Troubled - Alex Turner

14. Beach Party

Alex's POV:

"Who even are these people?" I shouted over the music as Miles danced about the barbecue.

"Why do you care?" he chirped in response, flipping a burger. "It's a party, Al," he stated obviously, "a beach party. There's girls," he continued. "Girls in bikinis. Enjoy yourself, man. Let loose a little."

"You're unbelievable," I scoffed in response. "You throw a beach party and invite a bunch of complete strangers?" I chuckled.

"That's the whole point," he sung in return.

I looked down onto the many people making out and stumbling around on the sand. The beach was a tip, thanks to Miles' little party here. It was genuinely flooded with strangers. Complete strangers. The only few I knew were the guys from 'Purely Red' and the rest of the Monkeys.

"I'm gonna go find Matt and the rest of the boys," I announced, earning a quick thumbs up from Miles as I walked down the bridge that lead to the sand.

A month had passed since the night at Matt's. Since Sophie dumped Corey.

I had still not confessed my feelings to Sophie. Although, I was beginning to feel as though it was better off that way.

I was going to. But then she had a big drunken speech on how she felt like she was being a bitch to Corey. And because of that, i'm not entirely convinced that she's over him yet, to be honest.

Because why else would she care?

Anyway, we haven't spoke much since then. Things are still incredibly distant between the pair of us. And I — still — don't like it.

"Alex!" I heard Matt call after around five minutes of pushing past half-naked, drunken bodies. "Alex! Come have a beer!"

"You alreyt?" I asked as I sat myself down on the sand, beside Matt and Ella.

"Yeah, good good," Matt returned, opening up a beer for me.

"Cheers," I thanked him as he handed me the bottle.

"Me and El 're just watching these morons play water-volleyball, aren't we love?"

"Jamie's horrid," she giggled, pointing at the group as Jamie fell over in the water, the rest making fun of him as he begun to rant about how the teams were unfair.

"You should go show them how it's done, Al," Matt joked, nodding his head towards the group. "You were the volleyball champion in high school after all, weren't you, Al?" He continued to tease.

"Aw shut up," I spat as Matt cackled beside me. "Bastard."

"Fucking hell," I then exclaimed as I took a swig of the beer Matt had given me. "That tastes like piss."

"I know," Matt agreed. "But the good beers are all the way over there and I can't be arsed to move."

"Where?" I asked, deciding i'd rather hunt for them than drink that other shite.

"By the bags and that," he answered, pointing over at everyone's belongings. "They're in Jamie's bag, beside his towel."

"Got it," I returned standing from the ground. "I'll be reyt back."

As I wandered over to the area of which everyone's belongings were sat, I looked over briefly at Matt and Ella to find them in an intense make out session.

Lovely.

I don't really know what's going on between the pair of them, to be honest. But they have something going on together. And they think they're being discreet about it, but really, everybody knows.