I just stand there in the lobby like a frozen statue. Where is she going? Its midnight and she just got back from the after party. She makes her way down her stairs and is walking in my direction to make it to the lobby doors.
"What are you up too?" I hear the words escape my mouth. She stops right in front of me in surprise.
"I'm going back to H2O," she responds as she puts her cell phone away into her purse. "It's too early in the night to call quits. And it's not my fault most of the girls don't know how to hold their liquor." Ouch, she's just full of insults tonight. She has a point though.
I let out a soft laugh, "Oh fun, Kyle and I were just going to drink at the bar here." I say looking over at the bar where Kyle is sitting. Kyle sees me talking to Nikita in the middle of the lobby, gets up from his chair and starts to make his way over.
"Hey guys," he says as he gets closer to us, "don't forget about me." He stands next to me, hands in his pockets, both of us waiting to see what Nikita has to say.
"Well, I guess if you guys would like to join me you can, or you could just sit here and drink a beer together like an old couple." She says with a laugh and sneaks a look at her watch. "My car is waiting outside for me, so I can meet you guys there." Well this is surprise. She's inviting us to join her for a night out?
"Why don't we just take our car," Kyle blurts out before she walks away, "you know, car pool, save the environment, blah blah." I look over at Kyle and then at Nikita.
She gives me a weird look and then answers, "Sure why not. This night can't get any weirder anyway." You got that right. I can hear our names being called by the guests from the bar. I guess they finally caught on to who the random group of people standing in the middle of the lobby were. Nikita noticed that as well and says, "Alright let's get out of here." She walks towards the exit doors and Kyle and I follow behind.
"Dude, what the hell is going on," I whisper to Kyle. Why are we even going? "I thought we were going to just sit at the bar."
"Come on man, it's early and let's see how this plays out." He whispers back as he holds the door open when Nikita pulled it. The three of us are standing outside the hotel in the cool brisk night.
Nikita's car was waiting at the curb. She walked up to the driver's seat, leaned over and explained, "Hey, I'm going with the guys, so you can get going. Thank you though." The driver nods, starts the engine and drives off. Our SUV pulls up, Kyle opens the door and we all climb in. Nikita is sitting with her back towards the driver, Kyle and I in the row facing her,
"Back to H2O," I yell over to Rick, our driver. I shut the door and we're back on the road again. We sit there in silence. I can feel tension in the air. I keep my eyes forward looking through the windshield. I try to sneak a couple looks over to Nikita and see that's she's just looking out her side window. The silence is broken by her phone ringing.
"I'll be there soon," she answers without saying hello. She presses end on her phone and lets out a loud exhale. Silence again. For what feels like hours, the car comes to a stop outside H2O again. But the scene is much different than before. Apparently someone must have tipped off the Kyle and I were joining Nikita. As soon as the car came to a halt, paparazzi circled the car.
"Well shit," I say under my breath. This little adventure will be in the news within hours.
"Let's go," Nikita says without hesitation and opens the side door. I guess she doesn't really care about the press. As soon as she opens the door camera flashes go off and screaming can be heard.
"It's Nikita, who is she with," shouted one reporter.
"Who else is in the car?"
"It's Kyle and Mike, are they here together. How do they know each other," another comment can be heard.
Wouldn't you like to know? I step out of the car next and some shoving and pushing started. Nikita was already halfway through the street. She kept her head low and her hands in front to keep from falling. I quickly follow behind her and can hear the car door shut. I assume Kyle is out. I catch up to Nikita and keep close. Flashes and screams kept on coming. Some fans started to reach out and touch the side of my arms. I just kept walking forward and kept my eyes open. I feel like body guard over here.
All the sudden, but what seems like slow motion, I can see Nikita getting yanked by her arm to the left of the crowd. She lets out a yell and stumbles to the side. I immediately jump in front and grab the guy's arms that got a hold of Nikita.
"Watch out. Let go!" Reporters screamed.
I grab it so hard that the gentlemen's hand lets go of Nikita but I'm still holding him by the wrist. Kyle comes up behind me, "Dude, let go," he says in my direction. I release the guy's wrist and he turns around and walks back into the crowd. I look over at Nikita who, from what I can tell, was startled.
"Walk in front of us," I shout over at Kyle. He shakes his head and starts walking towards the club. I go over to Nikita and wrap one arm around her waist and keep one arm out. Like a stiff arm for the paparazzi.
"Come on, let's get inside," I shout to her over the loud noise. I keep her close to my side and a little in front of me. She's in a sandwich between Kyle and me. I can still feel her shaking a bit while she walks. We finally make it to the doors and push through. The club is less crowed than before, thank god. Kyle starts to slow down and catches up to me behind Nikita.
"What the hell happened," Kyle asked. Nikita just kept walking to the bar and sat down in a high chair. The same bar tender from before comes over.
"I don't know. Someone just grabbed her. So I wanted to get them off," I whispered back and then shut up as we approached the bar. Nikita was just sitting there quietly sipping on her Corona Light. Kyle took a seat next to her and I just stood in front. The music was blaring and disco lights were flashing everywhere. I look back at the entrance and see some paparazzi were still hanging out outside the club. "At least the club is doing a good job of keeping them out." I say in both of their direction and look back at them.
"Well, that's one good thing coming out of tonight," Nikita says under her breath. She continues to sip on her beer and scan the crowd. A few people are dancing on the dance floor, some drinking at the bar, others sitting at tables and more upstairs. "Alright, well I didn't come back here to just sit," Nikita finally said aloud, "I'm going to go and dance." With that, she stood up and started to make her way to the middle of the floor.
"Wait," I yell out, "when do you want to meet at the car?" I'm not staying here all night. If Rose finds out I went back out, and with Nikita, I'll lose my head. Or worse, my balls.
She turns around with a smirk, "I'll find you two." She points her finger at the two of us, walks backwards, and disappears. I look at Kyle who somehow already has a drink in his hand. I take a seat next to him and wait for the bar tender to arrive. We both sit there in silence. The bar tender final shows up, "A Corona Lite please." Kyle looks in my direction with a raised eyebrow and I just shrug. Might as well see what all the craze it about. She can't stop drinking them. I take a sip and it tastes pretty good. I usually stick to a dark brew but I'll manage. I look over at the dance floor and Nikita is nowhere in sight. I keep sipping my beer. Where the hell did her go? I finish my beer and stand up.
"Where you going." Kyle shouts out. I don't know. But I need to walk around. I can't just sit here.
"I'm just going to wonder around. Check the place out." I say and head over to the DJ at the other end of the club. Kyle just smiles and stands up. We make our way over to the other side of the club and I keep my eyes peeled. Thanks goodness there's less people now. There's still are a couple photographers in the club but they are keeping their distance. A few camera flashes go off but nothing to be worried about. When we finally make it to the other side of the club, by the DJ, I realize that Nikita is nowhere in sight. Maybe upstairs? What would she be doing there?
"Let's go upstairs," Kyle yells in my direction knowing what I was thinking. I nod and start making my way to the stairs. From the corner of my eye I can see a couple of girls following us along with some paparazzi. I just ignore all of them and get to the second floor. To the right of me is another small dance floor with one couple grinding up against each other. Gross. Two pool tables are between the dance floor and a set of private rooms. With a sigh of relief, I spot Nikita by one of the pool tables with two other guys. Who the hell are they? Did she just meet them? I start making my way over.
"Hey," I say aloud but not yelling since the music isn't blaring on the second floor. With Kyle following me around like a lost puppy, I make my way over to the pool table and am standing next to Nikita. She turns her head and her eyes focus on mine. Well, barley focus. Looks like someone doesn't know how to handle her liquor after all. She lingers her stare from me to one of the guys that standing across the table.
"Hey!" She shouts and points to the guy, "This is Chris, him and I are going to be best friends." Oh boy. I look over at Chris and he just stands there not saying a word. He catches my glare and I just give him a death stare. You better not say or try anything.
"Hey man," he starts to say and makes his way around to me, "we just met, drank a couple beers and I think it's hitting her. That's all." Chris's friend walks over and within seconds I can tell he's trouble.
"We can take care of her, walk her back to her room," he explains and walks to the side of Nikita. He wraps his arms around her and she immediately wakes up. She shoved his hand way from her hip and walks over to Kyle and I.
"That's really nice of you guys, but I think I'll just sit down for a bit and I'll be good to go." She stands behind me and in front of Kyle and there's tension in this air. I look back at Chris and he knows it's time to go. I give him a nod and like that, he grabs his friend by the arm and start making their way to the stairs.
"Nice meeting you, have a good night guys," Chris yells over his shoulder and they both disappear. Good thing that's over. I turn back over to Nikita and she's just staring at the stairs. Maybe she should sit down.
"You wanna sit down, or just go back?" I ask her. She doesn't respond at all but instead, goes over to the couch and sits. She put her head between her hands and closes her eyes. I look over at Kyle and he just shakes his head toward her to follow her. We make our way over and take a seat. None of us say anything, sitting in silence. Well not silence, we can still hear the music. With her head in her hands I take this opportunity to examine her up close. Her hair was in loose curls that went down past her chest. The romper she's wearing is tight fighting and perfectly matches her high heels. She had a slight tan but nothing that looked like it was orange and fake. Her long longs were extended in front of the couch. God were they toned. Nikita lifts her head and I quickly move my eyes away from her. I look at the stairway and notice some camera flashes. Shit. Heads pop up from the railing and make their way to the second floor.
"There they are," one shouted.
"Can we get a picture? The three of you?" all of them were asking. We still sit there, none of us moving as the photographers get closer to us. Nikita stands up and motions us with her hands by her side to stand as well. Kyle and I get up and I feel Nikita put her hand on my upper back. A picture, really? Both of us step closer to her and put on a smile for the cameras. They loved it.
"Perfect."
"Stay there," one said.
"Over here, turn here," some started yelling. Nikita turns her way towards the stairs and starts to push Kyle for him to walk. He got the message and started to move. We make our way down the stairs and back to the dance floor. Cameras were still following us as we make our way through the floor and towards the exit. Kyle opens the door and Nikita walks out with me right behind her. Thankfully the car was already waiting for us by the curve with the door open. Nikita jumped in and we climbed in following her. The door slammed and the car started to roll away.
"Well, that could have gone worse," Nikita said aloud. Oh, for me, it's about to get much worse.