Red Hot ~Nikki Sixx

Part 42: Dancing on Glass

Ashten and Alex disappeared to the ER leaving the drummer and bassist alone staring at the closed door in disbelief. Tommy let out a deep breath glancing at Nikki who ran his hands through his hair and took a few paces around the room looking like he either wanted to pass out or puke. After a few random aimless steps the very unglued Nikki finally took a seat and hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees, his eyes glued to the floor.

They sat on opposite sides of the room from one another in the available but horribly uncomfortable plastic blue chairs. It had only been a few minutes but the punishing tick of the wall clock made it feel like time stood still. The already stale air of the waiting room grew thick as silence cloaked them save the sounds of Tommy fiddling with something every few minutes and the tapping of Nikki's foot on the linoleum floor.

They sat for a grand total of fifteen minutes before the silence and the anticipation began to suffocate Nikki. Desperately needing to get out of that intense pressure cooker-like room, he grabbed his pack of menthol cigarettes from his coat pocket and stalked out the exit door.

When Tommy followed two minutes later he found Nikki standing outside leaning against the exterior wall of the hospital exhaling a mouthful of smoke with his eyes closed. Tommy approached slowly and lit a cigarette of his own and took a drag before looking up at a silent Nikki Sixx. While they hadn't been on the best of terms as of lately he knew his Terror Twin better than he knew himself. And Tommy knew a silent Sixx wasn't a good Sixx.

"Jozie's on her way. I called her. Figured she'd wanna know," Tommy offered in an attempt to break some of the silence.

Nikki opened his eyes and merely looked to the sky in annoyance. He didn't even acknowledge Tommy's presence. The two hadn't said much to each other in the past couple of days that didn't include yelling or some sort of snide jab and Nikki just wasn't in the mood for it.

Tommy, never one to embrace too many consecutive moments of silence, furrowed his brow and rolled his eyes huffing before he took another drag of his cigarette. "SIxx—"

"Not now, Tommy." Nikki muttered, his eyes again closed as he leaned his head against the stone wall.

"She's gonna be ok, right?" Tommy asked quietly, ignoring the previous warning. He was not quite sure if his question was rhetorical or if just pondering out loud may guarantee Ashten's safety.

Nikki's eyes flew open as he scoffed and he shot a hard stare of outrage at the tall, lanky man standing six feet to his right. He took another drag of his cigarette and exhaled, a humorless laugh accompanying the smoke.

"What difference does it make to you? You think she's just a lying whore, remember?

"Don't start this shit, Sixx," Tommy grunted, equally shocked and irritated at the accusation. "And don't stand here and act like you're the only one who cares about her."

"No," Nikki seethed, his voice low, bellying the rage he felt starting to simmer. He took a final drag and flicked his finished butt to the ground, turning a look of contempt back to his drummer.

"You don't get to do this. You don't get to talk to and about her the way you have been for the past couple of days then come out here and suddenly get all compassionate and act like you give a fuck."

"I resent that!"

"Resent it all you want to, Asshole! You've been treating her like shit for no good reason," Nikki spat and stood at full height taking a step closer to Tommy.

"No reason?! You two—"

"Yeah, I know what we did, Lee! So does she! You don't fucking let her forget it for a second!" Nikki snapped, his voice raising with every syllable uttered as he balled his right hand into a fist, pushing it into his left palm to crack his knuckles. "It happened! And you know what? I'm not sorry. And if you're waiting for me to apologize for falling in love with her you can fuck off because that's NEVER gonna happen! And if you don't like it you can suck my fucking dick!"