Robbers (The 1975//Matty Healy)

Arcades

We sat on the couch for a while, his arm around me and my head leaning on him. We had a few small conversations while in this position, but they would end quickly. We mostly sat in silence, which I enjoyed. It was very comfortable and calming. I ended up falling asleep on him. I woke up sometime later to the sound of a phone ringing, it was Matty's.

He picked up his phone and looked at the screen, from where he was holding it, I could see it too. It was a blocked number. His finger lingered over the answer button, but he hit the ignore button instead. He laid it face down on the arm of the couch and it made a beeping sound telling him there was a new voicemail, I assumed.

"Did my phone wake you up?" he asked, I didn't know he could tell I was awake.

"Yeah." I answered without moving.

"I'm sorry."

"Its fine, don't apologize." I said. "I'm sorry I fell asleep on you." I sat up from leaning on him and stretched.

"It's fine, don't apologize." He smiled. We had another one of our moments where we would just sit and look at each other smiling. We had quite a few of those. It was quickly shattered by his phone ringing again followed by Matty whispering "shit" under his breath. He quickly silenced his phone and put it on vibrate. "You know what, Rose? Lets go do something fun." He stood up, taking my hand and pulled me to my feet. "Lets go to the arcade down by the park!"

"Okay, I've never been there so you'll have to show me how to get there."

"You've never been?!" He gasped. "Lets go!" He ran out of the room and came back with his wallet, his keys, and a leather jacket. He threw his arm over my shoulders and we walked out. His car was parked on the side of the street outside his building. I hadn't realized that I had sleep for so long, it was around three o'clock.

"You know how to drive in America?" I asked.

"Well yeah, I had to learn." We drove in a peaceful silence. It didn't take us long to get to the arcade. There were a bunch of kids playing and riding around on skateboards outside. "You ready?" He asked

"Yes!" I opened the door and hopped out. Matty got out and ran around to my side, putting his arm around my shoulders again.

The arcade was an alright sized building with flashing lights everywhere. Games lined the walls and there were small clusters of games scattered around. There were two desks on each side of the door, each with shelves of prizes and candy. Matty walked up to a motorcycle racing game and sat down, motioning for me to sit in the one next to it. He pulled out a little purple cloth bag and took out a handful of quarters.

"Why do you have so many quarters?" I laughed

"Usually when I rob people, I take the change they have lying around too."

"Are you serious?"

"How else would I play so many games?" he handed me three quarters to put in the machine. The game lit up and we chose our characters and bikes. Matty put it on easy for me and it started. I was extremely bad at it.

"I'm going so slow!" I shouted.

"That's because you chose a shitty bike." he laughed.

"Well you could have told me that before!"

"Here," he leaned over and pushed a blue button on my bike game. My character started speeding past a few other racers.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?"

"Nitro." he said smiling. Matty ended up winning, I came in fourth. He told me that was still pretty good for a person who had never played before, but I told him I would beat him one day.

We played for hours, running back and forth to different games, collecting tickets, and cheering younger kids on who were playing against each other. There were a lot of kids in the arcade, but there were also a lot of people my age. Matty's phone vibrated a few times in his pocket, but he ignored it. The whole time there, we were extremely close, he had his arm around me most of the time and any time a guy would get too close, he would tighten his grip. He only did it slightly, but I could still feel it.

Around nine o clock the arcade was extremely crowded. Matty said we would play one more game and then we could go. He let me choose the last game, which was pointless since there was only one game left that we hadn't played, Mortal Kombat. We walked up to the game and put in our change. I was doing pretty well, but Matty was really good at this game. He would occasionally bump my hip or lean into my shoulder to distract me. It was working, every time he did it, he would get in extra hits and get the upper hand in the fight. I would try to do it to him, but shoving his shoulders would do nothing. He bumped my hip again, that was it.

I let go of my joystick and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him down a little. I kissed him quickly leaving him confused. While he was standing there dazed, I grabbed my joystick and started playing again, beating the shit out of his player. Matty was still standing there frozen, smiling. I made the final blow to his character and won. I turned to him with my hand on my hip. "Ready to go?" I said.

"You kind of just kissed me."

"Yeah" I said. "I kinda did. Now come on let's go, I think these kids want to play." I nodded my head towards the mix of girls and boys that were watching us, who now had shocked expressions at what I did. Matty laughed and swung his arm over my shoulder like he usually did. We walked out, deciding to save our tickets for another time. Matty started to lead me away from the car. "Where are we going? Your cars over there."

"I know, I thought we could go for a walk in the park." He said. It was dark except for the few lamps posted around.

"Thank you for bringing me to the arcade." I said. "It was fun."

"Yeah it was pretty fun. I beat you so many times." He teased.

"Yeah, but I beat you in Mortal Kombat." I said proudly.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me," Matty stopped, he turned to me, and grabbed my face. He leaned down and kissed me. It was nice and gave me a warm fuzzy feeling all over. I kissed him back. When I kissed him before it was quick, but this time it was long and had more feeling to it.

"Hey! what hell hell are you kids doing?"

We pulled away and saw homeless man laying on a bench near us. I recognized him, I used to bring him food and money and in the winter I made sure he had blankets. I haven't seen him since my brother left.

"Sorry! We didn't mean to bother you, Ed." I looped my arm with Matty's and started to walk away.

"Oh, Rose is that you?" We stopped.

"Yeah, how are you Ed?" I asked.

"I'm good, how's Theo?" I was hoping he wouldn't ask.

"He's alright. He's still in California. He calls me occasionally, says he's doing well." I lied. My brother hasn't called me or talked to me in almost two years.

"That's good. Alright I'm going back to sleep, don't get too adventurous you two."

"Good night Ed." I said as we walked away.

We walked to the car quietly. Every time I looked at Matty he had a big smile on his face. When we got into the car he looked over at me, still smiling. "What?" I asked.

"You kissed me." He grinned.

"You kissed me too."

"I know." He was still smiling. "We," he motioned bak and forth between us. "were kissing."

"Yeah, we were." I laughed.

"I like kissing you." He said making me blush. "You're cheeks are all pink, I made you blush!" he laughed.

"Be quiet and drive!" I grabbed a piece of my hair and covered my face.

"Stop it!" he laughed. "Don't hide your face!" He tried pulling my hair from my face, but I swatted his hands away, laughing. "What if I want to kiss you again? You're hair is in the way!"

"Drive you loser!" I laughed.

"Ah, but I'm a loser that you kissed!"