Saving Motley Crue

Chapter Six- Altercation (Nikki)

 Despite having trouble sleeping the night before, I surfaced back into consciousness at 6:30 AM. I could feel the weariness dragging me down despite knowing that there was no way I could go back to sleep.

Once I slowly climbed out of bed, I commenced to go through the motions of getting ready because I knew that no one would be up for an insane amount of time, and I might as well look nice when they did wake up.

Something that went beyond just physical tiredness set my mouth in a perpetual frown. I was discouraged by seeing all the darkness and pain surrounding me, and understood more deeply than ever before why they felt the impulse to drown themselves in whatever they could get their hands on.

But when I slowly cracked open the door to slip through, despite the fact the boys could probably sleep through an earthquake- I heard muffled shouting. In one of the rooms I could hear Nikki shouting angrily with a deep voice, "What do you expect me to do?! Don't be such a bitch!" I covered my mouth to stop from laughing both in amusement and nervousness.

"I can't believe you don't remember me! This is the second time I've been over!" A high-pitched, frantic voice responded, and I had the terrible feeling that right away that this girl was not going to leave so easily. She seemed just a little bit more than normally upset.

"What's wrong with you?! Hey, get off me!" I heard a gasp and then a heavy thud, making me wince. Oh boy, this didn't seem as if this was going to end up well. Adrenaline taking me over, I stormed into the room with blood pounding in my ears. The scene before me was shocking enough to make me stop in my tracks: a very distressed, half naked blond was standing in front of Nikki, whose back was facing her at the present moment, and I glimpsed the flash of a silver blade in her hand.

I wasn't planning on doing anything, but when I caught sight of the hint of movement, I lunged forward and shoved the girl back while trying to grasp the knife. We both tumbled to the ground together, with everything being such a blur of commotion I didn't know where the knife was.

Although I had a firm grasp on the girl's body from behind and had pinned one arm to her side, she cut my forearm with the knife gripped in her free hand. With a gasp I pulled my arm away and violently yanked a fistful of her hair. I heard the definite metallic clatter of the knife dropping to the carpet, and shouted "Grab it!"

When the knife was safely in Nikki's clutches, I released the girl and crawled away, panting and with muscles trembling. Sitting with my back against the wall, I watched a pale Nikki forcibly leading the girl out of the house.

Oh man . . . that was scary. The grim realization that any of the three of us could have been stabbed made me shut my eyes for a moment and thank God for watching over me.

I heard soft footsteps approaching, and turned my head to catch sight of Nikki leaning in the doorway, rubbing a hand over his face with an expression of astonished disbelief. When he finally looked down at me, his mouth opened as if he was about to say something, but then he stopped and pointed down. "Your arm . . . I'm gonna get you a towel from the kitchen." When he left the room, I glanced down at my arm, the length of which was entirely stained scarlet. I suddenly wondered if this was truly a serious wound.

Surging to my feet and ignoring the shock-induced weakness that affected my limbs, I hurried into the kitchen so it could be taken care of. Nikki calmly wrapped a piece of cloth tightly around my arm. I let out a hiss of pain, and he flashed me an apologetic grin- I thought I detected a note of amusement as he said softly, "Sorry, but it has to be tight to stop the bleeding."

Trying to calm my breathing, I met Nikki's probing gaze to focus on something beside the now dull pain in my arm that seemed to throb with every beat of my heart. "You can relax. It's not that bad." He grinned with green eyes seeming to come alive for the first time. I didn't realize my teeth had been clenched together, and I smiled back abashedly.

A darker emotion clouded Nikki's eyes as he studied me. My head was spinning and I didn't have the wherewithal to try to guess at what was going through Nikki's mind, so I just raised my eyebrows and asked bluntly, "What's wrong? Don't like the sight of blood?"

Nikki actually laughed at that, but it was a troubled, distracted laugh. "You should know that wouldn't bother me . . . just- why did you do it?"

Sadness immediately bubbled up within me, and I pulled away from him, saying, "Don't you know?"

Anger hardened Nikki's face. "Thank you, but I could have dealt with that bitch myself."

"I'm sure you could have if she wasn't about to stab you in the back." Nikki's broad shoulders rose and fell once in a heavy sigh, and he glanced down at my arm with furrowed brows before saying slowly, "Didn't you know you could get hurt?"

Frowning, I shrugged, "I mean, I didn't really think . . . I couldn't just let her stab you." I didn't quite understand what Nikki was trying to get at; it seemed a rather straightforward situation to me.

"But it was my fault that she was angry at me . . . most people would have let me get what was coming to me." He stared at me through heavy-lidded eyes, truly looking as if he was trying to figure me out. If I didn't have an inkling as to what was going through his mind, I would have been a little frightened- he really was a rather imposing figure being just about a whole foot taller than me, having broad shoulders and a hardened face.

"I'm not most people."

"Well then who are you?"

"Someone who cares for you."

"Why would you care about me?" Nikki chewed on his lip, by his expression already decided on why he wasn't worth any care.

"Because someone cared about me." As I said that with a quiet tenderness, Nikki's brows jumped in such a way that I could tell he thought he knew where the conversation was heading.

"Who?"

"When you have time to sit down, I'll tell you a story. But for now, I need you to take me to the hospital to stitch up my arm."