Lacey // (The 1975 / Matty Healy fanfiction)

// C H A P T E R T E N //

As soon as Lacey had dropped off her paper on her professor's desk, she went to her usual spot in the lecture hall and let her arms and head fall onto the table in front of her - ready to catch up on the sleep she had missed out on last night. Having to finish her paper last minute was more stressful than she could have ever imagined, probably because she was such a perfectionist. Right after she had come home from her little adventure with Matty, she went straight to her laptop to work on it. By midnight she had it finished, but in the following five hours she had reviewed, corrected and rewritten so many parts of it that it seemed like a whole new paper all together. Nonetheless, she had made it, but now she needed sleep, tons of sleep.

"Someone looks like they could use some sleep." Someone laughed as they slid into the seat next to Lacey.

She didn't even need to look up to know that it was Steven, a guy she had met on the first day of class and who for some reason ended up sticking with her throughout the whole semester even if they never hung out in their free time. It wasn't as if she didn't like him, he really was a sweet guy most of the time, but for some reason she just always had a weird feeling when he looked at her in that intent way of his.

Groaning in response, she shifted her head slightly so she wouldn't speak into her arms, "I had to finish the paper, only slept for an hour."

Steven raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Lacey finishing a paper the night before? What earth shattering event occurred for that to happen?"

"Shut up and let me sleep." She muttered and only got a short laugh in response, but thankfully was left alone for the rest of class.

As soon as the lecture was over, Steven nudged Lacey to get her to wake up, "Hey Lacey, class is over. Wanna head over to Starbucks? You look like you could use it."

Too tired to try and shake off the several attempts to convince her that would follow if she said no, she simply nodded, "Sounds good."

She grabbed her handbag that she had quickly grabbed this morning and followed him out the door, not really paying attention to his unending babble about his last football tournament.

"It was crazy, right in the last minute Michael" - also someone Lacey conversed with every now and then, since he was friends with Ella, "scored a goal and the whole crowd just flipped."

Noticing that he was looking at her expectantly, she forced a smile and exclaimed with fake excitement, "That's so cool!"

They stepped out of the giant building that made up their university and Lacey was happy to embrace the cold breeze that hung in the air, which woke her up at least a tiny little bit.

Trotting behind Steven, she kept thinking about the day before with Matty. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to have gotten to know him, even if she didn't really know what was between them. For her it was quite clear, she wouldn't be kissing him if there weren't any feelings involved, but she didn't know how Matty felt about that - after all he seemed to have had his fair share of women, which surely hadn't all been classified as girlfriends.

"Lacey." Steven's voice suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts, "Did you even hear what I was saying?!"

"Oh, no sorry..." She mumbled, "What did you say?"

Rolling his eyes annoyed, he repeated what he had asked her, "Do you know that guy over there? He keeps staring at you."

Sighing, Lacey looked in the direction he was gesturing at and sure enough, her eyes fell on a familiar black-clad shape. Before she could stop herself, a smile formed on her lips and she hurried over to where Matty was leaning against a wall, smoking a fag as usual.