Married Too Fast

We're Not Like Other Married Couples

***Duff's POV***

I don't know why I said what I did. I practically broke up with her and had no reason to. I guess all the anger from everything caught up with me and I exploded.

I can't just go and apologize to her, she wouldn't forgive me, she despises me enough already. I think I freaked out because I was starting to get scared that I started to feel strongly towards her. I haven't felt this protective or strongly towards her since we first started dating. Normal married couples are always supposed to love each other, but not us. We aren't fucking normal.

I then remembered I had hidden money in my sock drawer in case of emergencies, and I think this is one.
I ran to my room and frantically opened my sock drawer, digging through all the pairs of socks I had.

I finally found the wad of cash and saw it was just enough to pay off the rent. I beamed excitedly at the money in my hand and closed my sock drawer, starting to run to Larry.

You would think that I wouldn't get so excited over a wad of cash I found in my sock drawer because I'm a bassist in a rock band, but boy, are you wrong. We haven't really made our big break yet so we're all still kind of struggling for money. It was a blessing that Tara and I even had enough money to live in the loft we live in now.

I made it to Larry's office and barged in, causing him to jump up.

"Damn it Duff. What is it?" he said angrily, clearly upset that he got scared.

I confidently handed him the wad of cash and he raised an eyebrow at me as he picked it up from my open palm.

He then counted each bill one by one and looked satisfied.

"Well, good for you. You paid off last month's rent. You better be on time this month will all the money. I won't be letting y'all off the hook so easy anymore," he said.

I nodded and quickly headed out of his office back to the loft to tell Tara I paid off the rent so hopefully she won't be too pissed at me.

I made it to the loft and ran to Tara's office, seeing her doing her school work, her cheeks puffy, eyes red, makeup smeared.

My God. Has she been crying?

"Tara?" I asked softly, quietly entering through the door.

She looked up at me and immediatley looked down.

"I paid off the rent," I told her.

She looked up at me again with a more surprised expression.

"What do you mean?" her voice cracked.

"I paid off the rent. I found some money of mine and paid it off. I hope you know I didn't mean what I said earlier," I said.

"What? You mean us parting ways? That?" she barked back.

"Yeah," I sighed deeply, "that."

"Well, whatever. I don't really care so it doesn't matter," she shrugged, clearly trying to play off that she didn't care when I know she does.

"Okay, well, that's good then," I breathed, "just know I really didn't mean that."

"Great. Can you leave now?"

I stared at her for a bit while she ignored me and I inhaled deeply, hoping to catch her attention, and walked out of her office.

Damn that girl is something else.

The phone then started to ring and I quickly headed over to the landline in our main room and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Duff," Slash's voice said.

"What?" I asked.

"Lucky for you, we don't got band practice today. I don't know why I'm even tellin' you this because you probably wouldn't have shown up anyway, but I figured might as well call you," he said.

"Oh. Why is it canceled?"

"Axl's throat hurts or somethin'," he replied, "so we thought we'd not have practice today. We for sure have one tomorrow though. Same time. Be there."

"Plannin' on it."

Slash then hung up the phone and I did the same.

I then got myself a bottle of beer, cracked it open, and began to chug.

"Who called?" Tara asked me, popping out of nowhere, heading to the fridge.

"Uh, Slash," I weirdly responded.

"What he want?" she asked, getting a yogurt out.

"To tell me that band practice is canceled 'cause Axl is being a little pussy 'cause his throat probably hurts a lil' bit," I answered.

She nodded and grabbed herself a spoon for her yogurt.

"Well, listen, I didn't want to tell you this, but now, it looks like I gotta," she breathed, clearly bothered by something.

"What is it?" I asked, watching her stick the spoon full of yogurt in her mouth slowly, licking all of the yogurt off, slightly turning me on.

"My friend from high school invited me to like this fancy party thing at some fucking banquet hall somewhere tonight. Everyone's bringin' like their husbands and boyfriends or at least some kind of date and I need to bring someone and you're my husband so..."

"Yeah," I nodded, "I'll go."

She looked up at me with surprise and raised her eyebrows.

"Really?"

"Yeah," I said, "really. When's it at and how fancy do I have to look?"

"It starts at seven-thirty, but we oughta be there by seven-fifteen. And you gotta look pretty fancy. Wear that white tux you got," she told me.

"Okay," I shrugged.

"Well, this is kind of shocking," she breathed with a slight smile.

"What is?" I questioned.

"You going with me as my date. I don't know, I just thought you wouldn't really do this for me," she said, looking down at her yogurt, playing with her spoon.

"I'm your husband, Tara. Spouses do stuff like this for each other."

"Well, clearly we're not like other maried couples."