𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 || 𝘈.𝘛

44

Alex Turner

The lady I love is a fucking idiot. 

She is currently sat beside me in my car, holding a white flannel tight against her bleeding finger that she stupidly almost cut off. 

I must admit, I wasn't expecting to spend my weekend driving my ex girlfriend to A&E at eleven o'clock at night but I'm not complaining. Of course, this 'reunion' could've been better under different circumstances, but at least it's happening. 

As soon as I'm pulling out of Jamie's gated property, Brielle is shuffling around in her seat and it has me glancing over to her to see what has her so antsy. When her uninjured hand is coming to the zip at the side of her short, tight pencil skirt, my eyes are widening and I'm sending them straight back to the road in fear of seeing anything. 

I hear the zip of her skirt followed by a sigh of relief and my brows frown at whatever the fuck has just gone on. 

Brielle senses my confusion and with a sigh, she explains. ''Gin makes me bloated, that skirt was too bloody tight.'' 

''Right.'' Stupidly, that's the only word that blurts out of my mouth. I could've gone with anything else. 

The car soon comes to a silent volume as I drive through the empty streets. With the time of evening, there's few cars that pass by us on the way to the hospital. 

''Feel okay?'' I ask, keeping my eyes sternly on the road before us. 

''Mostly.'' She nods contently as she gazes out of the window. Each of the lights flicker upon her face and if it wasn't for the chance of crashing, I'd take the time out of my day to study the way her features darken methodically as the shadows of the lamp posts pass by. 

Mostly.

She doesn't feel completely terrible when she's around me. 

A small flicker of hope ripples through my body. 

''You don't feel dizzy?'' 

''I don't think so.'' She responds. 

''Right..'' I nod. ''Let me know if you do, okay?'' I glance briefly at her but before she can respond, I'm having to look back at the road. 

''I will.'' She murmurs with a small nod. 

Again, we sit in silence as the humming of the running engine fills the car- that is until Brielle is reaching forward with her uninjured hand to come to press against the radio dial, flicking on a channel. I pay close attention to her hands, not missing the way something doesn't look right at all. 

I search my mind for what could be so out of place with Brielle's hand, a sudden thought coming to the forefront of my busy mind when I remember the promise ring, and before I can stop myself, a question is falling out of my mouth. 

''Where's your ring?'' I trail my eyes back to the road as I try to warn out the ache in my chest. She'd promised to always keep it on. 

At this, she's finally tearing her eyes from the window to look at me with question. 

''I took it off.'' Is all I'm having to hear for me to back down. 

''Okay.'' 

Like before and all of the other times we've recently been left alone, we return to that familiar silence. The one where I question everything. The one where I slowly begin to feel like I need to tell Brielle about everything so that it can stop the ache I know she's feeling. 

''How've you been?'' The silence is disrupted by Brielle's question and I'm almost instantly taken aback by her straight forwardness. 

It takes me a few moments to regain composure and stop stumbling over my words before I can respond to Brielle. 

''I've been good, how about you?'' 

''Alright I suppose.'' She sighs with her hands moving in her lap, rewrapping the flannel that has overtime become looser back around her finger. 

''Alright?'' I ask with a quick glance towards her. We're getting closer to the hospital but I'm tempted to slow the journey down if it means I get more time speaking to her. 

''Alright.'' She clarifies.

''Good.'' I mean it. As selfish as it sounds, it does hurt to see her content with her life as it is, with Max but I'd rather her be happy over anything, or at least 'alright'. 

''How far are we from the hospital?'' She asks. 

''About four minutes, are you still doing okay?'' 

''Yeah.'' Brielle's nodding before her head tiredly falls back against the seat. 

''Still feeling okay?'' I ask with the fear that she's dizzy, to which she nods with confirmation that she is feeling okay. 

''How's your new job?'' I ask with the intention of extending our conversation. I know her job isn't new, it's been about seven months since she started it. 

''It's good, I quite like it.'' 

''So you're doing well then?'' 

''I would say so, how are you doing with work?'' She asks. 

''It's not going too bad, we're actually starting to make a base for a new album- not sure it'll get anywhere though.'' I explain and with the happiness of finally starting a good conversation, it only seems right when a small spark of disappointment runs through me as soon as I see a sign in the distance saying that the hospital is now near. 

''An album? Already?'' Shock is leaving her mouth and I nod. 

Before she can respond, her phone begins to vibrate from the cupholder between my seat and hers. She goes to grab it, but with the difficulty of her harmed hand, she struggles to get it. When I see her obvious struggle, I pick the phone up for her and hold the screen out for her to read. 

I try my best not to look at the screen but my eyes skim past it, noticing the way the screen lights up with Max's name. I don't miss the sigh that leaves Brielle's mouth as her eyes roll. 

''Just ignore it, she's been doing it all week.'' Brielle tells me and I instantly nod before silencing the call and putting it back into the compartment, only for it to start ringing it again. 

''Is she giving you a tough time?'' The question is slipping from my lips before I can even think of how dumb of a question it is. 

''Yeah, she doesn't like that I've been gone for a few days.'' Brielle explains. 

''How come?'' My ears are instantly perking up at Brielle.

''I'm not sure.'' She shrugs and I can tell that she's lying when I turn to look at her briefly as I turn into the long road entrance of the hospital. 

Her answer is followed by a short period of silence, where I look for a space to park the car. As soon as I am bringing the car to a halt in the parking space, my heart beats against my rib cage at the silence we've been left in once again. A certain sentence is threatening to tumble out of my mouth- a sentence that would explain how if it weren't for how stupid I was to agree with Colin, Brielle wouldn't of had to be with this type of girl. 

But instead, I say something different. 

''You can tell me, you know?'' I force myself to look at the lady sat next to me, my heart almost coming to a stand still at the way she looks at me. 

For seconds, she just stares. Her brown eyes flick from my left to my right repeatedly and if it weren't for the lack of light, I'd almost be sure that I could see her eyes gloss over just for one second before she's blinking and tearing her gaze from mine. 

''Can we go inside? I'm starting to feel a bit dizzy.'' Like I'd expected her to, she changes the subject and of course, I agree. 

So that's what we do- we go inside with no more than a few words exchanged. 

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A/N- PROGRESSSSS

my fav queen song for this chapter for obvious reasons

rip queen liz xx