Chapter Sixteen
Flame…
As soon as the nurse left the gang came in. I’d texted Chaos to let him know Michelle was awake. I should have figured they’d all show up. I’m surprised they let everyone in at once, but not as surprised as Michelle. Cyn charged past Chaos as soon as she got through the door and hugged her.
“Are you okay? Oh my God. You scared the shit out of us.”
“Well you know I love all the attention.”
I rolled my eyes, she was herself at least.
“Bitch. Seriously. Are you okay,” Cyn asked as she pulled a chair over to the side of the bed.
“I’m fine, at least I think I am. At least the nurse said I was. I just wish I remembered.”
Joe looked at me and I shrugged. I’d told Chaos in the text she didn’t remember and I figured he’d passed it on to everyone else.
“We’re just glad you’re okay, Michelle. Did Flame tell you the police want to talk to you?” Joe asked.
“Yeah he did. But I don’t know what I’ll be able to tell them since I don’t remember shit.”
“Then that’s what you’ll tell them. The hotel moved us all to another floor, and Terrance moved all your stuff.”
“All of it?” Michelle asked. She was pink, and I remembered the toys she’d brought. I turned away before I laughed out loud. So much for privacy. Although I doubted Terrance would say anything. But we’d see how good the police and security were with secrets since they’d gone through the room too.
“Yup. Unless you’d rather change hotels?” Joe looked at me as he said it. I didn’t think it mattered where we stayed, if someone was watching her they’d know. If it was a fuck up then it was over anyway.
“I think we’re good, what about you, babe?”
“No, we don’t have to change hotels. Shit it’s Monday isn’t it? I’m supposed to be at school…”
“Don’t worry,” Cyn said. “Teresa called your principal this morning and explained you were in the hospital and would need a few days off.”
“I bet she loved hearing that.”
She hadn’t. She told Teresa to tell Michelle she could come back and clean out her stuff.
She’d seen or heard about the hospitalization before Teresa called, it was everywhere that the girlfriend of one of the Raining Chaos members had an overdose and was in the hospital. I fucking hated social media.
Cyn and I exchanged glances and I shook my head, I didn’t want her telling Michelle yet. Not until we got her out of the hospital.
“Nope not too happy, but she’ll have to deal won’t she?”
“I guess so. Or not. She’s been a real bitch lately.”
“Some things never change,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “I hated my principal, she was a raving bitch, remember guys?”
They chimed in, even the girls, who came in with flowers and balloons. I’d wondered if they were going to show up. The only one not present was Teresa, she had a deadline and had to go to work. She’d made Wrath promise to text her if anything changed.
Sweets and Candy put the flowers and balloons on the window ledge and Candy handed Michelle a teddy bear with a big pink ribbon.
“Thank you. Wow. Maybe I need to get sick more often.”
“I don’t think so. I couldn’t take it.”
“Me either, or Teresa, she was freaking out she had to go to work and couldn’t be here,” Cyn said.
“She shouldn’t have. I’m fine. They said I can probably go home after the doctor sees me.”
“No that’s not what the nurse said. She said the doc would decide.”
Michelle stuck her tongue out, and everyone laughed. I wanted to talk to Joe but not in front of her.
“I’m going to go downstairs for a cup of coffee. I’ll be right back.”
“Can you bring me one too?” Michelle asked. I knew how she loved her coffee.
“I’ll check with the nurse, if you can have it I’ll bring you one. Anyone else?”
The girls asked for sodas, but the guys decided they’d come with me which is was I’d hoped for anyway.
I leaned over Michelle and kissed her lightly on the lips, and whispered, “I love you.” I wasn’t sure she remembered it from the day before. Her eyes got big like saucers and she blinked while color creeped up her neck and into her cheeks. Laughing, I headed for the door with the guys behind me.
Flame…
The nurse said no caffeine yet, so Michelle would have to deal with whatever I could find in the cafeteria. She wouldn’t be happy but oh well. I wanted her out of the fucking hospital, the sooner the better.
As the elevator doors slid shut, I saw Rage take a deep breath. He hated hospitals even more than me and I couldn’t blame him.
“Thanks, bro. I know how you hate this shit.”
Rage flashed me a half smile. “It’s okay, she’s part of our family, right?”
“Yes she is,” Joe answered for me. “Now we have to figure out what is going on. She doesn’t remember anything?”
“Not so far. And they won’t give me the results of her rape kit. I’m not family or the police.”
“Fuck, that’s just freakin’ wrong,” Wrath said, shaking his head.
Chaos didn’t look happy about it either, I sure as fuck wasn’t. No I wasn’t family but Cyn and I were the closest she had. It made me more convinced than ever I might need to reconsider some of my plans.
“I spoke to Detective Harris earlier. He said after he had a chance to talk to her and get her statement he wanted to talk to you again.”
“Fuck, he probably thinks I roofied her. But why? She’s my fucking girlfriend, and I was downstairs.”
“Yeah but you could have put it in her wine.”
“Is that how she got it?” I was pissed off and if the cop thought I’d done this to her we were going to have a huge fuckin’ problem.
“He didn’t know. He was hoping she’d remember.”
“Well that’s fucked up, unless she gets her memory back.”
Joe nodded in agreement. “Relax, he’s not accusing anyone of anything. This is what they do. So we’re going to let them do their job.”
The doors opened and we stopped the talking. None of us wanted to be overheard. We’d learned the hard way while on tour that you never knew who was listening until we’d find all kinds of shit on Twitter and Facebook.
The cafeteria was crowded considering it was in the middle of the afternoon.
Thank God they had a coffee bar. Starbucks sure changed the world.
All these little coffee café type of places showed up in the weirdest spots.
I ordered a decaf mocha for Michelle and the largest black coffee they could make for me.
We got the girls sodas, and the guys ordered their stuff.
Wrath wanted a smoke so we went outside to the designated area.
“You know soon I’m going to have to smoke in a little bag on my fuckin’ head. It used to be there was a smoking area inside, then they moved it outside, now you have to be a fuckin’ half block away.”
Joe laughed. “Maybe it’s time to quit.”
“Fuck no. I’ll quit maybe someday.”
“Yeah when Blue tells you to,” Rage said with a laugh, as he lit is own.
All of us used to smoke except for Candy, then Chaos and I quit too. Maybe eventually we’d be smoke free. Right. It would sure make the tour bus trips better.
“So what do we do?” Chaos asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ll call a lawyer to figure out what if any liability we have as far as the room.
But the rest,” Joe said and shrugged. “Until the police finish their investigation there’s not much we can do.
I’m going to go back to New Jersey to Sunshine’s.
I’m not that far away and I think you guys can handle anything that comes up, right? ”
Chaos nodded. I wished he was staying. It was like having a father or a second father around. Shit. Jack and Sally.
“Has anyone talked to Jack and Sally? We didn’t even tell them we were home and then this shit happened.”
“Sunshine was going to talk to them this morning. But it couldn’t hurt for you to give them a call. It wouldn’t surprise me if the press shows up there too. I’d love to know how the hell they found out about this so fast.”
“Me too,” I grumbled. “Michelle is going to be fucking irate when she finds out she lost her job.” I was pissed too. Fuckin’ unfair is what it was. She didn’t deserve this shit because she was dating me. What fucking century were we living in anyway?
“Yeah, she will,” Fury said. “Make sure you tell her when there’s nothing around she can throw at you.”
“She wouldn’t toss anything at me.”
“You sure? It’s because of you she’s fucked,” Rage said as he tamped out his butt.
“Well fuck you all. I’d say it’s the fucking bitch principal’s fault. She needs to get into the twenty-first century and deal.”
“When are you going to tell her?” Chaos asked.
“I’m not sure yet, but not until we get her out of the hospital.”
He nodded and Joe agreed. “Yeah that’s for the best probably. I’m going to talk to the lawyer about that too. I think she can fight it, if she wants to.”
“I’ll let her decide, but yeah see if it’s an option.”