Coming Home

Chapter 4

May 2001

"UGH come on!" Alex was yelling at his fingers, "how can this scale be so fucking hard to learn??? Jamie does it perfectly!"

"Jamie's been playing the guitar for five years, Al," I sighed for the 100th time, "You only just started a year ago."

"A year and a half!" Alex corrected me before mumbling, "as if that makes it any better.."

He had been practising on that damn guitar so much that I had grown tired of listening to the same Oasis songs over and over again. But at least Wonderwall for the millionth fucking time would've been better than the scale he had been on about for weeks now.

"Look, Al, can we get back to the assignment?" I sighed.

"Sorry, Is," he said and put away the guitar, "that damn scale is just messing up my brain. If I don't excel at playing the guitar, then how am I going to start a band?"

"You have a nice voice," I shrugged.

"No way in hell..." Alex whispered, "That would never work out! Me being frontman...I would be the worst person to lead the band"

"You don't even have a band yet, Al," I rolled my eyes at him, "Can we please just concentrate on the essay? 'Cause if you want my help, you'll have to start doing some of the work yourself!"

He sighed as he picked up one of the boring books we had borrowed from his dad.

August 2001

After having travelled for 13 hours, my dad finally pulled up the driveway and we were finally home. The first thing I did was to put on a clean t-shirt and head over to Alex' house. It was a particularly hot day and I met Alex' parents in their front yard.

"Hi Mr and Mrs Turner. Is Alex home?"

"Hi dear, I see you just got back from vacation," Alex' mum said referring to the tan I had gotten, the coloured string in my hair, and the new sunglasses that I rocked, "I think he's at Matthew's," she said and shot me a concerned look. I turned on my heel and ran to Matt's house, excited to see my best friend after having spent the summer apart.

Alex' family had had no plans over the summer holidays apart from visiting Alex' grandmother for a few days. My family, on the other hand, had been travelling for two months straight, visiting all my parents' friends scattered around Europe.

I ran the 3 miles to Matt's house as fast as I could and didn't even stop at the red lights. As I approached the Helders' household, there was no sign of life as I rang the doorbell. I tried running around the back of the house and into the garden. Still no sign of neither the Helders nor Alex.

Irritated, that I had run so far so fast just to be met by an empty house, I stopped to catch my breath and suddenly noticed music coming from the basement. It sounded absolutely horrible and I wondered why on earth anybody would put on an album with that shit. I tried ringing the doorbell twice without any luck. The music must've been too loud. I turned the doorknob and to my surprise, realised that the door was unlocked.

"MATT? ALEX?" I called from the hallway before I descended the stairs. With each step I could hear that I got nearer and nearer the horrible music.

I was covering my ears with my hands as I turned a corner and saw that the horrible music hadn't come from an album. It had come from Alex, Matt, Jamie, and some guy I had never seen before. They didn't notice me at first but kept playing loudly until Alex looked up from his guitar and directly into my eyes.

"IS! You're back already?" He said as he let go of the guitar and put it down beside him. The music soon died out as the others realised that I was present.

"Already??" I asked him, "I've been gone for two months.." I didn't know why but seeing him here with the lads made my guts rage with jealousy. Hadn't he missed me at all?

"Sorry, we've been busy," he mumbled, "let's have a break, lads."

Alex and I went out into the garden and sat down on a bench in the corner.

"So you've formed a band?" I asked him.

"Well, sorta.. it's just for the fun of it, you know. Me and the lads. We call ourselves Arctic Monkeys," he said with a grin.

"Stupid name," I scoffed.

"I know right? It's so stupid it's brilliant. It was Jamie's idea, you know."

I nodded and he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

"And you've taken up smoking, I see," I said, unimpressed.

Alex just shrugged, "Nick showed me"

"Nick?"

"The guy on the bass. He's Jamie's friend from football. Cool guy - and he knew how to play the bass. Exactly what our band needed"

"If you had just told me that you needed a bass player, I could've picked one up and practised...," I mumbled, "do you need someone to play the keyboard?"

"You don't know how to play, Is," he said while raising an eyebrow at me.

"Neither did you a year and a half ago. I could learn."

Alex looked away from me, "I'm not sure, Is. I don't think that's the kind of music we're set on"

"What about a tambourine? Maracas? Anything"

"I think it's just going to be two guitars, one bass, a drumset and someone on vocal. Dunno who yet but definitely not you," he laughed.

Almost forcefully, I looked at my watch and said with a mechanical voice, "I forgot that I have to be home in a bit," I lied. His words had hurt me deeply! I knew that I wasn't a great singer but it still hurt that he didn't want me in his band under any circumstances.

"Issy, come on. I didn't mean it like that," he grabbed my hand causing a lump to get stuck in my throat.

"I know you didn't" I said with a croak and started walking towards the garden gate without looking at him.

"Issy, come on..." I could hear Alex yell behind me.

I ran all the way home, tears stinging in my eyes.