thunder with a heavy riff

I get bored from arriving too early, so like every human being I try not to waste my money on playing Candy Crush, coming an hour early sounds like a bad idea, when you’re waiting and there is no one to open the door.

I’ve chewed all my chewing gum already and all I’m left is trying to clear off all the jelly, before the battery dies and I’m left alone, hoping that I don’t look ridiculous without a phone in my hands, after all, I should charge my phone more often rather than recall it and see a few days later that no one reached me and that’s why people kept visiting me with boxes of beer. Maybe they had thought I was dead and that would explain things. 

And then I see a tall man exit in a blue hat with a black feather, sticking out. He seems to stretch out to check if there’s any rain and I just keep staring at him and he makes me want to check if it is raining myself. I copy his move, not knowing why and he notices me. 

Grand.

He asks me for a cigarette and I wonder how awkward each of us are trying to be, but enough, I drop the act and I nod.

“Hey.” I say too quietly and I light my own cigarette after his as he watches me before shifting his attention to the pavement, maybe he is still waiting for rain drops. I check my clock, I should really be going. I wonder if he had checked on Alison as well. I inhale a bit too deeply, trying to cover the silence we’ve got between us. 

“How are you, Alex?” Jack asks me and I watch the ring on his fingers, the one which looks like a piercing eye and I wonder what effect is he trying to achieve or is it simply because it looked cool and matched the music in his head. When I had first seen him, I had been shy and he had red instead of blue everywhere. He was much taller than me even if he had seemed to be uncomfortable with himself towering above the rest, now he seems more at ease with what is going on and what he was given, but Jack’s not pleased with himself.

“Oh, um, I’m fine. I was about to see Alison-”

“She’s not home. I checked.” And he looks back at the door, inhaling halfway. “I checked and yeah, waited for a while, she’s not home. You don’t have to check, I’ve checked.”

He cuts me off and I just look at his burning cigarette. All I can do is scratch the back of my head, feeling the dried gel holding the hair in place and I rock on my heels for a bit before patting him on the shoulder and I wave him off, leaving Jack with the rest of the cigarette as I discard mine.

I push the door open, revealing the staircase and it amuses me again that the elevator isn’t working even if there is no need and I walk in to the stairs, passing a cleaning lady who I greet even quieter than I did Jack. I keep walking up and eventually I reach her door and I press the button.

It takes a few minutes before I press it again and I feel awful for not listening to Jack. I press my ear against the door, to maybe hear a noise or hear if she died suddenly and I hear nothing.

I try banging softly before I go back down, passing the cleaning lady and I recall how someone had said that their neighbor used to peel oranges on the stairs until they were gone one day. I glance at the cleaning lady, wondering if she likes oranges and I go outside to see Jack flicking through his own phone.

I take a deep breath and I walk towards him, wondering if it’s boredom or amusement.

I see him checking his e-mail and I’m surprised he’s not dragged into the games I found myself in and he smiles. 

“Sorry.” I say to which he just shrugs and starts walking off and frankly, I even forget to check if Alison answers her phone, I check when I catch up on Jack and 

even then it’s still empty. 

-

Me being in an Arctic Monkeys mood for the past... errr... weeks, I have had the idea of a story of Alex waiting on Alison and I had the first few paragraphs ready, but I kind of dropped it. I started thinking about the Jack White request and I figured I could change it rather into a Alex x Jack, I mean, why not? xD 

It's funny because the other story which both has Alex and Jack would be Broken Black Varnish Requiem, where they are also in a love triangle with Alison xD but the other is a straight classic love triangle while this is pretty much queer xD 

Also the orange lady was actually a story I've heard of myself years ago :)

I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to request:3

<3