Love Bites

Chapter 14 - Strange Kind Of Woman

- On tour? Like, seriously?

Elle's silvery laugh broke the silence that has been kept for long enough to be creepy. They've been sitting in the cafe in downtown for good three hours and have already been catching displeased looks from waiters and occassional visitors. Most of this time, a good 3/4, Elle's been talking nonsttop, and Izzy has been listening to her, trying not to miss a word that escaped her pinkish plump lips.

- Yeah, for real. I am not sure for how long exactly, but they say, around one and a half years.

- O-oh, so long! That's kinda sad, Izzy. I will miss you, - Elle promised, blowing out a ring of smoke and putting her hand with a cigarette gripped between her finger so that it would touch Izzy's while being moved but wouldn't lay close to it. He felt a few shivers running down his soine.

- Great...See, I mean, perhaps you could..you know, go to one of the shows or something.

- So you invite me? That's so incredibly cute. I am totally telling everyone Guns N' Roses guitarist himself wants to see me at his concert.

Izzy could clearly see the irony in her voice but he didn't know what to say in reply. To be honest with himself, he was at loss for words every time he took a glance at her, so he tried avoiding looking. There was something so elusive about Elle that made him feel a tad awkward.  He toyed with the napkin, not knowing where to put his hands. Lifting his eyes from the table, he caught a cheeky smirk of hers.

- When are you going? 

- Probably sometime in late summer, the dates are not set in stone yet.

- So we still have some time in reserve.

That short word "we" made Izzy's heart beat a little faster. He liked the idea of him and her together. The little French accent she added whenever she wanted to play charming made Izzy want to speak French to her, but he only remembered "très bien" that his school language teacher liked to repeat. 

- Yeah...yes, we do. And I think we should use it.

Elle's eyes dropped, mostly because she wanted to pretend to be abashed, but also because she knew it would make her lashes look longer and prettier. Then she quickly eyed Izzy up and gave him another playful smile. 

At first, it all started as an act of amusement, but, to her own surprise, Elle was pretty impressed with Izzy and his poorly hidden interest in her. It was flattering and pleasant, and maybe it was time to change her initial intentions.

- Nice...We are hitting your's?

If it wasn't time to act then it would probably never be. It didn't help that Izzy has been seeing impressive, vivid, realistic dreams where he boned her nearly every night this week.

- Sure. But let me drink up my coffee firstly.

- Ha!

Elle really liked the way he reined her back with that. With every minute, she enjoyed him more and more. And the feeling that she shouldn't do that right now only made things more thrilling.

Having finished his coffee that has already turned cold, Izzy got up and watched Elle put on her leopard print blazer, feeling the giddiness inside him rise. His head was slightly dizzy. He was in love like he hasn't been since he was sixteen.

***

Duff's been sitting by the phone receiver for two hours straight, and still anybody has yet to pick the phone up. He's been trying to get through since the weekend. He was worn out and angry at himself.

Charlie's been sitting by the phone for one and a half hours straight, and it still hasn't stopped ringing. She's been trying to make the  noise quieter by pressing a pillow against it. She was tired and proud of herself.

Charlotte didn't really have much experience in freezing men out. Frankly, she has never been as popular with guys as she was recently. Yesterday nobody needed her, and today she was like universe's centre.

Ticked off, Duff spat on the carpet. It would be okay if she only picked the goddamn handset and didn't even say a thing. He wanted to hear his breathe, curse, giggle. Who was he fooling, he wanted her so bad.

Charlie breathed out with relief and put the pillow away. When she was younger, she could never imagine herself having a relationship - now she understood why. It turned out to be hella difficult, especially know, sitting there and not answering when she wanted to do it so much.

Suddenly somebody touched Duff's shoulder, making him shudder from surprise. Steven was out, and the other rarely peeked into the room, so he didn't expect anybody to get in.

- Hey dude...

Slash sat down next to him, lighting up with Duff's lighter. Having seen a whole lotta cigarette butts and an empty bottle on the floor at two pm, he realized something wasn't going quite right for Duff.

- What? - Duff snapped aggressively, reaching out for another bottle and opening it. 

- Call her one more time. She'll answer.

Somehow the whole band and just generally everybody around knew about his relationship with Charlie. People were supposed to think rock stars didn't get madly love-struck like ordinary folk, but in fact, all of them have gone through this at least one more time.

- She fucking won't, - Duff objected stubbornly, taking a gulp. Slash shook his head.

- She will. If you're up the wall, she's ran out of patience, too. I give you my fucking word.

Duff want to disagree, but they were both interrupted by a loud moaning sound. They exchanged glances. Slash arched an eyebrow.

- Is Axl home?

- He's not. He's getting his nails done or some shit like that, - Slash muttered, shaking the ashes off his cigarette.

- Okay...Steven's out...

- And I am here. So...you understand what it means?

- Sure...

- Whizzy's got some pussy!

They both burst into uncontrollable laughter. Not like Izzy was an outsider, but he was widely know more humping his guitar more often than women.

- Who's the lucky gal?

- God only knows. But she must be hella nutty, I mean, to distract him from his strings! That must take a freaking lot of effort.

Another moan followed, and Slash chuckled again, but Duff didn't. He knit his brows with a crazy thought of Charlotte havin' it with Izzy running through his head. As a matter of a fact, she was now free to choose any guy she wanted to, but the very idea of that made him sick to his stomach. 

- What'va. Go, call her, - Slash turned back to him, frowning.

- Fuck off. Who are you, a procurer?

- I just don't wany you snivelling when she's dumped you. Like they all did because you're a dickhead.

Chances are he was right, after all. There had been that story with a girl Duff had everything serious with, and they even planned to get married, but he had ruined everything with not being able to keep his dick in his pants. Even she, in spite of being a stripper herself, couldn't tolerate that, but with girls like her he knew it was slightly more or less than enough to just say he's sorry and that it wouldn't happen again. However, Charlie wasn't like that. She was another kind of girl, kinda weird, kinda funny, and completely unfamiliar to Duff. Maybe that was what kept him hooked.

Nevertheless, it resulted him in picking up the handset just after Slash left the room. He dialed the number that he'd already dialed so many time he learned it by heart. Beep, beep...

- Hello, Charlotte's speaking! 

__________________________

♪ Deep Purple - Strange Kind Of Woman

Author's note: So, the story now has 1K reads, and I want to say thank you to every one of you. You're the best! Also, I changed the cover because the girl on the new one looks much more like what I imagine Charlie to be. What do you think?

On the side note, the song I chose isn't exactly about Charlotte or Elle, but they appear to be that "strange kind" to Duff and Izzy. Read, comment, vote!