Dial Drunk - Post Malone

47

Life is bad.

Austin is caught in a riptide and he can't get out.

Between Grassy and Levi, they manage to get him to the studio and by some miracle they get the album recorded and released. It tops the charts and sales go through the roof. His career explodes and the world celebrates Austin's success, but he does not. He no longer cares.

He is now bigger than he has ever been before and Dre breaks his back with the stories he spins to keep Austin looking good in the media. He releases a statement with the label's backing that due to how hard Austin has been working in the past he is taking a well-deserved break for the next 18 months - no appearances, no shows, no tour. The world is upset by this, but they advocate for him saying he deserves a break after all his hard work and are put at ease when Dre releases a second media statement promising a fifth album at the end of Austin's 18-month hiatus. Austin celebrates too because it allows him to hide in his house with no expectations, besides, he will probably be dead within 18 months so he does not care.

Levi stays. For now. He knows she will eventually leave. But, for now, she stays. He tries with her, he will always try with her. He loves her with his whole heart - but, it's hard with the constant expectation of seeing her bags packed and her walking out at any moment. He does crazy things like ordering her thousands of roses every Sunday morning or flying over food from a foreign country or showering her with expensive gifts in an attempt to show her that he cares while she smiles that soft sad smile at him she always wears now and thanks him before placing his offerings to the side.

He no longer hides his drinking from her, he is not capable of doing so. She never fights with him when he gets drunk, choosing rather to stay close by then clean him up and get him to bed after he has polished off yet another bottle of whisky. She never supplies him with whisky and always gives him a forlorn look when he maracusly produces a new bottle. He also has to go to great lengths to hide his whisky when he is not sipping from it - if she finds a bottle she will pour it down the drain. He hates when she does that but he does not fight or even snap at her, he understands and he is always sorry when he sees how desperately sad her face is as she watches the amber liquid swirl down the drain. She, like Grassy, has stopped drinking any type of alcohol. Choosing to sip on water or coffee where she once enjoyed a glass of wine during dinner or work events.

He comes up with an insane plan to bind her to him and entice her to stay by asking her to marry him, she said yes, but her eyes remained sad as she took the ring and slipped it onto her finger. He had gone over the top and crazy with his proposal, hiring a helicopter and taking her to the very top of the highest mountain he could think of where he stumbled onto his knee and popped the question then got black-out drunk in celebration while she tried to keep him steady and get him home in one piece. She wears his ring though and continues to smile sadly at him whenever he talks and makes promises to stop drinking soon and help her plan a fairytale wedding. But, they don't announce their engagement to anyone and he notices she slips the ring off when her parents phone for their weekly chat with her.

He knows she won't stay, they won't make it to a wedding. But, he tries to keep her. He loves her so dam much it hurts his chest.

The only time he feels human, the only time he stays fully sober is that little window before the sun peeps through their bedroom windows in the morning, before he reaches for the bottle his first instinct is to reach for her. During that time he maps her body out, swears he will love her till his lungs give out then pushes into her gently while she clings to him with hope and love in her beautiful eyes. He would give up the world for her, but she deserves better than him and will leave him soon - that nugget of truth always brings him back to reality, making him inevitably reach for the bottle and find the bottom of it.