FicWad

A week later, I found myself in my car heading towards Izzy's house. I wasn't really sure if Izzy wanted me in his house, but Axl had invited me anyways. As a matter of fact, he hadn't just invited me over for the day. He said that I could sleep in Izzy's spare bedroom and then come to another Guns 'n Roses show with them the next day. I had taken the opportunity to stay over night at Izzy's without question and had packed my bags yesterday. I hoped I had remembered to pack everything. There was always so much to remember to pack and I was bound to forget something.
As I pulled into Izzy's driveway, a flutter of excitement and unknown came over me. Staying over at Izzy's house was certainly going to be an interesting experience with a house full of crazy guys. I parked my jetta in the driveway and stepped outside into the darkened night. Axl had told me to come at ten at night, so here I was at ten sharply. I wasn't really sure why he had wanted me here so late at night. Maybe Guns 'n Roses had practice before that time or something?
I opened my trunk and heaved my one heavy suitcase out and onto the ground next to me. After slamming the trunk closed and locking my car doors just in case, I trudged up to Izzy's door, dragging my suitcase behind me. Before I got to the door, I could hear voices from inside. They sounded like they were arguing. Uh oh, maybe coming here hadn't been such a good idea after all. It was really too late to do anything about this though so I bravely knocked on the door.
The voices stopped and there was a moment of whispering before I heard footsteps approaching the doorway. After a few seconds, the door was flung open by Axl. His face was rather red and his hair was disheveled, but his lips turned into a big grin when he saw me. Swiping the hair off his forehead, he greeted me, "Hey Amy. Come on in. We're just finishing up band practice. Here, let me take that for you."
Axl easily picked up my suitcase and headed back inside. I stepped into Izzy's little house and closed the door quietly behind me. Inside the living room, I found all the band members with their instruments. Slash was laughing at something Steven was saying, Duff smiled politely in the background, and Izzy's face remained completely expressionless. My heart fell. For some reason, it was like I had been hoping that Izzy would have had a renewed interest in me tonight or something.
Axl swaggered back into the room a few seconds later and flopped back down on the center cushion of the couch, next to Duff. He patted the cushion to his left for me and said, "You can sit here, Amy. We're just trying to compose a new song here a minute. It's almost done, but we can't quite seem to find the right words for the song, so just deal with us for a sec."
I nodded and took a seat on the cushion next to Axl. At Axl's word, the band started playing their new song. Axl's brow furrowed as he tried to think of lyrics to go with the song. I listened to the song as well. It was a fast song with a pleasant beat to it. After a minute, I said, "That song reminds me of paradise for some reason."
Slash grinned, "Paradise? You know what paradise is?" The band stopped playing temporarily and turned to Slash curiously. Slash continued, "It's where the girls are fat and have big titties!" Everyone started laughing, including me. Slash could be pretty funny sometimes. Axl held up his hand to stop the laughter though, "Wait a second guys, I think I might have something! How about it starts, 'Take me down to the Paradise City'?"
"Where the girls are fat and have big titties," Slash added, smirking. Axl rolled his eyes and slapped Slash on the arm, "Well, it does rhyme, but we obviously can't put that on our album. How about this, 'Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty'?" Everyone looked around and nodded their heads that they liked it. Slash agreed with the rest, but he muttered under his breath, "I still like the other version better, you know."
It only took a few more minutes before the rest of the song was composed. Once the chorus was done, the rest of the song was easy to compose lyrics too. When the band had finished, Axl slapped everyone on the back, stood up, and stretched, "Good job today, guys! We can probably play that song at our show tomorrow if all goes well."
"What time is the show tomorrow anyways?" I asked as Izzy and Slash put their guitars away. Axl pretended not to have heard my question and called something to Duff. I was not to be perturbed though. I followed Axl and tapped his arm lightly, repeating my question, "What time does the show tomorrow start?"
Axl finally turned his attention to me and grimaced slightly, "It starts at ten in the morning, so we're going to have to leave here by eight. I know it's early, but we can't pass up an opportunity like this. You don't mind this, do you? I probably should've told you that the show started so early before. But if we go to bed early, it won't be that big of a deal. What do you think?"
"Yeah, it should be no big deal," I agreed, not wanting to give up an opportunity to give up a chance to spend some time with Axl, Steven, and the rest of the band. Axl smiled back at me, "Good. Let's party then!"

~ ~ ~ ~

The six of us spent the rest of the night hanging out in the living room in front of the television. Slash put on some freaky horror movie for us to watch. I knew for a fact that I was definitely going to be having nightmares tonight! Duff ordered a pizza for us, so we had our dinner sitting in front of the TV. All the guys drank a lot, but I didn't drink anything. I didn't want to get wasted tonight in case something might happen tonight. Chances are that nothing actually would happen, but it never hurt to hope!
Once the horror movie ended three hours later, everyone was ready for bed. Slash had already passed out on the couch, Steven was leaning on Duff's shoulder with his eyes closed and his mouth open, and Izzy kept trying to smother yawns. During the whole night, I had kept sneaking glances at Izzy. He hadn't shown an ounce of interest in me though. So I was forced to just watched the ex-boyfriend that I still loved all night without saying a word to him.
"Guys, let's go to bed," Axl said, rubbing his eyes wearily. "Amy, I set you up in the spare bedroom. It's right down the hall there. Remember everyone, we've got to be ready to leave the house at eight tomorrow morning. That's very important, so don't be late!" Nobody responded to Axl's statement. That was probably because everyone was way too tired to bother listening to him. I wandered down the hallway and found the spare bedroom easily. It was the same room I had stayed in before when I had slept over at Izzy's. The burgundy walls and queen-sized bed were very familiar.
I dug through my suitcase for my nightie. It was made of mostly black lace that was pretty much see through. I had packed it just in case, but it sure didn't look like I was going to get laid at this rate. Sighing, I flopped into the bed, flicked off the lights, and pulled the sheet up to my neck. I wasn't left along for too long though. Only ten minutes later, the door popped open and a figure appeared in the doorway.
My breath caught in my throat as the figure slipped through the doorway and silently shut the doorway behind him. Who was it? The room was so dark that I couldn't make out the figure. All I could see was his dark shape moving towards the opposite side of my bedroom. Suddenly, the lights flicked on and I was forced to blink. Squinting through the sudden brightness, I turned to see who was standing in my bedroom. My heart started racing when I saw the sheet of shiny auburn hair and the kind brown eyes.
"Hey," Axl greeted me as he took a few small steps towards my bed. I was still so shocked to see him there that I could barely manage out a "hi" in return. Surreptitiously, I slipped over to the far left side of the bed so that there would be room for Axl to slide in next to me in the bed if he wanted to.
To my delight, he plopped down on the right side of the bed and stretched his arms above his head, gazing at me curiously. Not really sure what to say, I asked, "What's up? Can't sleep?" Axl shook his head and rested his chin on his hands as he continued to look at me, "Not really. There's too much to think about with the show and all coming up tomorrow morning. I get pretty nervous for these shows. I really like Paradise City though, don't you?"
"Yeah," I replied breathlessly, "I have to say that I like your version better than Slash's though!" Axl and I both laughed. It was almost a tense laugh. We were both aware that we were sharing a bed late at night and that nobody else was around to interrupt us. The question was; were we going to take this opportunity or let it slip through our fingertips like usual?
Axl fingered the edge of the sheet carefully. After a moment or so, he glanced up at me through long lashes and asked almost a little shyly, "Can I?" He motioned to the sheets and I assumed he was asking me if he could slip in beside me. Not trusting myself to speak, I just nodded vigorously and helped fold over the sheet so that he could slide underneath it.
Once we were both wrapped up under the sheet, I pulled it back up over my chest and waited to see what Axl's next move would be. He was looking at me in a way that I had never seen before. It almost looked as if he was shy. That was crazy; Axl was one of the most audacious people that I knew! But again, there are two sides to every person. Maybe I was going to see a different side of Axl tonight. Who knew? The only thing was, we were going to have to remove a lot more layers to get to that point.
Axl moved over closer to me under the sheets so our bodies were almost touching. I could swear that I could feel the heat emanating off his body and onto mine. Axl rolled onto his side and started, "Um...Amy? There's something I've been wanting to tell you." Heart racing in anticipation, I asked, "And that would be?"
But I never learned what Axl wanted to tell me. At that very moment, there was a loud ding dong from a short distance away. It had to be the doorbell. Axl had a face and said, "I'll be right back. Let me just check to see who that is. People should learn some manners though. I mean seriously, who goes out and knocks on people's doors in the middle of the night?" Shaking his head with disgust, Axl dropped onto the floor and sauntered out of the room.
I listened carefully as Axl opened the door. A voice that was obviously a woman's spoke first, "Oh...um...hi. Can I come in?" The woman sounded very nervous and like she wasn't quite sure if she was welcome here or not. There was a very long pause as Axl debated on what to say to her. Even from the bedroom, I could tell that the atmosphere was tense out in the living room.
Finally, Axl relented, "Yeah, I guess. Come in." There were footsteps as the woman entered and the click of the door shutting behind here. I heard a squishing sound and figured that the two had sat down on Izzy's couch. Wanting to know what was going on, I crept out of the bed and pressed my ear against the door in an attempt to hear what was going on out in the living room.
"So what do you want?" Axl asked bluntly. "You obviously didn't come here in the middle of the night for nothing." I was almost dying with curiosity at this point. Who was this woman that Axl kept talking to? Did I know her, or was she a stranger? I listened carefully to her voice as she spoke again, "I came here to apologize to you. I was wrong to have yelled at you last time. These last few weeks apart from you have been really lonely for me. Can you forgive me?"
Okay, so this woman was asking Axl's forgiveness for whatever reason. I couldn't help but wonder what she had done to have to ask for forgiveness. Too bad she wasn't going into more details. I could really use details right now. When Axl replied, his voice had a whole different tone to it. It was as if the coldness in him had completely melted, "Of course I forgive you, sweetie. I'm sorry too. It was kinda my fault as well. It was a stupid argument though. Let's just forget it, okay?"
"Okay!" the woman's voice agreed happily. After that, there was a very long silence. It was so long that I started to think that either I was dreaming, or the two people in the living room had gone outside. I waited a few more minutes, but still didn't hear a sound. This was starting to get odd. I could swear I hadn't heard the click of a door opening or shutting. Needing to know what was going on, I slipped silently out the doorway and padded through the hallway to see what was happening in the living room.
Axl and a woman with dark hair were entwined on Izzy couch, both kissing passionately. The woman was only in a black, lacy bra and panties and her clothes lay on the floor by the couch. It didn't take me too long to recognize the woman; it was Erin Everly. To be honest, I should've guessed that it had been Erin from the start. After all, Axl had told me that they had been fighting. I had supposed it would only be a matter of time before they got back together again. The only thing was, I had hoped so badly that tonight would be my night with Axl. I wouldn't even have cared if it had been only one night. After all, I would take what I could get. The only problem was, I certainly wasn't getting anything!
Knowing that my fantasy of spending the night with Axl had dissolved completely down that Erin was here, I had no choice but to return to bed. With a heavy heart, I trudged back to my guest bedroom and shut the door a little louder than necessary behind me. Once the door was shut and I had turned the lights back out, I flopped onto my bed and buried my face into my pillow. Would I ever end up spending a night with a guy I loved? If things continued the way they were going, probably not.

~ ~ ~ ~

My alarm beeped at me nice and early the next morning. I opened my heavy eyelids and peered at the clock. It was already seven thirty! We were leaving in a half an hour! I had meant to set my clock for six thirty, but apparently I had messed that up. Having no time to waste, I hurried out of bed and ran to my suitcase. I hustled as I threw on a pair of dark jeans and a tight, black shirt. After that, I threw my hair up and dabbed some makeup on without looking in a mirror. Hopefully, I didn't look too hideous.
As soon as I looked as good as I was going to get, I zipped my suitcase back up and headed towards the living room. Slash and Duff were sitting on the couch with glazed eyes that showed that they were still half asleep. Izzy was in the corner as silent and stoic as ever. Steven was the only one who looked alert. As soon as he saw me, he ran over to carry my suitcase for me.
"Morning, Amy!" he burst out cheerfully as he took the heavy suitcase from me. "How are you this morning? Did you sleep well?" I looked over Steven's shoulder for Axl before replying. He was standing behind the couch with Erin standing next to him. They were both holding hands and were gazing at each other with such love and intimacy that it almost seemed rude to watch them. I wondered if Erin knew how lucky she was and just how badly I wanted her guy. If I were Axl's girlfriend, I would make sure never to argue with him or upset him. I would do whatever I could to please him.
At that moment, Erin leaned forward and brushed Axl's lips with hers. Before I knew it, they were going at it like crazy. Great. It was going to be a very long day. Turning to Steven, I said with a wry smile, "I slept okay I guess. I think it's going to be a long day though."
Somehow, all seven of us managed to fit inside Axl's truck. How we managed that, I will never know! I was sitting in the back next to Steven and Slash. Axl was driving and Erin was sitting next to him. Axl didn't seem to be paying much attention to driving though. Erin seemed to be the only thing in his sight. To avoid having to watch the two lovebirds, I moved my gaze onto the rest of us who were packed in the backseats of the car. Duff and Izzy were leaning against the seats with their eyes closed. For a few minutes, I thought they might actually have fallen asleep! Steven was sitting next to me, blabbing on and on about something I was too tired to listen to, and Slash sat on my other side drinking a bottle of whiskey.
I usually didn't pay too much attention to what people were drinking, but Slash had already gone through three bottles of whiskey this morning. If he wasn't careful, he was going to end up really drunk during the show. I had debated saying something to Slash, but decided against it. After all, I wasn't Slash's mother and didn't have any responsibility over him.
All of the sudden, the truck stopped with a jolt. We were thrown backwards against our seats and the airbags popped out in front. Wondering what had happened, I stuck my head around the passenger seat in front of me to try to see what was going on. In a little bit of a panicked voice, I asked, "What's going on guys?"
"Shit!" Axl burst out, pounding on the steering wheel. "It looks like the car has broke down and we have only a little time to get to The Rainbow for our show. Okay, everyone outside. We're going to have to try to get a lift to The Rainbow at this point. There's not time for a mechanic to come out here and fix the car for us."
Knowing that Axl was right and that there was no time to waste, we all climbed out of the car and started walking and running up and down the streets with our arms waving. There wasn't much traffic during this time of day, and the few cars that did pass us didn't even glance in our direction. Axl paced back and forth in front of the car with irritation written all over his face. It was obvious that he was pretty upset about being delayed. Defeated, Slash sat down with his back against a tree and opened another bottle of whiskey. What was that now, his fifth bottle? It had to at least be his forth.
"What are we gonna do?" Steven complained loudly, ruffling up his blonde hair with one hand. At that moment, there was a loud screeching sound and a large van pulled up by the side of the round. We all cheered and rushed over to the van. There was a tall man with dark hair sitting in the front seat. He lowered the window and asked us, "Do you guys need a ride? You look stranded."
"A ride would be awesome!" Steven nodded enthusiastically. The man nodded knowingly and jerked his thumb towards the back of the van, saying, "Come on in then. I'll take you wherever you have to go." Duff, Izzy, and Slash hurried back to Axl's truck to retrieve their guitars before popping eagerly into the back of the van where the rest of us were already waiting. Without a backwards glance towards the abandoned, broken-down truck, we headed off to The Rainbow.
As soon as we were moving, Axl called a tow truck and told him the location where it was and then told him where he would pick it up later. As Axl was blabbing on and on, Duff actually did manage to fall asleep, and Slash kept drinking. Steven had finally quieted down for a while and was looking curiously out the window. Me? I was just sitting in the corner of the van with my thoughts far away. Daydreaming was something that always came naturally to me.

~ ~ ~ ~

After about thirty minutes, the van pulled in to the parking lot of The Rainbow. We all whooped with excitement and exited out of the car door. Izzy, Slash, and Duff swung their guitars around their shoulders while Steven offered me his hand. I took Steven's hand and smiled at him. The two of us seemed to be getting along quite well. So far, we hadn't acted as more than friends during this trip, but I thought that maybe we would become more than that eventually. I wanted to have it happen naturally though and not try to rush things. I had figured that was what had gone wrong with all my past relationships. I had been in such a hurry to have sex that I hadn't even thought that much about trying to build a strong relationship with my partner first.
Axl thanked the driver of the van and then swung out of the van, swinging his arm around Erin's shoulder as he went. I tried to suppress the little green monster of jealousy inside me as I watched them. Maybe it would be best to keep thinking about Steven instead. The seven of us entered The Rainbow and immediately a manager came and escorted the band members to a back room to get ready for the show. Steven squeezed my arm excitedly and gave me a little wave before following the rest of the band. So now it was just Erin and me. I hadn't spoken to Erin at all yet. We had never been great friends, but she had always seemed friendly. For some reason, I just didn't want to talk to her though. Maybe I was blaming her for my interrupted night with Axl last night. True, she had interrupted it, but that was really her fault. After all, she was Axl's first girlfriend.
"Hey Erin, shall we go find some places to sit?" I suggested, slipping my fingers through hers and leading her to some seats right in the front of the building so we'd have a good view of the stage. Erin smiled graciously at me and sat down in the chair adjacent to mine. A lot of the chairs were already filled.
In less than five minutes, the show started! Axl gave a quick speech to the audience before the band launched into "Welcome to the Jungle." It didn't take very long to see that Guns 'n Roses certainly wasn't getting the same response from the audience that the Crue always got. Instead of the cheering and clapping, there was just silence. I could see the band members exchanging uneasy looks before they started "Paradise City." Paradise City got an even worse reception than Welcome to the Jungle. One member in the audience even booed and started spitting at the stage!
Before we knew it, the whole audience was spitting and the band. But what surprised me even more, was the fact that the band was spitting back! Great, now this was turning into a spitting contest. Erin and I rolled our eyes and moved to the far side of the building to avoid getting spat on. It was clear that Guns 'n Roses had a long way to go.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next few months seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, it was Christmas Day! The only sad thing though was that it just seemed like any old day to me. This year, I hadn't been invited to anyone's Christmas parties. Instead, I sat here home all alone with nothing to do. Everyone from the Crue had decided to celebrate Christmas with their families this year. Mick was staying at his parent's, which I figured was a good thing. At least they could watch over him and keep him out of trouble for a while. Mick seemed to be doing slightly better now that Linda was out of his life, but I really thought that he missed having a girlfriend. Vince and Beth Lynn were getting along again and were going to the Cayman Islands for Christmas.
I kind of wished I could be at the Islands too just for a change in routine. Everything seemed so mundane and ordinary around my house. I longed to go somewhere or do something special. Vince had called me once during the start of their vacation to let me know just how good of a time he was having. Of course, that only made me more jealous. Vince said that the weather was warm and sunny; perfect for a day at a beach. He also told me that he had met Jon Bon Jovi from the band Bon Jovi. The two of them would go to local pubs and jam together every night. It sounded like they were having a lot of fun.
Tommy was spending Christmas with Heather, which wasn't really a surprise. Tommy hadn't left Heather's side since they had started dating. The two of them seemed almost inseparable. Unfortunately, I still hadn't met Heather. I hadn't seen Tommy for a few months either. I was really starting to feel a little lonely without Tommy hanging around as much. He always had a way of bringing a smile to my face or making me laugh.
I hadn't seen much of Guns 'n Roses lately either. Everything that might have been between me and Axl seemed to have died. Now that he had Erin back again, he looked at me with a friend's smile, not the adoring smile of a lover. And to be honest, Axl and I had never really been affectionate towards each other. I still couldn't help but wonder what would've happened that night when I had stayed over at Izzy's place. There wasn't really any use in wondering about that now though. After all, that was over now and there was no use in daydreaming about it anymore. Daydreaming was becoming a really bad habit for me lately.
My parents had gone off to Chicago a few days ago, saying that they needed to go someplace for the holidays. They had invited me to go along with them, but I had declined. It wasn't that I didn't like my parents, but we didn't usually get along. Besides, my mom and I would probably end up arguing a lot if we were forced to spend a whole week together.
So here I was, sitting at the kitchen table twiddling my thumbs. What a fun way to spend Christmas, huh? That was when I remembered Nikki. I hadn't heard or talked to Nikki for a very long time. The last I had heard about him was from Tommy a little while ago. Tommy said Nikki was becoming a real junkie and was fucked up most of the time. Wanting to see if that was true or not, I thought about calling Nikki. The two of us hadn't been on the best of terms always, but we had been friends for a long time. But what if Nikki was really fucked up when I called him and he didn't want to talk to me or something?
I hesitated with my hand reaching slowly towards the phone. Finally, I decided to just pick up the phone and call him. The worst he could do was yell at me or hang up on me. Considering the boring Christmas dinner I was spending by myself, even that sounded better than this. At least I'd have someone to talk to for a few minutes.
So I picked up the phone, dialed in Nikki's number, and listened to the rings. After about five rings, a voice almost shouted, "Hello?" I quickly turned down the phone's volume a few notches. I could hear other voices in the distance from Nikki's end of the phone. I wondered if he was at a party or strip club or something.
"Hey Nikki," I greeted him, "It's just Amy. I thought I'd call you and see what you were up to. Of course, if this isn't a good time, I can always call back later or something." There was a pause and then Nikki replied, "Nah, it's fine. Can you hold on for a few seconds though? I've just got to do a few things."
"Sure," I answered good-naturedly, wondering what few things Nikki had to do. From his end of the phone, I could hear more voices chattering and the clunking of something or another. After a few minutes, the yammering voices ceased and silence filled my ears. A second or two after that, Nikki spoke again, "Okay, I can talk now. So what's up?"
"Not much," I replied truthfully. "I'm sitting at the kitchen table doing nothing. It seems like everyone's doing something fun this Christmas except for me. All the other Crue members are having parties, and I have no idea what the members of Guns 'n Roses are doing. Probably partying together at Izzy's house or something like that."
"Guns 'n Roses?" Nikki asked distractedly. I couldn't remember if I had told Nikki that Axl had started a band or not, so I explained, "That's the new name of Axl's band. The Hollywood Rose broke up and Guns 'n Roses was born. They're doing okay so far I guess, but Crue is far superior to them at the moment."
Nikki snickered. I hadn't heard Nikki laugh for a long time, and that even brought a smile to my face. Trying to think of something else for us to talk about, I asked, "So what about you? Are you doing anything fun for Christmas? Tommy or Vince said you had a girlfriend, Nicole. Is she with you?"
"Nicole?" Nikki asked absentmindedly. For some reason, he seemed kind of out of it lately. Then he seemed to remember who Nicole was because he continued, "Oh, she had I haven't seen each other for a while. Last night, I went to a strip club and brought a girl from there home with me. I took her home on my Harley earlier today. I just had Christmas dinner at McDonalds, and now I'm heading home to...uh..." Nikki trailed off, obviously not wanting to tell me what he was going to do.
Something told me that Nikki was going home to do drugs. He was so addicted now that he couldn't even seem to go a few hours without taking them. I did find myself laughing at the moment though; seriously, who spends Christmas dinner at McDonalds? Not anyone I knew anyway.
"Hey, did I tell you about the European tour?" Nikki asked, changing the subject. I thought hard, but couldn't remember anyone mentioning a European tour. A tour through Europe would definitely be better than the tour in China. Hopefully, nobody would try to rip off Vince's pants as a souvenir in Europe!
"Nah, you didn't tell me about the tour," I replied to Nikki, curiosity filling me. "Tell me about it. When does it start? Am I invited?" Nikki laughed at all my questions, but it wasn't his usual laughter. There was something almost hollow and sinister about it. Nikki had certainly changed since all the drugs. It was amazing how much they could change a person.
"The tour starts in February, the day before Valentine's Day. Our first two concerts are in London. The place we're playing at is called the Hammersmith Odeon. It should be pretty fun. I've always wanted to visit London. Speaking of which, the guys from the Hanoi Rocks are playing there too. We might be able to party together after the concerts. And yes, of course you're invited. We, unlike the Guns 'n Roses guys, don't forget about you."
It was pretty clear to me that Nikki didn't like Axl and Guns 'n Roses much. I couldn't really blame him though. Axl wasn't exactly the easiest person to get along with. He always spoke his mind and he wasn't always all that friendly. Oh well, who cared about Axl now? I was going to London in a month and a half! Without a doubt in my mind, I exclaimed, "I'm definitely going on the tour with you guys. A tour in Europe sounds really fun."
"Yeah, it should be fun," Nikki agreed. "Anyways, are you going to Tommy's wedding?" I wasn't sure if I was going or not. I hadn't even gotten an invitation yet. My heart sank foreboding; maybe Tommy didn't want me at his wedding? Speaking my mind, I said, "I didn't get invited to the wedding yet. How about you?"
"Huh? You didn't get an invitation?" Nikki said in puzzlement, "That's odd. Oh wait, Vince was suppose to invite you. Let me guess, he probably got busy and forgot about it while he was planning his trip to the Cayman Islands. Anyways, don't worry 'cuz you are invited. I'm gonna be best man there. It should be pretty fun."
"Good for you!" I said cheerfully. I was a little surprised that Tommy had chosen Nikki for his best man, but I suppose they had been friends for a while. Before I could say anything more, Nikki broke in, "Uh, Amy? I'm back at my house now and I have a few things that I need to do right now. Can I call you back tomorrow or something?"
My heart sank, but I said, "Yeah, okay. Take care of yourself, alright?" There was a pause and then Nikki hung up. He was probably in a hurry to go shoot some heroin or something. I really wished he would list to me and really take care of himself. He obviously wasn't doing that right now.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next few months past by quickly and we were soon in the middle of the tour in Europe. It wasn't a very long tour, only a week and a half long. As a matter of fact, today was our very last day of the tour. The crowds had loved the Crue and overall, the tour had been a big success. The Crue had just finished their last show, and I was waiting for them by the entrance to the backstage area, trying not to get run over by all the people.
Only a few minutes later, the door to my room opened and Tommy, Mick, Nikki, and Vince stepped out. They were smiling and grinning and I noticed Vince wave at a fan as he stepped outside. Everyone was happy...except for Nikki. He wore a smile, but it was tight and stiff. There were wrinkles around his eyes and I could see him playing with the sleeve of his jacket nervously.
"Great show guys," I told them with a smile. Then I turned to Nikki with a frown, "Are you alright?" But Nikki wasn't paying attention. His gaze was on someone else just over my shoulder. Wanting to see who that person might be, I spun around to see a familiar looking guy coming towards us with a smile on his face. I could swear that I had seen him before, but I just couldn't remember who he was. Damn my bad memory.
"Hey," the guy greeted us as he approached. "Wanna catch a taxi with me, Nikki?" The man pointed behind us shoulder where a taxi had pulled up behind him. Nikki broke into what looked like a genuine smile and nodded fervently, wasting no time in heading to the taxi with the mysterious, familiar stranger. Before disappearing, Nikki turned and waved to us, "I'll meet you back at the hotel in an hour, okay guys? I won't be too long."
The four of us waved and watched as Nikki popped back into the backseat of the taxi with the guy and they eagerly sped off to who-knows-where. As soon as they were gone and we were heading towards Mick's truck, I turned towards Vince and asked curiously, "Who was that? He seems familiar, but I don't remember his name."
"Oh, that's Andy McCoy from the Hanoi Rocks," Vince explained as we hopped into the truck. "The two are probably gonna go try to score some heroin or something." Vince said this all very casually as if it was a completely normal thing for a guy to go searching for heroin every few hours. I looked around at the other guys' reactions. None of them seemed too worried about Nikki's heroin addiction. They all just seemed to have accepted it like there was nothing we could do to stop it now. And even though I hated to admit it, they were probably right. So I just stayed silent the rest of the drive back to the hotel and worried about Nikki all the while, hoping he hadn't passed out or anything.

~ ~ ~ ~

Five hours later, the Crue and I were sitting in Tommy's hotel room, talking and eating dinner. Well, everyone was eating dinner but me. I just played around with my food with my spoon to pretend I was eating. Vince was in the middle of talking to Beth Lynn on the phone. He was wishing her a happy Valentine's Day since today was the holiday. Tommy had received a Valentine's Day phone call from Heather earlier, and Mick's parents had called him to wish him a happy Valentine's Day as well. But me? Nobody had called me on Valentine's Day. I was feeling rather depressed because of it. It really sucked not to have anyone special in your life to call you and whisper sweet nothings in your ear when you needed it most.
While Vince blabbed into the phone, Tommy brought up a random subject, "Did you guys hear that Nikki's moving?" Mick and I shook our heads. I had no idea that Nikki had been planning on moving. I wondered where he was planning on moving to. Curious, I asked Tommy, "So where is Nikki moving to?"
Tommy shrugged, "No idea," and then went back to swigging down a bottle of Jack Daneils. The thought of Nikki made my stomach churn uncomfortably. Nikki had said he was going to be back here in an hour, but now five ours had past and he still wasn't back. I was really starting to get worried about him. Where could he be?
"Guys, I think I'm going to go find Nikki," I said after a moment of consideration. I was too worried about him to think about anything else right now and there was no use in sitting inside worrying when I could be trying to find him. Tommy, Mick, and even Vince who was still on the phone, turned their heads towards me.
"Why do you want to find Nikki?" Tommy asked curiously. "He's probably all fucked up just to let you know." I shrugged and headed towards the door, wondering where I would find him. Tommy impulsively stood up, grabbed my wrist and brought me to the window. Once we were at the window, he pointed at a little building down below.
"See that building?" he asked. I nodded. Tommy continued, "I would check there for Nikki first. That's where Andy's drug dealer lives. Good luck on trying to find him." I thanked Tommy and turned towards the door, feeling like I was getting myself into a mess. I really had to find Nikki though. Something inside was telling me that something was terribly wrong.
Once I had taken the elevator down to the main floor of the lobby, I stepped outside and searched the parking lot for my jetta. When I saw the familiar black car to my left, I hurried towards it and flung the door open. As I revved up the engine, I heard the beeping of my phone. It wasn't ringing, just beeping. That meant that I had a message! Forgetting all about Nikki for a few minutes, I whipped the phone open eagerly and pressed it against my ear. I hit the "play message" button and waited.
"Hi Amy!" the recording started. "I think you're gone on a tour with the Crue right now, but I just wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day. I miss you around here. Everyone seems to have a date to hang out with except me. Let's do something when you get back from the tour, okay? See you around sometime." The message ended there.
I flicked my phone shut again with a much lighter heart. Steven was so sweet to have remembered me on Valentine's Day when nobody else had. I had to admit that I was kind of glad that he wasn't spending Valentine's Day with anyone. That meant that he had to be single, right? Maybe I was a little more into Steven that I had though!
Putting thoughts of Steven to the side, I concentrated on finding Nikki. I drove through a few streets until I reached the house that Tommy had pointed out to me. Parking in front of it, I was about to get out of the car when the door to the building swung open. Three men stood in the doorway; Nikki, Andy, and the drug dealer. There was something wrong though, Nikki was obviously unconscious by the way he was leaning against Andy with his mouth hanging open and his eyes closed. Oh god, Nikki was in serious trouble. He really needed help.
The sight of poor Nikki leaning unconscious against the drug dealer sent shivers down my spine. I knew Nikki was a rocker, but that didn't mean he had to live the life of a rock star to the point where all he could see in life was drugs. I supposed I should be grateful that none of the other Crue members had gotten to this point yet. I would have to do everything in my power to keep them from getting to that point. Of course, as long as Vince had a flock of women surrounding him, he probably wouldn't pay much attention to the drugs. Women always came first in Vince's world.
As I opened my car door, I saw Andy go into the building and then reappeared out of it again with a bucket in his hand. Suspicious to see what was in the basket, I squinted and hurried over to where they were standing. To my surprise, Andy dumped the contents of whatever was in the bucket down Nikki's pants. Hurrying over to the guys on the street, I called out, "Hey, what are you guys doing? What did you just pour down Nikki's pants?"
Andy looked up at me, totally shocked and caught off guard, "Oh...um...hi. You're the girl who I saw with the Crue earlier at the show, aren't you?" I nodded and tapped my foot, showing him that I still expected an answer to my previous question. Andy sighed and showed me the contents of the bucket, "There was only ice cubes in here. I was trying to get Nikki to wake up. He passed out while we were shooting heroin in the house."
The ice in his pants still didn't wake Nikki up though. His head continued to loll and his body remained limp. The drug dealer, Andy, and me all stood and scratched our heads, trying to find a way to wake Nikki up. Suddenly the drug dealer smiled and hurried back into the little building, saying, "I have an idea! I'll be right back." I didn't like the smile that had been on his face. It looked like an up-to-no-good smile. Maybe I was just being paranoid though.
A few minutes later, the drug dealer reappeared with a baseball bat in his hands. I glared at him nervously, wondering what he was up to. With a sadistic smile on his face, the drug dealer started hitting Nikki all over with the bat. I froze with my mouth gaping open at him. What the hell did he think he was doing?
I walked up to the drug dealer and snatched the baseball bat from his hands, "What the fuck are you doing? You could be hurting him! Leave him alone." The drug dealer shrugged and tossed the bat back inside his house. After that, he slung Nikki over his shoulder and started walking down the driveway. Oh god...what was he doing now?
I followed him down the driveway, calling after him, "Hey, you there! What are you doing?" The drug dealer didn't bother to turn around to answer me. He just yelled, "Getting this guy off my property." With that said, he dumped Nikki head first into the garbage can. I watched the whole thing in horror.
However, being dumped in the garbage can did bring Nikki back to life. Suddenly, he jerked up and straightened himself up in the garbage can. Immediately, his face turned green and he vomited all over the drug dealer's shoe. The drug dealer made a face and hurried away before Nikki could cause anymore damage to him. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit as the drug dealer hustled away from Nikki. My laugh died on my lips when I saw Nikki's pale face and hollow eyes though.
I hurried over to the garbage can and held out a hand to him, "Come on, let's get you out of here." Nikki didn't say anything. He just nodded, took my hand, and followed me back to the jetta as if he was living through a dream.

~ ~ ~ ~

A few weeks later, I was sitting in my bedroom. We had gotten back from the European tour and life had gone back to normal. Well, sorta normal that is. Living my life going on tours with the Crue wasn't exactly a normal lifestyle. As I was sitting in my bedroom, my thoughts turned to Nikki again. I couldn't seem to get him out of my mind lately. I was just so worried about him and what he was doing to himself. I remembered Tommy had told me that he had moved. Tommy had even given me his address. Maybe I should go stop by and see Nikki? You know, just to make sure he was okay and stuff.
Without another thought, I hurried downstairs and strapped on my shoes. After that, I hustled over to my jetta and followed Tommy's directions to Nikki's new house. It was a really big, expensive-looking house on Valley Vista Boulevard. The house for some reason, looking dark and haunting for some reason.
Trying to shake off this bad feeling, I stepped out of the car and slowly made my way to Nikki's doorway. As I was walking towards the door, I saw a familiar figure with gorgeous black hair stride out of the doorway and head down the street opposite to the one I was walking on. I swore I knew this guy from somewhere though. It didn't take me too much longer to figure out that it was Izzy. But what the hell was Izzy doing here? I didn't even know that Nikki and Izzy were friends!
With a foreboding feeling in my gut, I made my way to the front porch and knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked even harder, but still no answer. Kind of mad at Nikki for not answering the door when he was obviously home, I went ahead and let myself into the house. The inside of the house was even worse than the inside of it.
There were red velvet hangings all over the walls and Gothic furniture everywhere. This wasn't the kind of house I would have imagined Nikki living in. As I ran my hand over the couch, I heard a crack from behind me. Whirling around, I stared right at the tip of a gun...that was pointing at my heart. My eyes widened as I saw Nikki holding the gun at my neck.
"Uh...Nikki?" I asked nervously, trying to inch away from the gun. Nikki's eyes were glazed over and he didn't seem to recognize me. In a monotone, he demanded, "Get out." He didn't have to tell me twice. I ran like hell out of that old, Gothic place and didn't stop until I was far away from the two gargoyles that had framed the entrance to the house.

~ ~ ~ ~

The next time the whole Crue was together was at Tommy's wedding. Actually, I was sitting in the pew of the church right now. Although I was watching Heather and Tommy standing with the priest at the front of chapel with the priest, my mind was far from the wedding. I couldn't seem to shake off a bad feeling that had lodged itself deep within my gut. Something was worrying me, that much was certain. Even watching the big grin on Tommy's face couldn't help cheer me up.
As Tommy and Heather were reciting the wedding vows, I played nervously with the beads on the bracelet I was wearing. I twisted the beads round and round until they were going to snap. But before they could snap, a hand gently closed down over mine to keep me from breaking the bracelet.
Surprised that anyone was watching me, I looked up to my right to see Vince giving me a smile. My heart instantly started beating faster and those aquamarine eyes seemed to make time stop. For a small moment, I forgot all about my troubles and just let myself drown in the ocean blue pool of Vince's eyes. All the talk from the priest got lost somewhere and never made it into my ears. My hypnosis with Vince still couldn't be stopped.
"Ahem!" a little but meaningful cough sounded to my right. I jerked out of my little episode and turned to see Beth Lynn giving me a dirty look from Vince's other side. I immediately jerked my gaze back to the front of the church and pretended not to be looking at Vince at all. Vince, however, continued to look at me.
"What's bugging you?" his soft, sweet voice sounded in my ear. "You don't seem like you're okay. You don't like Heather or something?" I looked Heather up and down. Truth be told, she actually seemed like a pretty nice girl. Much nicer than Candice anyways. She was very pretty too. Her creamy, ivory skin was flawless, her blue eyes were cerulean blue, and her light blonde hair shone in the light. I sighed. I wished I looked like Heather.
Answering Vince's question, I whispered, "It's not that. I really like Heather. Well, kind of. I don't know her that well really." That was true. I had met Heather only once, and we had never gotten a chance to talk or anything. We had just been introduced by Tommy and that had been that.
"So what's bugging you then?" Vince insisted, obviously not going to let the subject go. There was another louder cough from Vince's right. Beth Lynn seemed to be pretty annoyed with our whispering. This time, both Vince and I ignored her. Figuring I might as well tell Vince what I was bothering me, I confessed, "I'm worried about Nikki still. He's suppose to be best man and I haven't even seen him at the church today! Where the hell could he be? Could he be sick?"
Vince scratched his chin and looked thoughtful. From the front of the church, the priest announced, "Heather Locklear and Tommy Lee, I proclaim you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Tommy leaned forward and kissed Heather enthusiastically. There was a loud round of applause from the guests, but Vince and I were too distracted to clap.
"I actually have no idea where Nikki is," Vince admitted, shrugging his shoulders. I bit my lip and tried to think of where Nikki could be. Suddenly, I remembered the episode at his house only a few weeks earlier. I remembered that gun that Nikki had pointed at me. Nikki wouldn't ever shoot himself on accident or on purpose...would he? Alarmed, I grabbed Vince's arm tightly and said, "We need to look for Nikki. He has a gun. Who knows what he might have done with it?"
Vince looked at me quizzically, "What do you mean by 'he has a gun'?" Beth Lynn was pulling on Vince's sleeve now and trying to get him to go to the reception with her. Getting annoyed, Vince whirled around, said some cuss words to Beth, and then turned back to me. A little feeling of satisfaction pulsed through my veins as I saw a flustered and disgruntled-looking Beth turn, toss her hair over her shoulder, and then swagger out of the isle.
"I went to Nikki's house the other day," I explained to Vince. "He was pretty stoned when I got there. When he saw me, he pointed a gun at me and told me to get out. Obviously, that's exactly what I did. But what if Nikki got so strung up that he shot himself or something? We've gotta look for him."
Seeing the urgency of the situation, Vince nodded. Without a word, we parted ways and started on the search for Nikki. I headed to the reception area to see if there was a small possibility that Nikki might be lurking in the corner there. Instead of finding Nikki, I ran right into Mick. Mick smiled at seeing me and waved.
"Hey Mick," I greeted him, waving back. "Have you seen Nikki?" Mick shook his head, "Not lately. He was suppose to be best man though, wasn't he? I haven't seen him at all today actually." Mick's statement made me even more nervous. Who knew when was the last time any of us had spoken to Nikki? I knew for a fact that I hadn't talked to him for three whole weeks.
"Yeah, he was suppose to be best man," I confirmed, worry written all over my face. "Tell me if you see Nikki, okay? Vince and I are looking for him." Mick nodded before turning and walking in the opposite direction as me, "Of course I will. As a matter of fact, I might as well help you look for him too. It's not like I have anything better to be doing anyways."
"Oh really?" I asked sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood, "You aren't trying to snag a chick or anything?" Mick just rolled his eyes at me and continued walking. Now that Mick was gone, it was back to searching for Nikki. But I hadn't even taken two steps before I was stopped again. This time, I was Heather and Tommy.
"Hiya Amy!" Tommy greeted me, grinning widely. He looked like he had died and gone to heaven. I'm serious. He literally shone with happiness. I thought about telling Tommy about Nikki's absence, but then decided against it. Tommy didn't need to have his big day ruined by me. This day should be one of the happiest of his life. At least, I hoped it would be.
"Hi Tommy, hi Heather!" I greeted them. "Congratulations you two!" Tommy squeezed Heather's shoulders in an intimate way and Heather smile right back up at him. I couldn't help but feel a little jealous as I watched the two interact. They were so perfect and loving. Would I ever find someone like that for me?
"Thanks for the congratulations," Heather replied politely. "We're off to have some wedding cake. Would you like to come?" I shook my head. I didn't like wedding cake, and at the moment, I was busy. Trying to make up an excuse, I murmured, "I'm...um...going to go to the bathroom. I'll see you guys in a little bit."
Now that I had told Tommy and Heather I was going to the bathroom, I would actually have to pretend to be going there. It wasn't like I could've told them I was searching for Nikki without worrying them, so I guess as lame as the bathroom excuse was, it was better than the truth. So trying to act like I knew exactly what I was doing, I started towards the bathrooms.
I was about halfway there when a handsome blonde figure seemed to pop out of the middle of nowhere. I halted and found myself standing a little too close to Vince for my own good. Why did he always have to look so damn gorgeous? Taking a step backwards, I looked up at him and asked, "Did you find him?"
Vince nodded solemnly, "Yep. He's shooting up in the bathroom with some syringes that he hid in his boots. I tried to get him to come out, but that didn't go so well. Nikki just told me to go away." I frowned, but nodded as Vince and I returned to the wedding reception. Nikki just kept getting worse and worse.

~ ~ ~ ~

Two months later, I have found myself sitting in my living room, waiting for Tommy. He agreed to come over for a while just to give me some company. I was pretty bored and could really use some company. Poor Vince was sentenced to thirty days in jail, and as far as I know, he's locked up in a prison cell right now. Beth Lynn was pretty upset about Vince's jail sentence, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. To help appease her, Vince bought a new home that cost over one million dollars. It's a huge house and has way more space than Vince, Beth Lynn, and their baby, Elizabeth, need.
Nikki currently is going through rehabilitation. Nikki had tried cleaning up with Billy Kid, but Billy didn't do his job. Instead, Billy and Nikki ended up finding themselves shooting cocaine together. Since that didn't work, Nikki is now in rehab. I'm crossing my fingers that Tommy and Mick continue to stay away from the drugs. I don't want anyone to have to go through what Nikki is going through right now. It's painful just to watch him.
Ding dong! Hearing Tommy at the door, I jumped up from the couch and flung open the door for Tommy...and Vince? Vince was standing behind Tommy with a wide grin on his face. What the hell was Vince doing here? After all, it had only been nineteen days since Vince had been sentenced to jail. Had he escape? Unable to keep my questions in, I burst out rudely, "What are you doing here, Vince? I thought you were suppose to be in jail."
"Well, hello to you too," Vince said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. "Can I come in?" I nodded, still waiting for an explanation. Vince and Nikki kicked off their shows and followed me to the couch where we all plopped down together. Vince sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned against the couch like he was in bliss. Still wanting to know what he was doing out of jail, I turned and raised an eyebrow at him, "Uh, Vince? You gonna tell me what you're doing here or not?"
Vince lazily opened an eye and blinked at me, "Oh right. They shortened my sentence to eighteen days. I just got out this morning. To be honest, the jail wasn't that bad though." I smirked. Of course the jail was bad! And seriously, who in their right mind would let Vince out of jail early for good behavior? Vince wasn't exactly the kind of guy who was going to get rewarded for good behavior. He might win an award for being a trouble maker though!
Vince noticed my unbelieving gaze and grimaced, "Hey, it seriously wasn't that bad! All I had to do was clean other prison cells, bring food to other cells, and clean police cars. Besides, I got privileges." I wondered what these "privileges" might be. If you asked me, the people who ran the jail where being too easy on Vince.
"What where the privileges?" Tommy asked curiously, speaking for the first time since he and Vince had entered the house. Vince shrugged and replied, "I got six-packs of beer and burgers for staying sober for so long. Plus, I was able to sign autographs and have my photo taken with the guards. It was actually pretty fun! I even got to take a girl into my cell for an hour to...uh..."
Vince trailed off their, obviously not wanting to offend anyone. Tommy's eyes bugged out as he stared at Vince, "They let you take girls into your cell for sex? God, what has happened to prison cells these days?" I was thinking that exact same thing. Since when did people get beer and burgers as rewards for staying sober?
Suddenly, Vince's face fell and he looked concerned, "Hey, has anyone seen Beth? She visited me for the first week, but I haven't seen her since then." Tommy and I exchanged glances. Neither of us spent anytime in the same room as Beth unless we absolutely had to. Only a crazy person would spend time with that woman.
Reading our answer from our expressions, Vince stood up and ran a hand through his blonde hair nervously, "You know, I think I'd better head home to check on Beth. I'm a little worried about her. I'll see you guys later, okay?" Tommy and I nodded as Vince jammed his feet back into his boots and rushed out of the door.
Once he was gone, I muttered to Tommy, "Beth is probably mad at Vince for having sex with random girls everyday. Anyways, have you heard from Nikki lately? Last I heard, he had just started rehab." To be honest, I didn't know much about rehab or what happened there. All I knew was that it was suppose to get Nikki cleaned up.
Tommy bit his lip, showing that the news from Nikki was not good. I waited as the suspense built. Finally, Tommy admitted, "Nikki's no longer in rehab. He quit when the people there started to give him a religion lecture. Nikki just doesn't like having to do with religion and that kind of thing, you know?"
Oh great. So now that Nikki had quit rehab, he was probably back in that dark, Gothic house of his, taking drugs and prowling the house with his gun. Wondering if Tommy might know what Nikki was up to, I asked, "So where's Nikki now? Please don't tell me he's alone in his house or else I will scream."
Tommy laughed at my joke and shook his head, "Nah, I doubt he's alone." I raised an eyebrow at that. Nikki had kind of become a recluse lately. Since when did he spend time with other people? Tommy went on to explain, "Nikki's got a new girlfriend. Her name is Vanity. Have you heard of her?"
I shook my head. Tommy continued, "She played a hooker in some movie that Nikki was watching and he knew he had to have her after that. Apparently, they've gotten on pretty good terms. Guess what? Nikki said that he opened the door and found her naked on their first date. Maybe that woman is really a whore. Who care though? She's pretty."
Oh, god. This woman was definitely not a good influence on Nikki. Why couldn't Nikki end up with a nice, normal girlfriend? He just couldn't seem to stick with one girl. But again, he was doing better than I was. At least he had someone to spend his nights with. I still spent every night alone.

~ ~ ~ ~

A few days later, Tommy and I sat on the beach together. It was a nice, sunny summer day and I was feeling pretty happy for once. The wind gently tickled my neck, the sand felt good in between my toes, and the sun beat down on my body. I was pretty grateful that Tommy had invited me out with him today. Otherwise, I would probably be spending a boring day at home. I didn't get to spend much time with Tommy anymore. After all, he was almost always occupied with Heather around these days.
I was also starting to think that Tommy had replaced Nikki as my best friend for good. I barely spoke to Nikki anymore, and when we did speak, our conversations with succinct and usually pretty formal. There was no leisure chitchat or just joking around anymore. I missed the old Nikki a lot. He had changed so much. But again, at least Tommy was here for me. The two of us got along pretty well and worked perfectly together as best friends.
"Did you hear about Vince?" Tommy asked casually as he spread out a beach blanket for us to sit on. I wasn't sure what his question meant. Did he mean did I hear about Vince getting out of jail early, or something else? Curious to what he was talking about, I asked, "What do you mean? About him getting out of jail?"
Tommy shook his head and flopped down on his back on the beach blanket that he had just laid out. He was wearing dark sunglasses and white swimming trunks. Answering my question, he said, "Beth Lynn left him. You know how he was worried about why she hadn't visited him in a while? Well, that's why. She took everything with her except for his gold watch and his car. I can't help but feel sorry for the guy. He gets out of jail and comes home to find out that his wife left him."
I stared at Tommy in horror for a few minutes. Beth Lynn had actually left Vince? That was a shocker. Well actually, maybe it wasn't. I remembered Beth Lynn telling me a long time ago that she hadn't ever really been all that much in love with Vince. She had even told me that she had been seeing some other random guy while I had been with Vince a long time ago. I suppose Vince having sex with all those random girls in jail was the last straw for her. A little smile formed on my lips. I knew it was bad of me, but I couldn't help but be happy that she had gone away for good. She had really turned on me in the last few months and she had become almost vicious. Vince should be glad to be rid of her. He could do better than her. Hey, since Beth Lynn had officially left Vince, that meant that Vince was now single then...right?
Tommy grinned at me from the towel with his eyes sparkling mischievously beneath those sunglasses he was wearing, "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that you might have a chance on becoming the next Neil now that Beth's gone, aren't you?" I blushed dark red. If you didn't know better, you would have thought I had gotten a sunburn all over my face from sitting out in the sun for too long. For some uncanny reason, Tommy always knew what I was thinking. Maybe that was why we were best friends.
I let Tommy's words sink into my brain for a minute. It was true that I wanted to possibly get back together with Vince, but that didn't necessarily mean that I wanted to become his wife or anything! Marriage was something I wanted eventually, but it had to be from a guy who would be completely committed to me. I would never marry someone who might end up cheating on me. Unfortunately, Vince seemed like a guy who would definitely end up cheating.
"I dunno, Tommy," I confessed, "I like Vince, but just as a dating partner. He's way too unpredictable to get married to. I can honestly see why Beth Lynn left him. I'd be mad if I saw Vince fucking with a bunch of sluts in that jail too if I were her." I tilted my head up to the sun, trying to let as much onto my face as possible. Getting a tan was a top priority on my list.
"Yeah, I think you're right about Vince," Tommy nodded wisely. "He does seem pretty unpredictable. But that's just Vince, you know? He wouldn't be Vince if he was tame and predictable. By the way, did I tell you Nikki wrote a new song? It's his first song in a very long time. He has worked on his songwriting much since he became such an addict. The song's called Nona."
"Nona?" I asked questioningly. Was it just me, or was Nona a pretty weird name for a rock song? Maybe it was part of Nikki going crazy or something. I hated to put it that way, but it really did seem like Nikki was going crazy these days. All he ever did was shoot cocaine and heroin up in his bathroom all alone.
"Yeah, he named it after his grandmother who passed away," Tommy informed me. I raised an eyebrow at that. I didn't know that Nikki even still had grandparents. I thought Nikki had cut off all ties with his family a while ago. Tommy continued, "Nikki was invited to the funeral, but he didn't end up going because of his drug problem and because he didn't want to confront his family. You know how Nikki ran away from home when he was just a teen, right?"
I nodded. We all knew that Nikki hated his mother with a passion that would spark fire in anyone's heart. Tommy went on, "I went over to his house and we watched Gilligan's Island together while he was shooting some heroin. He told me he felt guilty for missing his grandma's funeral, so I told him to make a song for her. That's where the song Nona came from."
That made sense now. Still, if Nikki had been a little braver, he could've gone to his grandma's funeral. I would've gladly offered to go with him if it would've made things easier for him. But again, Nikki and I didn't talk about these types of things anymore. As a matter of fact, we barely talked at all. Wanting to change the subject from Nikki, I returned to the subject of Vince and Beth Lynn, saying, "How's Vince coping with living my himself?"
Tommy left out a loud laugh, "Oh, he's just fine. He had a mud pit installed next to that pool in his back yard for mud wrestling. He usually ends up bringing back a lot of girls from the Tropicana to wrestle nude for him in that pit. This wrestler, Sharise, has already caught his eye. I'm sure he's slept with her already a few times."
Shit. So Vince already had his eye on a new girl. I wanted to be Vince's new girl, not Sharise. Even though I didn't know a thing about this girl, I already disliked her. Jealousy could be such a monster sometimes. Wanting to change the subject again, I looked over at Tommy's wrist that was in a cast. He had torn some ligaments around his ankle when he had done a wheelie on his dirt bike, and was now forced to wear a cast.
"So how's your ankle doing, Tommy?" I asked, thinking it was a good topic for conversation. Tommy looked down at his leg and frowned when he saw the cast. He sat up and scrutinized it, replying to me, "You know, I even forgot I had hurt it. It looks pretty ugly though." Tommy frowned at the cast and grabbed a steak knife from the beach bag he had brought. Impulsively, he sliced the cast off with the knife and tossed it unceremoniously to the side.
He grinned at me and stated, "To hell with the cast! Who needs the stupid thing anyway? All it does is ruin my beach body." I burst out laughing at that. Tommy could be so funny sometimes. I was really quite lucky to have him as a best friend.