Bigger Boys & Stolen Sweethearts - Alex Turner

1. Arabella

  The day Arabella Louise Fosse moved to the soggy weathered hills of High Green Sheffield was a day that would kickstart a turmoil of my life that I'd burn my hands trying to slow down.

  Everything before her is a blur. None of it seems to matter to me. It all pulses in a grey sludge, meshing together into one ball of useless mud that I find no purpose in storing in my mind. My life sort of sped passed me like a subway train and I just stood there, dumbfounded, until Arabella's outstretched arm pulled me onto the moving vehicle.

  I was dressed in the school uniform. An ugly green-centred attire that made me physically upset when I saw it. Everyone looked the same at our school—save for a few that altered the uniform to suit themselves. Josie Walker wore a bright red scarf every day of the year. Adam Leeds, the high school dickhead, had essentially glued a navy coloured Adidas jacket to his back—much like myself in relation to my addition to the school uniform, a black leather jacket that had moulded to the shape of my body a long time ago. One of the boys in the year below me always arrived wrapped like a baby in a thick dark coat that misformed him so that he looked like a rectangle shifting around the halls.

  It's safe to say I give half a shit about my appearance. There was some urge within me the morning of the seventeenth of April to try that little bit harder to look presentable. Almost as if I knew that I'd regret it if I didn't look up to standards on that particular day.

  I'd just gotten my license but my parents refused to let me drive alone for the first few months. Naturally, in response, I refused to take any other method to get to school other than that of catching a ride with my best mate Matthew. If he didn't go to school, I either walked or didn't go altogether. There was no way I was going to arrive at school in the back seat of my parents car on their way to work. Especially after Arabella started at our school.

  We were leaning on the hood of Matt's car looking like assholes and reeking of tobacco when I heard the grunt of a motor and the churn of wheels against the gravelly ground. I was halfway through a very mediocre cigarette when a black motorcycle caught my eye.

Everyone was curious as to who this stranger arriving on a motorbike to school was and it wasn't fictitious to state that this stranger had the carpark's attention in the palm of their hand.

I liked to act too cool and uninterested at school. A schtick that gave me enough bullshit confidence to endure the six hour school day five times a week. I pretended not to care about the motorcyclist and faced away from the distraction. Feeling comfort in the smoke my parents never approved of.

It was only when Matthew nudged my arm and nodded in her direction that my eyes settled on a young brunette whipping her long locks out of the motorcycle helmet. I was immediately fixated and cocked an eyebrow as I studied her movements.

She was an attractive individual and the way she carried herself intrigued me to stare longer than I should've.

She moved effortlessly and didn't make eye contact with anyone she passed unless it was a brief glance out of the corner of her eye. I noted that she left her hair out to fall down her shoulders in soft waves that gave me the impression that only her fingers had run through it that morning but had somehow brushed it clean of knotting.

I chewed on the end of the cigarette between my teeth as she walked passed and trailed my eyes up and down the sway in her walk. She didn't look at me either and I can't help but admit it was the fact that she wanted to be seen but not acknowledged that drew me further in.

She was captivating. Like a live performance or a sunset over the ocean. I wanted to know more about who she was and how I could grasp her attention. She had me hypnotised from the moment I laid my foolish eyes upon her.