Söbriety • Mötley Crüe •

11. 30 Day Chips

Warnings: Mentions of Previous Drug Use

Ryan's POV

I look around the room of at least twenty-five people in search of my friendly faces. I finally come across Tommy sitting in the back corner and he waves for me to come over. I give him a thankful smile as I sit down.

"Hey, babe. How was your day?" He crosses his legs and sits back in his seat.

"Long, where are the other guys?" I look around the room trying to find Nikkis face and am disappointed when I don't see it.

"Vince is visiting with Sharise, and Nikki is in individual therapy. It's been a weird day." I look at the clock on the wall that reads 6:30 PM, Nikki doesn't have individual therapy at 6:30 PM.

"Is something wrong? This isn't his normal therapy time." I furrow my brows and he looks at me sympathetically and sighs out.

"He got upset today in band therapy. The counselor asked us to picture ourselves as kids and he just lost it, man."

Worry spreads through me like a wildfire, knowing how hard that must've been for Nikki. He's told me a lot about his childhood and I know it's not something he wants to look back on, which is one of the things we have most in common.

"He's gonna miss getting his 30 day chip." I frown and look at the floor. I make a mental note to grab a chip from the counselor and take it to him later. I know he'll be at the beach after the day he's had.

The rest of the meeting goes by agonizing slow with my brain completely wrapped in worry for Nikki. All I want to do is get out and find him, but I know I won't be able to sneak out without someone noticing and it would look pretty weird if I voluntarily missed getting my chip.

The gold coin rests in the palm of my hand as I stare it like it's gonna suddenly dissolve and take all my clean time with it. Who knew a cheap fake gold coin that looks like those chocolate coins my dad used to bring me from the candy store down the street would hold such a heavy value?

Tommy walks across the front of the room and promptly screams "fuck yeah!" pumping his fists in the air when the counselor drops his coin into his hand.

"Alright, guys. Congrats on your 30 days and we're halfway through it!" The whole room starts to clap and I eye the door, ready to get the hell out of here.

—

I walk down the boardwalk to the beach, my eyes darting in every direction to find the mess of black hair that I've grown fond of.

It take a few minutes, but I finally see Nikki laying on the shore in his boxers, letting the waves crash around him. I have to pry my eyes away from his toned body when I feel that familiar twinge of need in between my legs.

I take off my pants and shirt and lay next to him, twitching at the cold water stinging my skin.
He doesn't say anything and just twirls his fingers into mine and rubs the top of my hand against my track mark scars like he always does.

We lay like that in silence for a while until he abruptly sits up and looks down at me.

"Hi," is all he says.

"Hi." I sit up and wrap my arms around my body to try to find warmth, failing. He notices and wraps his arm around me and pulls me into his lap, holding me close to his chest so I can soak up his body heat.

"Tommy told me you had a bad day." I look up at him but keep my body close to his chest so I can gather all of the warmth that I can.

"Yeah." He kisses my forehead and my heart thumps.