Later that night, a knock was heard at Nick's door, but no one came to answer it. Looking down the hall, Kevin sighed.
"Where is he? When we need to have a group meeting, he can't be found. That's just like him."
Giving a tug at the door, Kevin wasn't surprised to find it unlocked.
"He's just getting more careless as the days go by. The poor kid, he's taking this so hard." Kevin walked into the dark, gloomy room and noticed it to be surprisingly clean. "He hasn't been here in awhile. And listen to me! I'm talking to myself. Brian says that's the first sign of insanity."
As he walked further into the room, a coldness washed over him and a sadness swept over his mind; as he fell to his knees, sobbing, a realization struck him. "We're falling apart."
~
One floor down, two teenagers, one shirtless and the other clothed in leather pants and a silver shirt, had locked themselves in a bathroom filled with fumes from the hair dye. The silence was broken by an occasional giggle from either party. After being in there for over an hour, both teens were considerably unstable from the toxic fumes in the enclosed room.
Nick was trying to keep his balance on the side of the built in bathtub as he wiped a few drips of misguided black dye off his forehead.
"Man, this stuff must be potent! It's making the room spin," he moaned before giving up on the challenge of sitting upright and moving onto the floor, his bare back pressed against the tub.
Leslie giggled before growing serious. "I don't think it's supposed to do that." Her eyes grew big as she said, "It's been in there for an awful long time. Maybe we should wash it out�"
She reached over him and turned the bathtub faucet on. "It'd just be easier for you to take a shower than to just stick your head under the facet. So take your pants off and get in. I'll wait outside."
As she stumbled to her feet and towards the door, Nick grabbed her ankles, pulling her into his lap.
"Why do you have to wait outside? Why don't you help me in the shower?" Nick questioned, a drug-induced smile playing on his lips as he pushed Leslie towards the floor.
"'Cause you won't be wearing any pants, silly," she said, before falling into a fit of giggles.
"What? You don't want to see me without my pants?" he purred as he pinned her to the floor with his body, running his hands up her half-clothed back and grinding his hips into hers.
When he got no answer besides her eyes fluttering closed, he continued, "Don't you want me Angel?"
Giggling, she said, "Of course I want you baby. I've wanted you forever, but we barely know each other." She dragged her nails up his back, only enhancing his mood. She could feel his excitement as he pressed his body against hers in encouragement.
"Oh, but we can change that�" By now, his hands had reached the hem of her leather pants and were fiddling with the clasp. "I could do you right," he said as he unhooked her pants, running his thumbs across her lower stomach. He nuzzled her neck, brushing his lips beneath her jaw.
Feeling the sensation of Nick's hands against her sensitive skin, she gasped and a moment of clarity came through her cloudy mind.
"Nick, get off me. Please, get off me. We both have been in here with paint fumes a little too long."
Pushing him off of her, she shakily stood up and pulled open the door. The gust of fresh air helped clear her mind some more and she took in a deep breath before turning towards Nick, who was still crouched on the floor.
"Get in the shower and wash all the extra dye out. I'm gonna leave the door halfway open to let it air out in here. I'll be out there," she said, pointing towards the main room, and then she walked out, leaving Nick dumbfounded on the bathroom floor.
*
"What the fuck's her problem??! I give her an offer she can't refuse and she refuses it!!" he mumbled to himself angrily.
Nick, using the bathroom counter as an aid, had pulled himself to a standing position, pulling his pants down to his ankles in the process. (AN: Oh, what a thought�)
The door was wide open and the smell of paint was considerably less than before, but Nick's head still swam.
"She's been taunting me all day, in those leather curve hugging pants� And right when she knows she's got me fully turned on, and I'm making my first move, BOOM! She goes cold on me," he muttered as he climbed into the shower. Adjusting the temperature, he leaned up against the wall, unneeded anger filling his body, and he whispered venomously, "I was basically throwing myself at her!! And she refused me!!"
As he placed his head under the cold water, it began to clear and all his feelings slipped down the drain with the excess hair dye and paint fumes. Back to normal thinking, Nick recollected the events from the past fifteen minutes as shock overcame his body.
"Oh my god! What did I just do??"
~
As she stumbled into the main room of her hotel suite, Leslie couldn't believe what had just happened.
"How dumb am I?? Why the fuck didn't I just leave the door open?" Flinging open the sliding door of the balcony, she stepped outside and took a deep breath.
"I am such an idiot."
Leaning against the railing, she looked down to where her pants where still unclasped. She could still feel where his thumbs had rubbed against her flesh, the look of lust in his eyes, and the hurt that showed on his face when she pushed him away.
"Nick, if only we had been in our right minds�none of this would have happened. But if we had been, I don't think I could have pushed you away."
Pressing her forehead against the cool metal railing, she felt a wave of nausea wash over her and the pounding of blood in her temples, signaling an oncoming migraine.
Shutting the sliding door behind her, she walked inside to the bedroom, trying to ignore what might be going on in the opened bathroom, and pulled a bottle of maximum strength painkillers from her suitcase, popping three into her mouth. Walking back into the other room, she lay down on the couch and fell fast asleep, letting Nick finish his shower in peace and pushing the memories out of her head.
*
Climbing out of the shower filled with guilt, Nick pulled his pants on, leaning against the wall as dizziness came over him.
"God! Remind me to never stay around paint fumes again," he mumbled, rubbing at his temples.
Walking into the adjoining bedroom, Nick was contemplating how he was going to apologize to Angel when he noticed a spilled bottle of pills on the bed. Curious, he picked them up to find the bottle half-full, and reading the label, he noticed that they were high strength painkillers and had only been refilled last week.
As panic filled his head, he tried to pull together some logical excuse as to why they were here. Rushing towards the rest of the hotel suite, all logic left his brain as he found her "passed out" on the couch.
"No, no, no! You can't leave me too, Angel. Please, please don't die. I didn't mean to force myself on you�" he said, falling to his knees next to the couch and enveloping Angel in his arms, gently rocking her. "I need to get someone's help�"
Doing the only thing he thought he could, he reached over and called Howie's hotel room.
~
Howie woke up to the sound of the phone ringing. It wasn't late, only 11 p.m., but A.J. had convinced him to go to the hotel bar earlier. Together they had drunk their pain away for three hours, only to come back to Howie's room to crash wherever they landed.
"Get the damn phone, D," A.J. bitched from his facedown position on the couch.
Crawling along the floor, Howie reached for the phone. He hadn't had much to drink that night, but what he did have was still causing a slight buzz.
"Hello?" he mumbled, collapsing back into the floor.
"Howie? Oh man, D, you gotta get down here quick. Please D., she's gonna die," the caller said on the phone, clearly full of panic and in tears.
Howie's mind instantly became less fuzzy at the word "die," and after a moment�s thought, he recognized the voice too.
"Nick?"
"Oh god D. Please get here, please. She's gonna die. I don't know what to do. She's gonna die�" he said, starting to sob.
"Nick, man, calm down a second. Who are you talking about? And where are you?"
Trying to control his voice, Nick quietly whispered, "It's Angel. She won't wake up. She took too many painkillers and now she won't wake up. I was in the shower, so I couldn't stop her. I'm so scared D, please come help me. Hurry."
Nick's pleading was breaking Howie's heart. "Nick, I need you to tell me where you are, okay buddy? And I'll come right now, I promise."
"I'm in her hotel room."
Understanding that Nick's emotions were messing with his head and were the cause of his vague answers, Howie didn't get frustrated, but continued to calmly question him.
"And which hotel are you in?"
"The one you're in. Just the floor below you. In room 113. Please come help me D. I can't lose her."
Relieved to know that they were so close by, he reassured Nick. "Okay buddy. The floor below ours, room 113. Gotcha. I'll be there in less than five minutes. Everything's going to be okay, I promise."
As Howie raced towards the elevators, he didn't notice A.J. stumble after him.
In a drunken rage, he said, "I knew that whore would get him into trouble. I'll fuckin' kill that bitch."