With a shit-eating grin, Nick tilts his head to the side and pressing his index finger against his right nostril, Nick snorts the line of cocaine laid for him.

The effects are almost instant and Nick enjoys the trip, taking him above and beyond, and he feels Alex patting him on the shoulder, but doesn't acknowledge the older man.

It's with a sigh that Nick leans against the back of the couch and just lets himself ride the waves.

A beer clinks against another and Nick laughs, Alex following him. Nick's living room is filled with heavy metal music, alcohol and smoke overflows his senses, and Nick only enjoys it even more.

Another beer goes down his throat, and Nick likes the feeling of the alcohol as it goes down.

Nick loves it. He loves it even more when he is high.

Someone shakes Nick's shoulder, but the blond takes no notice.

Another shake. The only sounds coming from Nick's lips are complains.

If he had been a little more awake, if he hadn't been passed out and half comatose, Nick might have heard the sigh of irritation, or might have seen the sake of a head.

But Nick is unconscious on his living room floor, bottles and cans against his side, lines not snorted over the crystal center table.

Hours later, Nick doesn't care why or how his living room became spotless, beers disposed, cocaine flushed down the toilet. He only wakes up, in his bed, bathed and with clean underwear and white t-shirt, and Nick pays no attention to the fact that he doesn't remember anything after snorting his last line.

"WOOH!!!"

A victory scream resounds from Nick's chest, and he feels alive and all mighty, soaring in his newest Porsche, arms in the air, streets and buildings blurring into nothingness as he flies down the road.

Alex hands him a beer, and Nick takes it with his right hand, his left one moving over to the steering wheel, trying to keep some control over the machine.

Foot against the accelerator, Nick screams once again.

The screams are muffled by the sound of metal against metal, of Italian machinery giving under the laws of physics and the pressure of the velocity against a street light in one corner, and the screams are no more.

Nick wakes up, everything inside and out hurting, and as he opens one eye every so slowly, then the next, darkness greeting his return to the land of the living.

His cotton-filled mind, heavy with tiredness and clogged with cobwebs prevents him from thinking straight, so he doesn't, he only sighs softly through barely parted lips -- and even that small action hurts him -- and closes his eyes again.

His breathing becomes more regular, and finds the rhythm of another figure in the room, covered with a thick afghan and hunched in an uncomfortable hospital chair, fast asleep after keeping a vigil for over five days.

On to the better life
On to the better

Next time Nick wakes up, the other figure it's awake, green eyes watching blue ones fluttering open, wishing them to open and gaze at green once again.

The wish that had been requested for five very long days is granted, and blue eyes do open, and gaze at green ones in confusion, and all the anger Kevin has been feeling in his chest, filling his heart and soul seem to dissolve into thin air in that very second, as those eyes see once again.

"Hmmm--- wh---"

"Shh," Kevin whispers softly, almost whimpering, eyes moving over bruised lips and bandaged head and thanks the stars above for this small miracle. "Don't say anything. Shh."

Nick has known Kevin for many years now, and knows when to follow Kevin's words, and this is one of those times.

The blond barely even nods, and feels the movement causing him severe pain, all around his body, and only lays his head back against his pillow, closing his eyes, and this time, when he falls to sleep, a hands it's touching his hair and another one it's caressing his cheek.

I'm about to be on the floor again, surely you're gonna find me there
I'm about to sleep until the end of time, drug I take gonna wake my fear right now

It's a miracle he's alive, Nick knows that. He knows that, he sees that, every time his eyes fall onto Kevin, and the way the older man looks at him, like even now, weeks afterwards, Kevin feels like he has to thank his stars for such a occurrence.

Nick sighs softly, looking out the window, sitting in his wheel chair. Alex survived, but barely. It was his entire fault too, but Alex doesn't say anything like that. When the two of them are together, they just look at the floor and try not to say anything about before.

Things have to change, they both know it. They are in therapy, they are in rehab and physical therapy and have doctors in their care, and psychologist and everything they can need.

They were both very lucky, only getting away with fractures and concussions, and even thought they were touch and go there for a while, they made it both, with all their parts intact.

Nick's got both legs fracture, and his hip bruised, four ribs cracked, and arm trashed, metal plaques needed for the last one.

His hands move to his chest, to the scar he can almost feel under his fingers and covered by his robe. His heart stopped in surgery, he was told, almost in tears by Kevin. His heart stopped while the doctors were performing an open chest surgery.

Nick sighs softly.

He could very easily not have made it, and he would have never known why.

"This has to stop."

Nick nods softly, the words not taking him by surprise. It was a matter not talked between the five of them. Not even Alex had dared to touch it. It had been, somewhat, tacit, that the illicit substances were to stop, along with the drinking, but Kevin's words only made it more real somewhat.

"I know."

Kevin sighs softly this time, and Nick hears him moving around the room, even in the darkness of the night.

It's past visiting hours, but that hasn't stopped Kevin from entering his room before.

A hand is placed over Nick's shoulder, and Nick covers it with his own.

Nick isn't very sure when, but at some point during those late night visits in the hospital, saying good night until the next morning when Kevin would most certainly enter his hospital room, Nick placed a kiss on Kevin's lips. Kevin only kissed back.

This time, when Nick wakes up, when his eyes flutter open, he's lying on his own bed in clean clothes, and he knows how that happened. He knows how it was himself who put them, he knows at what time he went to bed, he knows how he got there, and he knows who accompanied him.

He remembers the kissing and the touching, he remembers visiting heaven and staying there for blissful seconds before he had to come back to reality, to a reality that was almost heavenly-like, more perfect that ever imagined.

Nick remembers every second, and when he turns around, blue eyes fall onto green sleepy ones, and Nick smiles.

A hand reaches out to touch Nick's cheek, and the blond leans into the touch, sighing softly in contentment.

This time, when he sleeps, he'll wake up. This time, when he breathes, he'll feel alive. This time, when he crashes, he'll have someone to catch him.

This time, he's walking into a better life. Nick can only smile for the second chance.

* Song "Better Life" by Three Doors Down. Lovely song, if you ask me.