In Denial | Alex Turner

XLIII

Alex's POV:

"Mornin', sunshine!" I heard Nick's voice echo through my empty hotel room, resulting in me to groan and hide from the light entering the beige room.

"Leave me alone, Nick," I whined, wrapping my arms around my pillow and digging my head into the soft silk fabric.

"Alex, come on, wake up," he sighed as I felt the bottom edge of my bed sink in, meaning he'd sat on it. "I brought you a painkiller and some water," he added caringly. "Stellar wants us ready in half an hour for soundcheck, Al, c'mon," he sighed agin, grabbing the duvet and pushing it towards him.

"Can that man seriously fuck off?" I spat, refering to Stellar, and tried turning my body around to face him. "What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my forehead as I sat up on the bed.

"5pm," he answered, pressing his lips into a line as he heard me groaning again, hiding my face in my palms. 

"I can't sing today, leave me alone," I shook my head.

"I think what you need is someone to talk to..." he hesitantly admitted as I slowly uncovered my eyes, watching him with one eyebrow raised. 

"No, I don't-"

"You went by Monica's last night, didn't you?" he asked, taking me a bit aback.

"No," I simply shook my head, stretching out to grab the glass of water and the painkiller.

I put the pill in my mouth and quickly downed the glass of water, with my head having a deadly pain inside. Yes, I'd gone to see Monica, yes, I needed someone to talk to. But I was not one to admit things easily...

"What happened there?" he asked seriously as I put the glass back on the nightstand and started rubbing my temples.

"I didn't go by Monica's last night, I have been here since the time we came back from the pub all together," I shrugged, hoping my poor excuses filled in his curiosity.

"Why do you never open up to us anymore?" he asked desperately, with his eyes holding a hint of sadness. I raised my eyebrows. "You're obviously not doin' good, and haven't been doing good six months now, but you never chose to try talkin' it out; to try putting that weight aside," he shook his head. "You just drunk it off..."

"Are you me mum now? Giving a lecture an' all?" I scoffed, slowly getting out of bed and going to the bathroom. He followed behind.

"You can't walk away from every conversation like that, Al, please talk to one of us, I promise you'll feel a lot better," he shot me a sad expression as I was about to close the door, and I just looked at him for a second or two.

"I'll be down in a bit, tell Stellar," I closed the door before he could speak, hearing him sigh on the other side.

Nick's POV:

"Did you call him?" Stellar was the first to talk as I walked out of the hotel, finding the others. 

"I did, he's getting ready now," I replied emotionlessly, making Jamie shoot me a confused look.

"Is he still crying over that... Fuck, what was her name..." he mumbled, snapping his fingers as if that'd help him at the moment.

"Monica?" We all replied annoyed in unison, watching him chuckle.

"Right. Her, that French chick," he recalled, nodding as he took a drag of his burning cigarette. "She was annoying, to be honest, I'm glad Turner didn't settle for one more time," he laughed, looking at us.

"The man upstairs is beating himself up for losing the 'French chick' and you're literally thankful for it?" Matt scoffed.

"Well, it will profit him," he shrugged innocently, "he's brought a lot of new songs in, in the past six months, and they're all great," he added. "Plus, it's what the media wants; drama."

We all raised our eyebrows, looking at each other in disbelief, before Jamie decided to speak up. "So you only care about his fame and publicity, but not his health?" he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and disbelief.

Stellar rolled his eyes, "I never said that," he shook his head. "I just said that there's a positive side on this, as well," he shrugged. "Stop overdramatizing everything."

"How can you-"

Stellar stopped me from talking by raising his hand and shushing me before he picked up his phone. "Yes, hello... Yes, that's me..." his voice faded out as he started walking away from us, leaving us alone and relieved.

"How is he?" Matt asked me, turning to look at me. 

"Well, he won't talk," I shrugged, "but you can see the lad is struggling," I added, making them nod.

"What if we found someone else to distract him from her?" Jamie wondered.

"As if we haven't tried that already, cookie, focus," Matt rolled his eyes, shaking his head and shutting Jamie up.

"It's already been six months, I don't get why it keeps worsening than getting better," I shrugged, with Matt and Jamie agreeing with me.

"He's in love with her," Jamie stated, and before we could agree, Alex popped out of the building with his cigarettes in his hands.

"Who's in love with who?" he asked, a small smile painted across his lips as he placed one stick between them.

"You with M-" Jamie started but Matt stepped on his foot, making him wince in pain and shut his mouth.

"You with Marlboros, mate, why don't you try Parliaments?" I saved the situation, making the others mumble their own 'yeah's.

"Yeh, I heard they were better or summat," Jamie took the message, joining in to save his arse as he still had a bitter expression in his face.

"Really?" Alex asked, not even a bit weirded out by the situation. "Might try then," he shrugged and took his silver lighter out. "I've got nothing to lose, do I?" he added with a chuckle as he lit up his cigarette.

The others and I looked at each other before Stellar came back in a rush, holding his phone. "We're already late, for fuck's sake, why are you never on time?!" Stellar exclaimed, signalling us to start walking towards the black van waiting for us.

"Sorry, mate, had to fix me hair," Alex replied sarcstically, making us chuckle lightly, and Stellar to scoff.

"Obviously," he rolled his eyes, making us break into laughter as we entered the car.