Not This Time

Jon: October 15, 1984

     I stared at myself in the mirror. The show last night had been a real ego boost. There were girls in Bon Jovi tee shirts right up in front. This one girl had hair almost like mine, it was so wild. She was cute, too, with that excited smile she'd given me when I knelt down to sing to her directly for a minute. Nina's notes had reminded me not to forget the rest of the venue over a handful of pretty faces. I rolled my eyes even now. As if she really needed to tell me.
     Richie was still convinced that I could seduce her, and he was probably right. The only problem was that I couldn't bring myself to talk to her. Pretty much the only words I'd said to her so far in my life were, 'Run' and 'Can I get more drums'. Every time I even thought about approaching Nina, my stomach would knot up with guilt over Dorothea, as if simply saying 'hello' would somehow be worse than all the other women I'd already slept with this tour.
     I stared at the blue in my reflection's eyes. It was something about Nina. Something about her fascinated me, drew me in. The worst part was that I had no idea what that something could be.
     "Jon!" Tico's voice shouted over the banging on the door, "Did you forget your tampons or something? What's taking you so goddamn long? I've got an emergency here!"
     "Let him in there, Jon," came Alec's voice as I opened the door, "Spare the rest of us!" Tico frowned at me as I stepped past him. He rushed into the bathroom, grumbling something about his girlfriend taking less time, and kicked the door closed behind him.
     I'd only gotten two steps into the room when the smell hit me. On top of the sweat smell from last night's concert clothes, the unmistakable odor of onions now filled the room. I brought my shirt over my face with a disgusted groan, but it didn't help much.
     "Damnit, Tico! You're not allowed to have onions again for the rest of tour!" I called back to the bathroom door. David said something in agreement, but I was too concerned with getting across the room and getting the window open to listen. I yanked open the window and all but stuck my head out.
     The fresh air felt amazing, albeit cold. I pulled my head back into the room and nearly gagged as I looked around. Alec was watching TV. David was supposedly examining some sheet music, but it was obvious that both of them were trying not to laugh at how bad the smell was. I looked down to find Richie sprawled out on the floor, still asleep.
     "How the hell is he sleeping in this?" I laughed. That broke David, and then Alec. David put his head down on the desk and laughed. It almost looked like he was crying.
     Alec shook his head, and said between breaths, "It's so bad!"
     "Man, I'm going outside," I coughed, still laughing a little, "Unlike you guys, I need my lungs tonight!" David launched into another fit of laughter. I shook my head at him as I crossed the room again and opened the door. It seemed the smell was getting to him. I closed the door behind me and took a deep breath.
     As I walked down the hall, I sniffed my jacket collar to make sure my clothes didn't smell like our room. Thank God, they didn't. I pulled my sunglasses out of hoodie pocket and put them on. People in Japan had blocked the hotel entrance when we were there; I didn't know what to expect of England. On one hand, we were only openers on this leg, but on the other, there had been Bon Jovi fans in the front row last night.
     The lobby seemed pretty quiet. I smiled at the sun shining through the building's front doors. No crazy fans. I stuck my hands in my pockets and strolled across the tiled lobby floor casually.
     "All clear?" I asked Rodger, the security guy we'd hired for our stay in London.
     He glanced through the window he was standing next to. "It appears so," he confirmed with a friendly smile. Rodger seemed to be more of a precautionary measure, but after the surprising amount of fans in Japan, I couldn't have been happier that he was there.
     With a grateful smile, I nodded to Rodger and continued outside to enjoy the day. I thought maybe I'd explore until sound check, but then again, London was a big city; I was liable to get lost.
     The city ignored me as I stepped out onto the sidewalk. Nobody freaked out that I was there. People walked around me, all of them trying to avoid bumping someone else. I leaned against the brick wall of the hotel and watched the street carry on with its business. Big city, tons of people, not enough time for anything. It reminded me very much of New York.
     I looked one way down the sidewalk and was surprised to find Nina heading in my direction with a plastic bag hanging from her arm. Where had she gone? I could tell she wasn't happy, and that's when I noticed the tall man following her. His mouth was moving, but they were too far away for me to hear what he was saying.
     The man stepped in front of Nina. When she sidestepped, I could see that she was saying something to him. Both her words and the man's response were lost in the noise of the street. Nina rolled her eyes and said something else before the man stopped in front of her once more.
     I could see that Nina wanted around the man, but he kept stepping in front of her. I pushed off the wall in case she needed help. I smirked when she faked him out, starting one way and then going the other. Before she could get very far, however, the man grabbed her wrist.
     I started toward them, but then Nina did something I didn't expect. She dropped her plastic bag and, in one fluid motion, grabbed the man's hand where it held her wrist, twisted his arm around behind him, and kicked his knees out from under him. I stopped in my tracks.
     Nina was saying something else to the man, but they were still a good twenty feet away at least, so I still couldn't hear anything. Other people had taken notice of Nina and the man on his knees, but nobody made any movement to interfere. Suddenly, Nina let the man go. He fell forward as Nina stepped around him and picked up the plastic bag.
     I watched her let out a sigh of relief as she drew closer. The man glared up at her back as he got to his feet. I opened my mouth to warn Nina at the same time that she glanced over her shoulder. I was once again shocked when Nina didn't hesitate to deliver what I recognized as a messy roundhouse kick to the man's jaw. The man stumbled back a few feet and fell.
     I stared in surprise and confusion as Nina dropped the seemingly habitual ready stance she'd settled into. She didn't stay to watch the man sluggishly raise his hand to his face, nor to respond to the varied reactions of the surrounding people. She tried to smile at me as she passed, but it didn't quite seem to take. Had she really been nervous about that?
     It didn't matter anyway. All I could do was stare. Just before the hotel door closed behind her, I could see Nina hand a soda to our security guy I'd spoken to earlier. I kept her in sight until she disappeared up the stairs. When I stepped back into the hotel, I looked over at Roger.
     "Did you see that?" I asked him. Roger glanced in the direction Nina had gone, grinned, and nodded. I nodded too and then continued into the lobby, toward the stairs.
     I saw it again and again in my head as I headed back to the room I shared with the band. There was no possible way she knew how to do that last year. That ready stance was just like Dorothea would do in her class.
     Maybe Nina had taken classes. I mean, it would make sense, right? She seemed like she knew what she was doing. She couldn't have been training during tour; she wouldn't have had time. That meant she had to have taken some sort of class between when she was attacked and the start of tour. That only gave her about three weeks.
     I hesitated at the door to my band's room, momentarily distracted by the threat of onions. I took a deep breath and opened the door. The room did smell better with the open window, but it still made me grimace. I stepped on the day sheet as I closed the door behind me. Apparently nobody had noticed when it was delivered sometime while I was gone.
     "Day sheet," I announced, holding the paper up. My mind was already wandering back to Nina. I set the day sheet on the desk next to David and proceeded to the window.
     "Dude," David scoffed, "What's with you?" I glanced over my shoulder at him for a moment. He was looking over his shoulder at me as well.
     "I just saw the sound girl take down a man twice her size," I told him, looking back out the window. I could see the few crew members that traveled with us heading from the hotel to the shuttle that would take them to the venue.
     "Nina?" David asked. As he said her name, Nina appeared on the sidewalk. She looked both ways down the street as she crossed to the shuttle and then disappeared inside it. David's voice called me back again. "Jon."
     I turned away from the window, arms crossed, and nodded. "She did a roundhouse," I recounted, "It was crazy."
     David shrugged. "She probably took some sort of self-defense class. What's so weird about that?"
     "I don't know," I said, shrugging as well, "Nothing I guess." I didn't point out that the time frame would be pretty incredible if she had taken some sort of martial arts class. Clearly, she hadn't taken the 'kick-him-in-the-balls' self-defense class I always thought of first when I thought of women's self-defense classes.
     The ready stance reminded me of Dorothea and the classes she'd started last year. I rolled my eyes. That's exactly what I needed, another way to bring up my guilt. I closed my eyes and shook my head. I just needed to get Nina out of my head, which was easier said than done. I knew there was only one way. Work.
     I returned to the desk and picked up the day sheet. The crew had just left for the venue, which meant the band would be heading over on the next shuttle.
     "Guys," I said, "Get your shit for show together. We're leaving for the stadium in a few minutes." I stepped over to where Richie was still asleep and nudged the guitarist's shoulder with my foot. He grumbled and opened his eyes. I raised an eyebrow when he looked up at me.
     "What do you want?" he muttered.
     "We're about to leave," I told him. Richie made another tired sound, but he got up anyway. I walked away from him.
     I'd hung my clothes with my garment bag last night to let them air out. Now all I had to do was shift the clothes so they were inside the garment bag and zip it shut. Everybody shuffled about the room, making sure their affairs were in order.
     After a few moments of everybody taking care of their things in silence, somebody could be heard sniffing. I looked at Tico and Alec, who were immediately near me, and then around the room. It was Richie.
     "You guys smell that, too, right?" Richie asked.
     "Smell what?" I joked, glancing over at David.
     Richie inhaled through the nose. "Kinda smells like...onions."
     The rest of us exchanged glances and I shook my head. "I don't know what you're talking about." I turned away so he couldn't see my grin.
     "I think it's just you, man," Alec snickered. I snuck a glance at David, who was trying not to laugh, then over my shoulder at Richie. The guitarist looked between all of us with a confused look. Slowly, he figured out that we were fucking with him.
     "Man you guys are assholes!" he laughed, throwing the pillow he's been sleeping on at me, "I was smelling that in the dream I was having! I thought I was losing it!"
     "You are losing it," David snickered, "We're all losing it! It smells so bad!" We all laughed at that.
     "I said I was sorry!" Tico called over our laughter, "I'm not going to say it again!
     "So it was you!" Richie chuckled. Another look of realization crossed his face. "Oh! The onion rings!"
     "Never again!" Alec declared. We all laughed again.
     I shook my head. "Let's go," I said with a smirk, slinging my garment bag over my shoulder. I picked up my boots and headed for the door.