Wasted Nights

"Nine," Zack said, looking down at his cards with his brow furrowed.

I smiled, "Go fish," I replied.

Before he could react, my phone began to buzz, it was Tony. I figured it had something to do with the merch, maybe their time slot had been moved up or something, I picked up.

"Hello?"

"Niki?" he said on the other end, sounding really surprised for some reason, as if he thought I wouldn't pick up or something.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Where are you right now?"

"I'm on All Time Low's bus...why? Is everything okay?"

"We need you, Niki. Vic kind of, uh, yeah he went a bit wild last night. He's having the worst hangover ever, if it continues the way it's going we might not be able to play tonight."

"Oh, shit, okay, I'll be right there," I said, hanging up.

I explained the situation to Zack and the other's and headed out towards our bus, mentally going over the list of things I'd need. My hangover cures were somewhat of a legend around these parts, I could pretty much feed the hangover out of anyone, and had been known to do so many a time. I ran on to the bus to see the guys sitting around, though Vic was nowhere in sight. I figured he was in his bunk, sleeping.

"Hey, thanks for coming," Jaime said, looking at me weirdly, with this guilty look on his face.

"Sure, man," I said, going into the kitchen and rummaging around for some ginger, honey and tea.

First, I brewed tea with ginger and honey and told Jaime to take it over to Vic. The ginger had tons of antioxidants and the honey helps break down alcohol faster, so that the entire process of the hangover is sped up. That was followed up by a plate of greasy eggs with tons of tomatoes, bell peppers and onions, with a single clove of garlic. All of the vegetables provided tons of vitamins and minerals and the garlic would keep the blood cells in his brain from dilating, stopping the throbbing headache.

"Should've been a doctor, or something," I mumbled, smiling to myself, as I cooked up the eggs.

"There you go," I said, once I was done with it, holding the plate out to Jaime.

He looked at me unsurely, "Wh-why don't you go give it to him?"

"Okay," I said, walking over to the bunk area.

Vic was lying down in his bed, eyes open, staring up at the ceiling of his bunk. He turned around slightly to look at me, his face looked really pale and drained out for some reason. The bags under his eyes looked really prominent and he looked really tired.

"I got you some food, eat up," I said, holding the plate out. He sat up and took the plate gently, picking at it slowly.

"Where's Stephanie?" I asked, wondering why she wasn't doing this instead of me.

He simply shrugged, not answering me. "Alright, well, that should about do it, so feel better," I said, turning to leave.

"Wait," Vic said, I turned around to see him looking at me, right at me, for more than a few seconds for the first time in ages. "Don't go?"

I sighed and nodded, plopping down next to him. "Why'd you drink so much, Vic? You know you had a show to play today..."

"Yeah, I know, it was my fault," he whispered.

"Then why'd you do it?" I asked. Vic was not the type of person to ever knowingly jeopardize a performance. He was such a perfectionist, always making sure he was doing his best, always pushing the others and himself to be better.

He shrugged, "Dunno," he said, his mouth full of eggs. He laughed a bit. I smiled, doing that underhanded laugh where you just release a lot of air through your nostrils.

He swallowed his bite of eggs and looked up at me, his eyes clouded with a look of worry, "When did this happen, Niki?"

"I'm not sure, I wasn't around last night...do you not remember wh-"

"No, I mean us, Niki. When did it get to this?"

"Fucking beats me," I snorted, "You tell me."

Vic laughed, "I couldn't tell you, I have no idea."

"Seems like you did for the past couple of months," I said, looking down at my jeans, cursing myself for wearing jeans without frays so I couldn't play with anything.

"What do you mean?"

"Really, Vic? You'd look at me like I was a bad omen, the few rare times you would even look my way. For the most part you just ignored me and everyone else followed suit," I said, sounding so bitter despite myself.

Vic looked really hurt, "I didn't mean to do that, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well..."

"You know I'd never intentionally hurt you, right? Like, you just have to know that, Niki. Not after all we've been through," he said, squeezing my hand softly.

"Vic! Are you feeling better, hon?" I heard Stephanie's voice call out.

I pulled my hand away and got down from his bunk just as she walked up to it, "Hey, Steph," I greeted, walking past her.

I walked over to the kitchen area, the guys were all sitting around, Mike was on his laptop. They all looked up at me. I just avoided their awkward gazes and grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen, leaning against the counter, I downed half of it in one gulp. Still no signs of a conversation from the boys. I sighed and walked off the bus, not sure where I was going.

I didn't feel like going back to the All Time Low bus now, I would just be really moody and unhappy. I didn't like being that way around them. I walked around and instinctively pulled out my phone, dialing a number I was really surprised I remembered after all this while.

"Hello?"

"Jeff?"

"Nikita? Hey! How are you? I-I never thought I'd hear from you again," he said, sounding really happy to hear my voice.

"Oh yeah? Well...things change, you know? You grow up and learn to move on and forgive people. I forgive you, Jeff. You totally ruined me, for a bit, but it's made me a stronger person, so thank you for that," I said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, Niki. It's my biggest regret, to this day. I never should have let you go," he said, softly. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Jeff. You know how you said that there would come a time when I would be able to put all of this behind me and we could be friends again? I think that time has come," I said.

"I'm glad, I really do love you, Niki. I'm glad you came around," he said.

"Yeah," I nodded, "Yeah, me too. I've missed you," I admitted.

"I've missed you more than you could ever imagine..."