Söbriety • Mötley Crüe •

13. Caught

"Mr. Sixx, what are you doing in here?" Ryan gasps, remembering that I came in last night.

"Um- I sleepwalk?" I squeak and she shakes her head in disappointment.

"Come on. Let's go clean you up."

I crawl out from under the bed and Ryan's eyes widen when she sees the blood pouring from my nose.

"It's okay, Ry." I reassure her as Dr. Levinsky pulls me out of the room, and I hear a soft 'I'm sorry, Nik' as she leads me out into the hallway.

Sexual assault?

Ryan's POV

My head is pounding when I wake up to the sun creeping through the curtains and I roll over to the side of the bed, seeing drops of blood. I groan, remembering the events of a few hours prior. A night terror? How fucking lame. I'm not ten anymore, I thought those were over.

I pull the covers back and get up to take a shower, making the water as hot as possible. I sigh as I wash my hair, surprised there's no clumps in my hands when I go to rinse off. At least that's something.

After brushing my hair and teeth, and throwing on some sweats, I walk out to the cafeteria, surprisingly
hungry.

I half smile when I see Tommy waving me over, Nikki and his bruised nose sitting next to him.

"What's up, Mike Tyson?" Tommy laughs and I hang my head in embarrassment.

"Shut up, Tommy." Nikki growls and Tommy shrugs his shoulders before taking a bite of his toast.

"I'm so sorry." I whisper, looking at Nikki through the tops of my eyes, my head still hanging low. He reaches over the table and grabs my hand.

"Don't worry about it. I've been beaten up worse. You do have a nice right hook, though." I relax when he smiles at me, Tommy giggling next to him.

"What happened after you got dragged out? Are you in trouble?"

"Trouble is my middle name, babe." He smiles a cocky smile and I roll my eyes. "Next time we sleep together, I'm gonna have to chain you to the bed, though."

My eyebrows rise in surprise and he winks at me.

-

I slowly start to feel better about abusing Nikki throughout the day with his constant reassurances and his I'm Nikki Sixx and I can handle everything attitude.

Dr. Mouse gave me a book to read about surviving assault in our individual therapy session, and I'm about a chapter in, sitting in the rec room with the guys around me.

"Dude, if you had to choose, would you rather die by Freddy Krouger's knife fingers, or by Michael Myers choking you out?" Tommy sits in anticipation for their answers.

"I dunno, I do like to be choked." Gross, Vince.

"Knife fingers. Your eyes pop out of your skull when you get choked." Nikki says with confidence and I laugh.

"I don't know if that's totally true." I snort.

"Well, what about you, smarty pants?" Nikki slaps my leg and I put my feet in his lap in response.

"I like Krouger, he has more depth to his character."

"Oh, so you like depth?" Vince stares at me and I flip him off.

We're interrupted when a short, pudgy, balding man comes through the door yelling Nikkis name. Nikki groans and goes to him, the guy shuffling him out the door into another room.

"Who is that?" I ask Tommy.

"That's Doc, our douche manager." He shakes his head in annoyance. "Prolly came to yell at Nikki for getting in trouble last night." My face falls, a pit forming in my stomach at the thought of me getting Nikki into trouble.

"Don't worry about it, dude. What's he gonna do? Kick him out of rehab?"

I nod in agreement and go back to reading my book, thankful that the guys are oblivious and don't notice the title on the cover.

-

I take my familiar walk down the boardwalk to watch the sun set on the beach, Tommy following behind me.

"Thanks for letting me tag along, dude. I know this is you and Nikki's thing." I grab his hand and swing it widely as we walk, making him smile. "Me and Vince were gonna watch a movie, but he ditched me to go hang out with Victoria, like Sharise wasn't just here visiting a couple hours ago."

"It's not just our thing, Tom. You're welcome to come anytime. You're my best friend." He grins and nods, enjoying his new title.

We find Nikki's mess of hair sitting on the shore, his feet in the water. It's a little bit chillier than it has been the past few days, all of us in our sweats. My heart jumps when Nikki notices us walking toward him and he gives me that damn smile that makes me twitch in between my legs. Every damn time.

"Hey, bro. What happened with Doc?" Tommy rolls up his pants and sits in the sand, dipping his feet in the water and hissing at the cold.

"Nothing new. I'm a fuck up, I'm a piece of shit, I can't even follow rules in rehab, yadda yadda. Same ol' song." His eyes dart to Tommy like he's telling him to shut up, and I know that he's not telling the full truth. I shrug it off for now, making a mental note to ask him about it later.

"Look!" I yell in excitement, the guys straining their eyes to try to see what I'm pointing at, but the look of confusion stays on their faces. "It's a conch shell!" I jump up and run toward it.

My dad and I used to collect conch shells on Galveston beach, I haven't seen one in years. I'm practically giddy with excitement when I pick it up and observe all of its distinct curves and markings. I turn around, excited to show the guys and start to frown when I see them whispering to each other.

"He told me to drop her because she's trouble, but I'm not going to."

"Fuck Doc, man, he doesn't control us. He can't tell you who to hang out with."

Nikki nods in response, and I freeze, realizing they're talking about me. My heart sinks. You're already causing problems.

When Nikki notices I'm standing there with a sad face, he sighs and reaches his hand up to grab mine.

"Hey- no. I didn't mean for you to hear that. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Nik. I'm sorry for getting you in trouble." He shakes his head, going to respond but I cut him off. "I don't want to cause any problems for you. I'll go." I breathe, turning to walk away and I try to let go of his hand, but he grips me tighter and stands up to follow me.

"Hey! You can't just walk away from me when you hear something you don't like." He says a little aggressively and it takes me by surprise. I stand frozen in front of him, nodding.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a dick. You're not who I'm mad at. But fuck Doc, I don't give a shit what he says. Tommy's right, he can't choose who I hang out with. He works for us." He moves a piece of my hair behind my ear, his emerald eyes burning into mine. "I like you, Ryan. You're not going anywhere. And when we get out of here, I'm taking you with me." My heart flutters and my face heats up, nodding a little too quickly.

"I promise." He says softly, placing his lips on mine.

"Even though I beat you up?" I pull away, teasing him.

"Yes, Mike Tyson, even though you beat me up."

"Hey, that's my joke." Tommy groans behind us.