Maybe It's Been You All Along - Alex Turner

17

  After weeks of touring the United States and a few shows in Canada, the Arctic Monkeys eventually saw the end of their North American leg of their tour. They had now boarded the plane back over to England where they would kick off the European leg starting with a handful of shows in the United Kingdom.

  Rosanna sat across from Alex with her nose buried in a book. It was a long flight but everyone seemed somewhat excited to be heading back to England; Alex making the joke that he could only take the positivity of Americans for so long until he felt withdrawal from British cynicism.

  Matt and Nick were playing cards and Alex just sat sipping a beer, watching them. He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked over at Rosanna.

  She handed him the book she was reading and pointed to a chunk of text on one of the pages, "read that."

  Alex put down his beer and took the book from her, his eyes scanning over the title. "I Wanna Be Yours — John Cooper Clarke."

  Alex started reading the poem and snorted at the first line. He didn't say anything until he was finished and looked back up at Rosanna.

  "What do you think?" she asked eagerly.

  Alex looked back down at the book and read out the first line, "I wanna be your vacuum cleaner breathing in your dust?" He let out a chuckle, "bit odd don't you reckon? Wanting to be a vacuum?"

  Rosanna shrugged, "I think it's beautiful actually. Talking about reducing yourself to the worth of an object for someone you're in love with. A bit bleak but I think it's a beautiful poem."

  Alex looked back down at the words and nodded.

  "You think it's stupid," Rosanna pouted.

  Alex shook his head and smiled, "no. I like the way you think actually. I like your perspective."

  Rosanna nodded, unconvinced, "sure sure." She took the book back from Alex and sat in her seat.

  "I'm serious!" Alex said. "You always think of things in the most beautiful way possible."

  Rosanna just smiled, rolled her eyes at him and continued to read through the poetry.

  They arrived in London just before dark and all agreed they were too tired to go out anywhere so spent the night in the hotel. The handful of British shows the band was playing started off well with every show having an extremely enthusiastic and energetic crowd. Rosanna travelled to Leeds on her own to visit some family for a week and planned to meet back up with Alex and the guys for their Manchester show.

  Rosanna was hoping that she and Andy would be able to rekindle their relationship when she finally got to visit him in Manchester. Andy had planned to take her out for dinner the night she arrived and upon seeing her, reminded her of how much she loved him.

  The Monkeys were going to be in Manchester a day or two after Rosanna arrived so Andy thought it would be the perfect time to finally spend some alone time with his girlfriend.

  Rosanna and Andy were sitting side by side on Andy's couch after returning from the restaurant Andy had taken her out to. He had his arm around her shoulders as she rested her head on his chest and watched the television. She didn't feel the need to say anything, she just wanted to relax in his arms and live in the moment with him, not thinking about anything else.

  "Al and I wrote a song when we were in the States," Rosanna said and looked up at Andy.

  "Yeah?" He asked raising an eyebrow. "How's it go?"