"Hey?" He asked the guy serving him. He looked at Nick to indicate he was listening to him.
"Mandy isn't working tonight is she?" He asked in hope and lust.
"Yeah she is." The man smiled at Nick, as she came up behind Nick on his bar stool, putting a tray down on the bar before wrapping her arms around his back, her hands meeting at his chest. The two were heavily acquainted. He held her hands there and smiled-this was going to be a good night after all.
"Hey stranger." She whispered into his ear before kissing his neck a few times limply.
"Hey, Girl." He replied knocking back half of his beer. She was a bleach blonde haired girl, with a good heart but a dirty profession. She sat next to him and looked surprise at his quick drinking.
"Bad night again?" She asked. She had seen and served Nick in more ways than one, on several occasions where he had come in and claimed stressfully that he was having a "bad night."
"Like you wouldn't believe." He admitted, hastily knocking back the rest of his beer and requesting another one. She got back up and began to massage his shoulders, and he relaxed into the pleasure her hands made him feel. This is what he needed to do, Nick though to himself. "But I'm gonna have fun tonight." He explained to her confidently, almost demandingly of her.
"Yeah?" She asked, releasing the tension in his shoulders and back. She licked her lips and whispered in his ear: "How much fun baby?" An hour later Nick was very drunk and found himself in a toilet cubicle with Mandy relieving stress the best way she knew how. They were the only ones in this particular bathroom and she was moaning softly with her eyes tightly shut. This wasn't about love or even lust to Nick anymore; he wanted to know he could satisfy a woman which Heather denied he could do. He knew he was being rough inside her and careless with Mandy but he didn't care, he couldn't care anymore, he was beyond caring in his drunken state. He barely knew what he was doing. Her arms flung around his neck and gripped him tightly, as her orgasm set in.
"I love you Nick." She whispered to him in his ear. Nick's eyes were blinded immediately with all the images he associated with love. In a silent film type display he saw AJ in the recording booth singing his heart out. He saw Brian's glowing face when he told Nick he was to be a father. He saw himself playing basketball energetically with his brother, followed by comforting him at the poolside. He saw himself making love to Paris, and cuddling closely with Heather. He saw his band and their crew curled in a circle for a silent prayer for their show. He recalled when a girl from London had said "I love you Nick." Baylee's smiling faced was followed by Leighanne in her wonderful dress on the day of her wedding. He finally saw himself, playing guitar, composing music in a hotel room for his first solo record-he saw himself, how he wanted to be now.
A tear escaped down his cheek as he pulled away from her, briefly looking down at her puzzled expression. This expression turned to anger as Nick began putting his clothes back on-he had interrupted her orgasm, to which she was furious.
"What the hell are you doing? You son-of-a-bitch! You lousy…" Nick was out of the bathroom by that time, and once again swiftly sifting through the large crowd, desperate to get outside. His tears fell down his cheeks calmly. On the outside he was rushing and hurrying and frantic, but on the inside, he was calm at his revelation. The montage of his friends and family had awakened something inside of him, but he needed to be alone to realise what exactly. He cried driving home thinking of poor Baylee. He was an innocent in this world of chaos. Nick crept into bed and cried the majority of the night there; reminding himself of how life had let him down, but also feeling the small glimmer of hope that would grow in him over night.
