“I’m going to tell you this one time and one time only…….SHUT THE HELL UP.”
“Yes sir.” Came the smart aleck reply from somewhere out of the darkness.
“Look, you can bail out of this at anytime.”
“No, I can’t. And you and I both know it.”
Huh?
Struggling to roll over my head felt the size of a balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade so I decided to stay put. Trying to make sense of the rest of the cryptic conversation which consisted mostly of a bunch of jumbled grumbling that reminded me of my Mom and Dad’s arguing behind closed doors when I was a kid.
“Shit my head hurts.” Through the thick fog of alcohol and exhaustion one of the voices was beginning to sound vaguely familiar.
“Yeah well that’s what happens when you drink too much.” And so did the other voice.
“Are you about finished?”
“You’ll know when I’m finished.”
Slapping a hand over my eyes I moaned a little bit and the conversation stopped.
“Oh shit.” One voice exclaimed.
“Nick is that you?” The other one quickly jumped in.
“Who’s there?” Were the last words I got out of my mouth before something hard came down on the back of my head and everything faded to black.
* * *
“Hey Kaos, you okay?”
Blinking my eyes open, it took me a minute or so to realize that I was lying on the floor, my face pressed into a pool of my own drool as Howie nudged me with the toe of his shoe.
“Where am I?” I mumbled attempting to roll over on my back but instead getting beached on my side.
“You’re in your hotel room.” Stooping down he rolled me the rest of the way over onto my back. “Shit man, you smell like garbage.” Waving his hand around in front of his nose he brushed his other hand through my bangs.
“ C’mon let’s go sober you up.”
“Howie what day is it?” Letting him pull me to my feet I swayed a bit resting the majority of my weight on his hip as he half walked half dragged me to the bathroom.
Flipping on the light to the bathroom I let out a half moan half yelp throwing my hand over my eyes. “Too bright.”
“Too bad Kaos.” He said with a small laugh as he shoved me down to a sitting position on the side of the bathtub.
“Why do you keep calling me Kaos?”
“You don’t remember?” Leaning over he turned on the cold faucet full force.
“Uh-uh.” I shook my head slightly a feeling of nausea sweeping through my body.
“Too bad man because it was pretty funny.” Giving me a slight shove I fell back into the tub of ice cold water just as he flipped on the shower, water raining down on me making me gasp for air.
“Best cure for an old fashioned hangover.” He smiled drawing the generic beige shower curtain closed.
“Oh shit.” My mouth filled with water making my fillings ache as I spit it at the shower curtain. “Howie turn it off.” I was too hungover to even try to get up as the water chilled me to the bone.
“Ummmm……nope.”
“Howwwwwieeee.” I whined trying to shield my face.
“Stay there I’ll be back with coffee.”
Oooh ick I hated coffee. Brian and A.J. always thought they were so cool when they walked around drinking coffee.
Brian and A.J.?
Before my brain could process any further the shower curtain flew back as Kevin stood there mimicking the shower scene from Psycho.
“Eeeek eeek eeek.” He screeched moving his hand up and down in a stabbing motion.
“Turn off the shower.” I mumbled as he reached in turning off the water.
“Here’s your coffee Kaos.”
“Why the hell does everybody keep calling me that?” Wiping my eyes I tried to push myself up to a semi sitting position as the cold water gurgled down the drain.
“You don’t remember?” Kevin laughed as I shook my head. “Do you remember anything about last night?”
“It was my birthday…..I think?” Rubbing the back of my head I attempted to take the cup of hot coffee from his hand.
“Hey what the hell is that.” Pulling the cup of coffee back Kevin set it on the side of the tub as he took my hand in his.
“What’s what?”
“You’re bleeding?” Inspecting my hand Kevin called out for Howie.
“What’s up?” Coming into the bathroom Howie stopped when he saw the blood on my hand.
“He’s bleeding?” Leaning down Kevin grabbed for both of my hands as Howie came over to help, the two of them pulling me to a standing position in the tub.
“Turn around Nick.” Howie instructed. “Oh shit.” I could feel both of their hands on the back of my wet heat.
“It looks like it might need stitches.” Turning me back around Kevin grabbed for a couple of towels.
“You didn’t notice he was bleeding?” He directed this to Howie, as the both of them split up the towels drying me like an infant.
“No. I just found him there in the dark and woke him up and brought him in here. I didn’t even look at the back of his head before I shoved him in the tub.”
“Go call Trent okay.” Grabbing my arm Kevin slung it over his shoulder as he helped me out of the tub. “C’mon lift up your arms.” I did as he said waiting patiently while he pulled off my wet t-shirt, my leather pants were another issue as he tugged while mumbling something under his breath about my sense of fashion.
Once I was down to my boxers he walked me the bedroom where he pulled out a fresh pair of boxers, some levis and a sweatshirt from my suitcase. Tossing them to me, I sat on the edge of the bed as he hunted around for my shoes.
“How come you only have one shoe?”
“I dunno?” I shrugged shedding my boxers and pulling on the fresh pair.
“What the hell happened to you last night Nicky?”
“I wish I knew.”
* * *
Brian and A.J.
Two hours later I returned to the hotel with six stitches in my head, a bottle of pain medication and a fuzzy recollection of the events that had happened the night before.
Sitting in the hotel restaurant across from Trent and Kevin I listened as they admonished me for among other things drinking, carousing, and wandering away from a club without a bodyguard.
“You’re eighteen years old Nick, you need to start acting like an adult.” Trent wagged his finger in the air at me.
“My head hurts.” I answered.
“Maybe you were mugged?” Kevin replied as A.J. and Brian appeared in the lobby of the restaurant with Sammy and another girl in tow.
“Hey you two, over here.” Kevin stood up signaling them over to the table, a scowl on his face.
Brian and A.J.
“Hey dumbass how’s the hangover?” Walking up to the table A.J. smiled at me.
“Fuck you Jay.” I shot back.
“Do either one of you know where he was last night?” Kevin jumped in as Brian came up alongside A.J. Sammy and the other girl following close behind.
“Should we?” Brian arched his eyebrows up flashing Kevin an innocent smile.
“When Howie found him this morning his head was bleeding. We had to take him for stitches.” Trent cut in.
“Really?” A.J. was having a hard time trying to sound surprised.
“Nick are you okay?” Sam broke through Nick and A.J. sitting down beside me inspecting the bandage on the back of my head.
“That looks like it hurts.” Her voice was sweet.
“Yeah well that’s what happens when you drink to much.” A.J.’s chin jutted out with amusement.“Right Rok?”
“Are you about finished?” Brian elbowed A.J. in the gut.
“You’ll know when I’m finished.” -
“Fuck you I did the best I could.”
“Yeah well it wasn’t good enough.”
“Who died and put you in charge huh?”
“I’ve always been in charge and you fucking know it so shut your mouth.”
“Prick.”
“I heard that.”
“I’m so fucking sick of you.”
“Oh yeah like hanging out with you is some big ass prize.”
“I’m going to tell you this one time and one time only….SHUT THE HELL UP.”
“Yes sir.”
“Look, you can bail out of this at anytime.”
“No, I can’t. And you and I both know it.”
“Shit my head hurts.”
“Yeah well that’s what happens when you drink too much.”
“Are you about finished?”
“You’ll know when I’m finished.
“Oh shit.”
“Nick is that you?” -
“Motherfuckers.” I said shaking my head my eyes locking with A.J. and then with Brian.
“Nick?” Kevin looked at the three of us. “What’s the matter?”