Anxious but brave

Nathan Nibbs || 22 || Business Management Major Part of Coronaislandhq

[nibblcs]

do you think tootles is going too far defending you?

“I think it’s...a little extreme but I know it’s just because he’s upset and cares. I suppose if it had been him that had been stabbed I would be pretty upset too.”

@tylertootlesanderson

[nibblcs]

how do you feel knowing wendy thinks you only want to be her friend so that you can get in her pants?

“What?! She thinks that? I-- That’s not my intention at all. I genuinely care about her and would never take advantage of her. Who the hell is spreading these lies?”

@sewingshadows

[nibblcs]

Why wendy?

“Because she’s beautiful and kind and always has the best stories. She’s a great person and anyone would be lucky to have her.I just hope I’m that lucky. She’s one of the most caring people I know and I think she deserves to be shown the same kindness and care.”

@sewingshadows

[nibblcs]

favorite thing about being in a band?

“I think letting my creative side flow and being able to express myself in a way I want.”

[nibblcs]

do you think that if you hadn't been the one who was stabbed, that it would have been one of your other friends? and if so, how would you reacted to it?

“I think so, yeah. I’m pretty sure I was stabbed to get me and my band out of the competition. I would be really upset if it were one of my friends and would do what I could to help them.”

[nibblcs]

Maybe it was tink that stabbed you?

“I know for a fact she didn’t. I remember it being a man. She was the one that found me though.”

@missbxll

[nibblcs]

who’s your least favorite of the lost boys?

“Probably myself. Everyone else is so cool and I’m just...me. It’s kind of pathetic.”

[nibblcs]

who do you think stabbed you?

I honestly don’t know. Part of me wants to know but part of me is scared to find out the answer too. All I know it was some guy I had never seen before. I don’t think the intention was to kill me and nothing was stolen so it had to have been planned, right? Someone that wanted me out of the competition maybe...

[nibblcs]

{teresa}

“Don’t say that,” she demands, reaching out to hit him but stopping herself at the last moment when she remembers his injury. Lowering her hand, Tink just shakes her head. “You guys are still going to win. You can use the recordings of the guitar - we’ll get you a stool or something so you can just sit and sing. It’ll be fine. There’s no way they’ll deny you guys this. It wouldn’t be fair. The Muses are probably using musical backing tracks - so why can’t you?”

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “Okay, you’re right. If other bands do it we can too.” It wasn’t his favorite thing to do but they didn’t have time to wait for another solution. If they lost though he would blame himself because he knew he wasn’t preforming at his best. He slowly sat back up and got off the bed. “We need to go. Have you called the boys?”

[nibblcs]

{melpomene}

“if you change your mind about that i promise i won’t take it personally.” she smiles, despite the circumstances, because she’s pleasantly surprised at just how kind he is. mel honestly hadn’t known what to expect, but something along the lines of a fire breathing asshole was on the right track given how clio spoke about tyler. mel sits in a chair across from him, a little surprised he’s willing to talk to her about some of his concerns. “not sure if it’s deeply against your brand but…there’s nothing wrong with just playing a pre-recorded track for the guitar parts. literally no one can fault you for it.” mel knows that some musicians can get a little testy about pre-recorded backing tracks but so long as it’s not lip singing she can’t see the harm. “unless you’ve got a backup guitarist ready to go.” she shrugs, because that seems unlikely and a part of her knows asking a friend to learn all their songs in a few hours is even more unlikely. “fair.” mel nods, smiling softly at his admission. “well, trauma induced anxiety is my specialty actually.” she says it a lot more triumphantly and humorously than she should, given how true those words are for her unfortunate series of a life. but who is she if not someone who jokes her way through the bad shit? “diaphragmatic breathing and relaxing visuals combined helped me, seperately it hardly did shit but together i swear by it. it won’t solve everything, but it’s a start. and for the pain…well I’ve never met a pain a couple of shots couldn’t dull.” the last part is mostly a joke, though she wouldn’t be shocked if Nathan wanted to get drunk. he’d deserve it. hell, she’d even buy him the liquor herself.

“I don’t think I will.” And even if he did change his mind he doubted he would kick her out unless she really pissed him off somehow. Most times he just bit his tongue and endured things until they passed. “Listen...I’m sorry about Tyler. He’s a little...hot headed. But once you get to know him he’s a good guy. I know that probably doesn’t really mean anything coming from his best friend but it’s true. He’s also very passionate about this competition.” He knew Tyler was going to point fingers too and that wasn’t a bridge Nathan wanted to cross. “I did debate that since we don’t have anyone else to play the part. It’s not my favorite thing to do but I think it’s my only option as of now.” He rose an eyebrow at the fact it was her ‘specialty’ but he wasn’t one to pry. “I do a lot of breathing exercises. Helps with my anxiety. Well, sometimes. Most times I still have panic attacks. Maybe I’m not doing them right. Paired with visuals though...that might do something.” Nathan found it oddly easy to talk to her and actually felt a little more at ease about going on stage. He laughed softly. “Alcohol is a nice temporary fix or weed if you’re into that thing. I don’t like to go on stage when I’m not sober though.”

[jerriescuddles]

clearing out my camera roll 2555/?

[nibblcs]

@slightlysawyer​

[nibblcs]

{teresa}

Well shit. No way could he play tomorrow if he had to keep that splint on, and Tink highly doubted they’d let him take it off even for the short term of the concert. As much as she wanted The Lost Boys to win and prove themselves as the best band on the island, that shouldn’t come at the cost of any of their general safety or health. “We can talk to whoever’s in charge. Something will get figured out. Even if I have to learn how to play guitar over night - you guys are still going up there and going to fucking win.”

“What’s to figure out? We’re going to fucking lose. I can’t play top notch like this.” He furrows his brow together. It’s predictable of him to go to the worst case scenario. “Actually, no. I’m not going to let everyone down. I can’t. Maybe we can have the guitar parts played through the speakers. It might be hard to pull off but...it’s a possibility. We have recordings of everything so it might work.”

[nibblcs]

{teresa}

Tink wants to push for more. To scream that’s not enough information - anyone could fit that description. But then she sees how obviously rough he was taking this and figures that can wait till later. Maybe when the other boys were here. Then they could all discuss how they’re going to track down and murder whoever the fuck did this to Nibs. Taking a deep breath and counting to ten like she’d read was good for anger, the blonde tries to let her frustrations go. It helps a little bit, not much, but just enough for her to focus instead on the worry inside of her instead of being consumed by the anger. “Can you even hold your guitar right now?” she asks, though a lot less harsh this time than before. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Tink takes his hand into her own and laces her fingers through his, giving it a small squeeze. “We’ll figure something out. Maybe you can just sing and they’ll let you guys find a replacement guitarist for the show?”

Nathan was tired. Who wouldn’t be after what he’d gone through? He closed his eyes to fight back the tears threatening to fall. “No. I don’t know. Not without being in pain. They want me to wear this stupid fucking splint to prevent me from moving my shoulder too much.” He feels her hand squeeze his and opens his eyes to look at her. “Maybe. I can still sing that’s for sure.”

[nibblcs]

{melpomene}

“well then we’ve gotta help you relax until you heal. we’ll put a don’t bother nathan sign on the door, even though it…also applies to me.” mel smiles brightly, though she’s once again hit with a pang of guilt once she thinks about his words agin. it’s really an unfortunate situation he finds himself in, and she can’t imagine what he’s going through both physically and emotionally. “well i’m glad.” she nods, standing the card up next to the flowers and tying the balloons on one of the chairs just to give her hands something to do. “oh sweetie,” mel doesn’t like what she’s hearing one bit, but it’s not really her place to demand he lay down. she can still suggest it though. “you’re not gonna be any good to the other boys or your fans if you don’t at least try to rest a bit before you guys go on.” then it occurs to her that maybe he had tried to at least take a nap but something beat out his desire to rest. “are you…having trouble sleeping? like, pain or…anxiety? cause I’ve got some tricks that could help maybe?”

“You’re not bothering me, no worries,” he assured her. He sat in the char that the balloons were tied to, facing her. Part of him wants to give her the cold shoulder but that just wasn’t the type of person he was. Nathan was a kind, timid soul and he didn’t like confrontation. “I know. In truth, I don’t really know how I’m going to preform.” It wasn’t something he should probably be sharing with the competition. He would be damned if he didn’t though. He would no matter how much pain he was in. He couldn’t let everyone down. He let out a dry laugh. “I have those issues on a normal day. Any tricks would be appreciated though.”

[nibblcs]

{teresa}

“Well try harder. Think. You had to get at least somewhat of a look at him,” Tink insists, beginning to pace at the end of his bed. Her face was a blotchy red from the anger and worry she’d been dealing with since the moment she’d found him bleeding out his shoulder. Gods when she found out who did this, it was over for them. Nothing was going to stop her, not even Nibs saying he didn’t want more violence. Not that his trying to calm her down ever really worked well. The only thing that stops her from continuing on is the yelp of pain he lets out, which stops her dead in her tracks and has her whipping around to look at him. “Sit still for one thing,” she commands, moving over to stand by his side. “And who cares about the fucking concert right now. You were stabbed.” 

“I-- I don’t know! Um... Dark hair. Really dark eyes. He had a knife. That’s obvious though. I really don’t remember much.” He slowly leans back into the bed again and sighs. Taking deep breaths elevated his shoulders and caused pain. Hearing he was stabbed made everything finally feel real and brought into perspective. “I know. Everything happened so fast I don’t really remember it happening. I just remember the pain.” He looks over at her. “I care about the concert. I have to preform.”

[nibblcs]

{melpomene}

“oh!” mel frowns, watching him jump and wince in pain at the motion sent a wave of guilt through her. she hadn’t meant to catch him off guard enough to make him jump. “i’m so sorry.” she apologizes quickly. she almost asks if he’s alright but stops herself because, what a dumb question. “it’s nothing.” she shakes her head at his comment about it being kind. “i wish there was something more we could do, but this is a start.” mel does mean it, whether he believes her or not is a different story. “yeah, of course!” and with his invitation she steps into the room, setting the gifts they brought on the table. the quiet, now distrusting part of her wants to just let that be that and leave, but kindness wins over her wariness of him. plus, he was in no condition to do anything to hurt or humiliate her so she figures there’s no point of being nervous around him. “shouldn’t you be resting?” she asks, unable to quell her role as the caretaker. “laying down at least until the show?”

“It’s okay. I’m a jumpy person. Not ideal for the situation I’m in,” he said with a halfhearted laugh. “It’s something. I do appreciate it. It was very kind of you all.” How bad could she be if she was delivering him balloons and flowers? Sure, it could be some trick but Nibs didn’t think it was. “Uh, well, yes. I was discharged from the hospital not too long ago. Was told to get lots of rest and take two pain pills every four to six hours. Very strict instructions. I can’t miss the show though.”

[nibblcs]

{teresa}

Pacing across the waiting room, it was taking everything in Tink to not just burst down the doors and find Nibs’s room on her own. If she had known it was going to take this long, she would have demanded to go back with him from the start - regulations and rules be damned. But thankfully right as she was starting get close to losing her shit a nurse came by to tell her he was ready for visitors and should be discharged soon. The nurse gave a whole warning about how she needed to be gently and careful with him, which Tink only half listened to, nodding her head until finally the she was guided back towards his room. As soon as the nurse walked off, the blonde was quick to open the door and storm right in. “Who the fuck did this to you? What did they look like? Did you know them? I swear to god Nibs, I’m going to fucking murder them for this.” @nibblcs​

Everything had happened so fast. One minute Nathan was having the time of his life at the music fest and the next he was being cornered by some man. Then there was blood. God there was so much blood. And pain. The pain was unlike something he’d ever felt. Then everything was fuzzy. He saw a flash of blonde and then everything was black. When his eyes finally fluttered open he felt more pain. Pain from the bright florescent lights in his eyes and pain in his shoulder. He tried to sit up and yelled out in pain, causing a nurse to rush in. Soon enough he was unconscious again from the pain medicine being administered through the IV. The second time he woke up the lights were dimmed. He glanced around and recognized he was in a hospital room. Memories came flashing back. The strange man with eyes he would never forget. A flash of silver and then the pain. He had been stabbed. The realization flooded him with anxiety and the heart monitor started beeping. The same nurse rushed back in and once he was calm she had the doctor explained what happened. It was a lot to take in. He had a lot of questions running through his head but no answers. The medicine made him woozy. A little while passed and he was told he could leave soon. Then Tink came storming in. He wasn’t hooked up to the heart monitor anymore at that point but his heart rate picked up. “I don’t know anything, Tink. I don’t think we need anymore violence either.” He closed his eyes again. He remembered some details. Mostly the man’s eyes and the pain. He remembered how scared he was when he finally thought he was going to die. He had never been scared of death before, having tried to take his own life once before, but in that moment he realized he wasn’t ready. Then he remembered the competition. “The concert!” He sat up quickly and yelled out in pain again. “Fuck!” He groaned. “What am I supposed to do now?”