𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐈𝐬 𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐰. ⁽⁽⁽ᵐᵃᵗᵗʸ ʰᵉᵃˡʸ⁾⁾⁾

Figure My Heart Out.

Tracklist:

Glory Box, Portishead

Getting By, Long Beard

Moving to New York, The Wombats

Where you are, PinkPantheress, WILLOW

The Night We Met, Lord Huron

***

June, 2018

Ray knew the day was coming. The end of her brief indulgence with Matty; the beginning of their real lives, the thing that held Lydia apart from George with the constant touring and travelling, late night shows and afterparties, signings and performances and interviews. It's a world that Ray understands she is resoundingly not a part of. Lydia is closer to the boys in this, closer than Ray will ever be, and she considered it too large an obstacle for a relationship to form, even with George who couldn't be clearer in his position. Ray hasn't ever made her opinion on Matty clear, not since the first night they met. Her terminal shyness stands in the way, an awkwardness dressed up as aloofness, a rigid self-protectiveness that she's pushing against while she steels herself to send a goodbye text. Such a small thing, especially since Matty has been nothing but a friend to her, but still she hesitates.

Hey Matty, thanks for last week. Hope tour treats you well - do musicians say break a leg? I'm confident people will love the new stuff. Where can I get the record?

Her thumb hovers, and she makes a few decisive edits before she hits send. Beyond the confines of her office, a train lurches out of London Bridge station. It's a bright, clear day and she can see all the way to St Paul's in one direction. At lunch time, she'll walk down towards the South Bank and pick up a sandwich from Pret, and then sit on a bench in Jubilee Park and people watch. She's always been a people-watcher, an observer, an analytic mind unfortunately pressed into a human body. It's a form of relaxation, these days, to follow a character in a brief moment of time and a test of her skills of deduction.The weather is starting to warm up and she hopes that sunlight on her skin, the distraction, and a brisk walk will force her mood into something less morose. Besides, she's booked in to see her GP in the afternoon and then has to schedule a visit with her parents, and she's determined to show up with good news for them.

She sets her phone down and returns to her emails, picking through the last few that were left unanswered during her week's absence. Though she wouldn't have believed it beforehand, Theseus did not crumble into nothingness after her week away; clients waited to hear from her, timelines have been adjusted, and it's already as though things are getting back to a normal, expected shape. In its own way, that is more miraculous than the strangely blooming thing between her and Matty.

His reply comes later, while she's standing by Winchester Palace and listening to a voice note from Pearl which has been unleashed into the group chat. Pearl's dramatic readings of her mother's 'writing' - prior to a ghostwriter's attention, obviously - are a source of ongoing amusement to the group. Even Gus's meandering and shallow thoughts look like the work of a towering academic in comparison to what Pearl's mother puts forth in an effort to transform her fractured memories of the 90s party scene into a memoir. Pearl is spluttering over a particularly lurid description of a heaving member, and wondering aloud how a dick heaves, when a banner flashes across the screen. Ray taps it on instinct, without hesitation.