It Was Easier Not Loving You

"I can't believe she fucking that! Oh my God!" Mike screamed and threw his arms up in the air as he stormed through the Armstrong residence. "She's such a crazy Psycho Bitch! Who on God's fucking green earth would go off the hinge like that?!"

Adrienne stood up from the couch and set him down next to where she was sitting and rubbed his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Mike. The good thing is, she's where she definitely needs to be." Mike scoffed and nodded. "Exactly," she continued.

"I hope she stays there for a long fucking time." He buried his face in his hands.

Billie walked in the room with a glass of water and handed it to Mike. "We should go see if we can find her in one of the hospitals and apologize."

"Yeah," Mike agreed. "what would we do when we get there? 'Here's you a balloon, sorry my crazy girlfriend shot you.' I don't see it happening. She probably hates me now."

"Well you're not the one that shot her." Adrienne said. Billie agreed.

Mike sighed and buried his face in his hands again, then ran them through his hair. "What am I going to do?" he muttered to himself.

There was a knock on the door and Tre appeared. "Did you guys see the studio yet? It's completely trashed! Bullet holes, broken windows, and everything." He paused and studied the room and mannequin Mike on the couch. "Well, I was thinking we would be able to buy new equipment for her and help her get the place back up and running. It's the least we could do."

"That's a great idea!" Billie exclaimed.

Mike stared at Tre and slowly allowed a smile to creep upon his face. "I fucking love you, man!" He pounced off the couch and tackled him to the floor. Tre tried to block but to no avail. "You're a freaking genius!!"

"Why, thank you."

He pushed himself off the floor and ran to the door and sped off in search for Niki hoping she wasn't discharged yet.

Mike raced, at the speed limit, to the nearest hospital and parked at the nearest parking spot closest to the door. He jumped out and slammed the door and raced to the front door where he saw a girl attempting to climb into a taxi from her wheel chair. Niki! he exclaimed to himself. He raced over to the taxi and caught her before she could completely sit in the car.

"Niki! Thank God I caught you!."

Niki looked up and stared into Mike's eyes, mouth agape.

"I wanted to apologize for what happened. It's all my fault you're in this situation."

Niki gazed into his eyes and bowed her eyebrows in sympathy and confusion. "How is it your fault? You didn't shoot me."

"No, but I was the one that didn't break up with her when she first started acting like that. That's not the first time she's been jealous about another girl, but is definitely the worst. I'd kind of take that as a compliment but seeing as your leg was practically shot off and your studio was trashed, I'd be pretty mad." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, I accept your apology. I'm sorry you came all this way, though, just to tell me."

"Actually, I wanted to inform you that we're going to help replace the damaged stuff in the studio. It's the least I could do."

Niki was shocked at what he had said. "That's nice, but I would feel bad if you bought back everything in the studio. That's a lot of money."

"Then I'll pay for the medical bill if you don't let me buy the stuff."

"Can we please decide what we're going to do here?" The taxi driver asked as he flicked the ashes off his cigar.

"Sorry," Mike replied. "Here, I'll take you home." He extended his hand out toward Niki.

"Are you positive?"

He nodded. She took his hand and was set back into the wheelchair.

"Sorry you drove all the way here." Mike handed him 15 dollars and the taxi took off.

"We'll stop and get some coffee if you want."

"That sounds nice. Thanks."

"No problem."

Mike sat down with two cups of coffee in hand, one in a red Styrofoam cup, the other blue. He set her cappuccino in front of her and sat down in the booth across from her.

"So, how long had you been dating her?"

Mike looked up at Niki and then back down at the table trying to collect up the time spent with Jennifer. "About six months."

"No wonder she's so insecure."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He gave her a stern look.

"Well, it's not like you two have been dating for years. She has had barely any time to learn anything about you. You're always on the road and I'm sure she didn't go Everywhere with you."

"Actually, she did. She insisted and the guys got annoyed, but they'd rather have her there than me being kidnapped by her when we got back like she did the first time we made her stay."

"Kidnapped?"

"Yeah, she told me she was taking me to some day spa and actually took me on a mini vacation to Del Rio."

"Mexico?"

"Yeah! She's crazy."

Niki arched her brows and rolled her eyes, then scoffed. "I noticed."

"How long was your last relationship, Guru?"

Niki frowned and burnt holes in the glass window next to their booth. "I don't even want to think of that bastard. You think she was bad, you haven't seen anything."

Mike began to feel a little guilt stir up inside him. He apologized. She just closed her eyes and scrunched her eyebrows together.

"Every day that went by that I wanted to beat the living shit out of him and never did is a day I regret. Staying out until 5 getting wasted and laid until one night he wanted some from me and I refused. He tried to rape me but I grabbed the nearest object and laid it on him. I broke his nose with his laptop and called the cops as I ran out the door to the neighbor's house."

Mike's mouth fell open and his eyebrows lifted as his imagination went stir crazy on the idea of her story. He looked down at his coffee, which didn't look too appealing anymore, and rested his forehead in his palm. "I am so sorry. I had no idea."

"No, it's fine. Maybe they'll meet up and leave us alone. I swear if I ever see him again and he tries to put one finger on me I'll break it off. He's the reason I have trust issues, despite my childhood."

Mike sunk down in his seat and buried his face in his arms on the table. "God, I can't believe I'm so nosy."

"No, I said too much. I kept talking after I should've stopped. It's not you."

She placed her hand on his arm and he jumped. He took a deep breath and regained himself.

"I should get you back home before it gets dark."

Niki looked down at the table and nodded weakly. Mike helped her up out of the booth and carried her cappuccino out to the car and drove her home.