Darling | Matty Healy

Chapter 14

"Mama!" Zion's voice came crackling through the phone's speaker.

"Hi Zuzu!" Amaya hummed, settling back into the couch. "Where's your sister?"

Zion turned the phone to show Nina sitting on the kitchen counter, Ben wiping up what looked like food but could potentially be spit up. "Neenee still messy from breakfast!" he said giggling. Zion was the kind of kid that found everything hilarious, even the most innocuous or dull situation would provide infinite entertainment to him, and hearing his giggle through the phone filled his mother's heart with equal parts of joy and sadness.

It was just past midnight and Amaya had spent the day mostly in her room writing, once she had gotten her creative juices flowing she couldn't seem to stop until Charli dragged her out for dinner. They had all been crashed on the couch for a few hours since, just talking about nothing in particular, catching Matty's eye every so often and subtly blushing. There had seemingly been a collective decision to not acknowledge what had gone on between the two of them in group settings. Amaya had no idea how many people he had told or if it was just Charli and George who knew and she didn't really want to know. Now that people were tapering off and heading to bed she'd called Ben to say good morning to the kids.

Charli nudged closer to Amaya, trying to see the screen. "Hi Zion!" she said and Amaya tilted the screen to see her.

"Is that Auntie Charli?" he asked, a genuine expression of shock painted across his face.

"Yeah!" Amaya said, smiling at the purity of his surprise.

"What's she doing there?" he asked.

"Hey buddy!" Charli said, "Your mum's been staying with me, I've been taking care of her!"

"That's good!" Zion said, standing up and thudding across the kitchen floor to show his dad the phone. "Dada ... it's Auntie Charli!"

Suddenly it was Ben's face that took up the screen, a look of bemusement swiftly replaced with an uncomfortable look of concern at the sight of Charli, eyebrows raised, eyes piercing through the screen and into his soul.

"Hello Benjamin!" Charli exclaimed.

"Play nice!" Amaya murmured, quickly jabbing Charli in the ribs.

"I'm always nice!" she said with a wicked grin.

"Hi Charli," Ben sighed out, his attention going back to the toddler sitting in front of him.

"How's it going Ben?" Amaya asked

"Good ... just had a little incident with some porridge didn't we!" he cooed, wiping at the little girls mouth gently as she kicked her legs against the cabinet doors.

"Did you get messy bubba?" Amaya asked, Charli sniggering at how quickly Amaya had reverted back to her 'mum' voice. It wasn't overt baby talk, it was just the tone of her voice that shifted; she was so direct and biting usually, but with her kids she was soft, almost melodic in her tone of voice.

"Mama!" Nina exclaimed as the screen came into her line of vision "I dirty mama!"

"I can see that baby girl!" Amaya replied "What are you guys gonna do today?" she asked.

"We're gonna get dressed," Ben's voice came over as she could still just see her daughter's face, her little fingers gripping either side of the phone, trying to hold it as close to her own face as she could. "Then we're gonna go to the park, watch a movie ... and then we're gonna make dinner for Grandma aren't we!"