Rush

:::1:::

London 1995

Andy

"Have you seen Mart!?" I shout to Dave over the loud music.

The flashing lights at this after show party for god knows what band are slightly disorienting and I've lost Martin in the crowd. He tends to drink and drink and he doesn't know when to stop, I want to get to him before anything gets out of hand.

Dave scans the crowd for a moment, still swaying to the music, and points in the general direction of the bar. I shake my head. I should have known. I weave my way through everyone and ask Alex if she could help me get Martin out of the party.

"He's still at the bar?" She questions.

Alex doesn't drink so she's usually the level headed one at parties and nights out. I'm not too bad myself but I do enjoy a drink here and there.

She holds onto my arm as we make our way towards Martin together. I can just about see his blonde curls between everyone else. Martin is the smallest out of all of us so it's always difficult to find him again when we separate.

"Put the drink down," Alex says, taking the bottle from his hand "you've had enough."

Martin looks even worse than he did when we got here. His constant drinking leaves him looking awful all the time. I don't know how he drinks as much as he does, I'm sure it would kill me if I did the same.

"Come on guys, it's a party!" Martin smiles drunkenly as Alex grabs his arm and pulls him off the bar stool.

I take his other arm and the three of us find our way to the front of the club. When we get outside, it feels strange how quiet it is. There are barely any cars on the road and the moon is out, it's a nice change to the chaos inside.

"Sit there with him." I say to Alex, pointing to some steps "I'll get us a taxi."

I unhook Martin's arm from around my shoulders and sit him down next to Alex.

"You don't have to do this you know. I can take him home, you should go back inside, enjoy yourself." Alex says.

I shake my head and insist on staying with them. I walk down the road a bit to try and find a taxi. We really shouldn't bring Martin out to these parties anymore, he's a danger to himself. I manage to find a cab and direct the driver to Alex and Martin. I run over and help them both into the car.

We get back to Martin's house and it stinks of beer. Martin passed out in the taxi so I've had to carry him inside. I get him over to the sofa quickly so I can hold my nose because of the awful smell.

"Do you think he has any air fresheners in here?" Alex asks, holding her nose and looking through the cupboards.

"I doubt it." I say, rushing over to the window to try and let some fresh air in.

Once we've opened a few more windows we look down at Mart lay out on the sofa, a few lipstick stains smeared across his face from various different women. I sigh and shake my head. He's making himself ill with all the drinking and parties, he isn't writing songs anymore and he's barely functioning.

"He isn't getting any better Andy." Alex breaks the silence, not taking her eyes off Martin.

"It's our fault really. Me and the guys always bring him out to parties, that certainly doesn't-"

"No, it's his own bloody fault! He's so stubborn and he never listens to us. He's taken it too far." She yells with tears in her eyes.

We all care about Martin deeply and it's hard for us to watch his self destructive behaviour ruin his life. But we've tried getting him to stop drinking so many times that I've lost hope in him becoming sober.

Alex insists on staying the night to make sure Martin's ok. I head to the door and look back before I leave. She is sat with Martin's head resting on her lap, stroking his messy hair. We have to do something about him, I can't just sit back and let his life fall apart.