Troubled | alex turner

four

alexander david turner

Every now and then, or should I say all the time, we go after school to Miles' flat, well because his Mum is out when he comes home but he sees her later so it's all well and good, or so I hope.

Miles never serves home cooked tea, we order outside almost all the time. Well apart from the one time Jamie instructed us to make brownies and he almost set fire to the kitchen, to which I said, "Did you put weed or summat inside?"

To which he replied simply, "Don't be a crackwhore," And got me to clean up everything whilst the rest of my friends just laughed at the whole situation.

"I'm feeling a blind bit star-vun, wa' do yous wanna eat?" Miles asks the four of us, and as indecisive as I am, I look around the room at Matt, Jamie and Nick for an answer of some sort.

"I'll be happy with a pizza or summat, if I'm honest," Jamie says, rubbing his neck as Matt and Nick nod in agreement.

"Alex, lah ay yous sound as a pound with this?" Miles says, looking at me.

"Yeah, mate. Sound as a pound," I smile, quoting Miles and the rest all laugh briefly.

Due to our mutual agreement on eating pizza, Miles fishes out his mobile and rings the nearest pizza shop, Domino's pizza. "Yous alrigh-"

"Mate, no one's going to understand you. We do live in Boston," Matt remarks.

"No denying that," Nick replies.

Miles scoffs. "Take it dun fe fucks' sake."

Nick takes the phone. "Hello, you alright? Yes I am, thank you. Could I please order two large pepperoni pizzas along with a couple of cokes. Yes five please. We're quite close to you, we live 163 Old Colony Ave, in a flat, yes. What's your name? Yes, we'll buzz you in. Cheers," Nick says, finally ending the call and passing the phone back to Miles.

"How long will it be?" I ask.

"Hungry, eh Turner?" Jamie jokes, poking my side.

I shove him off with a laugh as I sit down on the settee along with the rest of them. "I just want to know," I laugh.

"It'll be here in a half hour," Nick replies.

"Matt and I had a gaffer free period," Miles says with a smile, giving Matt a high five.

Jamie smirks. "What'd you get up to lads?"

"Nothing much," Matt yawns, "Just some good banter and that."

"What did you lads get up ter in English, then," Miles talks, folding his arms, waiting for one of us to respond.

"Ah, it's mint, mate honestly. I got paired up with Jamie," Nick smiles, and he ruffles his hair with a laugh.

"Fucking fantastic," I mumble.

"Sorry, Al, what was that?" Miles smirks. Fucking twat.

"Huh?" I say, acting oblivious, but Miles and the rest raise their eyebrows, waiting for me to continue. "Well, Jamie and Nick are well lucky, yes, but not everybody got to be paired with their best mate."

"Ah, I'm sure whoever you're paired with can't be that bad," Matt says, attempting to reassure me.

"Well think again," I say bitterly, and I was quite surprised at how rude I was actually being. "Sorry," I say, which was quite stupid. I mean yes, I did do something wrong but I always said sorry for everything and I was sick of myself.

"No worries, mate. Who is it then?"

My phone was ringing, and I mentally asked God to bless whoever this was because I actually hated talking about myself, and now that I was saved by the bell, I couldn't be more thankful. "Hello," I say, placing the phone to my ear.

"Where are you?" My mum's voice screeches.

"I'm at Miles'. You said I could come home by half eight," I reply, not feeling so thankful anymore.

"I need you to come home now-"

"Mum please," I plead.

"Mum says no. Come home your tutor has some homework and some revision tasks for you to do," Mum says sternly.

"Look, I need to eat dinner, can I have half an hour at least?" I say, trying to negotiate some sort of understanding.

"Make it fifteen and you've got yourself a deal," Mum says finally, and she ends the call. Love you too.

"Penny was it?" Nick asks.

"Yeah, I'm afraid I've got to take the pizza to go," I say dully, checking the time.

They all groan. "Good old Penny," Jamie says sarcastically.

"She isn't that bad," I say, and they all turn to look at me and shake their heads.

"She's mingin, honestly Al," Miles disagrees, and the rest all agree with him.

"I mean, yeah she's annoying and that like, but she's me mum and she cares a lot so don't be saying shit, alright?" I laugh, and Nick hears the doorbell and gets the pizza before giving me three slices, and slapping my face.

"Wait before you go," Nick says, not giving me the pizza.

"What is it?"

"Who'd you get paired with?" Nick smiles.

"You know who," I say, "You were there."

"Who was it Al?" They all say.

I huff, "Autumn," I state. "Autumn Chloe Radford."

"Autumn?" Matt says with a laugh. "The one who-"

"We don't have to talk about what she did."

"Night, Al," Nick says, deciding that this was probably the best time to end it and the rest echo the same saying.

"See you tomorrow," I smile and take a bite of the pizza before going to the nearest bus stop and waiting for a bus.

After a while, a bus comes, and by that time I've already finished my pizza. Hoping in, I hope that I'm not the slightest late because god only knows how panicked my mother becomes. As I stuff my headphones and put my music on shuffle, I see Autumn stepping out of the bus with the rest of the razor roses.

Where's her motorbike? I mean she always has that thing with her, it's almost illegal for her not to have it. I mean, not illegal. What does she care if it's illegal? I mean, she always uses it that it seems completely weird for her to do otherwise.

When she turns to wait for her friends, she doesn't roll her eyes or glare at me. She just looks at me for a second and turns away as if nothing happened. Maybe nothing did happen, maybe she didn't even see me. Something didn't feel right, though. I didn't know what it was; I just felt it.