Running Wild in the Night

Still Brian's POV

As we walked into the dinning hall, I saw all these abstract paintings adorning the walls. They were just dark and scary. There was one in the dinning hall that had a girl curled up in a corner, holding herself, with needles laid out by her feet. There was one in her arm and her eyes were almost closed, as if she were enjoying it. The background of that painting was just dark. It was like someone had just thrown black paint onto it, not really caring of how it looked.

"You like that painting, Brian?"

I turned around to see the guys, Val, and Cody standing behind me. Cody walked towards it, placing his hand on that painting. A sigh escaped as he studied its detail. "You know Nikki did this," he said.

"What? When," Matt asked.

"A couple days ago. I'm assuming that you all know that she's a former heroin addict," Cody asked, his eyes still glued to it.

"Yeah," Val whispered.

"Well, apparently Nikki had a dream, bringing her back to those days of being in love with heroin and she came up with this tomorrow. I don't think she even realizes how much that the girl in the painting resembles her."

I leaned closer, looking at the girl. Dark hair, almost black, that fell down her shoulders. A hint of green in her closing eyes and pale-ish skin. The track marks on her arms were even the same as Nikki's. I bit my lip, knowing that Nikki had painted herself in the depths of her own addiction.

"Scares you, doesn't it?"

All of turned around to see Nikki standing there. Her arms were crossed across her chest and her dark green eyes were staring at the painting. She walked towards us, staring at what she had painted. A small sigh escaped as she simply said, "It freaked me out."

"How did you paint something like this," Zacky asked.

Nikki just smiled and shrugged. "No clue. I guess it just came when I was thinking about how far I came. I mean, I almost fell into that abyss and almost died. This painting just reminds me of where I never want to be again."

"Why? I know the obvious but why this painting?"

She glanced at Johnny but returned her gaze to the painting. Nikki ran her fingers down the canvas, her green eyes narrowing. "I was so alone then. I had no one and this painting shows it. Now, I got people that actually do give a rat's ass about me."

Nikki's POV

Did it scare me that I painted a constant reminder of what my life used to be like? No, not really. It just showed me how far I came. The only problem was that I don't know what I'm going to do with it now. I could take it with me but where was I going to keep it?

"What are you titling it," Brian asked as he took his seat next to me at the dinner table.

"I don't know," I muttered as I poured myself some water.

"Are you bringing it to Huntington Beach," Val asked.

I shrugged, my eyes focused on my glass. "I don't know."

Brian just wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me close to him. I just glanced at him, still keeping my mind occupied with what I was going to do with my painting. I hadn't even named it yet and that bothered me.

"I think you should bring it with you," my grandmother said as she came with the main meals, Italian food galore.

I smiled as I watched Jimmy dive bomb to get to the food first. Man, it's great having the guys here in Van Nuys.

"So I have decided," I announced as I walked into my bedroom.

Brian was laying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, as he waited for me to finish my shower. He was obviously staying in my room tonight and so he waited so that he could take his shower.

He turned his head to look at me. "What have you decided."

"What I'm going to name that painting," I replied, brushing my hair.

"Really now? What are you naming it."

I raised an eyebrow as I watched Brian take his clothes off, leaving him in only his boxers. He just smirked at me and asked, "Like what you see?"

"You know I do."

He just laughed as he walked towards me, kissing my neck, and making me feel in peace with everything.

"So, tell me what you're naming that painting."

"Not until you finish with your shower, happy pants."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not wearing pants but fine, I'll go take my shower," Brian said, walking into the warm bathroom.

That's when I immediately got into my bed, closing my eyes. For some reason, I wasn't ready to tell Brian what I had named that painting. In fact, I wasn't even supposed to say anything; I have gotten used to coming into my room and saying whatever I want that I had forgotten that Brian was in my room. Great, I'm a moron.

Oh well, Brian will have to wait until morning for me to tell him what that painting's name was.

Brian's POV

I walked into Nikki's room, anxious to hear what Nikki was going to name that painting. I love the names she comes up with; they're different but they have to go with whatever piece of art she came up with.

A frown was on my face as I saw that Nikki was sleeping already. Did I seriously take a shower that long? No, I looked at the clock and saw that I only took ten minutes. But I knew why Nikki decided to go to sleep: she wasn't ready to tell me yet. I'm used to that, I mean, there are times that she still hides whatever she's working on from everyone, especially me. But as I said, I was used to that.

I crawled into her bed, wrapping my arms around her small waist and pulling her closer to me. She just rolled over so that she was facing me and curled up closer to my body. I loved it when she did that because Nikki didn't know that she did that in her sleep. I found it adorable.

I ran a hand through her damp hair, thinking about all the possible things she could have named it. Everything I thought of didn't have the same flare of things Nikki could think off. Hell, I found a painting that she did earlier and she named that "The Savage Jungle" and it was a picture of people in a city. Amazing how her brain works.

Nikki sighed as she curled up, burring her face in her favorite place on my body: that little nook of where my shoulder and chest meet. That was her favorite place to just have her head. Don't know but it was.

"You really want to know what I'm naming it," she yawned, eyes still closed.

I don't know if she was a sleep or awake but I spoke. "What?"

"If I Die Tomorrow."

"Nice title, it fits."

"I know."