Reconnoiter || Guns N Roses, David Bowie, Bon Jovi

Reconnoiter: Thirteen

"And then we just... ran! This huge ass mob, I'm telling you! He took my hand and we just... ran, like they all had fucking AIDS or something," I was hiccuping from all the laughter, and so was Bret. He had an arm casually hanging around my shoulder as I told the story to the rest of his band mates, standing in a quiet corner backstage.

"I was so out of breath, and I asked Jon what the hell we were doing! He's super in shape, but I guess I'm not, because I told him I'd had enough. So he pulled me into this alley, and we literally hid there until the whole mob was gone. I swore I'd never hated groupies more than I had in that moment then," I finished, wiping a tear of joy from my eye. "I don't know, Bret," said the drummer, Rikki. "She's pretty in shape to me."

Bret winked down at me, nodding his head in agreement. "I think so too, but what about Jon?" C.C asked. "Yeah, you guys sound pretty close." Bret inquired. "Oh, well... we kinda used to be, for like... a little while. I think he felt a certain way about me, but I never did let him act on it. We don't... talk that much anymore."

"Oh, that's too bad." Bret said that just a little too quickly, tightening his arm around me even more. "Would you like some beer?" Rikki offered, but I turned his bottle down. "Nah, I never did like the taste of that stuff. Oh, I know! I'll tell you about the time me and Axl almost got arrested outside the Lincoln Memorial."

Bret stopped for a second, peering down at me curiously. "Axl Rose, you mean?"

"Yeah," I said cheerily, and the four band members exchanged wary glances. "What's wrong?"

Rikki leaned over and whispered to Bret, rather loudly I guess. "I heard he finally got a steady girlfriend, if you know what I mean. If this is her, we shouldn't." Bret glanced over both of his shoulders, running a hand through his almost whitish hair. "I don't see him," he almost laughed, and his hand dropped to my waist.

"Bret?" I said uneasily, and he looked at me like he'd almost forgotten I was there. "Go on with your story, doll. Have some of this." He handed me a red plastic cup that smelled strongly like alcohol. I had no intention of drinking it but I took it anyay, for the sole purpose of being polite to him.

"So we'd bought these really cheap bottles of Riesling, and we somehow thought it was a great idea to break into the Lincoln memorial at night, just to say we'd done it. I'm awesome at hacking security systems, so we got inside pretty easily." Bret's side was pressed against mine, and he was staring at the cup. "It's Lime Vodka Sour, you'll like it."

All of a sudden I felt like someone was staring at me. No, I knew someone was staring at me, so I turned my head to look.

It was Axl, looking like he was about ready to burst into flames for whatever reason. "Michaels!" He barked from across the room, and everything became still in an instant. Rikki's body jolted, and judging by his facial expression you would've thought that Axl was the devil or something. "Dude, let go of the chick!"

Bret seemed slightly disturbed, if anything. "I'm good. Aren't you gonna tell me the story, doll?"

Axl was there and wrenching me out of Bret's grasp before I could even open my mouth to respond. I stumbled backward, right into Slash's chest. He steadied me before moving aside to watch the scene before us unfold. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He growled, more fearsome than I'd ever heard him sound.

"Nothing, what's your problem?"

"Nothing? You call trying to get into my girlfriend's pants nothing?" I smiled for a brief second, proud of myself for knowing the figure of speech he used, before I remembered what was happening and sobered quickly. "I wasn't trying to-" "Don't fucking lie to me, bitch." Bret let out an airy chuckle, rolling those giant blue eyes of his. "Alright, so? I didn't know she was yours."