Love is a Laserquest - Alex Turner/Arctic Monkeys Fan Fiction

2011

I tug nervously on my shirt, watching Liam as he fiddles with his phone in the backseat of the taxi. I try to imagine how Alex will see him, how they'll interact with one another, and I feel my stomach knot in anxiety.

When I first met Liam at a Trafalgar Square bar, he was brusque and cocky, and I wanted nothing to do with him. Not only did his tough exterior come off as arrogant, he had a bandaged, broken nose and purple bruises under his eyes, looking like some kind of burly thug. He sidled up to where I was sitting at the bar with a friend from King's College, and asked me what I wanted to drink before I turned him down. He laughed it off, as if I could only be joking, and asked me if he could guess my drink. He failed miserably, but he made me laugh, and something about his confidence and masculine bravado must have seemed sexy to me, because I let him take me out that weekend and we started properly dating not long after.

I know it's Liam's semi-professional rugby career that makes him so rough around the edges– years of competitive training and fighting and injury that can make him come off as kind of a wanker– and I often make excuses for him because of it. But I also get to see the Liam that jokes and laughs, and calls me pretty and runs me a bath when I'm feeling poorly, and I know he's a good guy.

I just don't know if Alex will see that.

Though Liam and I only just started dating a couple of months ago, Alex insisted on meeting him while he's doing some work in London for the new Arctic Monkeys album.

"Come on, Lils," he said over the phone when he told me he would be in town. "Who knows when I'll be back around to meet the guy."

"Alex," I practically whined, "it's only been a few months– It's not even that serious."

At that point, Liam and I were entirely exclusive, and I was starting to sleep at his practically every night. So, I wasn't entirely sure why I was telling Alex we weren't that serious. I knew Liam was the most serious relationship I had ever had– the only boyfriend I had actually told Alex about by name and detail.

"Well, I've got to see if 'e's good enough for yeh at least."

So we made plans to meet for a drink– Alex and Alexa, and Liam and me– at a bar in Fulham, when Alex got to London to record. But, sitting in the taxi on our way, I'm suddenly wishing I had put it off. A big part of it is that I'm terrified Liam will let the truth out, but more than that– I can't tell if it's because I want Alex to like Liam, or if I'm worried that he will.

It's absurd though, because he's been with Alexa for years now, and she and I have actually become close, and I feel like I've really separated myself from my feelings for Alex. I hardly think of him like that at all anymore– unless I'm very seriously pissed, or he calls me in the middle of the night while he's on tour and we talk quietly into the early hours of the morning like old times. After all this time of watching the perfect synchronicity of his relationship with Alexa though, I couldn't possibly think of him in that way for very long– not when I love the both of them, and I love the both of them together. So, why wouldn't I want Alex and Liam to have that friendship I have with Alexa– or at least something close to that?

"Lily?"

I'm pulled from my thoughts by Liam's voice. The cab has stopped alongside the sidewalk and he's already paid the driver, waiting for me expectantly.

Too late to turn back now.

I let Liam lead me into the bar– a posh, Victorian-themed place that Alexa must have picked– and when I meet Alex's eyes from where he's sat at a private booth, I pull my hand from Liam's grip and hurry over to him, letting him pull me into a hug. He's been in New York forever, it seems. It's been ages.