right person, wrong time. | alex turner & kat stratford

6

I ran into the forest that was behind the venue. Meters behind, I heard the clatters of Chelseas approaching me. In the distance, I heard Alex yelling towards his bandmates.

"You all can go back on the bus to the hotel. I've got something more important to take care of!"

I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. The atmosphere that I was in was mesmerizing. The trees nearly touched the navy blue sky, and a crescent moon shined throughout the forest. I heard heavy footsteps behind me. I turned around to see Alex, gasping for air.

"Kat. please-" he said in between breaths.

I regained my composure and looked directly at him. I just went off.

"Fine, Alex. I'll tell you why I'm so upset, even a fucking child can probably guess it correctly. But you can't see it through your stardom, can you? You fucking abandoned me my sophomore year of college. You didn't tell me why, and completely cut me off. The main reason why I'm so fucking upset is because I was so fucking in love with you! I wanted to confess it to you directly, and I wanted to hear you say it back. I wanted us to be official. But I guess we didn't matter to you anyway, because you literally vanished into fucking thin air!"

My emotions progressively more intense that by the end of my rant I was nearly wailing out my words. Alex's mouth was nearly open by the end of it. He composed himself and then took a deep breath. I decided to be the bigger person and hear his point of you.

"Kat. I've been trying to tell you this. I don't give two shits about my fame, I didn't even expect us to get this big. I fucking loved you as well. In fact, I still do. Incredibly. You were constantly on my mind. You still are. I wrote so many poems about you. So many songs. On this tour, I prayed to God that I would run into you. And it happened. You're standing right in front of me, and it's all I have been dreaming of for the last five years. None of my relationships since have felt as meaningful as ours did. So don't think that we meant nothing to me. You're my universe."

His was voice still emotional, yet he was on the brink of shouting. There was a lot of emphasis on the vowels, given his strong accent. I hadn't realized that I had missed it so much. It was enchanting to hear that he still viewed me as his beloved. The songs and poems. My expression slightly softened, though I crossed my arms.

"Alex, listen. I'm sorry for going off like that without getting your side of the story. I appreciate that you feel that way about me. I really do. But none of this sheds light on the fact on why you left me in the first place."

He curled his fists and looked at the ground.

"The management. The lads and I put out an album from one of our gigs on the internet just out of curiosity, shortly before I arrived in America and met you. A year later, I received a call back in England from my mates. Turned out the album had been a huge success, we got a record deal and our band was signed into management before I'd even realized it. I had to drop college and everything. The contract only wanted me pursue relationships with people in the entertainment industry. They wanted us to maintain a specific public profile. Hence, I was guilted and forced to cut all contact with you. Kat, I loved you so much, I fell into depression when they took you away from me. I just know you're gonna hate the sound of this, but I was planning on proposing to you-"

I interrupted him. I couldn't believe it. I was so overwhelmed. There were too many emotions. A proposal? We'd only been together for a year, but he felt so confident about our relationship, in the sense he wanted to make things that official? I walked closer to Alex and looked into his eyes, which were still sparking under the moonlight.

"You were going to propose to me?" I said rather meekly. I know I said that I hated the concept of marriage, but the idea of it didn't seem that bad with someone like Alex.

"Yeah. I was. I knew you were the one, love." A smile slowly ingrained on his face as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and cupped it around my face. The last word of his response made me shudder, but gave me a sense of comfort. My old pet name, he was using it again. Our faces began to move closer to one another. I just wanted him to myself.

I slowly began to respond. "Al, I-"

He crashed his lips into mine mid-sentence.