Escaping this Nightmare

My eyes fluttered open and were met with blinding white light. The room I was had clean white walls and was filled with beeping noises and quiet chatter. I lifted my head and was relieved to only feel minimal pain. I glanced round the ward of Glasgow Royal Infirmary (it wasn't that difficult to figure out that that's where the ambulance had taken me) and tried to collect my thoughts. The last thing I remembered was Brian nearly decking the paramedic and then me throwing up more blood. I must have passed out after that.

I allowed myself a small smile; I couldn't believe I had met and talked to Avenged Sevenfold! And Synyster Gates had held me in his arms and called me 'baby'. It was so worth getting beaten to a pulp and throwing up my guts.

I glanced up from my thoughts and saw El walk in with a nurse by her side. She cracked a huge relieved smile when she saw I was awake and came and gave me a gentle hug.

"How are you feeling?" she asked me, concern written on her pale face.

"My whole body feels like it's been through a blender but my head doesn't hurt as much and I don't want to puke up my insides anymore, so that's good." I told her, stroking my hands through her soft brown hair as she sat on the hospital bed beside me.

"Miss Ritchie, you have had a few injuries that I want to know the nature of," the nurse said kindly. "You had mild internal bleeding, two fractured ribs and a bad concussion. Do you have an abusive boyfriend or husband?"

I chuckled at the question but El sighed and said "I've already told you, we were at a concert and she got taken out by a random guy."

"I would like to hear it from the patient's own mouth please."

"El's right. We were at an Avenged Sevenfold concert and I got pulled into a mosh pit and trashed around. The band was really nice though and took me backstage. They were the ones that called the ambulance." I told her truthfully.

The nurse pursed her lips and asked doubtfully, "Avenged Sevenfold took you backstage? And called an ambulance for you?"

"Yes. Is there a problem with that?" I asked her, beginning to grow annoyed at her suspicious nature.

"Honey, you hit your head quite hard. I think you may be imagining-"

"Let's see the fucking invalid then!" I heard a smooth voice shout as five men tumbled through the door of the ward.
I grinned at the sight of these grown men punching and pushing each other to do something as simple as walking through a door. I smugly turned back to the nurse but she just looked at Brian and scolded him for his language.

"I don't care if you are the vocalist for the biggest rock band, you will keep your language clean in this hospital." With that, the nurse strode out of the ward.

"But I'm the guitarist and we're a metal band," Brian shouted after her whilst flipping her off behind her back.

"Brian, behave yourself!" I poked his side but I was laughing as I did it. He grabbed my hand before I could snatch it back and held it. I blushed slightly; now that I was feeling better, I felt all the awkward emotions I hadn't when I was concussed.

"So what's the diagnosis Doctor?" Matt asked in a stupid deep voice.

"Fractured ribs and shit. She was bleeding inside and had a concussion," El told him.

"Well shit, you really were hurt bad," Brian raised his eyebrows and pulled his hand back to his pocket. My hand suddenly felt cold without his own rough hand gripping it tight.

I cleared my throat, " Yeah, that blood wasn't all for show."

"We're glad you feel better. Now did i see food on the way up here? Yo Christ, you up for some food?" Zacky said as he hit Johnny over the head.

"Hell yeah! I swear I haven't eaten in days," Johnny said. He left the ward in a riot of noise along with Arin, Matt and Zacky.

El looked at me with puppy dog eyes and gestured after them.

"Yes, El. You can go get food with them." I said and she bounced up off the bed in excitement. "Keep your hands off of Arin though and whatever you do, do not have sex with him in a hospital! Even you have morals!"

She flipped me off without looking at me and left me alone with Brian.

"It was nice of you guys to do all you did for me and now come visit. I'm sure you have better things to do," I said to Brian to break the silence.

"Yeah I suppose but you got injured at one of our shows and in a way we kind of feel responsible. Plus you're worth stopping a show for," he whispered and then he brushed a calloused hand lightly over my cheek.

I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing which made my ribs hurt more. He quickly snatched his hand away and his face shut into a cold mask of indifference, as if he had just committed a crime.

I coughed and said, "Maybe you should go and get food with the others. I'm not going anywhere."

"That's probably a good idea. I'll go now," he said without looking at me.

I held out my arms and frowned jokingly at him.

"Can I give you a hug for helping me?" I said in an innocent high pitched voice.

He gave this beautifully sexy deep chuckle that made my heart flutter and leaned into my arms. I reached my hands round his neck and secretly felt his tousled hair. He brushed his fingers up and down my arms and I breathed in his earthy smell. Except this time it was different. It still had the same rich undertones but this time it was topped with a musty smell of old perfume and stale cigarettes.

I wrinkled my nose and pushed him off of me. "Ew, you smell funny."

He leaned back and kept a blank face, although I saw a guilty blush creep up his neck.

"Have you been smoking with a girl or something? You smell of old perfume." I told him and he went a deeper shade of red and his normally warm brown eyes blackened slightly.

"It's none of your fucking business what I do," he retorted angrily, but his voice cracked, exposing his false facade.

"I didn't mean to pry. I was just wondering. I'm sorry," I whispered. To my embarrassment tears began to well up in my eyes and one spilled over. Brian noticed it and ran a hand over his face and sighed.

"Shit Lola, I didn't mean to make you cry. You're just too innocent to know what a metal band's life entails. I mean I've spent about an hour with you so far and I haven't heard you cuss once. What's with that? And you looked disgusted when you smelled the smoke on me," he said, looking down at his clasped hands. He looked so uncomfortable standing there so I grabbed his belt loop and pulled him onto bed.

"I was just raised that way. I only swear when I'm really angry which is basically never and I think smoking is stupid but I'm not disgusted by it. Or by you." I said in a softer voice. "But I'm certainly not innocent. So I dare you to tell me what you were getting up to before you came here that was so bad you couldn't tell me."

He swallowed nervously, "Lola, I don't -"

"I dare you," I taunted him as I leaned closer to his stubbled face.

I saw him clench his jaw and when he turned round his eyes were nearly completely black.

"Fine," he said in a harsh voice. "Before we came here we had to sort some stuff out so we took a few hours for ourselves. I decided to make use of one of the groupies. After that we had a smoke together."

For one blissful moment the meaning of his words escaped me, then it hit me what he had been doing.

"So while I was unconscious in hospital, you were having sex? Jesus Brian!"

He didn't say anything, he just stared at his hands.

"You helped me so much Brian. You held me and fought for me. You even called me your girlfriend! Then you go and have sex with some groupie! What's wrong with you?" I whispered angrily in his ear, trying to keep our conversation quiet in the ward.

"What's wrong with me? Fucking nothing. I never gave you anything other than friendly help. I don't even know you for fuck's sake!" he didn't bother to keep his voice down.

"Well I'm sorry for being an inconvenience!" I cried as a tear rolled off my chin.

"Oh stop with the tears! Grow up," he stated bluntly. That made my tears run faster and a sob heaved out of me.

"I'm going out for a fag. I'll come see you later."

"Have fun inhaling tar, idiot," I shouted after him as he sauntered out of the ward.

He scoffed darkly and gave that deep chuckle, the same as earlier. Except this time it had a malicious edge to it.

I heaved a breath then turned into my pillow and let my tears run.

Notes

I decided to stick to Lola's POV for this chapter as I wanted you guys to know her reaction to Brian being promiscuous! Another chapter done and dusted, hope you like it. Brian gave Lola a lot of affection last chapter but he was colder in this chapter. I wonder what he'll be like next?;) Thanks for reading guys, it means a lot to me when you comment and rate it:)
I'm trying to read all you guys' stories but there's only so much time in one day and I have a lot of other stuff to do but I promise I will get there eventually and let you know what I think!:)

L xxx