Maybe It's Been You All Along - Alex Turner

52

Rosanna woke up in a cold, empty bed. Her body felt stiff. She could barely blink she felt so paralysed. It was all real. She prayed as she opened her eyes that she would be in her home with Alex holding her tight telling her she just had a nightmare and that none of it was real. But it was.

She wasn't in her house. She wasn't in her bed. She was lying lifeless in one of Matt's spare bedrooms all on her own. Breana had offered to stay with her but Rosanna politely declined, thanking them both for taking care of her but saying that she just needed to sleep this over on her own. She regretted it the second she woke up.

As soon as she closed the bedroom door that night she fell to the floor, sitting against the door with her knees to her chest as she cried and cried and cried — covering her mouth so that neither Matt nor Breana could hear her sobs. She'd managed to stop crying after talking to them for a bit but as soon as she was on her own, her sadness washed over her like a tsunami. The only reason she managed to fall asleep was because she'd cried that much that she'd exhausted herself to the point where her body just couldn't stay awake anymore. It was the most awful sleep she'd ever had in her life.

She could still feel the lump in the back of her throat and the dried tears staining her cheeks. She felt hollow. A shell of her self. She wasn't even thinking about what had happened. She was just staring blankly, broken at the wall in front of her.

She laid there awake for hours. Matt and Breana both growing weary of whether they should check on her or not. Matt called both Nick and Jamie and asked them if they'd heard from Alex since Matt told him to 'fuck off'. Both said no but they both knew what happened and had tried calling both him and Rosanna but neither of them picked up. After assuring them both that Rosanna was with him and Breana, Matt phoned Miles, the only other person he could imagine Alex calling.

"He called," Miles said after Matt asked him. "The son of a bitch."

"What happened?" Matt asked. As furious as he was with Alex, Matt still needed to know if his friend was okay or what he was doing because he was worried he might do something rash.

"He was pissed off his face," Miles said. Matt could hear in his voice that Miles too, was disgusted with what Alex had done.

"You're fucking kidding me," Matt sighed and rubbed his temples.

"He was just crying and slurring his words saying how he fucked up," Miles said.

"What happened that night?" Matt asked.

Miles sighed, blaming himself for one, getting Alex into cocaine and two, leaving the group and leaving Alex to make stupid decisions all on his own. Had he done neither and this would have never happened. "I went away for about ten minutes and when I came back he and that girl were gone," Miles said. "I phoned him the next day to as where he went but he never picked up. Last night was the first time I heard from him after."

"Jesus Christ," Matt said and shook his head. "Fucking hell Alex," he groaned, "is he still at their house?"

"He was when he called," said Miles, "but that was summat round twelve last night."

"Fucking hell," Matt sighed. "Aight, thanks Miles. I'll go check on him."

"Do you know if Rosanna's alright?" Miles asked.

"She's at my place at the moment," Matt said. "She's fucking destroyed."

Miles felt like absolute shit when Matt said that. But Matt was completely correct. Rosanna was completely shattered. She began crying again as she lay stale in Matt's spare bedroom after recalling everything that had happened the night before.