Maybe It's Been You All Along - Alex Turner

70

"Lately I've been seeing things." The rumble and buzz of the ambiance provided by the plane hummed in Alex's ear. Thankfully, his seat was spacious, juxtaposing the muddled state of his mind. His elbow crushed against the wall of the aircraft as he leant against the window. Beside him, Matt had his nose buried into the screen of his phone, flicking through different photographs he'd transferred from his camera earlier at the airport.

"Like what?" Matt said, his eyes and attention still on his phone, responding for Alex's sake and not much more.

The airplane air was dry and harsh on their nostrils, seats uncomfortable against their backs after six long hours of minimal movement. Alex's hand fiddled with the watch on his left wrist, wringing it back and forth purposelessly. "Noticing things..." Alex replied. "I don't know...like hands...people's hands I've been seeing more than I used to."

"People's...hands?" Matt asked, looking up at his friend briefly.

"Like what's on their hands," Alex clarified. "Like watches, rings...I dunno, I've just been seeing more rings around the place. And...what are the things you carry babies in?"

"Prams?" Matt asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah, prams," Alex said and clicked his fingers, "been seeing heaps of prams around the place which is strange cause I didn't really expect there to be so many in big cities or the airport." Matt was visibly confused as to the purpose of this conversation but it seemed he was never going to get an explanation as Alex was already onto his next train of thought, one which he was only sharing with himself as he looked out the window.

"That's it?" Matt asked after a minute of silence from Alex. "That's the whole story?"

"Hmm?" Alex looked over at him with raised eyebrows. Matt gave him the 'are-you-kidding-me' look. "Oh right. Um...yeah...that's it." Sometimes, Alex wasn't consciously aware of some of the things he'd say out loud.

"Pfft okay," Matt chuckled and turned back to his phone as Alex's eyes travelled back out to the window; foot tapping as he impatiently waited for landing.

  His heart began to race as the twinkling lights of a city manifested in the window beside him. The world coated in a dying blue as the sun ran behind the plane and began setting over the country they were slowly descending on. Only one person made his heart race like that, there was no point in spelling out who.

  They met like every other time. Her running up to him the second she spotted him and leaping onto him as he welcomed her with open arms, holding her up as she squeezed the life out of him. Her scent invaded his nostrils in the most beautiful sensation, comfort exuded her. He was met with those deep brown eyes shortly after she'd tangled herself within him, sparkling like glitter as the most perfect smile blessed her lips. She had one of those smiles you'd see maybe twice in a life time, her lips spreading out and evenly into this picture perfect smile as seen on advertisements but she wasn't faking it. Her bottom lip sitting just under the line of her top teeth and framing them perfectly as the corners of her mouth spread wide enough to create a dimple on each side and form two rosy round apples on her cheeks. He could never get sick of it.

  "I missed you so much," she exhaled and hastily pushed his long hair out of his face, bringing his lips to hers with a hand on his neck. His legs went weak like jelly at her electricity, consuming him completely with nothing more than a simple kiss.

  "Don't worry baby, I'll be here for awhile," he promised her, holding her delicate face in the palm of his hand.

  Alex was waffling on about the last two months of his life after Rosanna had eagerly asked him to share her every single detail. Driving through the traffic as Alex sat beside her in the passenger's seat. All they'd been able to do since he began touring for the North American Leg of the tour, following the release of the new album, was video and phone call as Rosanna was stuck attending to her duties in London. Alex barely had any down time so it was lucky that the second leg was is the UK.