“I got him!” Brent was barking at Kevin who
was crowding him, trying to take Nick out of his arms.
“But
where are you going to take him?” Kevin continued to stalk him to his truck.
Mandy was opening the door so Brent could put Nick inside.
“To
the hospital you idiot, he’ll die if we don’t!” Brent snapped.
“You
can’t take him to a regular hospital the media would be all over him!” Kevin
yelled seizing Nick’s limbs struggling to take him from Brent, “We have to
call an arrange something private.”
“You
son of a bitch! Is that all you care about all of a sudden?”
“Dr.
K!” Howie suddenly exclaimed, he pulled out his cell phone and began dialing a
familiar number.
“Who?”
Brian turned to stare at them, he was running to help Brent pull Nick from
Kevin’s invading hands.
“A
family friend, he runs his own private medical center, we can take Nicky
there,” Howie said, “Hello?” he spoke into the phone.
Mandy
rolled her eyes, “I suppose you’d want to take him there too?”
Brian
shot her a hurt look. AJ glared at them all, “Would everyone stop
squabbling and pay attention to Nick, he’s falling asleep!”
“Shit,”
both Kevin and Brent cursed at the same time. Brent shook Nick a little
and began talking to him to keep him awake.
“Come
on guys,” Howie said urgently, “Dr. K, says he’s waiting for us!” Brent
and Kevin glared each other down before Brent yielded and let Kevin lift
Nick. He set him inside the rental car, “You guys follow us.”
“London
bridge is…”
“Is
what Nick? Nick come on, wake up!” AJ slapped Nick’s face gently. Nick’s
drooping eyes opened slowly and studied AJ hazily, “Mandy? You look different…
I’m sorry baby, let Nicky make you feel better.”
“Um
no, Nick,” AJ said in horror, eyes widening in shock. Brian snickered slightly
beside him, “Mandy’s not here, she’s riding behind us in Brent’s truck.”
“She’s
still screwing Brent huh?” Nick chuckled, “Good choice. I might have been
mad if she had told me she was screwing you.” He shut his eyes again.
“Nick
open your eyes,” AJ said in a loud voice. Nick grumbled something
negatively, “Sleepy Bone…”
“No
you’re not,” AJ gave him a shake, “Nick come on! Shit, Nick, come on!”
“Oh
damn,” Brian bit his lip, “Nick!” He began to yell, he tried to move AJ out of
his way, but AJ held his place in the seat beside Nick firmly, “Nick!”
“We’re
almost there,” Howie said trying to calm Brian down, who was starting to freak
out in the backseat, and himself. His palms sweated as he guided the car
down the narrow street. They were 5 minutes away. Kevin sat in the
passenger seat biting his nails. The minute Howie hit the parking lot,
the doors to the car flew open, and AJ was hauling Nick out. Kevin,
Brian, and Howie immediately ran to his side. Brent’s truck roared into
the parking lot. BJ, Leslie and Mandy were out of the truck before the
truck came to a complete halt.
“Is
he dead? Is he dead?” Leslie kept screaming almost knocking AJ over as he was
trying to pull Nick to his feet. Kevin quickly grabbed him and lifted him
up. He pushed inside the clinic with everyone following. Two nurses
and a gurney were already waiting for them as they entered. Kevin
laid Nick down gently and the nurses wheeled him away, “Wait!” Kevin yelled.
Another nurse appeared and stopped their pursuit of their friend, “You
are to wait here, the doctor will help your friend. Have a seat.”
”No!
No!” BJ was screaming, “He’s my brother, you gotta let me go with him! I’m the
only one he trusts! Please…” she fell to her knees, crying loudly.
“Miss,
if you do not settle down we will have to sedate you,” the nurse hissed.
Brian tried to pull her off the floor, “NOOO!” She yelled. She bit
him, “HE NEEDS ME!” Two orderlies came in then and took the task of BJ
away from Brian. They lifted her like a rag doll, her body slumped, and the
nurse rushed beside her. Leslie screamed as she Mandy and Brent rushed
forward, “BJ!”
“It’s
ok, she’s fainted,” the nurse said, “We’re going to take her to a room, where
she can get some rest.”
“Can
I go with you?” Leslie asked her eyes wide and teary.
The
nurse’s eyes filled with sympathy for the girl, “Come on Honey, and while
you’re there I’ll bring you some hot chocolate.”
The
others watched as Leslie and BJ Carter were taken away.
“I
didn’t know BJ could yell like that,” Brian said shakily, walking back to the
couches everyone else was sitting on.
“You’re
lucky you’ve only had to hear it once,” Mandy said bitterly, “This isn’t the
first time this has happened.”
Five
heads snapped toward her, “He’s overdosed before?”
“Well
if he had that much of a problem what was he doing on tour with us in the first
place? He should have been somewhere… getting some kind of treatment!”
Kevin yelled.
“Oh
easy for you to say now, Kevin! He’s 20 years old, if he doesn’t want
rehab there is nothing on this earth that can force him to go!” Mandy yelled,
“We tried!”
“Well
you didn’t try hard enough… I bet I…”
“Hey
get off her case! How dare you yell at her! She did everything in
her power to help him. I’ve done everything... What have you guys done?
Nothing! And he lived right under your stupid noses! How could you
have not noticed! He was screaming for your attention!” Brent was rising
from his chair, threatening to approach Kevin.
“He
used to call me from Europe, Asia, just crying some nights. He couldn’t
sleep, and he was lonely. And I thought to myself why should he be lonely
with those four wonderful guys he calls his brothers there to be with him… But
then I found out what asshole’s you guys actually are! He did everything
to please you, and make you happy, but you never let him know that you cared
that he did,” Mandy said wiping her eyes, “I wanted so badly to be there with
him I cried too…”
“You
can’t blame this on us, we were all going through our own hell, having our own
problems. We’re finally back on track now. We told him that we
appreciated him, and the way he behaved on tour towards us…”
“So
you basically went and told him, ‘Hey Nick, way to be a crack head! Keep
up the good work!’” Brent grunted sarcastically.
Brian
rushed at him arms outstretched. AJ and Howie jumped on him and held him
back, “What the hell gives you the right to talk Brent… Mandy? I heard
what Nick said about you two in the car. He asked us if you, Mandy, were
still screwing Brent! What’s with that, huh?”
Mandy’s
face flushed with embarrassment, as Brent’s face paled with pure shock.
One look at their faces let Howie, Brian, Kevin, and AJ know that Nick,
out-of-it as he had been, was telling the truth.
“How
could you? He loves you!” now Brian was on the attack, “He has your number on
speed dial…even at my house! Now that’s commitment! I bet your
little indiscretions didn’t help the situation out much either!”
Mandy
sighed and reached for Brent’s hand, “It didn’t. In fact, tonight is the
first night he’s spoken to us in a while. The last time he talked to us
was the last night at the courtroom, the night Nick’s mother won her lawsuit
against Nick’s father, and Nick had testified. Bob might as well have
just disowned him with the way he treated him, Nick’s grandparents on his
father’s side were the same way to him. He lost it. He went
berserk and called wanting me to pick him up from the airport. When I did
he was already high, and then he wanted to drink, and I couldn’t stop him
alone, so I called Brent. We were both so scared about him, and we liked
to talk about it with each other. And before either of us knew it,
there was an attraction… and Nick saw it. He accused us of cheating, and
we didn’t lie. That was the last time we heard from him…
We’re sorry, we didn’t want it to happen, it just did. We
tried to stop it, we didn’t even see each other for a while…”
Brian
glared at them condemningly, “It’s no excuse… But I can’t yell at you
about it, I wasn’t much better. He needed me and I wasn’t there, I’m a
great best friend.”
They
were silent then Howie broke the silence, “Brent, Mandy… Do Nick’s parents… er…
or does Nick’s mother know about this? Nick told us she sent him to a
therapist. Do we need to notify her?”
Both
Brent and Mandy looked up in surprise, “Man, you guys really don’t know
anything!”
“Thanks
for clearing that fact up to us…” AJ muttered with a sigh, he was itching for a
cigarette.
“Nick’s
mother thought he was suicidal… and believe me, he wasn’t doing anything to
make her think otherwise. He would sleep all day or stay up all night,
and he was starving himself. This was long before any drugs came into the
picture,” Brent said with a shrug, “I was the one who called and told her he
wasn’t eating. Somehow he got it in his mind that people would like him
better if he was thinner. She sent him to this really expensive guy, and
all he did was give him drugs…”
“Once
Nick discovered if you took more than you were supposed to it would give him
this euphoric feeling, so he made it routine. Next thing I knew he was taking
me to weird clubs and experimenting with all sorts of things. He never
tried needles… but everything else required his attention…” Mandy said sadly.
“And
how do BJ and Leslie come into this?” asked AJ.
“Leslie
doesn’t. She must have caught BJ sneaking out. BJ and Nick have a
bond between them. When he went nuts, so did she. BJ liked clubs
and drinks too, but she never tried drugs. She, Nick and I, happened to
be at the same club one night. I could never stop Nick from going to the
clubs, but I never let him go alone when I could. That night it was
really bad, he’d done some stuff that made him really sick. I was trying
to get him back to the hotel I was staying at, his mother despises me, and BJ
came over to help. That’s how she found out,” Mandy said, “Leslie only
knew about his depression… She found out about Nick’s real problem
tonight.”
“Poor
kid,” Brian commented. A doctor suddenly appeared in front of them,
“Hello?”
“Dr.
Karebyn,” Howie stood to shake the doctor’s hand and embrace him briefly, “How
is he?”
“Your
young friend is alright, for now. We used charcoal to absorb as much of
substances as we could. Then we went through with an epigastric lavage.”
“The
what?” Brian’s face was 3 shades paler than earlier.
“Stomach
pump,” Dr. Karebyn simplified.
“Oh,”
Brian nodded, “And?”
“Your
friend has a drug problem. We have found traces of amphetamines, cocaine,
tranquilizers, antidepressants, and alcohol in his body,” Dr. K. continued.
“Are
you going to send him to rehab or something?” Kevin asked wringing his hands
together.
“I
don’t have the power to order him to rehabilitation. The boy’s not a
minor, from the charts you’ve filled out it lets me know he’s 20. Unless
he’s been arrested and ordered by the court to go to rehab, he doesn’t have to
go anywhere.”
Brent
and Mandy glared an “I told you so” at Kevin.
“But
Dr. K, what can we do? He needs help and he won’t listen to reason!”
Howie said rubbing his face roughly.
“You
can be his friends. You’re what he really needs right now. I’m
going to discharge him tomorrow. He’s going to be weak and maybe a little
disoriented. Take him home with you, take care of him. Talk to him,
let him know how much you care. He’ll come around. Once he actually
says the words “I need help” is when his recovery will truly begin. Now
I’m not going to disillusion you, this is not going to be fun, or pleasant.
Withdrawal symptoms are a beast. He’s gonna shake, and cry, and
beg, be cranky and irritable, and throw up everywhere. He’s gonna hate
you, and you’re gonna hate him. Are you willing to take on that
challenge?”
AJ,
Brian, Howie, and Kevin all glanced at each other, then nodded, “Of course,
anything for Nick.”
Brent
and Mandy also agreed, “Anything for Nick.”
Dr.
Karebyn smiled, “That’s great to hear. Ok, now you can see him.”