ephemeral // matty healy

shelley

After a long shift at Rocco's, Stella kicked her shoes off next to Blair's boots.

"Hey, hun, what'd you eat tonight? I might steal some leftovers if there are any." She called out to the walls as she shrugged off her coat but dead air clung to her words. "Hello?"

Stella poked around the corner to see where she could find her roommate. The kitchen was empty, as was the living room. It was only until the open door to Blair's room tipped her off.

"Are you in here, Blair?" She scanned the room, but it was still and empty, like the rest of the house seemed. Until a muffled voice called from below the bed.

"Yes," Blair said from under the white linen bed skirt. Stella knelt down to her level and stared at Blair's blank expression.

"How's it going?" Stella pointed around the room nervously, unsure what she should start unpacking. "You know normally people sit on top of the bed, right?"

Blair scowled at her friend and then scooted back further into the darkness beneath the bed. She groaned loud enough to shake the floor then mumbled something into her arm.

"Love, you're going to have to pop out from underneath if you want me to understand a word of what you're saying," Stella laughed and then stood up again, cracking her knees the whole way. Blair pushed herself onto an empty spot on the floor and spoke up to Stella's smiling face.

"Matty told me he loved me." Blair remained emotionless, but Stella never could keep her cards close to her chest. She immediately clasped a hand over her mouth and let her eyes scream in terror.

"Sorry, did I hear you right?" She offered a hand up to Blair, who was now ready to get off the floor and onto the living room couch. "Matthew Healy said he loved you?"

She solemnly nodded and then schlepped her weary body out of her bedroom. Stella sat down next to her lump of a friend, trying her best to offer a comforting pat on the shoulders. Blair was crushed, but Stella didn't quite understand what was bending her out of shape. She had experienced many a late-night fantasy about celebrities and the fact that this was happening to Blair, who was being extremely ungrateful, was a bit annoying.

But she didn't say that to Blair. "I'm so sorry, love."

A knock at the door caused both of them to straighten up against the back of the couch. Stella stood up and jogged to the front door.

"Who could that be?" Blair wailed, falling onto the now empty spot beside her. The door opened to reveal Bo, damp from the light drizzle outside.

"Come on in," Stella said with a big smile. Bo nodded and unknowingly stepped into the pity party. He eyed the hopeless pile of Blair, then turned back to Stella's unsure expression.

"So, do you still have the book?" He asked, his eyes shining like a glassy lake.

"I was going to check after I came in, but," she leaned in and spoke behind her hand, "I had to take care of something." Bo turned around again to see Blair was now expressionless and had flayed out onto all the couch's old cushions. "Have a seat... if she makes room. I'll grab it."

"Hey, friend," he carefully ushered her legs off the spot at the end, then settled onto the sofa's arm instead, "why don't you tell me what's eating you today?"

"It's nothing," she sighed. "It's just that someone I used to know came back into my life and I can't escape them and they just told me they loved me." Bo's eyes widened and glanced at Stella's door for a split second.

"You can do that?" he whispered. "You can just... tell people you love them?" Blair kicked him with a tired foot.

"Are you listening?" she grumbled and flipped onto her stomach. "I do not love him back."

Stella came out of her room again with an old leather-bound book in her hands. The cover read Mary Shelley's Short Stories in shimmering gold script. He passed it to Bo, who held it with care, smoothing off the dust and examining it carefully. He skimmed the first few pages, noting which sections he had not read, which were most of them.

"Thanks, this will be great prep for the exhibit. If you have any other artifacts, I would love to read them." He beamed at Stella, who told him that it was no problem at all and that she hoped he would enjoy it as much as she did. They both glanced down at Blair.

Stella knelt down to her level once again and rubbed Blair's back to calm her down. "What are you going to do, love? Will you give up the project and pass it to someone else or will you keep working on it with him?"

"I don't know."

Stella rolled her eyes, "Of course you know what you're going to do."

"No, I don't."

"Bitch." Blair turned around and glanced at Stella, now towering above her on the coffee table, the emotion clinging to her shout. "You are Blair motherfucking Alanis motherfucking Miller." Bo and Blair watched from their station on the couch.

She continued, "You want to know what you're going to do?" Blair gulped. "You are going to walk into your office confidently and proudly. You want to know why?"

The two of them nodded as they watched Stella's body glow with passion. "You are a confident designer who gets shit done. I'm sick of watching you throw yourself into a spiral because of a boy. You are worth a million Matty Healys."

Bo stiffened. "Like the guy in the band? Oh, drat, which one is he in again?" He gently tapped a fist against his forehead.

"The 1975," the girls said monotonously. Bo shrunk into the couch again, whispering a quick 'oh'.

"Don't throw away an amazing opportunity like this because of some idiotic thing he said." Stella has gotten down from her soapbox and was clutching Blair's hand in hers. "You have to stay with it because you're a boss ass bitch. What do you say, Blair motherfucking Alanis motherfucking Miller?"

She smiled at her friends, coming out of the clutches of her slump. "I say that you're right, Stella motherfucking Fiona motherfucking Johnson. What about you, Bo motherfucking Holm?" The girls laughed as he quirked an eyebrow at their antic.

"I say you're both weird."