ARABELLA • Alex Turner

TWENTY FIVE

~

The three hour drive from Sheffield to London was almost completely silent on Arabella's part, for obvious reasons.

   Alex stuck on her favourite Beatles CD and rambled about inconsequential things while he drove, attempting in equal parts to fill the silence and offer her a distraction. Whether or not she was actually listening to what he was saying he couldn't tell, but if there was even a small chance that his words would offer her brain a reprieve from the constant worry, it was worth a try.

   When they finally reached High Barnet and Arabella began to direct him towards the hospital, Alex felt an immense feeling of sadness settle over him.

   This was Arabella's hometown. The place where she was born and raised, where her best and worst memories were formed and where she spoke and laughed and cried for the first time. It was the place that made her who she was; his perfect, smiley, space-obsessed, flower-loving girl. This wasn't how he wanted his first time visiting her hometown to go.

This wasn't how he wanted his first time meeting her parents to go.

From the moment they pulled into the hospital car park and paid for parking, Alex held Arabella's hand.

He could tell that she was on the verge of tears again as they entered the building and his heart ached for her. Just that morning they had been lying in his bed together in Sheffield, relaxed and happy, and now they were in a hospital in London waiting to find out whether her mother had brain cancer. If it felt surreal to him, he couldn't imagine how she was feeling.

Alex kept their fingers intertwined on the journey up to the ward, knowing that she didn't need him to do or say anything. Her presence alone was always a grounding force for him, and he knew that his was the same for her.

When they reached the door to the room where her family was gathered, Arabella took a deep breath, let go of his hand and wiped her eyes. His aching heart broke completely when he noticed her lower lip quivering.

"Will you come in with me?" She asked so quietly that he hardly heard her, clearly scared to speak for fear of breaking down.

Alex nodded without a second thought and grabbed her hand again to squeeze it tightly.

When they entered the room, Arabella's mother was propped up in bed with a white cast covering one of her wrists. Despite the dire circumstances and the tears in her eyes, Alex could tell that she was delighted to see her eldest baby. She had that same proud look in her eyes that his own mother did whenever he visited.

"My darling girl." The woman smiled tearfully when Arabella practically jumped onto the bed for a hug, rubbing her back in the comforting way that only a mother could.

Alex suddenly found himself feeling insanely nervous, more so than he had ever been at any gig. This was her family. The people who raised the girl he loved. How was he supposed to make a good first impression when he was wearing a bloody leather jacket and probably reeking of cigarette smoke like some rogue biker with questionable morals?

Before he could worry himself into a panic, a girl who could only be described as Arabella's carbon copy appeared in front of him.

"Hi, I'm Lilly. You must be Bella's boyfriend."

Alex was taken aback by just how alike Arabella and her sister were. They had practically the same face–same nose, same eyes, same dimples–and if he didn't know that Lilly was younger he genuinely would have wondered whether they were twins.

He was even more taken aback when this teenage version of Arabella pulled him into a hug as if they were friends and not strangers meeting for the first time.