Maybe It's Been You All Along - Alex Turner

37

Alex was awoken to the most awful, throbbing headache. His mind feeling compressed by his own skull as if it shrunk in on him in his sleep. He felt like wilted lettuce. His body felt like a waterbed and his head felt like a heavy weight. The first thing he did was groan at the awful pain. The next thing he did was make an attempt to open his eyes, squinting in the blinding light seeping through the windows. He pushed a hand down where it lay next to him and felt it sink into something soft. He relaxed upon knowing he didn't sleep the night on the side of the pavement.

He felt something thick in his chest and shut his eyes, praying to God that he wasn't going to chuck up. He knew this feeling all too well. The last time he'd been this knackered was New Years. He brought a hand to his face and pushed his fingers hard into his temples in an attempt to numb the pain.

Forcing himself to open his eyes again, Alex took in his surroundings and saw that he was in his apartment. In his own bedroom. For the life of him, he couldn't remember how he got there. In fact, he was amazed that he was back home at all. He looked down at himself and saw he was still dressed in his clothes from the night before save for his jacket and the fact that his belt was gone. His eyes noticed something beside him and he moved his head over to see Rosanna sleeping tangled in sheets on the other side of the bed. He smiled at the sight of her despite his roaring headache and lay his head back on his pillow, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Babe?" He mumbled, eyes still closed.

"Mmm?" Rosanna murmured, still evidently half asleep.

"Just seein if yer awake," Alex said and cursed at himself for letting himself get so drunk that he felt like this.

"Thanks for waking me up," he heard Rosanna's voice groan and felt her shift around next to him, most likely moving around to face him. "My head's killing me," she mumbled and pulled the sheets over her head to block out the bright light streaming through. "Fucking close the blinds Al," she groaned.

"I can't get up, love," Alex said, his eyes still shut. "I'm about two movements from throwing up." Rosanna groaned and buried her head into the soft pillow. Alex felt a tingle on his forearm and went to itch it when his finger tips jumped back in surprise at the fact that his skin felt like plastic. "The fuck?" He muttered to himself and opened his eyes.

Squinting, he held his arm up and slowly made out a dark shape on his arm. As he focused on it longer he began to realise that it was a picture of a flower drawn into his forearm with a wrap of plastic wrap over it.

"I did not," he groaned to himself and sat up a little, inspecting his arm. "Jesus Christ," he chuckled and slapped a hand over his face. It occurred to him that it wasn't a drawing and was in fact a permanent imprint on his skin. He started laughing, causing Rosanna to retreat at the loud sound.

"What did you do?" Rosanna asked, emerging from the sheets and shuffling over to him.

He held over his arm to her to see, "I got the fucken Yorkshire flower and the word 'Sheffield' tattooed onto me arm." As Rosanna realised what it was she began cackling.

"Why do I remember that happening?" she laughed and squinted to look at his new tattoo. "I remember you telling me summat like 'I gotta get a memoir for this place'."

Alex knocked his head back against his pillow and ran his hands over his face, "why did you let me do it love?"

Rosanna shrugged, "I don't know. I must've been long gone." Alex groaned but couldn't stop the weak smile on his cheeks.

"Why do I not hate it though?" Alex whined making Rosanna laugh.

"Because you're a patriot for Sheffs, everyone knows that," she said and rested her throbbing head on his shoulder. Her eyes grew wide, "please don't tell me I got anything." She started looking up and down her arms and legs, inspecting her body as best as she could. "Shit," she groaned when noticing she had a wrap of plastic around her upper arm. "Al what is it?" she asked and turned so he could see the back of her arm.