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

The bar was already packed when the two of them arrived there. Bodies were crammed against each other whispering or laughing with the occasional odd pair that decided to dance. It smelled of smoke, alcohol and body odor, a mix that would have made you gag anywhere else but there just seemed to fit as well as the music blasting from the speakers.

"Timothy texted me that they're somewhere near the back to the left, let's go try and find them!" Ella yelled at Lacey over all the noise.

As they made their way through the place, Lacey couldn't help but notice all the different kinds of people. There were college students like them, drinking and flirting trying to get someone to go home with them for the night. You could also see older men seemingly alone, drinking away their sorrows even if they will come back to them in the morning. And finally the small little groups of people - maybe tourists, maybe locals - just having a good time without really filling some made up cliché.

"There you guys are! What took you so long?!" Their friend Timothy exclaimed when they finally arrived at their booth.

"Miss Lacey over here only decided to get ready about ten minutes before we were supposed to leave and to no one's surprise - she took longer than that." Ella shrugged as they sat down.

Oliver, one of Lacey's longtime friends, smirked at her, "Well it definitely was worth it."

"Yeah, yeah - stop bothering Lacey for god's sake Oliver." Isabella, the third and final friend in their group, rolled her eyes, "I have way better news for you two or well, maybe more for Ella considering Lacey probably won't like what I'm gonna show you guys but-", she turned her head slightly to gesture to a group of guys sitting at the booth behind them, "aren't those guys fucking heavenly?!"

Both Ella and Lacey turned their heads at the same time, looking at the three guys who sat behind them. Lacey gave them one quick look before looking back at Isabella incredulously whispering, "Are you serious?! Those guys look like freaking drug addicts."

"Ohh because drugs are so scandalous...", Isabella rolled her eyes, "you can't honestly tell me that you don't find them even the least bit attractive, I mean look at them!"

Sighing Lacey turned back around to take another look at the guys. Two of them had brown hair and beards, though one kept his hair short while the other one wore it a bit longer and messy. The other one caught her eye a bit more, though he still didn't look very attractive to her with his brownish-blonde dreadlocks and tattoos. She wouldn't lie, they were definitely interesting to look at, but did they make her want to throw off her clothes and spend the night with any one of them? Definitely not.

"I just don't get it. I mean, I guess they're interesting with their whole bad guy vibe, but do you honestly find them that attractive?!" She asked, but could soon answer her own question by looking at Ella's face. Not having said a single thing the whole time, she was staring at the blonde dreadlock guy as if her life depended on it.

"Oh!" Isabella exclaimed excitedly, "here comes the final one, my personal fave."

Lacey rolled her eyes and didn't even turn to look, expecting another bearded or tattooed guy to walk down the aisle.

"Holy fuck, so gorgeous." Isabella whispered to herself.

To their right the guys started laughing, "You do know that your whole staring attitude will probably make you seem like total creeps instead of desirable women?" Andrew smirked.

Lacey agreed, "Seriously Ella, you need to cut it out. You've been staring at this guy for about five minutes straight now, you look like a stalker."

Ella shook her head and fixed her eyes on her best friend, "I'm not even looking at that beautiful dreadlocked man anymore. The new guy is like transfixed on you. He's been staring at you since he sat down, he hasn't even touched his drink or talked to anyone yet. Do you know him?!"

"Fuck, I thought he was looking at me." Isabella pouted, but soon laughed it off, "bearded messy haired guy it is then."

Lacey felt herself turn red even though she knew it was impossible for someone associated with those guys to know her in any way. "You're not making any sense." She muttered.

"I'm not fucking with you, Lacey. He's looking at you like you're his long lost soul mate or something, it's kind of cute." She laughed, "just look!"

Shrugging Lacey turned around to face the group of guys for the third time that evening. This time her eyes didn't even start to wander over the faces of the other three, but instead were immediately fixed on the eyes of the stranger, who blatantly stared at her. Without even trying to register anything else about him but those green eyes, she immediately looked away.

"What. The. Fuck." She whispered to herself, which immediately earned her a round of laughter from her friends.

"I told you!!" Ella laughed, "Now go talk to him and I'm not taking 'he's not my type' for an answer."

Lacey quickly shook her head, "No way. I honestly don't even know what he looks like, I just saw him staring - which by the way is pretty damn rude if you ask me - and then I turned back around."

Andrew laughed, "How is it rude of him to look at you if he obviously likes you? How else is he supposed to get your attention?!"

"I don't know?! By acting like a normal person?!"

"Who's supposed to act like a normal person?" An unfamiliar voice asked right next to Lacey.

Looking up she recognized the green eyes that just moments ago had stared into hers.

Gesturing to the space beside her with his head, he simultaneously lit up a cigarette, "Wanna make some space for me?"

Lacey, completely shocked by his total bluntness, continued to study the long haired stranger incredulously. He looked older than her, maybe by three or four years even though it was hard to tell with the way his hair fell into his face. Even though she had been wrong about him probably having a beard, she had been right about the tattoos. There was one on his lower right arm, though it was hard to tell of what from where she sat. She also didn't think she had seen any man or even woman who could wear jeans as skinny as his, she definitely couldn't.

When her eyes traveled back to his face, the stranger smirked, "Done checking me out? Standing is getting kind of annoying."

Feeling her face turn red again, she mumbled an awkward "I wasn't checking you out" to herself, and made space for him to sit beside her.

"Thanks love." He smirked as he sat down and put out his cigarette, "my name's Matty by the way. Mind telling me yours?"

Having composed herself a bit, she looked up at him and simply said, "Lacey."

"Lacey huh?" He seemed to think it over for a bit, "Lace it is."

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What?"

He laughed nonchalantly, "Lace. That's what I am going to call you."

Having enough of his cocky attitude, Lacey gained some of her confidence back, "Oh because we're going to talk for such a long time today and become best friends we need nicknames for each other now or what?!"

"Well if you want to be best friends that's fine by me, though I would hope we could settle on some friends with benefits shit cause I honestly would like us to go more in that direction."

Immediately Lacey's whole group of friends erupted in laughter.

Matty raised his eyebrows at them questioningly, "I didn't know we had an audience here, but mind explaining to me what's so funny?"

Lacey counted on her friends to keep her private life private in front of total strangers, but before she could even think about who might blurt something out, Isabella laughed, "Well little Miss "Lace" here is actually still a virgin at the age of 21."

"Bella, what the fuck that is none of this guy's business." Ella hissed, but Isabella just shrugged in a 'so what?' kind of way.

Lacey could feel Matty staring at her intently again, but this time she refused to look back. It wasn't that she was embarrassed of being a virgin at her age, she didn't even care much about the whole 'virgin' and 'non-virgin' titling. What got her off was the way that Bella seemed to use it as a weapon against her, almost as if to hurt her in order to get Matty to want her instead.

Breathing in and out, she tried to let some of her anger out before she looked up at Isabella and said, "You know I don't care about being a virgin and the whole pressure of having sex with someone just to not be one, so I'm not even mad about you telling him that..." She nodded towards Matty, "what bothers me though is that you always seem to find it so entertaining to tell random people. It's as if you wanna make yourself look more interesting by being 'experienced' or some shit like that. But honestly? It only makes you seem like someone who likes to make fun of people and I personally do not know if that's something guys find hot."

"Only for a one night stand maybe if even." Matty shrugged as if he was asked that question, then he turned to Lacey, "you said you don't care about the whole virgin label. May I ask why you are one then?"

"Cause if you recall I also said that I don't believe in having to get rid of that label by having sex with some random guy. If I'm gonna have sex with anyone - no matter if it is for the first time or not - I always want it to base on something: either because I'm head over heels in love with this guy or because I'm so fucking attracted to someone that I just want him you know?"

He nodded slightly, "I get what you're saying...", then he laughed slightly, "we basically have the same attitude cause we don't regard sex to be this big elephant in the room. Only I choose to have sex with as many girls as I like out of simple pleasure whereas you wait until you actually want someone enough to fuck him. It makes sense."

Lacey couldn't help but laugh, "If you wanna find common ground between the two of us there, then yeah I guess sure - I totally agree with everything you said."

"Oh you'll see how much we have in common, Lace." He smirked, "wanna get out of here?"

Forgetting about all of her friends around her probably watching them or maybe having conversations of their own, she simply fixed in on those green eyes.

Without hesitation she answered, "Let's go."