In Denial | Alex Turner

IX

I slowly opened my eyelids, trying to realise where I was. I blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the light and I realised where I was. I was layed down on Alex's settee with a red plaid blanket on top of me to keep me warm. Memories of us falling asleep on each other came back and sent a shiver down my spine and a smile on my lips.

I sat up on the sofa as I heard a guitar's melody. I straightened my back, stretching and looked around the living room. It looked even better in the daytime.

"She's a silver linin', lone ranger ridin' through an open space
In my mind, when she's not right there beside me"

I heard Alex's voice coming from another room. He was singing quietly, trying not to wake me up. I stood up and tiptoed my way to the room the melody was coming from. The door was shut but my hearing ability helped me make my way to the right room. I decided to listen to him a bit more.

"I go crazy 'cause here isn't where I wanna be
And satisfaction feels like a distant memory
And I can't help myself
All I wanna ever say is, "Are you mine?"
Well, are you mine? (Are you mine tomorrow?)
Are you mine? (Or just mine tonight?)
Are you mine? (Are you mine? Mine?)"

I smiled to myself as I heard his singing. His voice was deep and smooth and it made the hair on the back of my neck rise.

I grabbed the door knob and opened the door, revealing a fully-woken Alex sitting on his bed with his acoustic guitar and plenty of notes and papers laid in front of him. He was wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a white plain t-shirt. His hair was messy and not gelled this time, falling in his face.

He quickly hid the papers in front of him as soon as he saw me and it made me raise and eyebrow and eye him suspiciously.

He let the guitar next to him and stood up from his king sized bed, standing in front of me.

"Why did you hide those papers?" I smirked and took a step closer to him.

"Goodmornin', darlin'," he smiled down at me and pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear, untangling it from my drop earring. "Breakfast?" he stepped back with his smirk. God, how I hated his teasing.

"Sure, but do you have any t-shirt I can borrow? I don't want to wear the same as yesterday."

"Yeh, sure, let me find one," he walked over to his closet, opening one of the drawers. "Is this okay?" he pulled out a black 'Triumph' t-shirt with the UK flag on it.

"Yeah, it works," I shrugged and took the t-shirt off his hands.

"I'll let ya change and go make breakfast," he smiled at me and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

I locked the door, just to make sure and walked over to the bed where I had left the t-shirt, but then, my eyes fell on his papers. Now, I know I shouldn't have, but I took a brief look at them. They all had a title on top of them. "'R U Mine?', 'I Want It All'," I read. "'Ar-'"

"Ya alreyt in there, love?" Alex knocked on the door and I shoved the papers back where they previously were. 

"Yeah, just-" I stopped in panic. I got my top off, threw it on the ground and grabbed his t-shirt, throwing it on. I grabbed the top off the ground and opened the door, looking at Alex with an innocent smile. "Was just trying to figure out how to style it," I walked past him and towards the living room when my nose caught a familiar scent which made me nostalgic.

"Made us breakfast," he walked passed me and into the kitchen.

"Fuck, this is the breakfast I used to eat back home," I threw my top on the settee with my leather jacket and walked in the kitchen with him.

"'Back home'? You're not from New York?" he asked as I sat down on the chair.

I watched him pour coffee in two mugs, "No," I chuckled. "I'm actually from France," I admitted.

His eyes widened in disbelief. "You're full of surprises," he laughed and sat on the chair across me, giving me one of the mugs.

I laughed at his expression and shook my head as I took a sip from my coffee.

-

We spent around an hour eating breakfast and talking. We talked about where we were from, how our childhood was like and he ended up telling me stories of the lads and him from back in the early 00's.

We were laughing when his phone buzzed. "It's Jamie," he said, trying to catch his breath. He answered the phone. "Jameh!" he exclaimed. 

"Couldn't be arsed.... Yeh.... Yeh, meet ya there in 20," he hang up and put the phone down, finishing his coffee.

"Everything okay?" I asked worried.

"Yes, love, don't worry. He just told me to be at the studio in 20. Let me go throw summat on and we'll leave," he smiled sweetly; something I hadn't seen until then.

"Yeah, sure, I'll wait," I smiled back at him and watched him leave the kitchen.

I decided it was time to freshen up a little and style the t-shirt Alex gave me so I would look presentable. I brushed my hair out with my fingers and then tugged the t-shirt in my trousers. I re-applied my burgandy lipstick and mascara before taking a step back from the mirror to look at my reflection.

"The shirt looks better on ye," I heard him chuckle from behind and I turned around to look at him. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair or black jeans. 

I rolled my eyes and smirked, looking at him as he grabbed his leather jacket off the hanger. I shoved my phone in my jeans' back pocket and threw my leather jacket on my shoulders before following Alex outside the house.

-

We walked in the studio and all of their gazes fell on us. Jamie tried his best not to make a cocky comment about our arrival and Elle had the same expression as Matt; the suspicious one.

"Don't waste any time, we have the second single to record today," the same console guy turned their attention on him as he snapped his fingers.

I took my seat next to Elle on the settee like the day before and she leant over to me, "Nice shirt. Don't think I've ever seen it before, have I?" she whispered with a smirk.

I groaned, "Whatever you think it is, it's not," I reassured her with an eye roll.

"Then why are you in Alex's t-shirt?" she eyed me suspiciouly.

"How do you know it's Alex's?" I furrowed my eyebrows at her and she laughed.

"He has wore it at a concert or two," she shrugged.

"Wow, stalker," I teased her and she hit my arm.

The guys were recording the same song I heard from Alex today. He kept taking brief looks at me while singing but he tried not to keep eye contact or smile.

They had to play it a lot of times as Nick kept messing up with the bass and the rest of them started complaining.

The men behind he console were finally happy with one of the recordings and called us all to listen to it.

It was a pretty catchy tune and it got stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Alex's voice was low and mesmerizing, to say the least.