Through the Lens

We arrived back to the hotel late that night. Mike hadn't spoken to any of us and walked right up to their hotel room first. Even down the hall, I could hear him slam the door closed. He had probably woken up half of the floor with that.

I walked down the hall towards my room. I felt a hand grab mine and I jumped slightly, but then realized it was just Tony who began to walk with me.

"You okay?" He asked in a slightly concerned voice as he looked at me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just... kinda worried about Mike, honestly." I answered.

Tony smiled. "He's fine until he starts drinking. Then we'll have a problem."

We arrived to the door of my room where we stopped. Tony grabbed my other hand as we faced each other. He leaned his lips down to mine and kissed me softly. Once again, my heart felt like leaping out of my chest. It was going to be hard to get over how his kisses made me feel. Our lips parted and we smiled at each other.

"Goodnight, Tony." I whispered.

"Goodnight, Rax." He whispered back.

He let go of my hands and walked towards his hotel room next to mine. I watched him as he went. As he reached for the door, we both heard yelling from the other side.

"Fuck you too!" The distinct sound of Mike yelling could be heard on the other side.

We both stopped and looked at the door. Sure enough, Mike swung the door open, holding a bottle of Jack Daniels in his hand and an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He met eye to eye with Tony.

"Move, Turtle!" Mike grunted, clearly already drunk. Don't ask me how considering he had just gotten back to the hotel.

Tony gave Mike a disgusted look like he could smell the alcohol on him and stepped aside, letting Mike stomp passed.

My eyes followed Mike as he dragged himself down the hall. I took a few steps forward with the intention of going after him, but Tony put his hand on my shoulder.

"There's no use in trying to talk to him when he's like this. Just... let him drink and have a few smokes." Tony sighed.

I shook my head. "He'll get in trouble if he's drinking outside of the hotel." I walked off swiftly after Mike, leaving Tony standing in the hallway.

I walked towards the exit to the side of our hotel which led to stairs going up and down the side of the building. I heard the sound of a lighter clicking and followed it up.

There sat Mike at the top of the stairs struggling to light his cigarette with the open bottle of Jack next to him. I sighed and approached him, pulling a lighter out of my pocket and handing it to him. He looked up to see it was me handing him the lighter.

"Hey, Raxxy... I'm sorry... bout all that..." He mumbled drunkly, taking the lighter from my hand and using it to finally light the cigarette in his mouth. He inhaled and exhaled, handing the black lighter back to me.

"It's fine. You know, if there's anything you need to talk about, I'm a good listener. You barely know me so I understand if you don't want to." I said as I put the lighter back into my pocket.

Mike shook his head a bit and took another long drag from the cigarette. "It'd be nice to talk to someone..." He finally exhaled the cloud of smoke from his lungs.

"Then tell me about it, Mike." I leaned up against the railing of the stairs looking at him.

"Just... this girl. I love her but she drives me crazy whenever we go on tour." Mike was definitely frustrated by the whole situation. "We broke up cause I couldn't handle it... like she knows we go on tour and I'm away for a long time sometimes and she says she's okay with it but then... she says stupid shit like saying 'who did you sleep with tonight?' I've always been loyal to that girl, and it pisses me off when she says shit like that."

I had just realized I'd be in her shoes as well, so I could understand sort of where she was coming from. "Well, some people aren't meant to be in a relationship with someone who is out of town all of the time. It's hard on both parties at some points, I believe. I mean... I'm with Tony now and I'm sure there will be times that I won't be on tour with you guys. But, knowing myself, I'm strong enough to deal with that. It also puts a lot of trust on both sides, as well."

Mike nodded as he looked at me and let it all sink in.

"I think at some point you and her need to have a discussion on where you stand and about the trust you have for each other. Without trust, there is no relationship." I said, leaning over a bit and picking up the bottle of Jack Daniels from Mike's side.

His eyes followed the bottle as I took a swig from it. "You're right... I mean, I trust her completely but she has no trust in me."

I nodded a bit. "That's definitely something you two need to talk about if you want it to work." I held the glass bottle in my hand and smirked, taking another swig.

Mike ashed his cigarette and took another drag from it. He sighed and exhaled the smoke. "I love the girl... but she does this to me. I'm a mess!" Mike laughed as he gestured to himself.

"Relationships do that sometimes. Being strong enough to overcome it is all on you though." I smiled and put the bottle down. Having taken a few large swigs from the bottle, I felt the warmth in my stomach from the alcohol. I was already slightly tipsy.

Mike took a final drag of the cigarette and pressed it into the ground, sighing out the smoke once again. "I should... probably call her tomorrow... probably not a good idea to talk to her drunk." He picked up the bottle and took a large swig from it as well.

I nodded a bit. "Yeah. Come on. Lets go back inside." I began to walk back down the stairs.

"Wait, Rax." Mike said from behind me.

I looked back to see him standing there with the bottle in his hand.

"I just... wanted to say congrats to you and Tony. He's a really good guy... but I don't care if he's my band mate... if he hurts you, I'm kicking his ass." Mike said proudly.

I giggled. "Always wanted a big brother." I winked at him and ran back down the stairs with him following behind me.

We made our way back to our hotel rooms. Their door was left open slightly probably because the guys were getting ready for bed and didn't want to have to get up to let in a drunk Mike.

I went to the door of my hotel room and looked back at Mike. He smiled a bit to me.

"Thank you." He whispered.

"No problem." I whispered back.

With that, we both retreated into our hotel rooms for the night.

Notes

Awww, Mike is a softie. Hope you enjoyed! More to come soon! <3