Might As Well Be On Mars // Motley Crue

Pt 2 Chapter 2

Mick had just begun asking Evie where she wanted to eat on her first night in Massachusetts when there was a shuffling and a small beep at the door. Mick had to turn his entire body around to see Nikki strolling into the room. His hair was a mess, his makeup was smeared all over his face, and he had lost his shirt and one of his socks. As was becoming a sort of routine for him, this was the first time Nikki had been to the hotel room since the day before. He would ordinarily collapse on the bed and sleep for another three hours before it was time for rehearsal at four o'clock, but now there was someone sitting on his bed.

Nikki stopped in his tracks when he looked up and saw Evie. Likewise, Evie was too shocked to say anything. She just stared at him with her mouth slightly opened, taken aback by how different he looked. In her memories, Nikki always seemed tall and imposing. Now, he had certainly grown more muscular than the last time she had gotten a good look at him, but he looked shorter, paler, and sadder.

Nikki had the opposite reaction to his ex love interest. To help himself get over her, he had spent the last two years telling himself that Evie was nothing to write home about. In his memory, she was of average attractiveness, if that. He was way out of her league physically, and when he tried to remember her personality, only her nagging and lack of ability to have any real fun came to mind.

But now, seeing Evie in the hotel room, Nikki found himself feeling inferior. She looked beautiful. For a few moments, he couldn't take his eyes away from her face. Her skin was bright and clear, and her features were more pleasing than his memory had distorted them to be. Evie had also let her hair grow so long that it reached the small of her back. It was still wavy, and today it was styled into half-up, half-down pigtails.

When Evie realized that she was just staring at Nikki, she gave him a little smile and nod, then looked back over at Mick.

"Oh," Mick began. "Nikki, did I tell you that Evie would be coming to town?"

"Yeah," the bassist replied. He looked over at the girl. "You're gonna be working for us, right?"

"What!?" Evie spoke for the first time.

"No, no," Mick cut in, glaring at Nikki. "I mean, nothing's decided yet, we're, uh, she's just visiting."

Nikki took the hint: Mick hadn't told her yet. He smiled in amusement and stood there for a few moments longer, feeling awkward but thinking that laying down on the bed while Evie was sitting there would make the situation worse.

Luckily, Mick stepped in. "Why don't we go get some fresh air, Eves?"

She nodded and stood up, avoiding looking at Nikki as she walked past him. She was opening the door at the same time Mick was standing up. Walking past Nikki, Mick backhanded his shoulder. "Asshole," he muttered.

"Fuck you," Nikki called out after him. How was he supposed to know that Mick was lying to Evie about why she came here? Why was Mick upset with him ? He had done nothing wrong. Nikki stood in the entryway of the hotel room for some time after the pair left, staring at the door and letting the anger course through him. He grabbed the wooden chair that went with the desk set and threw it ten feet across the room, causing a huge crash that scared even him. Then, he shook his head, feeling ashamed that he let such a small event cause so much rage, and he laid down on his bed.

"Did you talk to her?" Tom Zutaut asked when he saw Mick arrive at the recording studio for rehearsal.

"Yes," Mick said.

"And? What did she say?"

"She said probably."

"'Probably?' What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"It means she wants to, but we need to figure out what's gonna happen with her school before she promises anything."

"That's right," Zutaut said, hitting his forehead. "I completely forgot. She's in college...and that means she's in the middle of classes now, isn't she?"

"Bullseye," Mick said, already beginning to walk away.

Zutaut caught up with him. "So she asked for some time to think it over?"

"No. She's flying back to LA tomorrow. She's gonna talk with her professors and see if there's a way she can get credit for her classes without being there in person. Then she's gonna decide if she'll join us before or after the fall semester ends."

Zutaut thought for a moment. "So, in either case, she's taking the job."

"Bullseye." This time when Mick walked away, Zutaut didn't follow him.

Evie called the hotel three days later and asked to be connected with her father's room. She told him the great news: after a lot of begging and very amusing phone calls with higher-ups at her college, it was decided that Evie could do the rest of her class work remotely, mailing it back to the college by a predetermined date to be graded. As long as she flew back for finals week, she would be awarded credit for the work she did. And even then, she would only have to take finals for three of her four classes, as long as she could secure two front row tickets to the LA show for her math professor and his wife, that was.

The news pulled Mick out of his drunken stupor. Even Nikki, who was usually too fucked up to respond to his own name, sat up and tried to listen in to the conversation.

It was decided that Evie would come back to Massachusetts about a week from then, October 24. That meant she would get two weeks of setting up for rehearsal, learning the parts of the songs that she didn't help write, and getting used to the chaos that was Motley Crue before they hit the road for real.

When Evie hung up, Mick sat up to find Nikki awake, aware, and full of questions. His questions started out basic: would her and Mick share a hotel room, leaving Nikki to himself? (I don't know). Would she be on the band's bus or the roadies' bus? (Hopefully the band's, but who knew?) How much would she be paid? (I don't know, but not enough for the amount of shit she was going to have to put up with).

But then the tone of the conversation shifted. For the first time since they had broken up, Nikki found himself wondering about Evie's life. Without even realizing it, Nikki became softer and more reflective.

"What's she been up to since..." Nikki let his question trail off.

"She's been focusing on school," Mick shrugged. "Graduated a semester early, and now she would be a little over a semester away from getting an associate's, but I guess she'll finish the last few classes after the tour."

"Is she still working at... at the place? What was it? Where she worked with the kids?"

"The refugee center? No. She worked there for a while, but quit almost a year ago. It wasn't going anywhere and it paid pretty shitty. Now she's got a part time job at a resettlement agency. And I guess she's gonna have to quit that now, too." Mick was silent for a moment, realizing how much Evie was giving up to come on this tour. "But that's okay," he said. "It was only a secretary job, and I don't think she was very happy doing it."

"She's not interested in music?" Nikki knew firsthand that Evie could write a song, and considering who her dad was, he was shocked that it wasn't a bigger part of her life.

Again, Mick shrugged. "She likes playing guitar and going to concerts and shit, but she's never talked about becoming a professional musician."

Nikki didn't say anything else. He had plenty of more questions, but he didn't want to appear too eager. He had started to nod off when he heard Mick say his name.

"What?" The bassist responded.

"You leave Evie alone on this tour, alright?"

"Alright."