ARABELLA • Alex Turner

ELEVEN

~

"You and Alex fucked!? And you're only just telling me this now?"

   Arabella winced at the volume of Sophie's voice as it echoed around the kitchen, no doubt catching the attention of all three of the redhead's flatmates. There was no such thing as a private conversation where Sophie was involved, and it showed.

"Oh my God! Be quiet." The brunette shushed, keeping her voice at least ten decibels below her friend's for the sake of her dignity. She was sure her cheeks were burning red. "We didn't fuck. We just... did other stuff."

Sophie scoffed, cradling a mug of steaming coffee in her hands as she leant forward across the breakfast bar. "Potato potahto. It's the same freaking thing. Point is, I didn't even know you were seeing him again and now you've gone and slept together!"

Arabella shook her head, wondering why she had even disclosed the information to her friend at all. Now the whole street was probably privy to her sex life.

"It was a last minute thing, he asked if I wanted to meet his mates. And what did you want me to do, ring you straight away? Oh hey Soph. You know Alex? Well, we just finished getting each other off. He's actually still here, do you want me to pass him the phone?"

Sophie ignored the sarcasm as per usual and grinned like an idiot. "You dirty dog. I feel like a proud mum."

Arabella rolled her eyes and reached out to smack her friend on the arm, the coffee in the redhead's hand sloshing over the edge of the mug and wetting the sleeve of her pink jumper. "Shut up."

"Oi!" Sophie laughed, setting the mug down. "I'm serious. A month ago you were locked up in your room like a bloody hermit crab and now look at you. You're screwing hot rock stars."

Arabella sipped on her own coffee, deliberating. "I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to say that about your boyfriend's best friend."

Sophie shrugged, fully serious. "Oh, Miles would agree with me. He's always banging on about Al. They were probably like, together, in a past life or something."

   Arabella laughed. "I don't doubt it."

The girls spent the rest of the morning studying in Sophie's room. The redhead had a big statistics exam coming up and Arabella had an essay to write, which was worth seventy-five percent of her grade for the module.

The brunette, however, spent almost the entire two hour study session staring blankly at her laptop screen and waiting for her phone to ring.

Alex had left her the morning before with a soft kiss on the lips and the promise to call, and he hadn't yet made good on his promise.

It wasn't radio silence between them, by any means. They had texted a few times, and he had told her that he was spending the weekend with his parents, which made sense given that the band were leaving for the rest of their tour in less than a week. But the longer she sat and mulled the more she became convinced that he wasn't going to call, and the pit in her stomach grew.

Around lunchtime, however, the familiar sound of her ringtone startled her from her daydreams and she checked the screen to see Alex's caller ID.

She jumped up from the bed, ignoring Sophie's raised eyebrows, and excused herself from the room to take the call, heart thumping against her rib cage.

"Hello, you." Alex's voice was low and gravelly, as if he'd just woken up from a nap, and his accent was thicker than usual. "Sorry I didn't call earlier, I've been with me parents since I left yours. I was going to try you last night but I didn't want to wake you up."