Fell In Love In Stages // a matty healy fanfic

Liquid Trees

The next day was a Sunday which meant the one day I have breakfast with my dad. Matty must've slipped out in the wee hours of the night. I was asleep when he left. Normally, I would've taken that as him snubbing me, but after the night we spent and everything that transpired, I felt inclined to leave my guard down a while longer.
In place of the black shiny car, were tyre tracks on the lawn. I'm sure he must've thought he was slick. If only he'd taken into account his bad parking.

"Interesting design on the lawn" my dad says not looking up from the book he was reading. My dad had this bad habit of passive aggressively beating around the bush instead of being forthright. He was always a closed-off person, but even more-so now after my mom passed.
"A friend came over"
Silence.
"I see", he says when I don't offer further explanation.
Just then I hear honking from outside. Didn't sound like Charlie or Matty's car, for that matter. I walk over to the window with my bowl of lucky charms and see Matty casually lounging on a bike. A smile creeps up on my face and I shove the remains of the cereal in my mouth.
"I'm heading out" I say between chews as I place the bowl on the table.
Silence.
I put on my shoes and run outside.
"Mornin, darling" he smiles. "Fancy a ride?"

They say you don't ever forget your first love, your first kiss. I don't know if it applies to your first motorbike ride. It didn't change my life. But it gave me the first tremulous hint of how things could be different. Yes, that there were other ways of experiencing the world. So far, for me, that had been from the security of dissociation. And everything has gone by, scenery and life, unfurling at a safe and careful distance, a flat unvarying haze.
But on a bike, the world rushes up at you from all sides, so do the wind and the colours of the trees and the sky. You are exposed. The sunshine hits your back, your face, the air flies down your throat and you are nothing but a single, glorious movement.
We wove our way out of my neighbourhood and into the busy area with people bustling around the shops. We raced through them, weaving around traffic cones and a few clusters of pedestrians. I clung to Matty madly, laughing out loud. We passed children playing football in the park and grown-ups who looked at us with the greatest disdain. "Delinquents", I could almost hear them say and it thrilled me.
The roads were more desolate as we hit the outskirts of the town. I held on tight to Matty's flannel shirt, trying not to let slip that, for me, this was as scary as it was exciting. I couldn't wait to tell mum; and then I remembered that the house I lived in lay empty. Suddenly, I wanted him to go faster, and for the world to turn into a dazzling blur.