Cherry Coloured - Alex Turner

7. Lies and Serpentines

"Oh my god." It was all Maeve could manage to say.

  Like a car crash, despite everything in her being wanting to look away she just couldn't. Her feet were glued to the floor beneath her and her stomach began to churn sick at the sight unfolding in front of her. All of that excitement and all of those little butterflies that had been fluttering around her stomach seemed to shrivel up and die.

Her eyes found Alex's instantly and watched as her voice had alerted him of her presence and caused all the colour to drain from his face. He looked as though he'd seen a ghost. Eyes wide and terrified as the look of betrayal on Maeve's face became more and more prominent.

"What the fuck," Maeve stuttered, still stuck where she stood.

The blonde woman straddling his lap stopped moving her hips and looked over her shoulder, eyes growing wide as they landed on Maeve standing there in complete shock.

"Oh!" the blonde exclaimed, looking the dark haired girl up and down. "You must be the 'someone else' Al was talking about," she smiled.

She smiled? Maeve felt disoriented by the woman's reaction. She was smiling at her like she was being introduced to a new friend. All whilst literally sitting on Alex's lap right in the middle of it. She had one hand on Alex's neck but raised the other one to brush her square cut bangs from her eyes. Her lips were painted nude with a lipstick that was smudged all over Alex's face. Maeve felt nauseated and embarrassed the second she spotted a pair of pink underwear on the floor by Alex's feet.

"Maeve—" Alex began but both he and Maeve knew he had nothing he could say that would explain himself.

"I'm Vienna," the blonde smiled, still on top of Alex and evidently not intending to disrupt their act despite Maeve's sudden presence. "Alex's girlfriend."

"You...what?" Maeve exclaimed, looking directly at Alex, no longer too embarrassed to look at the two of them.

"I—" Alex started.

"I thought you fucking broke up?" Maeve said, suddenly disgusted in her own body. Everything from last night began to turn sinister. Everything he'd said, everything they'd done, everywhere he touched her, all of it turned to dust and poisoned her mind.

"Oh no love, don't worry," Vienna smiled at her whilst stroking Alex's cheek. He'd never hated himself more in his life. "I don't mind."

Maeve's eyebrows furrowed tight at the centre of her forehead. This has to be some sick fever dream, she said to herself.

"I'm just glad Al finally found his other person," Vienna said and looked down at Alex who had deflated entirely. He almost looked green and sick. A cold sweat had broken all over his body and he'd rapidly descended into panic. Already, he knew there was no way of getting out of this one.

"His what?" Maeve spluttered, sick to her stomach.

Alex moved his hands to Vienna's legs and moved her off him, quickly pulling up his track pants and standing up off the settee. "Please, Maeve, I can explain."

"You can fuck off, that's what you can do," Maeve said, backing away from him.

"Seriously, love, I don't mind," Vienna said to Maeve, only making her feel worse. "It's so good for him to have you."

"Vie can you please—" Alex begged. His heart was beating out of his chest.

"I can't fucking believe this," Maeve said and grabbed her bag and her jacket. "You were full of shit. Everything you said was a fucking lie."