Tossing his clipboard on the desk he headed down the hall towards where all the commotion was coming from. What he wasn’t expecting to see was an even more irate Ariana heading in his direction.
“Whoa. What’s going on?”
“Not now Tony!” she spatted.
What the actual fuck is going on.
He couldn’t have picked a worse moment to enter his brothers dressing room. Nor did he have a chance to react as Jon’s already drawn and tightened fist flew towards him and slammed full speed at his nose.
“Muthafucker! YOU PIECE OF FUCK.” Jon cursed at the door that was closed only seconds ago.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!?” Spitting blood out all over the floor, Tony grabbed his nose and looked at his brother.
“Oh shit! Fuck!” Jon handed his brother the black towel from his massage table.
“Sorry, Ton. I meant to hit the door.”
“Jesus H. Christ. What’s with you? I can hear you screaming from down the hall.”
“You didn’t happen to see Ari?”
“How could I not? She flew by me like a bat outta hell, cursing up a storm too.” Tony scooped some ice from the bucket and wrapped it in the bloodied towel. “What gives?”
“Fuck if I know.”
“Seriously? You’re in here talking to yourself and throwing punches and she’s running in the opposite direction calling you every name in the book. What’d you do now?”
“What makes you think it's my fault?”
Removing the ice from his possibly broken nose, Tony looked over at Jon with a baleful look on his face.
Jon threw his hands in the air. “S’alright. I might have stuck my foot in my mouth.”
“Brother, I’d say you stuck it so far in it came out your ass to send her running like that.”
“Ha! Funny!”
“I’m serious, and quite frankly, I don’t think you know how important she really is. You’ve lost focus lately and if you continue to fuck up and she walks away, you will have no one to blame but yourself. A person can only take SO much, Jon, and you are A LOT. She doesn’t have to put up with your shit. You need to fix this. Last I saw Ariana was headed towards the exit.”
“C’mon Tony. That’s not fair, and you know it. I know exactly how important she is. When it comes to us, I’ve been nothing but focused.”
“Don’t go confusing, focused with hovering. She doesn’t need you to be her babysitter Jon, she needs you to be her partner. You need to remember, just because you’ve had umpteen years together, this is the first time you’re actually together. It’s like starting over. What did you say to make her so mad?”
“Long story short, I was pissed with Dorothea and I took it out on Ari.”
“Oh brother. I think you should go find her, now.” Tony nodded towards the door.
“Yeah, you’re right. You gonna be, okay?” Jon asked.
“Yeah... yeah.” Tony gently pressed his fingers along the bridge of his nose. “It’s not broken.”
“Cool.” Jon reached for the knob, “thanks Ton.”
“Anytime.”
♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱
The myriad of crew members parted like the Red Sea as Ariana swiftly made her way down the hallway. Her hand pushed the heavy metal door, and she stepped outside. The frosty night air hitting her coatless body felt good against her heated skin.
Looking around the darkened parking lot, Ari looked for somewhere she could go. She needed to cool off some before attempting to go back inside. Spotting the parked tour buses across the lot, she headed towards them.
Hoping she picked the right one and that it would be empty, Ariana pushed the doors opened.
“Anyone home?” She called out as she climbed the stairs into the main seating area. Grateful for no response, she plopped down on the long bench and rested her head down on the table.
How could he? After everything. Did he really think?...
“It is safe to enter?” A familiar deep voice called. “Bella.”
She didn’t have time to answer. Richie was towering over her by the time she lifted her head. Considerate, caring, deep brown eyes stared down at her.
“Depends on what you consider safe?” She smiled up at him, her eyes still damp.
Hating seeing her like this, Richie slid down onto the bench next to her and pulled her into his embrace. With him being over a head taller than her, she fit perfectly into his neck. Sniffling against him, Ariana fought the tears that she felt coming back at Richie’s kindness.
“Sssh... ssh. Bella. You of all people know he can be an ass. At this point, he’ll be calming down and realizing he fucked up big time.”
“Yeah, well, he knows I won’t put up with his shit.”
Using the back of her hand, she wiped away the rest of her tears.
“Just because this… we... have come full circle doesn’t mean I will become the quiet little homemaker or better yet one of his mindless minions. I don’t know how much more I can take. I don’t think he understands there is a very thin line that separates taking care of me and hovering. I am a grown ass woman, and I do have our baby's best interests at heart, I will not do anything that might harm us. He needs...no, he must realize that.”
“Damn, Bella. I’ve seen you upset before. But what did he say to make you this upset?”
“He had another fight with Dorothea. So naturally who ever came in this path got the brunt of that. Well, that was Jeanie, for not knowing where I was. When I called him out on it, he didn't like it. That's when he mumbled under his breath, 'fucking women' and when I lost my shit before walking out."
Whistling low under his breath, Richie looked down at her with incredulity. “Wow! That's next level of shit, even for him. He'll be eating crow for a while, I assume." he wiped away a tear. "Better yet, I hope he gets you a big shiny blue box for this one.”
“You know I don’t give a shit about blue boxes. All I want is to be treated with the same respect that he would want. I will not be his punching bag.”
Richie saw she had stopped crying and moved to the other bench. Locking his fingers together he rested his elbows on the table. “Can I say something?”
“Is this where you get all philosophical on me?”
“Why yes darlin!"
Ari pulled the sleeves of her sweater over her hands and propped her chin up on them. “Ooh kay.”
“Could it be, just maybe, you might have overreacted just a little?” Wide green eyes stared back at him. “Hear me out. I’m not saying he wasn’t wrong. Cause nine-out-of-ten times when it comes to this stuff he is, but maybe you were a little irritated before you walked in that room.”
“What do you mean?”
“I overheard your conversation with Jeanie. I also saw you with Mike earlier. It is a huge surprise to me how two people that are so much alike, survived one another all these years.”
Ariana's eyes lowered, then looked back at him. She heard his underlying tone - they are so much alike, but their love and respect for each other got them past stuff like this. Maybe she was a little ticked at him for sending Jeanie to babysit her, but that still didn’t give him the right to compare her or say what he did.
“Since when did you become the smart one?” She reached for his hand.
“Darlin’, I’ve always been the smart one, you’ve been too busy to notice.” He gave her a wink. “You good now? Cause I have to get ready for work”
“Yeah. Go.”
“You’re not coming?” Richie stood.
“I will in a bit.”
“Okay. Don’t be long. You don’t want to miss my hot self in action tonight.” Richie climbed down the steps.
“Hey Rich?" she called out.
With a smile, he peek his head back in. “Bella?"
“Thanks.”
“For you, anytime.”
She watched as the doors closed and Richie was far enough away from the bus before she let out a scream. It wasn’t a bad scream, more like a frustrated one. Would she survive the next five months of the hormonal roller coaster she was riding? She sure hoped so.
♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱ ♱
“Jeeannnnie...” Jon barked down the corridor.
Jeanie stuck her head out of the craft service room. “In here boss.”
“Do you know where Ari is?”
“Umm. She’s...”
“What the fuuuu...” Jon’s head snapped up.
Richie slapped Jon on the back of the head as he pushed between them and stepped through the doorway. “She’s on buss three, dipshit.”
“Our bus three?” Jon rubbed the back of his head where Richie had hit him.
“Did I stutter?”
“What the fuck is she doing there?”
“If you need to ask that, then you're dumber than I thought.”
“Want me to go get her?” Jeanie asked.
“Nah. I need to do this.”
“Nothing like a healthy heaping of groveling before a show. Eat up, Jonny boy.” Richie patted his shoulder this time around.
“Fuck you, Sambora.” Jon flipped him the bird before making his way down the hall.
Poor Tony! Yea for Richie! And it's about time a bit of hot air was let out of Jons' inflated ego!!
ReplyDelete