Robbers (The 1975//Matty Healy)

Police Boy

"Alright so who's this 'police boy Jake'?" Matty asked the second we reached my apartment.

"One of my friends." I said casually, trying not to make him freak out.

"A friend? You're friends with a cop?!"

"Calm down." I said "I won't turn you in."

"How can I trust you? You could have already called him and told him to come get me!" He shouted. "That's it, I'm done. Finally caught, by a girl in turtle pajamas!" I looked down realizing I was still in my pajamas.

"Would you stop! I am not going to turn you in, if I was, I already would have! I already talked to Jake today and told him specifically not to come over! Happy?"

"What? You've talked to him today? Oh god you are going to turn me in!" He yelled. I walked up to him and slapped him on the face. "Ow! what the hell was that for?"

"Stop it, I didn't turn you in. You're acting ridiculous and you need to stop. Don't make me rethink why I even decided to help you!"

"Why did you?" He asked calmly.

"What?" I was taken aback by his sudden calmness.

"Why are you helping me? Why do you care?"

I took a few minutes to think about my answer. "I'm not sure. I guess it's just that I've lived a boring life. I've worked at the same place for five years, my brother sends me money so I don't really need to work, I have a friend who calls me every time it rains because he thinks I can't handle it; I just wanted to do something spontaneous for once. I wanted a little bit of excitement I guess." I said quietly. It was silent for a couple of minutes until I thought of something.
"Why'd you tell me you're the robber?" I asked. Somehow we had both ended up sitting on the floor in front of my couch.

"What do you mean?"

"For almost half a year you've been robbing people and no one knew who you were, but you just told me. You just let it out. Why?"

"I'm not sure, I figured if I was gonna die, I wanted at least one person to know it's me. So that if I died, you would call the police and tell them what happened and who I was and then everyone would feel better knowing I was dead. Knowing that I wasn't going to break into their homes at night." He said sadly.

"You sound like you care about everyone more than yourself."

"I guess I do." He said looking down.

"Why do you rob people?" I asked

"Well I uh-" he was cut off by someone knocking at my door.

"Hey Rose, I know you said I didn't have to come over, but I went to the bookstore and Sheryl said you called in sick. Are you okay?" It was Jake.

"Shit" I whispered to myself. "Yeah hold on Jake, Ill be right there!"

"You said he wouldn't come." Matty whispered. "What do we do?!" He asked anxiously.

"Pretend you're mute. Don't say anything I'll do all the talking, okay? Jake doesn't know sign language so just make stuff up." I got up and opened the door. Jake was standing there with a damp raincoat on, covering his police uniform. He was a few years older than me. I met him when I first moved into the city with my brother when I was seventeen. "Hey Jake!"

"Are you feeling well?" He asked automatically. He was too over protective and that got on my nerves. He acted like I was some wounded puppy that needed help all the time. Obviously I didn't need anyone's help seeing as I fixed Matty up all on my own.

"Yeah I'm fine, just feeling a bit under the weather." I opened the door a bit more so he could enter.

"Who's that?" Narrowing his eyes towards Matty.

"Jake this is my old high school friend, Matty. Matty this is Jake." Matty smiled and held out his hand. Jake didn't even acknowledge his gesture. Matty played his rejection off by scratching his head awkwardly.

"So how long have you known Rose?" He asked, starting his typical "fatherly interrogation." He did this to every guy I ever met. He acted like he was the only person good enough for me.

"Matty is mute, Jake." I said, Matty nodded.

"Oh alright then." He still gave Matty a dirty look. "So about that shooting," he started to say. Matty tensed when he mentioned it, but luckily Jake didn't notice.

"What about it?" I asked

"I questioned two of the boys who shot the man, they said that they shot him because he was the robber."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, this is big! We might finally catch the guy, Rose!"

"Wow that's great!" I put on a fake smile. Suddenly, Jake's phone rang and he looked at it.

"It's the station, I better go." He gave me a hug and kissed my forehead. Ugh. "Feel better Rose." And with that he left.

"Feel better rose." Matty mimicked.

"Shhh he could still hear you!" I warned, but Matty just laughed it off.