Troubled - Alex Turner

1. Purely Red

"Again?" I heard Sam squeal, annoyed, as she paced towards a very intoxicated looking Carter. "You seriously need to stop with this shit. This is the third day in a row!"

"Aw, for fuck sake, man!" Ross spat upon also noticing Carter's red eyes and dilated pupils. "This shits gonna end up killing you one day."

"That's the plan," Carter slurred, shooting him a sarcastic smile in response.

"Ugh," I groaned turning to face Ella before holding my head in my hands. "Here we go again."

Sam is the oldest of us all - and the strongest, for that matter. She's the one holding us all together at the moment, fighting for our bands redemption while also trying to deal with the multitude of problems she's faced with on her own. She's been like a sister to me ever since we met around three years ago, and i'd honestly trust that girl with my life.

Carter has been my best friend since day one. We're both equally as fucked up in the head as one another, and I suppose that's sort of how we work so well together. We both come from broken homes where we were unwanted and unloved, having to look after and fight for ourselves from far too young. However, unlike me, Carter uses drugs and alcohol to deal with his troubles, slowly killing himself a little more as the days go on.

Ross is hanging on by a thread, I won't lie. After going through a very intense breakup, he hasn't been the same since. He tries his best to hide his problems from everyone but I know him like the back of my hand - and I know that he's struggling. He's a very good looking man, easily everyone's type. If he wasn't so incredibly gay, then I would've literally thrown myself onto him by now.

Ella's not much better than the rest of us either. We met at a bar one night where I found her begging for help as a man forced himself on her. Sam and I, somehow, managed to fight the man off. We then later found out that the man which me and Sam had fought off for her, had been her boyfriend. We ended up spending the night at her place in case of any trouble. Turns out, she had been in an abusive relationship for two years - having been too scared to do anything about it.

And then there's me.

In all honesty, it's hard for me to find trust in people these days - I guess being screwed over so many times can be the cause of that. The only people that I genuinely do trust are my band mates - and I doubt that'll ever change, to be honest. I think that given my past, I tend to hold myself up well, and keep myself going as best as I can. I don't tend to open up to people or seek help when I feel myself crumbling down; I know that there's simply no need to burden people with my countless number of problems, so I simply keep myself to myself.

And there you have it; my mess of a friend group. Or preferably: Purely Red.

"Get off," Carter huffed, pushing Sam away as she inspected his eyes.

"You can't keep on doing this, Car, we've got practice. How're you supposed to play guitar in that state?" Ella questioned.

"Vroom vroom," Carter mocked as he threw himself onto the sofa of our den, seeming to find Ella's nickname for him hilarious in his current state.

"Are you serious, Carter?" Sam scolded him.

"Relax, okay," he responded with an agitated sigh. "It's not as though this matters anyway," he muttered under his breath. Sam simply threw a cushion to his head. "Ouch!" he exclaimed.

"We're going to make it one day, you know?" she stated, "we got so close, Carter," she continued, using her hands to gesture a pinch. "So fucking close!"

"Not close enough," he mumbled in response.

It's true, we were close. We were about to sign with a big label. Massive, in fact. However, us being us, we got into a bit of a brawl at a bar with a group of strangers - who totally deserved it, by the way - and the company told us that they couldn't be dealing with a bunch of 'hooligans' like us. That it would damage their publicity.