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

The Bitch is Back

2014

I begin to spend more time with Alexa, and it helps me actually start to feel like my wounds are beginning to close up.

I realize that I haven't ever thought of Alexa as separate from Alex until now– even after they broke up. I only thought of her in relation to Alex, as his girlfriend, the love of his life, his ex. But now, I'm getting to her know her all over again, and she's quickly becoming one of my best friends– a positive force in my life, a lovely distraction. We spend a whole Saturday wandering around the National Portrait Gallery, making ridiculous sketches and sharing headphones, before getting tipsy at a late lunch, gabbling about writing. We watch old films on her couch and order a takeaway, and I end up sleeping on her sofa more than once. We ask Rosie along for drinks in Shoreditch, and they spend the night becoming fast friends, analyzing the Alex situation in great, drunken detail for me, calling him a knob, talking up my "inevitably successful" writing career, and I could cry from how much I love them.

It's been more than two weeks since I've seen Alex, since I told him the truth at Dad's, and I'm beginning to accept the fact that things are truly over between us. Romance, sex, friendship, it's all in the past. If there was anything to repair, or if he felt the need to speak to me, he would be here. But he's not. So I write, and I work, and I spend my time with Rosie, and Alexa, and I manage to get on.

I'm at work, tidying one of the guest rooms with Rosie, and we're listening to Elton John when my phone begins to ring on a sunny Thursday morning.

"It's Alexa," I tell Rosie, answering it. "Hello?"

"Lily."

"Alexa."

"Are you sitting down?"

I look around the disheveled hotel room, at the pillowcase I'm currently pulling off, standing at the bedside, and I say, "No."

"You should."

"What is it?" I ask sternly. I'm expecting the worst, but I don't sit down, I stand straighter and brace myself.

"Jane called me," she says, referring to her friend in New York, and her voice gives her delight away. "She has someone at HarperCollins that wants to meet with you in London. She mentioned a possible book proposal."

My heart stops in my chest– in a positive way, for the first time in months– and I almost don't believe my ears.

"She said it's a rough draft, for sure, but it's an amazing start," Alexa continues. "Lily, they're really, bloody impressed!"

Tears prick the backs of my eyes, and I blink furiously. Rosie stops her work and meets my gaze, giving me a quizzical look and a roll of the hands, as if indicating for me to explain.

"Are you still there?"

"Yes," I manage to croak. "I just– I can't believe it."

"Believe it, babe," she says, and I can tell she's smiling by the tone of her voice. "I told you this would happen– you've earned this."

I nod to myself, trying to stamp that into my brain. After everything that's happened this past year, I do deserve something like this. Don't I?

"Expect a call from the HarperCollins bloke before the weekend, yeah?" she tells me. "I know you'll make me proud."

"Alexa," I say, voice choked with emotion. "Thank you– for everything– I don't know how I could ever–"

"Not at all," she says sternly. "I'm glad we're friends, Lily, honestly. Whatever happens, let's not let that change again, all right?"