Lacey // (The 1975 / Matty Healy fanfiction)

// C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - T H R E E //

Lacey stood in front of the gate eyeing the pilot and his crew cautiously while they were boarding the plane, smiling at all the passengers that wanted to do the same – well, except for Lacey that is. She didn’t really know where her immense fear of flying came from especially since she’s only been on a plane two times in her life: from London to Munich and from Munich to London. Those two weren’t even necessarily bumpy either, but for some reason as soon as the plane took off and there was this odd sensation of losing and regaining gravity, she had freaked out. Tears were streaming down her face and she had thought of every single person she wanted to say goodbye to if she died – though in the end, she didn’t. Once she had survived that first flight, she had thought it was just a phase: the nerves of being up in the air for the very first time, but sure enough when it had been time for her to return home the same procedure happened again and now, she was almost a hundred per cent certain that it would repeat itself again today.

“You okay?” Ella asked concerned, being the only one of her five companions to know about her fear.

She nodded a bit too quickly, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.”

“You know…” Her friend started and threw her head into Matty’s direction, urging Lacey to look at him, “Your bad ass ‘I don’t give a fuck’ boyfriend looks a bit fidgety himself.”

Ignoring the obviously intended wrong definition of their relationship, Lacey turned to look at Matty, who she must admit she hadn’t really paid any attention to since they had gotten to the airport and her nerves had kicked in. It was true: instead of looking off into the distance looking as if he were contemplating life and its existence, his eyes darted back and forth while his hand was tangled in his hair – everything about him screamed nervous. It didn’t quite make sense to her though. After all, he couldn’t possibly be scared of flying seeing how often he had done it before, it had to go away with time didn’t it?

Deciding she wasn’t going to stand there and decipher what exactly he was scared of, when she could just as well ask him herself, she walked over to where Matty was sitting and sat down on his lap. Immediately his hand detangled itself from his hair and went to Lacey’s waist, holding her incredibly tight.

“What’s wrong?” She mumbled as she placed a kiss on his cheek, trying to soothe him in some way even though her own insides were filled with nerves and anxiety.

“I just really fucking hate flying.” He muttered, a look of anger crossing his face.

Trying to hide her surprise, but failing miserably she questioned, “But you’ve flown so many times before, shouldn’t you be used to it?”

He rolled her eyes at her, a gesture of his she hated more than anything except when she knew it was meant in a joking matter. This time though, it was quite obvious that it was the opposite. It was as if he wanted to tell her to use her brain for once, though of course he would never say it out loud.

“Fears don’t go away, Lace.” He stated as he looked into her eyes, probably noticing the hurt that had spread there since he leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her lips, “What’s one thing you’re incredibly scared of?”

Planes, she thought while she replied, “Snakes.”

He chuckled lightly, “The animal of sin, huh?”

“I thought you weren’t religious?” She challenged, raising her eyebrows.

Smirking, he shrugged, “I’d like to think of that as common knowledge.”

“Mhm…” She mumbled disbelievingly.

She knew Matty well enough to be sure of the fact that to have become such an opponent to religion, he must have researched every little detail, in order to always have something up his sleeve in an argument he might get into, “So planes, huh?” She mocked him, trying to change the conversation back to its original topic.