Maybe It's Been You All Along - Alex Turner

1

  An infuriating ring echoed throughout the unlit apartment. Bouncing off the walls every few seconds, disrupting the silence and serenity of the cool autumnal night. A groan sounded after the fifth ring. Something stirred under soft white sheets and a hand stretched out and grasped the source of the ring.

  A light illuminated the face of a drowsy girl, ripe with the blessing of youth. Her forehead creased between her dark brows and her eyelashes seemed to weigh down her eyelids as she squinted in the bright glow. She pressed the device to her ear and muttered an exhausted greeting.

  "Rosanna?" a thick accent crackled through the speaker. Noise buzzed behind the voice, dialogue, the clink of glasses, drunken laughter and the pointlessness of a sports encore displayed somewhere in the voice's whereabouts.

  "Yeah," the girl groaned, "what's up?"

  "I'm so sorry to have to do this to you," the man sighed, "it's Alex..."

  The girl let out a long exhale and rested her head against the wooden headboard behind her.

  "I'm sorry," the man said, "but he won't listen to any of us, we tried everything."

  The girl sighed, "it's fine Matt, where are you?"

  "Uhm..." Matt hummed, "the uh, the pub just off Charter. The one we went to after Megan's party that one time."

  "Alright, I'll be there in a few," she huffed and climbed lazily out of bed.

  "Thanks a lot honestly, sorry again about this," Matt apologised.

  "It's all good, see you soon," she said flipping the light on, squinting in the blinding glow.

  "See you."

  Rosanna let out a long sigh and tossed her phone onto the ground, running her fingers through her tangled hair. This wasn't uncommon, in fact, it was almost routine. The boys would go out drinking a couple nights a week and she would get a call around three in the morning, sometimes she was lucky and got one around twelve, with one of them asking her to come and sort Alex out.

  He wasn't always like his, Alex. Sure he got drunk on occasions but ever since his messy breakup with his partner Alexa Chung, he hadn't been the same. He found drinking the easiest way to get over her, he called it a "coping mechanism".

  Alex refused to listen to anyone when he was drunk; Rosanna seemed to be the only one he'd eventually give in to. She didn't like having to wake up in the middle of the night to go and sort him out but she'd rather she dealt with him and knew he was safe than ignore him and have him get himself into a negative situation.

  She threw on some clothes and started out of her apartment block. She only lived a few streets away from the pub Matt and the boys were supposedly at, so she walked the distance rather than catching a cab or reeling her car from the basement of her apartment block.

  Rosanna could hear the voices erupting from the pub long before it came into view and as she approached the door, could hear Alex's voice immediately, slurring his words in a very deep and sleepy voice. In walking through the doors of the dimly lit bar all the drunken men's heads turned to face her. It wasn't surprising how many people were still out seeing as it were a Friday, well, Saturday now. She saw the backs of three familiar men and strolled up to them as one by one, they turned to see her.

  Matt gave her an appreciative smile and a hug, "sorry about this, again," he muttered.

  "It's fine, where is he?" Rosanna asked scanning the pub.

  "Just popped off to the bathroom," Jamie said nodding his head in the direction.

  "Have a good night so far?" Rosanna asked the three of them.