "You guys did really well today and I'm...I'm really enjoying getting to know you Matty," she smiled again and then broke my gaze and stared at her drink.

"Are you gonna tell me what's bothering you?" I pressed.

I noticed she was picking at the already chipped black nail varnish on her fingernails and everytime she did this, the large silver rings on each of her fingers clicked together. She suddenly looked young and lost again, like she had in the van the night before.

"I fucking hate men," she shook her head and laughed sadly.

"What's he done?" I hated myself for feeling slightly happy about the fact that she was having boyfriend-troubles. I barely knew her and Alex might be a sound guy if I just got to know him better.

"Its what he hasn't done. I haven't heard from him since the party last night. He always fucking does this," her eyes glossed over with tears as she said this and she quickly wiped them and looked down at her lap again.

"Hey now don't worry about shit like that," I moved a little closer to her. "He probably doesn't mean anything by it. He was saying last night how busy he is with the band, he probably hasn't checked his phone all day and has no idea you're upset about it,"

"No fuck that," Rach shook her head vigorously. "I know what he's like,"

"Please don't be upset, you're drunk so everything's going to feel worse. Let's just do something to take your mind off of it," I quickly looked around for answers, "snooker?"