Tracklist:
My Least Favourite Life, Lera Lynn
Plea from a Cat named Virtue, The Weakerthans
It's Okay To Cry, SOPHIE
Francis Forever, Mitski
~
Wednesday, 10:12 AM
hey ray, not sure what happened when I called. Is everything ok??
Wednesday, 10:34 AM
No worries if you're busy just hope you're alright xx
Wednesday, 19:46 PM
saw this article - doesn't this look like that weirdo from your event? Hahaha wanker
Thursday, 16:27 PM
just to say no pressure about getting that drink idk if that was weird to mention
was it weird to mention
Friday, 09:38 AM
Hey Ray, I tried ringing last night a couple of times and didn't hear from you. Neither has Lydia or Blaise or Twyla. We're all getting a bit worried in case Greebo has eaten your face or something. Lmk you're ok?
By Friday afternoon, and still with no response from Ray, Matty makes an executive decision. Despite co-ordinating with Lydia and Blaise in their joint efforts to hear from her, he takes it upon himself. Blaise's insistence that Ray 'has these weird moods sometimes, she'll be back to normal by next week' in fact spurred Matty's decision. It was too similar to Julia's assurances that Ray can handle drug binges because she schedules them in her calendar. Privately, he wonders if her friends actually believe this stuff or if they're conning themselves because it's easier that way.
It's strange, parking in the carpark beneath her building and taking the lift up alone. The last time he was here, they were preparing for her panel event. Only a week ago. He's trying to figure out how long he's known Ray as the lift slides up towards her floor, a pointless exercise that keeps his mind ticking over until he's outside her door and listening to the metallic jingle of her doorbell. It circles around once, then twice, as he jams the button with his finger and waits. There's no answer. Shifting from foot to foot, he presses the doorbell again. By the fifth iteration of the doorbell's jingle, his patience has exhausted itself and he resorts to something more emphatic. His fists hammer the wooden door. He's aware that this is aggressive, but he can't stop himself.
"Ray. Ray. It's Matty," he urges, as loudly as he dares without arousing neighbourly suspicion. "I'm sorry to just show up like this, but can you put my mind at rest and just... I don't know, show signs of life?"
The problem with her expensive wooden door is that it completely shuts out the rest of the world. It's probably nice for her, when she wants to get away from work, but now Matty is on one side of it, staring intently at the grain with no way of knowing what's happening on the other side. For an idiotic moment, he channels his concern into obtuse anger at the door. He's staring at it intently, with so much focus that he notices the click of the internal locks before it shifts back a crack.
YOU ARE READING
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐰. ⁽⁽⁽ᵐᵃᵗᵗʸ ʰᵉᵃˡʸ⁾⁾⁾
FanfictionMatty can't stand Ray, he knows that much. But he admires her. And he finds her devastatingly attractive. And she surprises him at every turn. And he feels an inexplicable urge to catch her when she falls. And, in his moments of weakness, she even b...
