Running Wild in the Night

Nikki's POV

I laid my head against Brian's chest as we sat on the couch watching a movie. I made him watch Fight Club with me because its one of my favorite movies. He's never seen it and agreed to watch it only if we would watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas afterwards. The book was good so might as well watch the movie.

I started laughing when the flaming smiley face was shown. Brian gave a small laugh. "That is really random yet funny."

"I know. It makes me smile."

"You have a pretty smile."

I looked up at him, cocking my head to the side. "What did you just say," I asked.

"I said you have a pretty smile," he answered, his eyes glued to the tv.

"Oh," was all I could reply as I placed my head back on its original place.

"Will you be my girlfriend, Nikki?"

That question caused me to instantly stare at him in shock. I wasn't expecting that either. Sheesh what is it with today? Do people like giving me unexpected events?

"Brian......," I started.

"I don't want to hear about how I don't deserve some you and all your problems. I don't care about your flaws. I like you," he said firmly, staring into my eyes.

"I just don't want to be a burden, Brian," I said, softly.

"You're not a burden."

"Alright."

"So does that mean I get to call you my girlfriend," Brian asked, giving me a dorky smile.

"I guess it does," I replied, laughing at Jared Leto's beat up face.

"Hello! We bringth food," Jimmy called as he and the rest of the guys came in.

Both Brian and I turned our heads to look at them. Val just stare at us in shock as she realized that Brian had his around my shoulder while I still had my head against his chest. "Um, is there something you want to share with the rest of us?"

"You can make soap out of people's fat and nitroglycerin with household items," Brian announced, a bit proud of himself.

Matt looked disgusted when Brian mentioned soap being made from people's fat. Jimmy looked at the movie and smirked. "Fight Club? You're watching Nikki's favorite movie? Wow. Are you guys dating now or something?"

"Yup! I asked Nikki to be my girlfriend and she said yup," Brian responded, still getting amused with the movie.

I wasn't paying attention. We were at the part where the narrator finds out that he is Tyler Durden and is beating himself up and that part is one of my absolute favorite parts. I didn't notice anything until Jimmy placed a container of Chinese food on my lap. I looked at it then at Jimmy. "It's beef fried rice mixed with combination lo mien. I know for a damn fact that you love Chinese food that way," he said, taking a seat on one of the other couches.

Brian's POV

Today was the day that Nikki was coming into our psychology class. We've been together for a week and so far, no problems. But that's not much. I mean she is still in recovery so there's still time to find out.

I took my seat next to Zacky and Jimmy. Jimmy had left early to go pick up Nikki so he wasn't here yet. The rest of the guys just sat in their usual seats, talking about random shit........mainly about what's going to happen today.

"Nervous, Brian," Zacky asked.

"A bit. None of us really know what Nikki's life has been like while she was chasing the dragon so this is going to be interesting," I answered.

The guys just nodded, agreeing to my comment. Hearing what my girlfriend has gone through sounds so scary to me. I only have heard bits and pieces of what she went through so I know for a damn fact that this is going to be hard to hear her tragic tale.

Mr. Kilroy came in and took out a chair for Nikki. "Alright class, thanks to Jimmy we won't be having a discussion today. Instead, we're going to be hearing from a recovering heroin addict what's like to be where she was," he said as Jimmy walked in.

Nikki followed him. She had her hair up in a clip but a few strands fell and framed her face. She wore a black tank top with a black hoodie over it. Dark blue jeans hugged her legs tightly as black converse covered her feet. She had no make-up on but still looked amazing. And to think: this is my girlfriend.

"Um, hi," Jimmy said as Nikki sat down on the chair, "This is my cousin, Nicole McCade."

He sat down as Nikki shook her head, rolling her eyes. "I rather be called 'Nikki,' but whatever."

She looked at all of us, studying everyone's faces before she sighed, beginning her tale. "So, yeah. You can call me ‘Nicole’ or ‘Nikki’. Either one is fine but I prefer ‘Nikki’. Obviously, I’m Jimmy’s cousin. Um, I'm sixteen years old and I am a recovering heroin addict. That’s why I’m here.

I was born in Van Nuys but I lived my whole life in Colorado. My brain is actually smarter than the average person's so I got to skip a few grades. In fact, I actually graduated when I was fourteen. My mom never saw me graduate though. She died a year earlier in a car accident," Nikki said, staring at the floor.

"My mom meant a lot to me. She was the one that taught me how to paint and draw and practically every skill I have, I learned from her. So losing her was a harsh blow. My father blamed me for her death and became very abusive towards me. And that's how it started. My father beating me and my mom's death..........I was so sick of everything and then I met him.

Morgan Blashco was a senior at my school and was well known for being a dealer. I was I think a freshmen when I met him. He gave me my first dose of heroin and I fell in love," she said, closing her eyes.

She stopped and opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling. I knew she was thinking about it and it hurt. I hurt me seeing my girlfriend just recall all those memories she locked away.

"I've drank alcohol, I've snorted cocaine, but heroin......it was different. It was as if alcohol, coke, drugs.....those were just flings. Heroin........that was what I called a love affair……a real love affair. I was able to escape reality, escape every damn problem I had. It also served a double purpose for me. I could stay up all night, working. It kept me up and I loved not having to sleep.

In fact, I actually had forgotten how to sleep. I knew how to pass out and to me, that was all I really needed to know.

My father was a doctor and made a shitload of money. I'd steal some to pay Morgan for heroin. As soon as I tried it the first time, I was hooked. I wanted more and Morgan loved the fact that I could pay him whatever amount anytime I needed a fix.

Part of me knew I was going insane. Part of me knew that I was slowly killing myself but the other part just didn't give a fucking rats' ass. I was in love and that's all that mattered to me."

Nikki stopped again, biting her lip before she continued. I just sat there, watching her, listening to her reveal everything; every little thing that she had hidden in her life was now coming forward and man, was it hard listening to her. It made my blood boil hearing how her father was.

"I got paranoid. Man, was I paranoid,” she said with a small laugh, “There were times when I'd hide in my closet, shooting up and not wanting to be around anyone. I never really had friends, just the people I shot up with. So being alone never bothered me. I was perfectly fine with it but I was still paranoid. I remember a time when Jimmy called me. We normally would talk for hours and hours but that time, we only talked for minutes. My paranoia was acting up and I was convinced that there were people climbing the fence to my house and were trying to kill me. I remember telling him, 'Oh shit. I have to go, Jimmy! There are people after me.' Then I hung up, grabbed my gun, and ran outside, screaming."

Jimmy looked at her and nodded, remembering that phone call. "I heard that you got a lot of phone calls from your neighbors."

Nikki nodded. "Yup, that's true. All my neighbors called, asking if I was fine. I said I was. I don't know if they believed me but I didn't care.

There was another time. I was in my closet. My dad was out of town, at some medical conference thing in another state. I had the radio on throughout the house and I was chasing the dragon. That's the term I used for shooting up. It was early morning and what comes on in the early morning? Talk radio. I was so high that I was convinced that there were people in the house. I screamed that if these people didn't get out, I was going to unload my gun on them. The talking didn't stop and I fired all the bullets in that gun. Amazingly, I hit one of the speakers so the voices stopped.

When my father came home and found that I had fired a bullet into one of the speakers, unloaded my gun through my door, and spent all my time shooting up, he decided that he didn't want to deal with me anymore. He put me into an insane asylum."

A few people gasped as Mr. Kilroy stared at her in shock. "Your own father put you in an insane asylum," he asked, disbelievingly.

Again, Nikki just nodded. "He put me in a looney bin. At that point, I had already graduated high school, top of my class, amazingly, so school was nothing to worry about. I was put in that asylum and I was there for four months. Only four months thanks to a certain cousin of mine and his parents," she said, looking at Jimmy.

"I guess somehow my aunt and uncle, Jimmy's parents, found out what my father had done and decided that they should have custody of me, so they fought my father for it and won. I was taken out of that place and brought here.

That was around six months ago.

About two months ago, I did something that was really stupid: I ran off, heading to Los Angeles with one of Morgan's friends, a dealer named Danni Morrison. We spent the night drinking, snorting coke.......all the things I was deprived of and that I long for. I was like a little kid on Christmas morning about ready to open my presents. The next day, Danni had just gotten a new batch, some of the Persian stuff, and offered to shoot me up. I let her and that was the biggest mistake.

All hell broke loose as I lost focus. I blacked out and apparently, I had no pulse. Danni freaked and threw my body into a dumpster. Luckily, Jimmy and the rest of his friends came to LA to find me. They found Danni and she told them I overdosed when in truth, my body put itself into a coma. Slowly, one by one, all my organs began to shut down and the only way I could save myself was actually waking up. I don't know how I did it but I did wake up. I was alive but my body was in so much pain. It hurt like no other.

Jimmy and everyone else took me back here and my aunt and uncle decided that I should go through drug therapy. And that's what I've been doing. I have been seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Travis, who has been helping me with going through withdrawal. And boy, does it fucking hurt.

Withdrawal is the worst pain anyone could go through. I feel like I'm having shock therapy to my guts. I'm restless and become an insomniac. The hardest things for me is learning to be social and learning how to sleep. As I said before, I knew how to pass out but sleeping was a different matter.

So here I am, telling you my tragic tale and what becomes of you when you chase dragons. All I can say is that no one should go through what I went through. I died but I was given a second chance. I don't want to hear of someone dying of an overdose, it causes too much pain to everyone."