They're Better off Without You

-19:42. Surrey Street, Sheffield City Center-

"I'm fucking astounded that people don't recognise you, like at all." said Ben as they were walked down the street towards a Starbucks.
"Meh, people don't tend to come up to me. Anyway, what about you? THE Ben Bruce guitarist AND founder of the famous Asking Alexandria. Where are all of your fans?" she said jokingly.
"Probably too fucking starstruck to believe that it's actually me. Therefore, they do nothing. I'm TOO famous you see." he replied proudly.
"I wouldn't flatter yourself." she said, smiling.
"Shut it, midget." he said nudging her.
"Hey, don't insult the height, I'm not that short anyway." she said, nudging him back.
"Yeah, not that short." he said sarcastically.
"Shut your whore mouth." she chuckled.They arrived outside of Starbucks, the place looked deserted apart from one occupied table at the back.
"Ok, Alice we're gonna meet a few friends in here. They aren't used to female company so if they say anything insulting, don't take it to the heart." he said before pushing the door of the shop open. Ben laughed as they all turned around, before grabbing Alice's hand and pulling her into a seat. The table went completely silent. The shoelace on Alice's boots suddenly became very interesting.
"I'm Matt Nicholls." said a boy with dark hair, stretched ears and a sort of lisp.
"Good to meet you man." she smiled, shaking his hand. Drummer of Bring Me The Horizon she clocked.
"It's great to actually be meeting you, wow." said Matt, looking at her. She smiled at him in her best attempt at looking confident and comfortable.
"And I'm James, and this is Sam. Drummer and bassist of the same band as Ben." said the guy sitting next to Ben.
"Cool." she smiled and went over their names in her head. The table sat in silence again. Matt checked his phone.
"Anyone up for getting wasted at my place? Oli says there's a shitload of people there now." he said. Of course, she couldn't miss a getting off your face with a bunch of people you don't know night. They all piled in to Matt's car and in fifteen minutes they entered a gated estate of about six or seven homes and pulled up beside a beautiful house, five bedrooms easily. From what Alice could see of it, it was fucking huge. It had a curved cobbled driveway with cars already parked on it that led to a marble porch with huge dark ebony pillars and a huge door. No fucking way could this belong to Matt Nicholls, the house and him were completely contrasting. "Yup, my pride and joy. 6 bedrooms all with en suite, 2 bathrooms, living area, kitchen with a huge island thingy that we use as a table, like it's got stools and shit. A utility room, 4 storage cupboards and and our basement is converted into a soundproof rehearsal/practise room thing, it has a drumkit, 3 microphones, 2 wireless microphones, 3 guitars and a bass. I think there's an old acoustic down there PLUS all the amps and shit. Cool or what?" he said, Alice nodded. "Oh and, before you say anything Alice Hughes, I share a house with four other guys, this isn't all my doing." he said, gesturing to the neatly mowed front lawn and flower bed.

"S'all right Nicholls, don't mind a guy that's willing to do the dirty work." she winked as she walked past him. He laughed and opened the door to blaring music and a lot of people.
"Ha, this shits going already." Matt said, looking at the sea of people. " I'm gonna go find the other four that live here alright? I'll bring them so you can meet them." And he was off into the crowd.
She spotted Sam Carter sitting at the table with two dudes from While She Sleeps, she walked over.
"Sam?" she said. Sam had been a distant friend from growing up, as they both lived in Brighton and went to the same school. However, as Sam was a good four years older than Alice, they were never close, nor were they in school for a long time together. But in recent years they had grown tight and thought of one another as siblings.
"Alice?" he said looking surprised before standing up and suffocating her in a giant hug. "What are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask you exactly that. I'm with Ben." she said, pointing to Ben, Sam and James that were all standing together.
"Fuck that. That guys bad news, Al." he said putting his beer down. "I'm going."
"What, why? Oh come on, you don't even have to talk to them, just stay will you?" she said sitting him back down.
"You know I fucking hate that clown and I want to leave before I seriously injure him." Sam growled.
"Hey Alice! A've got thum!" shouted someone behind her. She turned around to see Matt with four other guys. Alice gave him thumbs up before turning back to Sam.
"You better still be here when I get back!" she hissed she then turned and walked towards Matt.
"I wouldn't count on it Al!" he shouted at her back. She reached the guys and immediately recognized one. Mr Oliver Sykes, the one and only. Matt started introducing them.
"Well, Alice this is Mike Duce, lead singer of Lower Than Atlantis. Oli Sykes, I'm guessing you probably know him. Sean Smith of the Blackout, this is mostly his house but we don't tell people that often, and finally-"
"JOSH!" she shouted.
"TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH YOU DIDDY." he shouted back, giving her a huge hug. Yep, the other person that lived in this house was Josh Franceschi, Alice had went on tour with You Me At Six a couple years back. They were really good friends during that tour but afterwards they never seen each other again.
"Look at you!" he said holding her at arms length and examining her with a bright grin on his face. "Where's the mad 17 year old I took on tour?"
"I dunno." she laughed. "Where's the mad 19 year old that took me on tour?"
"Jesus, Alice I can't get over how much you've changed! You're so beautiful, not that I didn't love the pink hair or anything." he laughed
"Oh god, don't remind me of the hair." said Alice talking about when she had candyfloss pink hair from the age of 13 to 18.
"SOOOOO I take it you guys know each other then." said Matt.
"Yep, we went on tour a few years back, not seen each other since." said Josh, putting his arm around Alice.
"Hey, Al what you doing with these guys? Come party!" said Ben as he appeared by her side and dragged her away.

~about an 2 hours later~

A trickle of blood red wine trickled down Alice's chin and down her neck as she took the bottle from her lips. She soon after felt the warm tongue of someone lick it off.
"Fuck." she moaned as his hands wandered down to her butt and crept up the inside of her thigh. The party was still in full swing around them but Alice was too wasted to even remember who's lap she was sitting on. She looked down, it was Ben.
"Here, try this." said Ben, holding up a coaster with a line of white powdery substance laid out perfectly. Without hesitation she took the entire thing.
"Jeshy fell asleep." she giggled, pointing at Josh before standing up and staggering about two meters from the couch and falling beside an already passed out Josh Franceschi. Alice didn't remember passing out. But who does when they're off the wall? She woke up on the couch, her head pounding. She looked around the room, looks like it was just her, lots of empty bottles of alcohol and some smashed glass."Ah fuck." she cursed as she dragged herself from the sofa, she adjusted her mesh top and retrieved a sock that had fallen off. She managed to find the kitchen no bother, that's where most of the guys were, boxer-clad and hungover. "Hey." she managed before a huge wave of nausea overtook her. "Bathroom?"
"Third on the right." said Oli who was eating a slice of dry toast. "And make sure you get it in the toilet, I can't deal with vomit."
Alice rushed to the bathroom where she gracefully threw up a few times before hoisting herself up and rinsing her mouth with mouthwash. She went back into the kitchen and sat down.
"Good night for ya then?" Mike Duce asked, sitting on the stool beside her.
"I really don't know." She groaned, her head on the worktop. "Can't remember it."
Just then, Ben Bruce appeared at the doorway, shirtless and showered looking all godly and shit. He laughed when he seen her. "The comedown not treating you too well kid?" he said sitting on the other side of her.
Alice bolted upright immediately. "The comedown?! Did I take -"
"Alice you're fine, he's having you on. We don't do that kind of stuff, it's nice clean fun here. Mostly." said Matt with a sly smile. Matt, of course giving Ben the benefit of the doubt, was blissfully unaware that he had introduced Alice to a little friend called Cocaine. Alice gave a sarcastic laugh and dragged herself off the stool and into the living room to find her phone. Ben followed her. "Listen, Ben I've got to make a call, do you mind?" she said politely as her mangled head would let her.
"But-" he started
"Ben." she said more sternly this time.
"Fine." he walked out.
The phone rang a few times before Sam picked up
"What." he said blankly
"Jeez Sam who pissed in your cheerios this morning." she said. No reply. "Okay, um why did you leave last night without saying goodbye?"
"Because if I stayed I probably would have beaten the crap out of Ben Bruce."
"Why?"
"Because he was using you as a fucking human ice-cream, I don't wanna see that shit Alice. You were fucking ridiculous last night, you were acting like a total prick." he said
"I'm sorry Sam, I was wasted drunk." she said.
"Do you know what you fucking took?" he said, her stomach dropped.
"What are you talking about." she said
"Mike said he saw you take coke, Alice. Fucking COCAINE." stressed Sam. "I told you about that fucking cunt Al."
"Jesus Christ." she said, her heart racing. This wasn't like her in the slightest. "I'm so sorry Sam. I had no idea." Alice voice was shaking.
He sighed. "I guess I can't stay angry at you forever. I'm just looking out for you, I can't stand hearing things like that." he said.
"Trust me, I prefer me when I'm sober." she laughed.
"Promise me, you wont ever do that again. Promise me Alice Isabella Hughes." he said sternly.
"I promise, Samuel James Carter. Anyway I best be off then. I have try and get back home somehow, my head feels like its going to literally cave in. Happy times." she said
"Ok Al, see you soon, I love you." he said.
"Bye Sam, love you too." she said and hung up.
"So, you and that loser Carter then." said the voice of Ben Bruce from behind her.
"It's funny Ben, I actually remember telling you to leave the room when I was on the phone, or was I just talking to myself?" she said turning around to see Ben leaning on the wall.
"I don't want you talking to him again." he said.
"Woah, back up here man. Since when did you control me? I've known you for two weeks for fuck sake. We're not even dating and even if we were, you'd still not be telling me what to do, heck, if we were MARRIED you wouldn't tell me what I could and could not do!" she spat.
"He only wants in your underwear anyway!" he shouted. "You nasty little jailbait!"
"I'm not under eighteen thank you, even though I know that's what you usually go for. And that's rich, coming from the manwhore junkie himself!" she cried.
"You have a cheek calling me a junkie, you're just as fucking bad." he retorted.
"Yeah, but I'm not a fucking waster!" she yelled. The other guys had obviously heard the racket and wanted to know what was going on. They started filing in one by one. Everything after that happened so quickly, Ben lunged forward and grabbed Alice by the tops of her arms, lifting her slightly off her feet, there was some protest from the rest of the guys, but they were kept quiet by what Ben was about to say.
"You, Alice Hughes, whoever the fuck you are. Are just a dumb little slut, useless, worthless. Everyone is so much better without you." he hissed. Alice's eyes went wide as she experienced a flurry of emotions. Alice was furious. Her eyes locked with his for a moment, she was sure that he could see the fire in her eyes because he flinched. She brought her head back and spat directly into his face.
"BITCH!" he roared and threw her down, her back hit the fine glass coffee table which then smashed into a million tiny pieces that sliced down her arms and her back. She looked up just in time to see Josh Franceschi fall to the floor and receiving multiple kicks and punches to the face and stomach from Ben.
"Josh!" she groaned, and tried to stand up but her vision doubled and a pair of strong arms caught her just before she hit the pile of glass behind her. Alice blacked out whilst being pulled onto the sofa.