Married Too Fast

Threatening

***Duff's POV***

I knocked on the door to Slash's house because that's where practice is now offically at I guess, and took a deep breath in.

"Hey man," Slash said to me, letting me in.

I walked in and looked at everything around, feeling awkward.

"You're early man. I'm surprised you even showed," Slash said, taking a hit of his cigarette.

"Yeah, uh, I kinda need a place to stay for a bit," I stammered.

"Oh, alright man. You can stay here," Slash nicely told me, nodding his head.

"Really?" I asked, feeling relief.

"Yeah man, of course. You're my brother basically. You shouldn't feel uncomfortable about this kind of stuff," he assured me, patting my shoulder.

"Wow Slashy," I fake cooed, "that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

"I know," Slash growled, taking his hand off my shoulder, "I didn't like it."

I laughed and started to head down to the basement with Slash following me.

"Problems with the wife?" Slash asked me as we were walking down the stairs.

"Yeah," I breathed.

He didn't say anything back and we made it to the basement.

"Steven should be here any second now. He's always the first to get here," Slash said with a slight smile on his face.

"Man, that lil' guy," I laughed, shaking my head.

There was then a knock on the door and Slash and I immediatley looked at each other.

"Why don't you get it? Make the lil' boy's day," Slash teased, blowing out a large cloud of smoke.

I chuckled and went back upstairs to open the door.

And to my surprise when I opened it, there Steven was.

"Duffy? Hey man!" he exclaimed.

"Hey Steven," I smiled as he gave me a hug.

He made his way through me and headed straight for the stairs.

"You're actually here early. Good for you," Steven said as we walked down the stairs.

"Thanks," I said back.

We made it down and Slash laughed as soon as he saw Steven.

"Steven, I told you, from now on just let yourself in. You don't gotta knock anymore," Slash told him.

"C'mon man. I'm just trying to be polite," Steven said back, sitting down behind his drumkit.

Slash and I looked at each other and laughed, heading over to our instruments.

We all started to play around with them and out came Izzy from the staircase.

"Wow. Almost the whole gang's here," Izzy said, looking at all of us.

No one responded to him and he lit a cigarette, going to his guitar.

"Okay fuckers," Axl called from upstairs, just getting into the house, "let's do this and let's do it quick."

He jogged down the stairs and went straight to the microphone.

"Let's start with Hair of the Dog by Nazareth. From the top," he ordered.

We all exchanged looks with each other, but agreed and the opening notes to the song were starting to be be played.

****
We played quite a bit of songs and decided to take a break. I sat on the couch and lit a cigarette, thinking about Tara.

"How is she?" Steven asked, plopping down next to me on the couch.

"Who?" I asked.

"Tara, Duff. Your wife."

"Oh, um, fine."

"C'mon now, that's not true. You probably wouldn't have even been here if it was, never mind being early."

He got me.

"Okay, well, we just got into a slight fight. I just left early to get away from it. We'll be fine," I lied.

"Okayyy," Steven said, clearly not believing me, "whatever you sayyy."

"Everythin's fine man," I said, patting his shoulder, "don't worry 'bout it."

He still looked very much like he didn't believe me with his raised eyebrows, staring off into the distance, drinking his beer slowly.

"Where's your wife, Duffy?" Axl smirked at me, taking a seat on the ground.

"Yeah, where is that hot piece of ass?" Izzy joined him.

"Oh, come on guys. I thought you'd be more mature. I showed up to two practices, I invited you guys out last night, the least you could do is not talk about Tara," I ranted to them.

"Did you hear anything he just said?" Axl smiled at Izzy.

"Of course not. I never do," Izzy smiled back.

Axl laughed and sipped his beer.

"Did you see how she looked yesterday? Damn, that bitch looked fine as hell," Izzy said, looking at Axl.

"Hell yeah she looked fine," Axl agreed.

Man, they're really trying to trigger me.

"Guys, please don't. Just not now," Steven pleaded to them, looking at me with fear because I probably look like I am going to explode.

"Oh Steven, don't speak up for lil' Duffy here," Axl laughed.

I stood up and stepped in front of Axl, crossing my arms, clenching my jaw.

"Get up and see how little I am. I can step on your little red head and squish you like a fucking bug," I threatened with a very serious tone in my voice, "don't talk about Tara anymore."

"Remember our deal?" Izzy stepped in, "the more you show up, the less we talk about her."

"Well, Izzy, I don't like that deal anymore," I gritted through my teeth, trying to look as intimidating as possible.

Izzy looked a bit frightened in his eyes but he wouldn't let it show in front of the other guys.

"You stop talking about her. Right here and right now. Got it?"