ephemeral // matty healy

fiesta

"What did your boss say about your new job?" Bo said through a mouth full of nachos. The trio sat on Stella's living room floor, the coffee table littered with tapas and chips from the Mexican restaurant down the street."

"Well," Blair dipped a chip into the pico de gallo, "It's not a new job, but I'm joining their new London location. It's still just starting out, but there has already been quite a bit of traction, which is why I was sent here."

"That is so exciting!" Stella squealed. "And you came at a good time, too. I finally convinced my brother to move out of the flat and in with his partner."

Bo spoke in a melodic voice, "That's sweet, isn't i-"

"I just wanted him out. We don't have to get into specifics," Stella cut him off abruptly, then she stood up and gathered another round of beers.

"Thanks, mate. I'm excited to live with you again, it'll be like my undergrad again." Blair clinked her bottle against Stella's, then cheered with Bo's. It was nice to have the three of them together again. They talked and laughed and drank until the sky went dark. The three amigos - reunited.

Until Bo left at nine o'clock. He preached that his body was a temple, and he needed eight hours of sleep to function properly, but ignored the irony of taking the train home with approximately three and a half beers in him.  The two girls were left sitting on the couch in the living room, illuminated by the glow of a single naked light bulb. 

"I wish we could stay up all night," Stella whispered. "Is that possible?"

"You ask like we're sleeping over in my basement." She gave her friend a lazy shove on the arm. "Are you worried you'll keep my mum awake if we play another movie?"

Stella rolled her eyes and walked into her room for a moment. "Care for some music?"

Blair tried to peek through the door frame to get a glimpse of what she would select but instead, she saw Stella placing her bright red boombox on the coffee table, with a spinning CD inside. She looked at it for a moment, anticipating the first notes of track one, but didn't recognize the music. Instead, Blair stood up and joined her friend in an old-school dance-off, where the two of them would take turns grooving, then "challenging" the other.

"Who are these guys? They're quite good!" Blair yelled over some twangy guitar.

"You don't recognize 'em?" Stella took her friend's hand to dance the eggbeater. "It's your old mate from school! Matthew... Something or other."

"You bought their album?" Blair was now reluctantly letting Stella shake her limp arms to and fro.  "Why- why- why would you do that, Stells?"

"Because they rock?"

With her mouth agape, Blair suddenly heard things she didn't like in the song that played. Everything felt off, drums and bass and lyrics didn't match and make sense. She hated the twangy guitar.

"Well, this has been fun," she finally pulled her hands out of Stella's grasp. "I'm going to turn in for the night. Is it alright if I take the couch tonight?"

"You mean you don't want to take the bedroom without a mattress?" Stella poked at her friend's ribs, and let her hair and dangling earring bobble around as she laughed at her own joke.

"Pass," said Blair, rolling her eyes a bit. "You want a cuppa before bed?" She made her way to the kitchen and turned on the kettle. Stella glanced over her shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks." She took long strides into her bedroom. "It'll help me calm down a bit. I'm just so excited." Stella rambled for a bit about how she had plans for the three of them now they were all together. She slipped back out of the room in her pyjamas for the evening, which consisted of some shorts and a large T-shirt from a concert they went to in school.

"Oh my god, you still have the Florence and the Machine top? Still looks huge on you, by the way." Stella looked down, scanning the shirt. She held the bottom hem out like a skirt and bent her back knee into a small curtsey.

"Yeah, obviously," she twirled. "And knowing me, I'll probably wear it to work tomorrow."

Stella wore many hats. Primarily, she was an artist. She always said that if she would quit her other gigs if she could do it full time. She didn't have an area of expertise, it was more like a fleeting feeling of interest. Stella would sometimes go to a pottery studio and work on her handmade tea set, then she would pick up her camera and take some stills of the trees in the park down the street, then she would finger-paint an abstract portrait. Blair admired Stella's knack for trying everything, but she worried that it was the reason she wasn't able to make any money from it.

See, besides artistry, Stella was also a dog-walker, a cleaning lady, a delivery person, a babysitter and a line cook. It was a hard-knock life, indeed.

"Right," Blair said. "Where are you off to tomorrow?" She let the tea steep in the mugs for a moment before handing one to her friend. Blair held the cup close to her body and listened intently.

"Tomorrow, I'm taking Mrs. Wiley's schnauzer for a jaunt in the park, where I'll be able to take some pictures before the dinner shift at Rosco's." Blair sighed in admiration.

"I missed Rosco's! Do they still have those crispy garlic chips?"

"Still garlicky, still crispy, still the best." Blair's mouth started to water in anticipation.

"Boy," she lazily ran her finger around the rim of her mug. "I sure do miss those fries. They were so delicious... and the portions were so big, too. Just perfect for sharing." Blair sipped her tea. "Oh, by the way, did you make this? It's so cute.

Stella couldn't help but glance down at the bumblebee mug. "Fine! I'll get you some garlic fries."

Blair walked away with her tea. "Thanks, babe, I knew you loved me. Make sure they're extra crispy."

Stella blew a quick kiss, then walked into her room again. Before closing the door behind her, "Thanks for the tea."

And then Blair was alone, standing in the living room. She placed the bumblebee on the coffee table and walked into the bathroom, tying her long dark hair onto the top of her head, revealing the silver stripe at her widow's peak.

Fucking New York stress. She got that in the first few months, just after the permanent eyebags set in, but before she broke her nose from the result of running into a glass door. She had a sickly sort of charm about her.

But she would never believe it.

"Sleep is what I need." So Blair brushed her teeth and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a white T-shirt. She didn't bother setting an alarm, she was notorious for hitting 'snooze' a couple of times before getting out of bed anyway.

Stella had left a pile of folded blankets on the end of the sofa, along with a pair of socks and an extra pillow.

Blair walked past her friend's kind gesture and blissfully fell face-first onto the sofa. She was asleep before her head hit the couch cushion.