Maybe It's Been You All Along - Alex Turner

12

  After the band finished their practice set for Lollapalooza, Alex followed his mates down the stairs to backstage expecting to see Katie and Rosanna waiting for them like they had been the rest of the tour. Instead his eyes fell on his least favourite person.

  "Get fucked," Alex said to himself.

  Rosanna spotted Alex entering with the rest of the band and called out to him.

  "Al!" She said and waved him over.

  Alex groaned internally and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his forearm as he approached the two.

  "Andy, what a pleasant surprise," Alex said.

  "Yeah great to see you too mate," Andy said, clearly not pleased with Alex's appearance. Feeling's mutual.

  "Do you fucking believe it?" Rosanna beamed and wrapped an arm around Andy. "He flew from Manchester to come visit!"

  Alex noticed that there were tears stained on her cheeks. He really does make her happy. Doesn't he? She was smiling brighter than he'd seen in a long time.

  "How long 'y staying?" Alex asked, trying his best not to sound hostile.

  "Only three days, hope that's not a problem," Andy said as he looked at Alex, his voice almost cold like he knew Alex didn't like him either. "Couldn't get much more off but I thought I'd surprise you," he said to Rosanna, his demeanour immediately changing when she was paying attention.

  "I can't fucking believe you," Rosanna said in disbelief, the smile never leaving her lips. Alex wanted someone to look at him like that again.

  Rosanna turned to Alex, "you think they'll let him stay with us while he's here?"

  Alex shrugged, "Yeah probably. It's only three days. I can just move me stuff into Matt and Nick's room."

  "Are you sure?" Rosanna asked.

  "Of course love," Alex smiled. "I'll go let 'em know now."

  "Are you sure, sure?" Rosanna asked.

  "Absolutely. It's no problem," Alex smiled and gave her a quick hug. "Now, I'm really sweaty so I'm gonna go take a shower. I'll leave you two to it."

  He got out of there as quickly as possible, just the sight of Andy pissed him off. God what a wanker. Everyone else seemed thrilled Andy was there which just annoyed Alex even more. Why does everyone like that prick?

  Andy's presence just reminded Alex of the barriers that made Rosanna unreachable to him. He knew he was supposed to be happy that Andy was there because Rosanna was, but he really just couldn't stand the guy. His face pissed him off, his voice, the fact that Rosanna picked him to be her boyfriend, everything. He knew he was being selfish but at this point he just didn't care.

Alex walked off to the showers and washed away his thoughts, while Rosanna stood ecstatic next to her boyfriend. She couldn't fathom that someone actually cared enough about her that they would take time off from their studies to fly internationally just to see her.

"I love you so much," she blurted out. Andy was taken aback and looked down at her with a wide smile.

"I love you more," he said and kissed her softly.

"Are you staying for the festival?" Rosanna asked.

"Sure am," Andy replies. "I got us tickets so you can watch everyone, not just from backstage."