four alarm fire // matty healy

Fuck and Run

I jolted awake on what felt like a concrete slab, but felt surprised when my hands touched downy covers. Sweat clung to my body as my lungs clenched in short, quick gasps. Matty, now demoted to the bed above me, slid an arm down the side of the bunk.

"Hey," he spoke with a groggy voice. "You alright?"

I lifted my hand to his. His palm felt warm against mine. We sat for a moment, basking in the silence. It felt like a few seconds, but when I looked at the clock on the microwave, twenty minutes had passed.

"Can I come up?" I asked. He pulled me out of the twin-sized bunk with his hanging arm.

He welcomed me into his blankets and entangled me in his warmth. I cozied up to him quickly because his heavy arm cradled me in a safe embrace. We didn't say anything - I just remember Matty lingering as he placed a kiss on my neck. It didn't take much to get me on top of him. In a swift movement, I sat in a straddle and kissed him.

Hard.

We were suddenly full-throttle in a mouth numbing kiss. There as an urgency piercing through his soft lips. His hands gripped my waist as my fingers raked through matted hair. It was the point of no return. Fire shot from his hands as he lifted my shirt over my head.

-

"Adam, got the orders?" George asked. The sun was out, even though it was chilly this morning. We were almost twenty minutes away from the next city, but we still had to stop at a petrol station. Our hunger was just becoming too much to bear - oh, and the bus was running low.

We leaned against the bus, the rest of us. Adam rattled off crisp flavours and candies until one of us grunted in approval.

"I'm gonna walk about, stretch my legs." I said to the others. Matty winked as I looked back, almost as if he said "yeah, I know why you need to stretch your legs." Cheeky.

I walked around the stations perimeter. The smaller car-fill up was on the other side of the building. I couldn't even see the bus from where I stood. Detached.

There was a man filling up a silver Fiat at one of the pumps. It took a minute until he finished, but I was surprised when he pulled out two more empty cans.

"Preparing for the apocalypse, are you? I said as I approached him. He lifted his shaggy blonde hair to reveal a set of piercing eyes. Haunting, in a way, almost in pain.

"It's cheaper out here than where I'm going." He sounded like silky jazz. One full can went into the trunk.

"And that would be?" I asked. My eyes searched his car. Football mirror ornament. Half-eaten petrol station sandwich in passenger side. One small duffel bag in the backseat.

"London."

"Can I come?" He lifted his head again, those eyes again, and quirked an brow at me.

"Why?"

"Not really any of your business, is it?" I shuffled my feet under the dirt below. "If you take me, I'll blow you."

He looked at me like I just revealed a truly horrible secret, but he would have figured it out sooner or later.

"Uh," he stammered and pulled around at the collar of his shirt. "That really won't be necessary."

"Pish posh, Tyler, let's get this show on the road." I was already letting myself into the passenger side, settling into the leather upholstery. He poked his head through the open window on the driver's side and gave me a scolding look.

"My name's not Tyler." I picked up the remaining half of his ham and cheese sandwich and took a big, fat bite.

"And what, pray, would your name be?"

"Ace."

"Marla," I said with an extended hand.

He seemed safe enough, but I looked through his bag, just to be safe. Clothes, a gold watch (which I pocketed), and a scrapbook. I flipped through the pink pages. Ace stood with a girl in most of them, I could only assume that she was on the other side of the camera in the others. She was very sweet looking, which was emphasized by their staggering height difference.

Ace let himself into the car again and pulled the book away from me. It was tossed into the backseat, then he skidded away from the station. I looked back on the guys. Matty was frantically waving his arms around, clearly telling the best story anyone's ever heard. Adam was still inside, it seemed. Sooner or later someone would ask where I was.

The road ahead of us turned into pavement quickly. Not much to look at on the highway, but it was the quickest way back home.

"Maybe a day and a half, if you need to rest in the backseat, that's okay. Just put my stuff on the floor." Ace was nice, even though his stare made me weak.

"Who's the girl the album?" I asked. He never once broke his eye contact with the road.

"My fiancée." Explains why he declined my proposal earlier. "Well, fiancée-to-be."

Cute, I thought.

"Well, tell me about her!" I put my boots on the dashboard and scrunched back in the seat.

"Her name is Miya. She's really sweet, just finished nursing school." He smiled softly. "We've been going out for three years. I told her I was going on a guy's trip, but I was driving up to ask her parent's for their blessing."

"She's pretty."

"She's the most beautiful woman in the world."

I never understood marriage for the longest time. My mum never married. Uncle has never been married. I don't think Isaac has ever looked at anyone as dating material, let alone marriage material.

It seemed like a huge formality. Like, if you want to spend your life with someone, why go through the 'big white wedding' hullabaloo? However, I've never looked like Ace when I describe someone I've been dating.

But that's okay.