𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑽𝑬𝑵 𝑯𝑬𝑳𝑷

Chapter 2

Sunday: 1:15 AM— The Waldorf Hilton

It was past midnight when Lenny made it back to his hotel. He was so distraught about what happened between he and Jimena, that he spent the rest of the night drinking after she left. Seeing that he was in no state to get himself back to his hotel, he was escorted back to his place of residence by Craig and his two bodyguards Antonio and Jason.

They laid him down on his bed and left a bottle of water on the nightstand beside his bed.

"You need to ease up with the drinking, LK." His bodyguard Antonio urged.

"I don't need to do nothing! I just need to sleep." He slurred, clearly heavily intoxicated.

Antonio and Jason shook their heads as they exited from the room.

Craig on the other hand stayed behind. Lenny was like a brother to him and if he left him along in this state and something happened to him, he'd never forgive himself.

Lenny laid on his back staring up at the ceiling absentmindedly. He was so out of it that he didn't even know Craig was still in the room. Soon the effects of the alcohol began to go into phase two. His eyelids became heavier by second until he eventually fell into a deep sleep.

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Sunday—4:00 PM

"Yeah, he got totally wasted. He practically had to be carried out the bar, Vanessa."

The sound of Craig's voice gossiping on the phone woke Lenny from his deep sleep. As soon as he became more alert, Lenny was greeted with a pounding headache. One of the bad side effects of heavy drinking. A light groan left his lips as he sat up. His gaze shot over to Craig who sat over on the sink in the kitchen area of his suite. He was just gossiping away on the phone like there's no tomorrow.

"Can you keep it down? It's too early for all that yelling." He groaned, rubbing his hand against his forehead.

Craig laughed and hopped down from the kitchen sink.

"Early? Sir, it's 4:00 in the afternoon."

"And that is early. Who are you talking to anyways?"

"Vanessa."

He tried to hide the look of guilt on his face at the mention of her name. It was just hours ago him and Jimena was semi flirting. But he couldn't stay quiet. That wouldn't look good on his part.

"Oh..." He mumbled, laying back down as he put a pillow over his face.

Craig then walked over to the bed Lenny laid upon.

"Yeah, oh... Vanessa wants to talk to you." He held the receiver to the phone to Lenny.

"I'm not really in the mood to talk. Tell her I'll call her later."

With that, Craig held the phone back to his ear and spoke with Vanessa again.

"He said he will call you later. He has a killer headache and needs some time to rest. ..... Yes, I will make sure he calls you. Alright, see you later, Ness."

When his conversation with Vanessa was over, he hung the phone up.

"You owe me for this. I covered for your ass big time."

Lenny removed the pillow from over his face to stare up at Craig.

"Last time, I checked I'm your boss. There's not even anything to cover for. I really do have a terrible hangover headache. I feel like shit."

"A headache isn't the only thing you have. I saw you and Jimena last night and the way you were looking at her. You two are fucking, aren't you?"

Lenny laughed heartily at Craig's words. It actually hurt to laugh, but he just couldn't help it.

"I'm not fucking her. I just met Jimena a few days ago."

"And since when has that meant anything?"

"It's not even like that. She's just my make up artist. That's it. Nothing more."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really."

Craig pursed his lips as a sly expression formed on his face.

"If that's the case. Then I guess you won't mind if I ask her out."

A silence fell over Lenny for a moment as he tried not show his jealousy at the fact his friend wanted to ask out Jimena.

"Don't be ridiculous. You don't even know her."

"That's the whole point of a date, LK! Plus, she's so hot. That accent of hers? God damn."

He didn't want to hear anymore of that. Lenny stood from the bed and stared at Craig with an unamused expression on his face.

"You should go."

"I can't leave you. You're getting over a hangover."

"I'll be fine. I just want to be alone for the rest of the day."

"Well then! This is the thanks I get." On his way towards the door, Craig grabbed his jacket from off the loveseat.

"Don't be dramatic. I appreciate you staying the night and making sure I'm alright. Now I'm awake and I'm okay. I need to rest to get rid of this hangover. We have a long day of rehearsals tomorrow and on Wednesday we'll be flying off to New Zealand for our first show."

"Yeah. Yeah." Craig replied stepping out into the hallway. "If something does happen between you and Jimena, make sure she moan my name one ti—"

Before Craig could finish his sentence, Lenny shut the door in his face.

"This guy." He muttered as he locked the door.

His head was killing him. He needed something to relieve the pain immediately.

Lenny wobbled over to the dresser beside the TV and pulled open a drawer. Never had he wanted Advil or Tylenol as badly as he does now. To his dismay, he didn't have Advil OR Tylenol. However, he did have some pain pills left over from when he had two wisdom teeth pulled two months ago.

He twisted the white cap off the bottle and poured out a pill onto the palm of his hand. With these pain meds, all he needed was one. It was some strong stuff. He popped the pill into his mouth and chased it down with water. Soon this terrible headache would be a thing of the past. In the meantime, he figured it was best he lay down so the pill could take it effect.

Lenny pulled off his white wife beater tank and tossed his pants to the side. Since he was alone finally, he could sleep comfortably in his element— completely naked. Once he pulled off his black boxer briefs, he hopped underneath the covers.

His lively mind thought about many things from expectations to his upcoming tour, his daughter, Vanessa, and Jimena. All those thoughts plus many other things that were running through his mind was pushed to the side when the pain meds began to take effect. Everything went black as he drifted off to yet another deep sleep.