Inspired by the song by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow
Peter lay horizontally across his bed in his hotel room, blankly staring up at the ceiling. This was the time of day he hated most, the time when he actually had time to himself, where he could actually dwell on what a huge mess his life had become. The curtains were drawn, but the sun still tried its damnedest to shine through, which cast a shadow on everything. Including his face, he thanked god he had though about drawing the curtains before laying down or he would be squinting like crazy, natural sunlight had become such a foreign thing to him that he wasn�t sure if he could acclimatize himself to it anymore. He laughed sans humour as he thought back to his life pre-Monkees. Before all this he had a fantastic life, ok, not fantastic�but at least both Sloan and him were both happy and in love. He couldn�t really say what was going on anymore with their relationship because he really didn�t know.
When the phenomenon of the Monkees hit, it hit hard. Almost immediately after �Last Train to Clarksville� went to number one their relationship started showing weak spots, but, him being the fool he is couldn�t see it. He was too busy every night going to gala after gala, party after party celebrating his greatness to see that life outside �the box� wasn�t great at all. Maybe if Sloan had said something during that time, instead of going to every gala and company party with him without a fuss he could have done something�no, he couldn�t blame her�it wasn�t her fault�
The first time he even thought about the state of his crumbling relationship was probably the first time he invited a girl back to his room. The 2nd concert of their very first tour, what was he thinking? That�s just it, he probably wasn�t. He remembered that night quite clearly, surprisingly. After drinking 4 cocktails and then taking a couple tokes of a couple joints, what person could think even one coherent thought? After a while it became common place to see Peter invite 2 or 3 women at a time back to his suite.
It finally hit him that his relationship was going down the drain when he stared into the face of one of the nameless girls in his bed one night and watched in horror as it suddenly morphed into Sloan. He rolled quickly out of the bed and landed on the floor with a thud before even attempting to stand up he excused him self for his klutzy move and asked the girl to leave. He faintly heard a disappointed sigh and then a couple minutes later he heard the door slam shut, how could he do anything after seeing the face of his girlfriend staring back at him?
^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^_^
A shiver still ran down his spine every time he would even attempt to think about that night. Sometimes it would shake him up so bad he would need to stop and regroup, and today was no different. With a huge sigh he quickly sat up and leaned forward and put his head in his hands. Then with another sigh he pushed himself to his feet and headed for the washroom, where he stored his stash.
Now, this stash was no normal stash. This had all the basics�including a bottle of Wild Turkey and a bag of coke. He had to do something; he had to get his mind off her�he carefully unscrewed the bottle of Wild Turkey as his first shot of Coke sat on a piece of paper, already for him to snort.
After about 10 hits of Coke and 15 shots of Wild Turkey his body felt slow and sluggish and his mind had slowly mellowed to the point where he could actually give a f***. Everything was right with the world; he slowly leaned back on the wall of the bathroom as he waited for the stuff to work.
Unfortunately for him it never came, his mind was occupied with something else. He hoped Sloan still missed him
�I swear Sloan; I�ll change- he thought,
Running his shaky hand down his face, her smiling was all he saw when he closed his eyes and at the lowered state of mind he was at he automatically broke down.
-Why was he even trying to hide it-
Sloan Quinton thought, as she took another swig of wine,
-It�s not like I don�t know-
She growled and then looked down at the phone
-and why do I sit by this damn thing, it�s not like he�ll call-
She clucked her tongue in disgust and got off the couch. The doorbell was ringing and she couldn�t ignore it anymore.
She swung the door open at such a force it slammed against the wall, but she didn�t care all she cared about was who stood in front of her, her next door neighbour,
�Brian�hi��
�Hey�Sloan��
He smiled sheepishly,
��I was�I was wonderin��that um��
He was stuttering so much that he was almost clear beyond comprehension,
�Well, that�ah�since Peter�s away and all�I was uh��
He soon gave up and let out a sigh of disgust,
��I was wonderin� if ya would like to maybe go out with me tonight��
Sloan didn�t even answer him, she just grabbed him by his tie and pulled into the house and closed the door. Then slammed him against it and dove for his lips, Brian was a little shocked at the suddenness of it but soon got use to it and reacted.
--
Hours later she, when the effects of the wine wore off she found her self lying beside Brian in her bed.
��hello��
His deep sultry voice reminded her of Peter�
-no! It doesn�t-
She shunned herself�
-this is a totally different thing�his is higher�-
--
-A year later- -street corner-
�Oh�I�m sorry-�
She looked up at the person she bumped into and felt her heart drop to her feet,
�Peter��
Sloan had heard a couple months ago he had quit the Monkees. He now had quite a considerately large beard and was quite skinny.
�Sloan��
The smile he gave Sloan was but a ghost of his old smiles,
��how have you been?�
�Ah�good, good��
Sloan stuttered, unable to process his appearance�
-how bad had he gotten into the stuff? � she thought�
�You�?�
-God, she�s beautiful-
Peter inwardly groaned,
-What happened to us?-
And why didn�t he have the guts to ask her that out loud�?
�Ah�good��
An uncomfortable silence fell over them after that. Sloan was the first one to initiate conversation, but it wasn�t what Peter wanted to hear, she was leaving�
�Oh, ok�I guess I�ll see you around, then��
�Um, ya�ya, you will, bye��
Sloan halfheartedly waved and turned around.
--
Not surprisingly when Sloan got home she started digging through picture albums�and stopped as soon as she got to a picture of him and her together. She slowly slid her hand down the picture and swallowed hard. No matter how much she tried to deny it, she still loved Peter, deeply�even after all he had done.
Before she fully knew what she was doing she had dialed his number and now held the receiver to her ear, nervously playing with the cord,
�Hello��
Sloan opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out,
��hello�listen say something or-�
�Peter!�
Sloan screeched,
�It�s me, don�t hang up��
�Sloan��
His voice audio ably softened,
��how are you?�
�Fine��
Sloan took in a deep breath and said what she wanted to say, she just didn�t exactly know how to say it, and she told him that,
��listen, I don�t know how to say this, but�I wanna come home��
�What?�
His voice rose,
�I wanna come home�I want you to come home�whatever�but you can�t cheat me again because I won�t stand for it next time��
�I won�t I-I-I promise�oh Sloan, this is fantastic�I�ll be over just as soon as I can��
Sloan heard the phone click on the other end and sighed, he was gone, even before Sloan could tell him more�she had some rules he needed to follow�
-Ah�- she thought
�He�ll listen to me when he gets here-
She smirked slightly. Maybe this time it would be different.
- End -