The bus ride went quickly. The second Matty and I sat on the bus couch, I fell asleep on his shoulder. The hum of the bus lulled me to sleep, and I shortly feel Matty's gentle breathing down my neck, showing me that he too has fallen asleep. When we arrive in Philly, neither of us wake up, but being the gentleman he is, Ross comes over and shakes Matty's shoulder roughly, waking the two of us up. Without even opening his eyes, Matty says, "Aw fuck off Ross," and sticks up his middle finger.
I hear Ross laugh and say, "Get up lovebirds, welcome to Philly." Matty and I stiffly wander off the bus, heading into the hotel lobby to grab our room keys. The hotel is pretty standard, its no Ritz, but for two nights it's just fine. Matty heads up first to check in, he banters with the guy for a minute, and then is handed two keys. Weird, I think to myself, why would he need multiple keys?
I walk up towards the desk, but before I can greet the employee to check in, Matty hands me a key. I give him a confused look, "Matty I need to check in," I say questioningly. "No need," he says. "You're stayin with me," he says casually, and he strolls over towards the elevator. I follow him, "What? You want me to stay with you?" I ask him. He walks into the elevator pressing the button for floor three. A devilish smile appears on his face, "Matty?" I prod at him. He snickers, "Remember the last time we were in the elevator together?" He asks me.
I look at him dumbfounded. "Matthew." I say. "Why are you doing this?" I ask him. He looks at me weirdly. "Why wouldn't I want you to stay with me, I want you, not just physically. I want you around me all the time. Just like talkin' to you I guess." I look down at my feet, not wanting to let him see how happy that made me. "Okay," I say with a smile.
We walk off and approach the room. He slides the key into the slot to open the door, and holds it open for me. "And, while we're on the topic, I'm taking you out tonight." I give him a smirk, "Hm are you, Mr. Healy? And where are we headed?" I ask him. He comes up to me and throws his arms around my neck, keeping me close to him. We lightly swings us back and forth, "Fuckin' love your eyes, Luna. Could get lost in em' forever, you know that?" He says to me.
I pull his head into mine and kiss him, pulling back slightly and letting our noses touch. He presses his lips to mine one last time and says, "get ready Lu, we've got a big night ahead of us," he says to me. "What should I wear, like something casual?" I ask him. "Whatever you wear is perfect, you are perfect," he tells me.
I throw on a more casual outfit, because I figure we'll be walking around the city a bit. I toss on one of my favorite shirts, it's a vintage Stones shirt my Dad gave me. I pair it with some green converse, black leather trousers, and a simple black bag.
"Ready," I call out to Matty from the bathroom. I left my hair natural, wavy down my back, and I decided against any makeup, just a bit of lip gloss. I make sure to put on deodorant and a bit of perfume, and I head back to the bedroom to grab my phone. "You look so hot," he says, greeting me with a kiss on the cheek. "Not too abd yourself," I say back to him. "You ready to head out?" Matty asks me. I nod and he grabs my hand and we head out to the elevators.
To our luck, we see George also waiting out near the elevators and Matty quickly drops my hand. I give him a weird look, why would he let my hand go just because George is around? He gives me a pleading look with his eyes to not make a scene, so sulk and greet George. "Where you's off to?" George asks us in his deep rasp.
"Bit of an adventure it seems," Matty replies to him. George nods, "What about yourself, George?" I say looking at him. "Jaime and I are meeting up for a quick drink, and from then who knows where the night will take me" he replies. I laugh a bit, and we head into the elevator, Matty stands behind George and I who are positioned more towards the front of the elevator. George and I make casual conversation, but it's hard to focus while Matty toys with my waistband from behind, teasing with me. Jealous twat. Thank God the doors open, and we head out into the expansive lobby.
Once George is over at the bar, Matty picks my hand back up, as we walk out onto the Philadelphia streets. "You wanna let me know what happened with George?" I ask him. He lifts my hand to his mouth, kissing it gently. "It's hard once they know. It becomes bigger than you and I. They're my brothers, and I gotta tell them all at once. I'll tell em' I promise my love, don't worry. Just wasn't bout to do it at the lift," he explains to me with a smile.
"Alright," I say to him, "but, now can you please tell me where we're going? It better be food related because I am absolutley starving." He nods, "you'll see in a second." He swings our arms between us, making this feel all so natural. Being with him is like breathing, I don't have to think about it. It come so easy, like he's a part of me. I know he feels it too, I can see it when he looks at me. His eyes painting the picture of a future with him by my side.
We stop suddenly, it seems like there is some sort of queue that's extending down the road. I go to move around them, but Matty says to me, "We're here." I give him a confused look, "Matty we're on the street." He laughs, "I need to make the most of my tourist time, so we're getting a classic Philadelphia Cheesesteak." I must still look confused. "Ya know, Philly Cheesesteak, it's like the thing here?" He asks me.
I shake my head, I'm not overly well-versed in US delicacies, but it seems I have a good guide. He pulls out a cigarette while we wait, lighting it quickly, and then passing it on to me. As the sun goes down it starts to cool down, and Matty wraps his arms around me. It's almost our turn to order, but I hear someone say, "Oh my god. Is that the guy from The 1975!"
Matty and I turn around and see a group of girls a couple people behind us, pointing towards us with their phones up. I start to get super anxious, but I only feel worse when I see the group start to move towards us. Matty takes his arm off me, leaving me feeling naked. "Hey guys," Matty says to the girls.
They all swarm him, seperating the two of us, and I'm pushed to the outer circle of the chaos. Now, people start to notice. Everyone gets their phones out recording him, and even me. I hear people ask him, "who's that girl with you?" And my heart hurts even more when he replies, "oh she's just my friend."
I know he's trying to protect me, but I feel ignored and shut out. I move out of the way and let him have his moment with his fans. This is what I was most anxious for. The public eye, they already seem to hate me, I see it all over social media. I can just imagine the posts people will conjure up from tonight, 'Matty seen bored in line with latest fling' or 'Fangirl seen cuddling Matty tonight' as captions.
The line has cleared for food since everyone is trying to see what the fuss is about, so I head up to the truck and get two cheesesteaks. I wait for them at the other end of the food truck, and after several minutes, Matty catches back up to me. He comes over beaming, "how fucking cool was that. My first big notice in the US!" He's so excited, so I just pretend that was the greatest thing ever. "That was insanse, I'm so happy for you!"
He turns back to see if the crowd had fanned out, and only once he ensures no one can see he leans in and kisses me hard. Breathing heavily, he pulls back and quietly says, "I'm so happy tonight here with you." I smile and manage to say, "me too".
We eat on the street and when we finish, we silently share a cigarette. The only noise is the soft exhale coming from each of us. "You okay?" Matty asks me softly. "Yeah, I'm okay. That was just a lot," I say quietly. "I just hear what they say about me, and wonder what the hell I'm doing wrong." Matty puts his arm around my shoulder, and gives me a long kiss on my temple. "I don't know Lu. I really don't. It sucks, and I'm sorry. I'm here for you. Always." Matty murmurs into my hair.
I turn and give him a soft quick kiss, "thank you," is all I can manage. He stands up, holding out both his hands, helping me up off the curb. We walk back with each other's arms draped around each other's waist. We make it back to the hotel, and into the room. We quietly change into comfortable clothes for bed. We lay next to each other, my head tucked between his chin and collarbone, and his arms holding me close to him. I fall asleep to him quietly singing a song I haven't yet heard. "I love you," I whisper before I doze off.