Running Wild in the Night

Still Brian's POV

Apparently, there's a lot about Nikki that I don't know about. Looking through the photo album Julia left, it’s clear to see that I only know a small portion of her past. It turns out that she fences, horse-back rides, plays several musical instruments, was on her high school diving team, and does artistic things (which she is starting to do again). It makes me a bit upset knowing that she never told me any of this but I figured that she wants to regain all those talents at her own pace.

I was tempted to steal a picture from the album. It was one of Nikki playing the cello with her mother who was playing a violin. Nikki looked around ten or eleven but it was clear to see how much she resembled her mother. They both have those dark green eyes and mischief in them. They also were both smiling. It made me smile seeing a little Nikki having the time of her life doing the simplest thing.

Oh what this girl does to me.

"Hey Jimmy, I thought Nikki was coming," Val said as she and Matt came down into my basement.

Jimmy, who was lying on the couch with a magazine over his face, simply said, "She's sick."

"Really? With what?"

"She has a fever of 103."

I stopped what I was doing and just turned to look at him. "She has a fever of 103? That's fucking high!"

"I know and to make matters worst for her, she spent the majority of the night in the bathroom, throwing up," Jimmy said, getting up and taking off the magazine.

"Poor girl, she must be miserable," Johnny said.

"She is. We had to take Velkan, her puppy, out of her room. She really can't eat anything without throwing up and she's in so much pain. I feel so bad for her."

"We should visit her," Matt declared as I scratched the back of my neck.

"I agree," Zacky said.

"Let me make sure its fine with my parents and Coley," Jimmy said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing the number for his house.

I sat on the couch as we all listened in on his conversation.

"Hey Ma, how's Coley?...................Oh really? That sucks..................Yeah, well the guys and Val were wondering if it’s okay if they come with me and visit Coley..........okay," He pulled the phone away from his ear and said, "She said its okay."

We all did a silent cheer as Jimmy went back on his phone. "Yeah, I want to talk to Coley! I'll put it on speaker phone!"

He pressed the speaker phone button and we could hear his mom opening a door and saying, "Nikki, Jimmy wants to talk to you."

A groan came before a raspy voice asked, "What?"

"Hey Nikki," we all yelled.

She groaned and started whining in her raspy voice. "Stop yelling! I have a headache."

"Aw poor baby girl," I said, jokingly.

Apparently you don't joke with Nikki when she's sick. "I will fine some way to hurt you Brian," she growled.

"Well, we're going to visit you," Val said before I could say anything.

"Eh, I'm going back to my nap so bye," Nikki said before she hung up.

We all looked at one another as Zacky simply said, "She's a grumpy person when she's sick."

Nikki's POV

"Nikki? Nikki? Nikki?"

My eyes fluttered open as my vision came into focus and saw Jimmy staring straight at me. I didn't flinch or do anything; I just rolled over so that my back was facing him. It turned out a bad idea just because Brian, Zacky, and Val were standing on the other side of the bed.

"Nikki? How you feeling," Zacky asked as I pulled the cover over my head.

I was about ready to say something when I felt the churning in my stomach. Bad sign. I bolted to the bathroom. Doubled-over, I started throwing up in the toilet. Damnit, I thought I was going to be able to keep the potato salad I ate in my stomach this time.

While I was on my puking spree, I could hear Brian say, "Damn, she really is sick."

I flushed the toilet and brushed my teeth. My reflection kind of scared me just because I was still green. I walked back into my room, crawling into my bed. "Why are you guys here?"

"Because we wanted to visit and Jimmy said you were miserable," Matt said, feeling my forehead.

He pulled his hand away quickly, muttering, "Damn, too high of a temperature."

I groaned as I pulled the covers over my head again. "I hate being sick."

"Well my parents went grocery shopping so you're stuck with us! I'm going to make some soup now," Jimmy said, skipping out of my room.

I heard footsteps so I assumed that everyone went to follow him but something in my gut told me that someone was still in my room. I made myself a little hole to peek out of and found myself staring at Brian. He was smiling as he sat on the edge of my bed.

"Hey, Nikki," he whispered.

I just blinked as he played around with my hair. I had no energy to do anything after my puking spree so I just listened to Brian talk.

"This is a bit random but when I'm sick, I usually crave-"

"Potatoes," I asked, cutting him off.

"Actually yeah. I want a potato meal when I'm sick," he said, laughing quietly.

"I had a potato salad earlier today and I threw that up. I just want food really badly but I end up throwing it up," I whined.

"I'm sorry, that sucks," he whispered.

I looked up at him and asked, "Having a fun time looking through that album my grandmother left?"

"Yeah, you did a lot of things. How come you never told us?"

"Because I wasn't ready because I was scared that then everyone would push everything onto me."

"Oh, so what are you going to do next now that all your artistic skills are coming back," Brian asked.

"I don't know. Either fencing or piano again," I said, sitting up.

I leaned over so that my head was resting on Brian's shoulder as his arm wrapped around my waist. "I hate being sick, it sucks."

He just laughed and replied, "Of course it does."