Pretty Kind of Dirty Face {Matty Healy}

05 // Chocolate

{we go where nobody knows}

Matty didn't let go of my hand until we reached his van, but I didn't pull away. "What about George, didn't you guys drive together?" I asked as Matty opened the door to the passenger's seat for me.

He smiled and shook his head. "Nah, I'm sure he'll be fine without a ride."

I had to grab onto the handle on the inside of the door to hoist myself into the large vehicle, but I did it with a little smile at Matty as he closed the door and walked casually around the front to get into the drivers' side.

"You ready to go?" he said with a smile as he turned the key in the ignition.

"You bet," I responded after a deep breath, sounding as confident as I could .

With that, Matty pulled out of the parking lot, the tires screeching. He soon turned on the radio. He didn't fiddle with it, but instead kept it on the shitty pop station it was tuned to. Personally, I had always prefered things with more guitar riffs and less bass drops. But looking over at Matty singing along, the passing street lights reflecting off of his pale skin. . . .

No. I wasn't about to think of him like that. I didn't care how vulnerable I wanted to be around him, I wasn't about to fall into a hole like that.

Not sure what to do alone with Matty, I pulled out my phone and texted someone I couldn't help but feel like I could trust: Autumn. We had only met each other that one time at Spotlight with Cecily, but she gave me her friend's number the next day, insisting that we talk about things. I sent her a message: "Hey Autumn, it's Eloise. Can I talk to you?"

She texted back almost immediately, with a simple affirmative and a smiley face.

All I could get myself to respond with was a simple question: "Is Cecily trying to set me up with Matty?"

I stared at my phone, watching the little gray ellipses blink as Autumn typed. "Yes," the message read, "she definitely is. Is it working?"

I smiled, hoping Matty wasn't looking over -- he would give me shit for smirking at my phone like an idiot. "I think so," I replied before locking my phone and throwing it into my bag on the floor by my feet.

"Hey Matty?" I said softly, breaking the silence that before this moment was only taken up by the radio.

He turned down the stereo. "Hmm?"

"Can we stop for a snack or something? I was supposed to get pizza with Cecily but. . . ." Seeing no reaction from Matty, I stopped myself before I rambled too much.

"Definitely," he said, "let's stop right here." Suddenly, the van swerved off the road and into a sketchy gas station with a little convenience store in the back of the parking lot. Matty pulled right up to the front door and parked. He didn't even wait for me to undo my seatbelt before he jumped out of the van and started to make his way into the store. With a roll of my eyes, I followed him.

Inside, store was lit entirely by a minimal amount of fluorescent lights that flickered as we walked through the aisles. Of course, there were only about four aisles, a fridge full of drinks, and a counter with coffee and slushie machines.

"Did you say coke or cherry slushie?" I asked with a smile, referencing the movie we were just watching at Cecily's house.

We had left after the scene that took place at a convenience store just like this one, but judging by the look on his face, Matty had been paying zero attention to the movie. "I didn't. I just want a couple bags of gummy worms. . . ." he said.

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "Were you really not paying attention at all to the movie earlier?"

Matty paused for a minute. Then, as if the lightbulb went on above his head, he suddenly grinned at me. "Oh! Right. Heathers. I was a little busy hoping you'd let me put my arm around you."

My breath caught in my chest briefly before I shook it off. Of course that's what he was thinking about instead of the brilliance that was Heathers. What an idiot. I turned away from him and began browsing the snacks.

"Did you want a slushie?" Matty said, looking over the shelf at me. "Because I'll actually buy you one if you want."

I shot him a shy grin, picking up a bag of chocolate-y Chex Mix. "I would love one."

* * *

"What are you doing?" Matty asked as I ripped open the bag of Chex Mix. He shot me a look, and for a second I wondered if he was one of those guys who didn't want food in his car. Then I remembered the four bags of gummy worms that he had just bought.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I said, picking out an M&M from the bag and popping it in my mouth.

"I can smell that from here!" He seemed to forget the fact that we were sitting right next to each other. "My whole car's gonna smell like chocolate!"

I grinned at him, but he kept his eyes trained on the road ahead of us. "If I can deal with your shitty pop music, you can deal with my chocolate-y Chex Mix."

Matty gasped. God, he was so dramatic. "Excuuse me, but Justin Bieber is a genius!"

"No way." I took a sip of my cherry slushie, trying to get the last bits of it from the bottom of the cup.

Matty changed lanes, passing a little gray sedan that was going above the speed limit but too slow for us to follow apparently. "Oh yeah? Well what do you listen to then?"

With a smile I fiddled with the radio, listening carefully at each station that came in, waiting for a familiar rhythm to show up. Then, after a good three minutes of nothingness, I finally found it on a little alternative college radio station. "Yes!" I exclaimed, causing Matty to jump a little. "This is it! This is what I listen to."

The drums and bass blasted through the worn-out speakers of the van. At a first glance it sounded like just another bad pop song Matty would listen to. However, after a couple measures, the guitar came in and changed things. It was a simple riff, but it was beautiful to me. And that was before the vocals even started.

With a grin on my face, I looked over at the drivers' side to watch Matty's reactions. It was funny, he didn't seem to hate it as much as I thought he would. His head bopped to the music, and a little smile formed on his thin lips.

Then he noticed me watching him.

His smile disappeared almost instantly once his eyes met mine. One of his hands left the steering wheel to run through his hair. He seemed slightly flustered, but it only lasted for a second before he turned back to the Matty of arrogance and stone that I had come to know. "I guess it's okay," he said, "but it's not nearly as beautiful as the Biebs."

I wanted to laugh at his comment, but I wasn't about to. He had let his inside feelings show for a short amount of time, but he covered them up. He wouldn't let me see the real him. So I built up my wall more and more. There was suddenly more separating us than just the center console between our seats.

I wanted to come up with a clever comeback, but I also wanted to have a real conversation with him -- and neither of those things were about to happen.

Matty suddenly pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway. He leaned over and reached in front of me to get into the glove compartment. He pulled out a spliff from a little plastic bag and immediately lit it with a sigh. Apparently he felt the tension between us too.

"How much longer do we have until we get there?" I asked softly as Matty pulled back onto the road.

"About twenty minutes," he responded flatly.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this one. It started out as mostly a filler chapter between 4 and 6...but I was having too much fun hoping Eloise and Matty would get together to leave it as just a little filler :P THANKS FOR THE VOTES AND ADDS TO READING LISTS IF YOU'RE LOVING IT LET ME KNOW! xx Sadie