This I Love

Chapter Five; A New Life With Axl

 "I'm hungry."

"I don't care."

"Obviously." I'd been in this room for two hours, Axl and I staring each other down while starting and ending screaming matches. My throat hurt from all the yelling but I wasn't going to stop trying to point out how ridiculous he was being. "I need to pee", I stated.

"No you don't." He continued twirling his key in his fingers.

"I just started my period."

"Then use this." Axl threw me an old bandanna which I refused.

"No."

"Then bleed all over everything. See if I care."

I pouted and glared as he jiggled the padlock on the door. "You know I can just climb out the window again?" I asked.

"That's what I'm here for. So ya don't."

"You're a dick."

"I know."

"Just because you have one doesn't mean you hafta be one", I grumbled, sitting on the floor by his bed. Axl crossed the room and plopped down on the mattress over me. I kept my eyes on the door, refusing to accept the fact his hateful blue eyes were burning holes in my skin.

"Did I do that?" Without waiting for an answer, Axl picked up my wrist which until this point, I hadn't noticed had developed bruises. "Shit, Turner. You should've said something."

"Izzy did. He told you to put me down. And if you're not gonna listen to Stradlin, why the fuck would you listen to me?" I snarled, ignoring his fingers tracing the tender skin on my arm. We sat there in silence, Axl holding my arm over my head so he could examine it while I chewed on my lip.

"Here." I continued to ignore him as he wrapped something around my wrist and tied it. "Now, you just have a cool punk rock accessory." He dropped my wrist and slithered down onto the floor with me and I saw he'd wrapped his bandanna around my forearm, resulting in his red hair sticking up at weird angles. His wrapping fit nice and was just loose enough that it wouldn't chafe my bruises but the knot was tight so it wouldn't slip off.

"Thank you", I mumbled. Axl shifted next to me and lit a cigarette.

"It's only right", he shrugged. "Can't just go around hurting people and not trying to help with the aftermath."

"How many times do I have to say that I've had worse?"

Axl frowned and crawled to his knees in front of me. "You keep saying that", he murmured. "What does that mean? You act like that gun was your whole life? I bet it was scary but that doesn't mean you're not already doing better here. I'm the only one who owns a pistol and that's only in case someone breaks in."