takes a bit more • matthew healy

xxiv.) stagnant

i find myself waking up to an unfamiliar velvet flooring, with a texture that feels too luxurious for a hotel.

this isn't the hotel. for fuck's sake, what happened last night?

have i passed on?

"fucking hell..." i mutter to myself in disbelief as i attempt to get up from the floor, but i pause once i feel a leg over my torso. it's rhiannon's. she passed out next to me as well.

that's a good sign, isn't it? at least i didn't run off with some other woman while i was wrecked.

"where are we? are we in america?" i say out loud to no one in particular, mostly to myself, because my headache is killing me and i'd rather be obnoxiously loud to alleviate the throbbing in my brain.

"we're in a tour bus." someone says, and it takes my brain a few seconds to register george's voice. i look over to him, and he's fucking shirtless with a ton of lipstick stains on his chest.

"mate, what the fuck is that?" i point to his body. at that, he looks down and shouts in surprise.

"what the fuck?" is all he says. over and over. "what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck." and then, he looks at me. "do you remember all this, mate?"

"i've no clue." i answer, still a bit hazy.

it takes another few seconds for my painful brain to register what george had just said.

we are in a tour bus?

george stands up, trying to take a look around the place. a tour bus. nobody has told us about a tour bus. what the fuck are we doing in a tour bus?

"where's ross and hann?" i ask out loud, looking over to my girlfriend to check if she's breathing or something. we must have taken a ton of drugs.

i hear a loud crash and george grunting in pain. "fucking hell, i slipped in the fucking bathroom." he says. "er, i don't know, matthew, i am still kind of fucked up, if you haven't noticed."

i have not been inside a tour bus before. sure, i have seen those in videos of other famous stars being rich enough to actually afford a tourbus, but we are just fucking starting out as a band—how the fuck did this happen?

a door opens almost instantly, and jamie appears. "for fuck's sake, i thought you were all dead."

i rub the sleep off my eyes. "yes, thanks, jamie."

"jamie!" george shouts from what i feel is the bathroom. "jamie, fucking hell, where are we?"

"i got you a tourbus." my manager replies nonchalantly. "i suppose you've forgotten the promise i made you several weeks back?"

"you made a promise?" i squint my eyes. my head is fucking throbbing.

"what are you, matty, fifty years old? you always seem to forget our conversations, yeah?" jamie takes a swig from his water bottle. "we're nearing middlesbrough. kind of made a stop over to have something to eat while you're hungover."

i carefully untangle my legs from rhiannon's skinny ones as she lays asleep on the floor.

"your girlfriend is something else, isn't she?" jamie tells me. "you two went places last night. ross had to call me up to look for you lot."

i frown. "thanks, jamie."

he shrugs. "all part of the job. come down when you're ready for breakfast."