ephemeral // matty healy

navigation

Maja got up and stared out the window of her bedroom. The street was quiet.

"Mamma, would you please sit down? I'd feel better if you weren't up without help." Bo passed her walker and placed a breakfast tray on her bedside table.

"You are too easily worked up," she grumbled. Her son took her arm and guided her back to the bed, even though the doctor cleared her for short walks.

"And you need to chill," he snorted. "Seriously, I can't always be here for you. I'm going to work in fifteen minutes, and I need you to be on your best behaviour."

Maja muttered, "chill." Her face twisted into a sour expression until she laid her eyes on the breakfast tray Bo had put together. He left her an open-faced sandwich with cheese and ham and a small cup of tea. "Yum!"

"You're welcome, now sit down. Sanna will be back soon." He said this knowing that knowing there would a high probability that his sister would return with a hangover.

A knock at the door caused Maja to stir, but Bo told her to stay put.

He was surprised to find Stella and Apricot on his doorstep. 

"Morning! I finished Dorian Gray. May I say, very cool," she laughed. "It reminded me of Rebecca by du Maurier. I know we've been sticking with older authors, but I couldn't help but connect their gothic-romantic-pseudo-psychological-thriller aesthetics." Bo gladly accepted both books.

"Is that my best at the door?" Maja said, slyly slinking behind Bo. She waved to her new friend.

"It's 'bestie', Maja!" Stella said with a grin. "How are you feeling?"

"She needs to go back to bed!" Bo exclaimed as he turned to see her cheeky smile. Finally, Maja rolled her eyes and turned back down the hall and into her bedroom.

"Hey, if you want, after I take Apricot back to his mum's house, I can come back and watch your mum for a while." Bo knew that Stella was kind, but he hadn't noticed how her eyes sparkled when she was helping another. For a moment, it made him forget about going to work. "Is that okay or am I totally overstepping a boundary?"

"I'm sure she'd like a company, and I don't think my sister will be much help anyway." He gave her his key after locking the door behind him. "Thank you, for this and for the book."

"It's no problem at all, I'd rather be with your mum than alone in the flat." They walked down the steps to the sidewalk, but they knew they did not want to part ways just yet.

"Blair still working long hours on that music video?"

"Yes, really weird hours too, I swore she left for work at 3 am one day." They both quirked an eyebrow.

"Okay, very strange." He took a step away from Stella and Apricot. They started in opposite directions. "Thank you so much for looking after her, just make sure she doesn't fall again. I owe you one!"

-

"Hey! What's up? Listen! I know it's early but I haven't stopped watching the video you sent! I'm so excited to see what the end product will be!" Matty made his eyes big and bright as he looked in the bathroom mirror in the morning. He quickly dropped the façade when he realized how over-the-top he sounded.

"Try again," he muttered to himself before splashing cool water on his face. "Jesus, you're such a fucking twat."

He tried not to get defeated as he spoke aloud again. Too perky. And again. Too low-energy. And again. Too overzealous.

 After a few failed attempts at sounding cool, he decided to bite the bullet and call her anyway. At ten past nine, Matty dialed her work number.

"Hello, you've reached Blair Miller." Her voice was cool and light, but he could tell she was putting it on.

"Hey, it's Matty."

"Oh, hi. What's up? What did you guys think of the video? It's not done yet, obviously, but are we going in the right direct-"

"Before you say anything else," Matty cut her off abruptly. "We absolutely love where it is, right now. We don't want anything new added, we want it exactly how it is." His voice let on that he was way too excited, but he didn't care at that point. There was a silence festering between them.

"One moment please," Blair said hurriedly as she covered the receiver. She leaned over the desk and whispered to Ronan. "You'll never guess what just happened."

"What, did Matty propose or something?" He asked without looking away from his work. 

"No, but he says he wants the rest of the video as it is." They shared an unsure look. 

"Is he sure?" Ronan asked. "I wanted it to look smoother, plus we don't even have that extra matrix thing sorted out." Blair held up a single finger, then pointed back to the phone.

"Are you sure about that? It's not really finished in any way, shape, or form." She sort of laughed to play off the fact that they had much bigger plans for the video.

"We want it exactly how it is right now." His tone of voice stayed adamant. She looked back to Ronan and nodded with a slight smile; he silently celebrated at his desk. He wiggled and shimmied in his chair until Blair finally hung up the phone.

"So... what I heard is that I don't have as much work to do," he laughed.

"Yes, let's re-evaluate our projected end date, shall we? It might be earlier than we thought" She reached over her desk to high-five Ronan.