Save the Date

Supernova

Alex was a full-blown bundle of nerves.

When he'd got to his parents' house in Sheffield, it was past ten in the evening. He'd expected his mom to be in bed already, sound asleep, but in some ironic twist of fate she was awake. He closed the door behind him with a sigh, kicked off his shoes and placed his suitcase to the living room floor.

"Hi son, I didn't know ya were coming!" She greeted him with a content grin, one that Alex knew deep down he was about to rip from her face and replace with disappointment...or even angriness for that matter, he didn't know what to expect. She got up from her spot on the couch to hug him. He hugged her back, affectionately, he'd been missing her. With all the work with the Monkeys and his efforts to get Miles back he had been too busy to visit.

"Sorry I didn't let ya know mom, it were a last minute decision." He sighed heading to the kitchen. He'd barely eaten all day and if he could stall a little longer before having that conversation with her, you bet he would. "Where's dad?"

Penny followed him to the Kitchen. "Sleeping. Couldn't join him earlier today though, I'd been watching 'Bake Off' then I got lazy to actually go to bed." She chuckled. "So I've called Pauline to catch up."

Interesting.

"Oh really? How that went?"

Penny leaned in towards Alex as if she was about to tell him a secret. "Did ya know Miles is gonna divorce his husband? Ya know..." She whispered whilst snapping her fingers trying to remember something. "That beautiful bloke he'd married...What's his name again?" Alex knew who he was, thank you very much for the reminder.

Penny lightly pushed Alex to one of the kitchen's chair and opened the fridge, taking out every leftover from it and a beer that she promptly laid in front of him. "Alan! Ah!! That's the name." She said relieved as her memory did not fail her, at least not too much.

It's been roughly four hours since he'd left London, and Miles had already told his mom. He couldn't help but to laugh, and grin and fondly think of him. In that case, he should as well be honest with his own mom. "'bout tha' mom..." He started.

Penny turned to face Alex. "We don't 'ave cheese!" She said deflated as Alex put two and two together on her intentions on making him a sandwich.

"It's alright mom. Whatever is fine." He tried to assure her.

"But we do 'ave turkey and cranberry sauce. Oh! And lettuce and tomatoes." She said grabbing more stuff from the fridge.

"It's really perfect, that'll make the best of all sandwiches." He fidgeted with the ring on his necklace, he needed to tell her. Miles was right, he couldn't hide him or Johnny from her, that would be heartless, not to mention really hard.

"Ya bet it will." She laid every ingredient on the countertop and grabbed a board and the bread. With her back to Alex she started chopping. "Ya need a haircut."

"Do ya think so?" His hand went from his ring to his hair, bashfully.

"I can see ya're not young enough to rock the style anymore Aly, and I'm yar mother." She said adding the endearing nickname to sooth the message. 'Bless her', Alex thought.

Maybe she was right. Why Miles hadn't said anything though? He actually said he liked it. "Maybe ya're right."

"I'll cut it for ya, tomorrow. I need the daylight." She said laying the top bread to the sandwich and cutting it diagonally in the middle with the big bread knife she carefully handled. She popped it to a plate and placed it in front of Alex. "Here it goes darling, ya look so hungry and skinny."

If she were to cut his hair the next day, it was better to tell her about Miles now. He shouldn't risk having that conversation while she held a pair of scissors. "Ta." Good thing that she'd dropped the knife.