ephemeral // matty healy

the birthday party

Blair logged into her computer the next day with a few unread messages in her email. She hated when they piled up before she had even sat in her seat, but this morning it was only half a dozen replies - except for one. It was from Jamie, with the word "urgent" in the subject line. She skimmed the greeting and discovered that the band's new song was completed.

Ronan came in late, hurriedly setting his bag and jacket onto his desk. He muttered a quick "hey" across the desks before starting up his computer.

"Wanna hear something cool?" Blair asked him. He beamed and gave up on setting up his desk area for the day.

"Obviously," he crouched in front of Blair's computer as she offered him an earphone. Then she opened the file and pressed play.

The song was interesting, a lot different from their older releases. It had more ambient clips in the background that let your focus fall on different instruments at a time instead of all together.

"What is this?" Ronan asked. "It's not half bad." They were both bobbing their heads to the steady, dragging beat. Guitars chimed in after Matty's breathy singing voice.

"It's the song for the 1975's new video," Blair said proudly. She could suddenly see their video coming together more clearly now. Before it looked hazier, but she understood what Matty was talking about when he rambled on about social media and the Internet. She hated the fact he was starting to make sense to her.

Ronan shoved her arm after the song faded. "Well, draw me up a storyboard and I can help you take first steps."

It took Blair the better part of the day, but she was sketching, clipping pages out of magazines and pasting everything together on a poster. It was messy, but she explained her thoughts to Ronan, who was also on board with the story and setting. She shot a quick reply to Jamie.

The song sounds great. Is it possible that everyone could come in for a meeting tomorrow morning?

-

Bo sat in the museum's beige lunchroom with a leg popped over the arm of the chair he had claimed. He couldn't believe how much he had fallen in love with Shelley, it had gotten to the point where he stretched his break by a few minutes here and there to squeeze as many pages as he could into his time off.

One of his coworkers nudged him and told him that the next tour was waiting for him, but before leaving the breakroom, he quickly messaged Stella.

Completely head over heels for Mary... I might have to keep this book until I die.

Bo clutched his phone to his chest and told his heart to stop beating so furiously. Just for a second.

Stella replied: Don't you dare!

His knees felt like gelatin but he quickly composed himself against the door of his locker. He breathed and thought about her springy hair, her kind smile, her soft hands, her funky dances, her soothing voice.

Stop, he thought, stop before you melt into the floorboards.

But he didn't, and instead, he egged Stella on through a variety of text messages.

I don't know, it's a really nice book...

It would be a shame if I were to "forget" to return it...

I'd have to find a good place to hide it though...

It wasn't long before Stella called him, annoyed with the charade.

"Would you stop that?" She asked impatiently. "I'm right in the middle of sculpting."

He imagined her covered in clay, with her hair tied into a topsy-turvy bun on the top of her head, wiping away a bead of perspiration from her brow. But at least she was thinking about him, he reasoned to himself.

"Maybe," Bo taunted. "Do you have any other books I might be able to borrow from you? I semi-sort of-quasi promise to return it."

"Hey, you haven't even returned the favour, friend," She said, mirroring his tone. "A bit rude to assume I'll just hand you another book."

Bo thanked high heaven that she could not see his beet-red face through their call. He thought about the collection in his room, sifting through the titles in his brain. He peeked out of the break room, still keeping in mind that he had people waiting on him.

"You like Poe?" he asked as returned to his locker, trying to keep himself composed. "I've got a really big anthology of his best stories. They're very chilling."

"Alright, I'll think of what I can set aside for you once you've finished with Shelley." Bo could hardly contain his excitement and almost didn't let her finish her sentence.

"I've only got one story left, so I can come by to exchange after my shift."

Stella was surprised for a moment, pausing to shift the phone in her hand. "Alright, I'll see you in a bit, then."

They hung up, leaving Bo particularly content in his new plans with Stella. He nearly forgot he had work to do but was unfortunately reminded he was on the clock when he saw the time. Bo straightened his nametag, locked his items away and jogged out to meet his new museum enthusiasts.