by KE Payne
“So go home.” Alex picked a blade of grass. “Chill out in Brighton with your parents.”
“I wish I could.” I screwed up my nose. “But they’re on holiday in Italy until the end of the month, so there’s no point.”
Alex screwed up her sandwich wrapper, then shuffled away slightly from the tree and lay back on the grass.
“Come to Suffolk with me then,” she said, rolling her head to look at me. “Meet my bonkers parents.”
My heart gave a small jump, and even though I didn’t want to think too much about what that meant, my mind was already tearing ahead, thinking about hanging out with Alex in her own home for an entire weekend.
“You’re okay.” I lay down on the grass too and figured I’d sounded pretty convincing. “Thanks anyway. I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“Seriously, Tal.” Alex propped herself up on her elbow. “They’d love it.” She paused. “I’d love it.”
I squinted up at her.
“They’re planning a barbecue on the beach,” she said, smiling down at me. “They’d be disappointed if they knew I’d invited you and you didn’t come.”
“Your parents don’t know me.” I laughed.
“They love meeting my friends.”
Without warning, Alex reached down and picked a piece of dried grass from my T-shirt and flicked it away, like it was the most normal thing in the world for her to do.
“Please?” she asked.
I looked up at her as she looked down at me and knew at that moment that there was nothing I’d like more than to spend an entire weekend in her company.
“Well if you’re sure?” I asked.
“Never been surer.” Alex flopped back down next to me. “We’re going to have a blast, I just know it.”
Chapter Seventeen
Her parents’ house was awesome. Way bigger than my parents’ place and with a view that stretched so far out to sea I was sure I could see France from it. Of course, when I told Alex that she laughed and said, “We’re on the east coast, so you’d have a job from here, Tal,” and I felt a bit stupid.
It didn’t last, though. Before I even had a chance to go inside and meet her parents, Alex grabbed me by the hand and took me onto her parent’s front lawn, where she stood with me, an arm casually flung around my shoulder as she pointed out to sea.
“Down there,” she said, flagging a finger to the right, “Belgium if you’re lucky.” She steered my shoulders to the left. “Denmark is way, way over that way.” She straightened me. “Dead ahead is Holland.” Then she quickly pulled me to her before releasing me again. “But no France, I’m afraid.”
“Geography never was my strong point.” I wrapped my arms around myself and gazed out.
“I spent most of my childhood standing on this lawn wondering, if I took a boat out, where it would take me,” Alex said. “Then a large chunk of my early teens playing my guitar out here wondering if anyone across the water could hear it.” She laughed. “Silly really.”
“It sounds lovely.”
“It was.” Alex smiled. “I was very happy here.”
“I can see why.” I threw a look over my shoulder as I heard a shout from the house, swiftly followed by excited barking as a small and very hairy ginger-and-white terrier tore out of the house and raced across the lawn to us, its short legs a blur across the grass.
I watched as Alex fell to her knees and embraced the dog, pulling on its ears and rolling it onto its back so she could ruffle the fur on its chest. It lay on the grass, kicking its legs about, making Alex laugh, and I joined her, tickling its chest, albeit less robustly than Alex was.
“Jasper,” Alex said, her face shining with happiness. “Your brother’s namesake.”
“Hello, Jasper.” I sat back on my haunches as Jasper righted himself and jumped up to lick my face.
“Okay, enough.”
At Alex’s command, Jasper stepped back, shook himself, then trotted off to investigate a bumblebee on a flower. I looked up to see a woman, whom I presumed to be Alex’s mother, waiting for us in the doorway. I stood up, brushing dried grass from my jeans, then hauled Alex to her feet.
“My mum will probably make some comment to me about introducing you to the dog before her,” Alex whispered in my ear as we walked together to the front door, making me laugh.
“We got an earlier train,” Alex called over to her mother as we approached. “Hope that was okay.”
“It’s always okay.” Her mother met her on the grass and pulled her into her arms. She said something to her I didn’t catch, then smiled at me over her shoulder. “You must be Tally.” Her mother released Alex and held out a hand to me. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“None of it’s true.” I smiled, surprised at her announcement, and returned her brief handshake. “Well, not all of it.”
“I’m sorry Alex thought to show you off to her dog before me,” her mother said, grabbing Alex in her arms again. “I think Jasper comes far higher in her priorities.” She squeezed Alex, making her squeal, then released her, ruffling her hair as she did so.
I couldn’t look at Alex, because I knew if I did I’d laugh.
We followed her mother into the house, Alex holding the door open for me with a quick wink and a “told you so” quip as I entered the house. As we approached a closed door inside the hallway I heard the low rumble of voices behind it, and for the first time that day, felt a flutter of nerves at the prospect of meeting Alex’s family.
A sea of faces hit me as we entered the room.
“So this is the Brody clan,” Alex said. She threaded an arm across my shoulder and pointed round the room. “Dad, Joshua my brother, Eva his girlfriend, and some squirt I hardly recognize because he’s grown at least another foot since I last saw him.” She dropped her arm from my shoulder and went straight over to a smallish boy whose face had lit up the moment he’d seen her, hauling him up as far as she could into her arms before dropping him again. “And you’ve put on weight.”
“So have you, fatty.” The boy quickly embraced her, his face flaming bright red, then returned to his seat and the iPad he’d been using when we first came in.
“My younger brother, Sebastian.” I nodded and smiled at Sebastian, who flashed me a shy smile in return, then I stood and waited while Alex hugged her father and Joshua, finally accepting the seat that was offered to me, with apologies from her mother for not being a good host.
The next hour was, apparently, catch-up time. I sat and listened, coffee cup cradled in my hands, as Alex spoke excitedly and animatedly, about London and her new life in Be4. About the festival. About the next single. About how much she was loving it all. Occasionally our eyes would meet, and I’d add a thought or an anecdote of my own, but in the main I was happy to sit back and hear directly from Alex just what she was thinking. It was cathartic, I thought, to hear her innermost thoughts about her life with us. With Be4. To hear just how much she liked us, how grateful she was to have had another stab at making it in music, after years of trying. To see her parents’ faces so happy to see her, and to hear she was happy too.
That morning in her parents’ front room confirmed one vital point to me: Alex really was Be4.
*
Her room, when we’d finally managed to leave her parents’ company, was exactly as I expected it to be. Classily decorated and orderly, but with just a hint of ramshackle threatening around the edges, thanks to the enormous number of vinyls that took up an entire wall.
As I stepped inside, the vinyls were the only thing I could see. Stacked from floor to ceiling, if I’d even tried to count them, it would have been impossible.
“My folks sure like to talk.” Alex closed the door and leant against it, puffing out her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I went and sat on her bed. “I think they’re lovely.”
“They worry about me, I think.” Alex wrinkled her nose. “The den of iniquity that is the music world and all that.”
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sp; “When the truth—well for us anyway—is that it’s just bloody hard work.” I laughed. “My parents are the same. My daily calls home to them to tell them all I do all day is sit in a studio and sing, then go home and sleep, reassure them slightly, I think.” I caught Alex’s eye. “But only slightly.”
Alex smiled. “You said at the park yesterday that you missed them,” she said. “Do you find all this as tough as I do?”
“I miss them every day,” I replied. “But I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do, and as long as I get to see them as often as possible, I’m happy.” I looked at her. “And I know my parents well. If I’m happy, they’re happy.”
Alex shoved herself away from the door and joined me on her bed.
“So tell me how you’ve managed to get such an epic record collection.” I lifted my chin to the wall opposite us. Talking about my parents was making me miss them even more than normal.
Alex followed my gaze. “I’m a compulsive collector of old Motown,” she said, and then laughed. “Unfortunately, there’s lots of stuff I like.”
“Motown?” I asked. “How cool is that?”
“Rare Stevie Wonder stuff,” Alex said, “other things like that.”
I stood up and sauntered to the shelves on the wall, casting my eye over the records. “In alphabetical order,” I said. “Impressive.”
“Obsessive, more like.”
“Maybe a bit.” I smiled back over my shoulder. “But still impressive.”
“Have you heard this?” Alex joined me. She traced her finger along the line and pulled out a sleeve, then handed it to me. “Recorded live in Paris.”
I looked at the sleeve and shook my head.
“And this one is awesome,” Alex said, thumbing another one out. “Lounge sessions always sound immense, I think.”
I took the record from her.
“They only cut around a hundred copies of this,” she said, “but thanks to the Internet, I have one of those hundred copies.”
I flipped another one out. “And this one?”
“Only released in the US.” Alex took it from me and turned it over. “So I asked around,” she said, shrugging, “and I got.”
“I love all of these.” I held the vinyls carefully in my hand. “You’re so lucky to have them.”
“The original 1960s version on this is amazing,” Alex said, showing me another one. “I think you’d like it.” She reached for another. “And this one. The guitar solo in it is beautiful. Almost as good as yours.” She shoulder-bumped me. “Almost.”
“I’d love to hear it.” I put one of the records back. “Well, all of them really.”
“I’ll burn you some copies,” Alex said. “I’ve got a spare USB here somewhere.”
“You don’t have to.”
“They’re all on my PC in London,” she said. “It’ll be no hassle.”
“I’d like that.” I was touched she’d even offered.
“You should come over one day,” Alex said, nodding, “to my apartment. I’ve set up a music room. You’d love it.”
“I’d like that too.” I really meant it.
Alex put one of the records on while I returned to sit on her bed, admiring how carefully she removed it from its sleeve and placed it on the turntable, quite unlike my grab-and-shove technique which always, without exception, left a thumbprint on my CDs.
“The barbecue on the beach is later, by the way,” she said as she adjusted the volume. “I hope you’re not vegetarian.”
“Nah.” I shook my head. “I like burgers too much.”
“There’s still loads I don’t know about you.” Alex dipped her head to see the volume button better on her stereo, her hair flopping artfully over her eyes, and looked over to me from under her hair. “But I want to.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah,” she said, returning to the bed. “I really do.”
“Okay.” I slotted my hands under my legs and sat on them as she joined me. “Well, I like music. You know that.”
“I know that.”
“I just said.” I grinned at her.
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” Alex gave a small laugh. “What’s your favourite colour?”
“Blue. You?”
“Red.”
“Food?”
“Ooh, tricky.” I gazed up. “Lasagne, probably.” I looked at her. “You?”
“Bacon sandwiches,” she said, “with loads of sauce.”
“Nice.” I nodded.
“Why didn’t you want to be with Nicole?” Alex asked.
“Okay, that was random.” I pulled my hands out from under my legs and placed them in my lap.
“I just thought of it.” Alex shrugged.
I studied my nails, wondering how I could explain about Nicole properly without sounding like I was a horrible person, like I thought I had when I’d told Alex before.
“I already told you before,” I said.
“Well, only kind of.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted to be with someone like her,” I said, wishing Alex would change the subject.
“How was she?”
“Chaotic.” I laughed through my nose. “Can you say someone is chaotic?”
“I guess.”
“She was chaotic then,” I said. “Her life was a mess.”
“How?”
“She was moody,” I said. “Up and down.”
“Aren’t we all?” Alex suggested.
“But not like she was,” I said. “She was my BFF and I loved her like crazy—I love her like crazy—but I could never be with someone like her. Not like that.” I looked at Alex. “Having Nicole as a girlfriend and having to be in the band with her would have been a total car crash.”
“You didn’t even want to try?” Alex asked.
“No.” I shot Alex a look. Enough with all the questions. “So what do you fancy doing this afternoon?”
“You like to change the subject, don’t you,” Alex said, “when you don’t like the questions.”
“And you like to persist with the questions,” I replied, “when it’s bloody obvious I don’t want to answer them.”
“Fair point.” Alex held up her hands. “Beach?”
“What?”
“We could walk Jasper on the beach.”
“Deal.”
*
I’d never seen a dog run so fast. Bearing in mind the temperature outside was still knocking on eighty degrees, Jasper seemed to manage to ignore that fact and run and bark and investigate every inch of the beach near Alex’s house as if the sun beating down on us didn’t matter at all.
The beach was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday afternoon, just a smattering of kids building sandcastles and a few people venturing into the sea. I walked barefoot along the shoreline, Alex some way ahead of me, my shoes in my hands, my feet squelching into the soft sand as I walked.
We weren’t alone, though. When we’d mentioned we were taking Jasper for a walk, there followed a good five minutes of everyone else in the house deciding whether or not to join us, then another five minutes rounding everyone up, until finally, the whole of Alex’s family were walking with us.
I kind of minded that, and I knew I shouldn’t have. After all, the whole point of Alex coming home was to see her parents, but there was a part of me that wanted to walk with her alone so we could talk about music, the band, anything. I just wanted to talk to her. And that was really selfish of me.
Sebastian too was stoked Alex wanted to take a walk with him. As they walked side by side, I could see in the way he kept looking at her that he idolized her, and it was obvious she loved him just as much. She was fabulous with him too, and the thought that Alex could be so adorable made my heart leap each time I saw another look pass between them or heard a joke made at the other’s expense. As I sauntered along, I watched her occasionally chase him in and out of the water’s edge, smiling as I heard his squ
eals escalate as each time she drove him further and further into the water.
While I watched them playing, I saw a girl wave over to them, then approach. I assumed it was Eva, until I looked further up the water’s edge and saw her still walking with Joshua. Alex stopped playing with Sebastian, bent down to—I assumed—say something to him, then veered slightly to the left, away from the water, towards the girl, while Sebastian ran on ahead and caught up with Joshua and Eva.
“So Alex tells me you play guitar too.”
The low voice beside me made me jump. Her father was talking to me. How long had he been walking next to me? I’d been so absorbed in watching Alex, I had no idea I had company.
“Yeah.” I brought my focus back to him. “Classical, acoustic. Any guitar I can get my hands on really.”
“We watched a recording of you all on The Afternoon Show the other day,” her father said. “We try and keep everything Alex does.”
“Alex was awesome that day,” I said, looking over to her retreating back. “Totally charmed the audience.”
“She could charm the birds from the trees, that one.” He smiled over to Alex.
She was still walking with the girl; it looked as though they were deep in conversation as they wandered slowly side by side along the water’s edge.
An unfamiliar sensation washed over me. I couldn’t take my eyes from them as I wondered who she was, and why she was talking to Alex. I shook my head. None of it was any business of mine.
“Alex’s been great for us,” I said to her father, thinking I ought to talk to him rather than stare at Alex. “Everything’s just gone a bit mad since she joined us.”
“She’s very happy, I know,” her father said. “I can tell when my daughter’s content.”
We were catching them up. I tried to look anywhere but towards them, but my peripheral vision picked out a hug, then the sense that one of them had gone. When I finally looked back over their way, Alex was standing alone, facing us.
As we approached, her eyes were firmly on mine, and I knew I wasn’t misreading the look of unease on her face. Her expression was different, guarded, almost as if she was trying to read my face too.
