takes a bit more • matthew healy

xxxviii.) george

a/n: hi, sorry for another late update, exams were stressful and i had to make it through. anyways i hope you like this chapter or whatever, let me know what you think. alright then love you v v much x

—

"hey, it's rhiannon. i don't really have my phone most of the time, which is why you can't really ring me. so, yeah—leave a message."

beep.

"hi, rhiannon."

i can hear my voice choke.

"it's—it's matty. erm, it's 3am, i'm getting awfully cold, not that i should care about that—i don't really care, do i? uh—fuck. yeah. it's cold. i miss you right now. and i'm sorry. and it's your birthday. happy birthday. call me. call me? okay. i love you. i'm sorry... erm, i should go. bye, then. i'm—i'm sorry—"

beep. i lay my head back on the cold concrete wall, my arse practically freezing at this point. the tube station is the last place i would want to be at three in the morning, but i don't quite have a choice, do i? kearsley is a fifteen-minute train ride to manchester, but i have been sitting on this bench for nearly two hours.

i feel like an eight year-old boy.

"are you talking to yourself?" i look up to see a girl in her twenties with short platinum hair and a bright orange hoodie above her head, squinting her eyes at me. i'd love to roll my eyes at this point at the seemingly amusing— yet timely, i'd say—appearance of a manic pixie dream girl, but i just nod my head a little, trying to look unfazed.

she nods in return. her hair mixed with the bright colour of her outfit makes me think of the sun at 5 in the afternoon but whatever. "that's nice, i guess. you seem cold." she stares down at her feet.

"do i know you?" i just have to ask.

"no, but i know you."

of course she does.

"you've been trying to ring that girl—rhiannon, is it?—for the past two hours. it's hard not to take notice."

i sit up a bit straight on the freezing bench.

the freezing wind is causing my voice to tremble.

fuck, i don't remember it getting this cold this time of year.

now it's my turn to have my eyes all squinted. "you've been here for two hours? hasn't the train come along a few minutes ago?"

she smiles a little at me. "just like you, i'm waiting for someone, sir."

i frown.

"you should really grab a cup of coffee. it's freezing." she advances forward and before i know it she's sat beside me. she sighs. "and maybe a shave when you're at it. you look god awful."

she's smiling as she said that, so i'm not quite sure if she means it at all.

and i don't know about you, but i've had my share of meeting people in the tube station at such an ungodly hour.

that's where i had met rhiannon for fuck's sake.

the beginning of what seems like a cautionary tale, now ending up in flames because of me, quite obviously.