Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Dear readers,

Just to clear up some misunderstandings I'd like to explain the worldbuilding in this story:

You are female, 24 years of age and your name is Arabella. I will write in female PoV and it is really irritating to me to do the [Reader] or Y/N thing all the time, sorry! I hope you will still be able to emerge into the story though :)

It is summer 2012 and the Arctic Monkeys just ended the SIAS-tour. So Alex is 26 years old.

This takes place in London.

Alex will not be a jerk in this fanfic! Of course fans can't know who he really is in his private life, but after watching so many interviews and shows of him, I think it'd be a bit out of character to make him an asshole. It is enemies to lovers, but not really the typical kind. It's also slow-burn!

Please give this fanfic a chance ((T_T))

I apoligize for any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, English is not my first language (｀；ω；')

Anyway, please enjoy ^^

Chapter Text

"Trust me."

You've heard that phrase so many times. It made your head hurt. Your parents always told you this. Your friends did. And Ron did.

But did even a single one of them actually earn your trust? No. Did you still trust them after all their lies?

Yes.

Because you are naïve. Stupid. So, so, stupid.

No wonder everyone took advantage of it you bitch. You stupid piece of...!

Take a deep breath.

It's okay. Calm yourself. It's no use to get mad at yourself.

But why am I even mad at myself, when the person that hurt me shamelessly keeps thrusting into my sister?

I can't go in. What will I do once I'm there? 'Hey Ron, Alayna, could you stop fucking eachother in my own bed?'

Impossible. I'd rather die then go in there. The moans are filling my head like toxic gas. I need to get out of here right now or I will jump out of the window.

The sound of the door closing behind me ultimately made me feel better. It shut down the horrible noise from inside.

It was strange how all I felt was emptiness. I didn't even cry. Was I even sad? I can't tell.

On the other hand, I can't feel any rage either. No bloodthirst, anger, dissapointment. As if I knew this would happen. After all, I wasn't blind; My sister had always been a little too friendly with Ron and he didn't excactly reject that kindness.

I knew this would happen. And I didn't do anything to keep it from doing so. It would be useless anyway. How am I supposed to keep my boyfriend from cheating on me? Tell him to fuck off? No, perhaps fuck off might be too kind in this case. I'm just a bit surprised at Alaynas actions. Ron isn't even her type. Is this the sick need to steal yet another thing from me, like in those cliché novels?

Well, all of this could be part of a cliché novel to be honest.

Except my feelings, or lack thereof, were very real. I took another deep breath and exited my apartment building. I could think of all this later. A good old cigarette would help me clear my mind. I pulled out some headphones from my bag and and started listening to my favourite band.

Music always helped me calm down. I mean, who doesn't listen to music to brighten up their day? It's not excactly a quirky attribute to do so.

Thank god I didn't leave my bag home after the shock. Now I had all the stuff I needed to spend the night at a hotel or something. Of course I'll take the money I'll spend on it from Ron's savings. He won't even notice.

Despite me earning much less as a mere medical assistant than him, who almost owned his fathers bank, he always insisted on me paying 65% of the rent because he needed to 'save up'. And as dumb as I am, I didn't dare to say no to this.

How could I say no? He had been the only person that loved me at the time. That cared for me.

But now, all I feel towards him is hatred. The familiar hot feeling in my stomach was rising. Anger. Resentment.

They would pay for what they did. That was more than just cheating. The pure disrespect to do it in my bed, in my apartment. My own fucking sister.

'The Bad Thing' was playing right now. Part of me wanted to skip the song. It felt too relatable but at the same time I could never skip this song. I loved it too much.

And so I entered a nearby hotel. I picked one of the more expensive rooms, for 3 nights. I didn't want to return home anytime soon.

With my room-key in my hand, I headed towards room 506. I hummed to the song and skipped a few steps on the stairs.

I started to get more optimistic, I'd just have to work on a revenge plan and shut both traitors out of my life forever. As I arrived in front of my door, I noticed a man a few feet away from me, trying to open his door. He was seemingly drunk.

Out of politeness, I took off my headphones and approached him. He seemed pretty safe.

"Sir, do you need help..?"

Before I could finish my sentence I suddenly recognized the guy when he turned to look at me. It was the same dude that wrote all the songs I've been listening to all day, the same voice I heard all the time belonged to him.

It was fucking Alex Turner, wearing a denim jacket and a triumph-shirt.

As much as I wanted to squeal and ask for a photo or something, I had to stay normal. The poor man was probably wasted and not in the right state of mind to talk right now. He looked me in the eyes and I started growing a bit uncomfortable.

"Look girl, I am not in the mood for it. Shoo please... I don't... I..." He murmured some inaudible shit and I took a step back. Woah. Rude. Was he really that wasted??

"I, er, I just wanna help you with the door.. Please just let me..." Goddammit, he was holding the key the wrong way around.

I didn't want to admit it, but I was annoyed. Idol or not, I was too frustrated to deal with this. His drunk-ass could help himself. He kept shooing me away all the time, not even registering my existence fully.

"No, ugh... Get off man, shut up... I'm doing good... I'm doing great... Alexa..."

Alexa?

At this point I just left him there. I felt bad, but how am I supposed to help him if he's like this? He would figure it out surely.

With a sigh, I closed the door of my room and fell to my bed. Great, my mood was apparently so bad, I wasn't even able to properly act around my biggest idol. Embarrisng.

Whatever, I had to sleep the day off now. Hopefully Alex would still be here next morning so I could talk to him.

Hopefully I could come up with a plan to destroy Ron and Alayna. I wanted to hurt them badly.

And I will.

Chapter Text

Fuuuck...

My bloody head hurts.

I can't remember what happened yesterday.

Alexa...

What the fuck did she do??

I got up with a grunt and walked to the bathroom mirror.

I look like fucking shit.

34 missed calls from Nick, Jamie, Miles and Matt?

What on earth happened?

All I could remember was Alexa's grin.

Her satisfied face.

Her laugh.

But why is that memory such a negative one?

So many questions and such few answers.

I washed my face, brushed my teeth and closed the door behind me as I exited room 505.

Just as I wanted to call Matt he called me.

"Al? Oh my god Al are you okay?? Bloody hell dude, we were worried sick!! Where are you? We will come over and get you mate, there is no way you are able to drive after what happened last night."

He talked so fast I could barely get a word in.

"Matt, buddy, calm down! I'm all good, jeez... what are you guys so worried over?"

I laughed awkwardly but I didn't get a response. I cleared my throat.

"Anyway, there is no need to get me, I'm at 'King's Inn'-"

.

.

.

Did they just hang up?

Ugh, great.

I walked downstairs towards the bar, I just had to get some water.

I sat down and told the bartender I needed some simple water when I suddenly saw a girl sitting next to me.

A memory rushed through my foggy brain. She tried to help me open the door yesterday, but I was too drunk to acknowledge her properly.

Before I knew it I tapped her shoulder carefully and she snapped out of her thoughts.

She looked a bit bamboozled and eyed me up and down.

"Er, hey... I um, I think we met yesterday. Sorry for being so rude earlier, I was just... I dunno, drunk? Haha."

I scratched the back of my neck nervously and avoided her gaze.

"It's fine, I assumed such thing. I'm just glad you made it inside safely. Say..."

She chuckled in an awkward manner.

"Are you perhaps Alex Turner?"

Now I was the one to be bamboozled. Until I remembered who I fucking was.

Of course someone would know my name, dumbass.

"Cheers love, that's me indeed. And you are..?"

She introduced herself to me as Arabella and we had a very nice talk. She told me she was a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys (and the last Shadow Puppets) and I felt lucky to not be confronted with a weird kind of fan but a rather pleasant one.

I noticed some things about her looks, for example her left eye was a bit more green and the right one had more of a blue-ish tone. I noticed her septum piercing and her messy black hair. She looked very intriguing.

"Oh, looks like it's already 11 a.m. I need to leave now. How long are you staying here Alex?"

"Oh, er... a few days probably. What about you?"

Something about the way she cleaned her glasses made my heart beat a bit faster.

"Me too. Well I hope we'll see eachother again."

She smiled, waved and left quickly. I smirked. Arabella... what a nice name.

"Alex! There you are man."

I almost jumped out of shock when Matt threw himself at me from behind.

"Matt!! Oh my god, don't scare me like that mate!"

He looked at me with worry and sadness. I started sweating under his intense gaze.

"Hey buddy, mind explain what on earth happened yesterday? My mind's bloody mush."

He bit his lip and looked down. Like a teenage girl trying to confess to her parents that she's pregnant, I could feel his fear of telling me. It was starting to freak me out too.

"Look Al, it's Alexa... she... ugh, I can't-"

He was almost crying and hugged me. At the mention of my girlfriend I started sweating. Sonething really bad must've happened.

Panicked, I shoved him away a bit.

"Matt for fuck's sake, just bloody tell me what's going on! Is she okay??"

Worry started clouding my vision. Did I do something bad while I had been drunk? Was she okay?

"Al. She's all good. Sadly..."

There was anger in his words and he clenched his fists. My worry was replaced by an upcoming sense of dread.

He sighed and put his hand on my shoulder.

But after that one sentence, I couldn't hear him clearly anymore.

That one sentence shattered me.

My heart.

My memories of my beloved girlfriend.

I wanted to propose to her soon.

Was this it?

Our end?

I couldn't hear my best friend anymore.

I didn't need to hear anything else.

My heart felt like it stopped beating and tears started falling as memories of last night all came rushing back in a painful way, triggered by this one sentence.

.

.

.

"Al, she cheated on you."

Chapter Text

"Babe come on, what are you doing??"

I wish I could kill him so he would finally shut up.

Ron was talking some bullshit about me making no sense or whatever. I could kind of understand it to be honest.

Since I got back home, I've aggressively told him I'm breaking up and starting packing my stuff without explaing why.

Honestly I was shocked to see he gave two shits about all this. I was one-hundred percent sure he didn't care about me at all.

Looks like he only does when his so-called 'dignitiy' is endangered.

Does he even know that word though? Probably not.

I didn't have the energy or nerve to handle the whole confronting him about the cheating with my sister thing, so I kept ignoring him.

He knows damn well what he's done.

All I wanted was to strangle him, throw a knife at him, insult him in the worst way possible and hurt him over and over again.

For all the stuff he had made me go through the past two years.

Embarrisng me in front of his fucking lads, making me do all the dirty work at home, manipulating me into thinking I was the problem all the time, coming back late and throwing cheap cuss-words at me and taking me out and using me.

He would regret it. I could feel it. I just needed a plan.

"Are you crying?? Oh my god, how much more embarrassing can you get? Just cut the tough act honey and get back to cleaning.."

Shoot, I didn't even notice I was crying.

I felt Ron approaching me, and as I felt his disgusting hands that probably were inside my sister not too long ago, I gagged.

"Let go. Right now, or I'm breaking your bloody arm you piece of shit."

My voice was shaky, but not out of fear or sadness, but rather my rage and hatred I felt for this guy.

"Oh come on baby, this is nothing that a good little fuck couldn't resolve... Or are you on your period? No wonder you're so aggressive.. don't worry, I don't mind getting a little blowie either-"

I snapped when started whispering those gross words in my ear.

I kicked him hard in his groin and as he cried out in pain and fell to the ground, I slapped him and grabbed his head by the horribly blond-dyed hair.

"Listen here you little bitch-face. I know what you've been up to. So one more word from that stinky mouth of yours and you can say bye to your fucking dick. Understood?"

I didn't recognize my own voice right now.

Ron looked spooked. He was sweating and his eyes were full of nothing but despising.

At least one mutual feeling we had for eachother.

I pushed him away and spat at his pathetic form.

"Get out of here right this instant. I don't want to see you in here for the next 5 hours. I don't care what you do or where you go, just get the fuck out. Now."

He slowly got himself up, grabbing his aching balls with his hands and hissed in pain, gritting his teeth and pointing with his finger at me while practically crawling towards the door.

"This ain't over, whore. I am coming back. And I will put you in your damn place."

.

.

.

Thank fucking goodness he's gone.

I really tried calming down. He wasn't worth any of my tears and damn I knew that all too well.

But I just couldn't hold them back.

Had I really been this stupid? Too much in love to notice who this swine really was?

No, that just couldn't be.

Why was I such an idiot?

What did I do wrong in my life for everyone to think they had the right to hurt me?

My parents when they hurt me both physically and mentally because I wasn't their biological daughter.

My sister when she stole every little thing I had held dear in life, my friends, my toys, my boyfriend.

And Ron. The one person who I thought loved me unconditionally.

He promised.

He brought me presents.

He wrote love letters.

And I still loved it, even after finding out that the letters were from the internet and the presents were only those he got himself but didn't want.

But I couldn't forgive Alayna nor Ron for going all out in this.

I probably fell asleep after all the crying and woke up disoriented on my sofa.

6 p.m.

Thankfully, that dirtbag Ron hasn't come back yet.

I looked into the bathroom mirror.

My hair was a total mess, my glasses were dirty from all the tears and my mascara was slightly smudged, smeared on my puffy eyes.

In conclusion, my looks described my situation properly.

After checking one last time if there really was nothing left of my belongings, I closed that apartment and I swore myself that was the last time I'd enter it again.

I was back at the hotel and walked straight to my room and poured all my bags onto my bed right away.

Wait a minute.

My favourite scarf was gone.

Fuck, now my mood was ruined to the point of no return.

Just as I wanted to kick and scream into the pillow, someone knocked on my room's door.

I tried seeing something through the peephole, but couldn't identify anyone.

Hesitantly, I opened the door, and my surprise was certainly huge when I saw him, holding my scarf in his hand and smirking nonchalantly while leaning into my doorframe.

"Hey there, Arabella. I think you lost something back there."

Chapter Text

I'm working on it...