American Candy

Matty’s head was pounding when he woke up. He didn’t really remember where he was, only that he was naked. The last thing he really, truly remembered is that he was dancing with everyone at his seriously tacky birthday party. The rest was pretty much a blur, and it wasn’t the kind of night he wanted to have. He knew that if he had drank that much, something bad could’ve happened.

He felt a shift and he slowly lifted himself up off of the bed. He honestly felt sick to his stomach when he saw that it was Nirvana. He wanted to scream. It wasn’t because he didn’t find her attractive, but it was the fact that she belonged to George. Not that George owned her, but Matty wouldn’t ever do that to him. He wouldn’t do this on purpose.

As quickly as he could, he got up and got dressed. Nirvana woke up, and slowly sat up as he struggled to put on his skinny jeans. She smirked, tousled her hair and tried to make the best bedroom eyes she could. She stared at him, but he didn’t dare look up at her as he hurried.

“Why are you in such a rush. Come back to bed….” She trailed off.

Matty finally snapped his head back toward her.

“Why in the hell would I do that? I obviously don’t want to be here.”

“That’s not what you said last night,” She replied in a sing-song voice and a smug look on her face.

“I’m sure that I didn’t want to,” He stated firmly, buttoning his shirt. “Dammit Nirvana.”

“Excuse me?” She sighed.

“I can’t believe you!” He nearly shouted. “Why, why would you do this to me? Why would you do this to Lark?! Fuck…”

“You can’t honestly stand there and tell me that you have feelings for her, can you?” Nirvana laughed. “Yeah, right. Matty, we’re just alike. We break hearts because we’re incredibly selfish. We get what we want and dispose of what we don’t. We’re in the game, okay? What’s the harm in having a little fun?”

Matty swore that he wanted to hit her.

“I do have feelings for Lark, thanks,” He stated with a sneer. “We’re not the same, okay? I would never do this to George. Just...fuck you. Stay away from me, Nirvana.” He shook his head. “And yeah, I do dispose of what I don’t. That’s why I stopped sleeping with you.”

Then he was gone, and Nirvana was left speechless. Sleeping with Matty to prove a point did something inside of her. Nirvana felt like a storm was coming, but she wasn’t so sure it had to do with anyone else. For the first time since she was fifteen years old, the raven-haired girl felt immense guilt. She felt so heavy that she was going to be sick. The girl moved her feet to the side of the bed and slowly slid out. Last night hadn’t even been what she wanted it to. It was bad because he was so out of it, and not into it at all.

She moved toward her bathroom, and took a long look at herself in the mirror. She didn’t recognize the girl staring back at her. It wasn’t as if she saw herself for the first time, and she wasn’t having some revelation. However, she saw what a mess she had created within herself. She had dark circles underneath her eyes, and her hair extensions looked like they could be replaced. She looked incredibly, undeniably unhappy.



“Okay girls!” Spencer stated. “Welcome to ‘Operation George and Nirvana’ or as I like to call it ‘Op Girvana’. Any questions before we start?”

As expected, Liz raised her hand first.

“Okay so….I don’t think that this is going to work,”

Ash rolled her eyes and pushed her friend’s hand down.

“It’s going to work, okay? It has too. I’m sick of the pinning and unrequited love shit.”

“Are we really going to try to pull this off?” Emery asked. “I mean, I really don’t know how you’re going to….”

“We are going to do it, andddd I’ve brought in reinforcements.” Spencer smirked.

“No, no you didn’t,” Liz shook her head.

“Oh I did,” Spencer smiled proudly. “They will be here in…” the girl looked down at her wrist which held no watch at all.

Ash sighed.

“You’re not wearing a watch, Spence.”

“Don’t tell me how to live my life!” She shouted. “Anyway, reinforcements will be here soon enough. Let’s just… prep until then.”

“Faze one, get George to be open to talking to Nirvana,” Ash read from the small, printed piece of paper in her hand. “Why me?”

“Because you know Nirvana the best,” Liz stated, looking over at her friend. “From the looks of it, only Lark is the one still talking to her.

“Which is why it’s you,” Spencer stated. “Are we ready? BREAK!”

Emery rolled her eyes, but went with her friends anyway as they all rushed off of the hotel room in search for George.



“George! Open up….please?” Matty begged for the twelfth time that morning. He keep knocking, but it felt like it was never going to work. George was pretty persistent about ignoring him. Either Matty completely blew it in front of everyone or George saw them. He really did hope it was the later.

“What do you want?” He nearly shouted as he opened the door. “I don’t want to see you,”

Matty sighed.

“I don’t even know what happened last night,” He admitted. “George, I remember nothing after dancing at the party.”

“Do you remember walking Lark to her room?”

“No,” He stated, running a hand through his curls. “I don’t know why I did it. I don’t even...I’m so sorry..”

George was silent and Matty got anxious. He didn’t say anything, but he shut the door in his face. The lead singer could hear arguing in the background before X opened the door, and let him in. George had shut himself in the bathroom. X didn’t look particularly happy with him either. He supposed that was a given.

“Matthew,”

He cringed at his full name. He would have called the girl by her full-name except he wasn’t going to test the dangerous waters. He knew that he was in deep.

“Can you tell me what happened?” He sighed heavily. “That’s all I want to know. I want to know what you maybe saw?”

The girl sighed heavily.

“We saw you stumbling out of Lark’s room, and Nirvana waiting by her door. George wasn’t exactly paying real attention toward the situation, but I was. She pulled you toward her and you looked like you’d rather be anywhere else. I saw you shaking your head no multiple times, but you stumbled inside with her legs wrapped around your waist. It looked bad.”

“Fuck,” Matty mumbled, sitting down on the bed. “And George is mad at me because obviously, I’m to blame,”

“.....exactly,” X nearly whispered. “Look, I believe you. You give me absolutely no reason to except for the fact that I saw you last night. I know how you feel about Lark. I guess a part of me believes that you’re better than you are. I don’t know. All I know is that last night was bad. You have to tell her as soon as you can,”

Matty nodded his head in agreement as George finally walked out of the bathroom. He didn’t make eye contact and sat down beside X instead of Matty. He was upset, and frankly, Matty didn’t blame him.

“I don’t want to talk to you or her,” George stated. “I don’t want to be around either of you right now,”

“George...I would have never done that to you sober mate. It’s…”

“Bros before hoes huh?” George scoffed. “Do me a favor and leave me alone, please.”

Matty looked like he had been slapped.

He didn’t blame George, no Matty blamed himself.