Hey Sugar /Guns N Roses

5 - return with a bang

Duffs pov-
It had been 5 days since my argument had gone down with axl and nobody had seen him since.
Izzy had said that after we left, axl had gotten kicked out and that he said he needed to get out for a bit to cool off. This had happened before. I remember once, Steven had left a moldy cup o' noodles in the fridge and Axl had a freak out and left for 3 days, or once slash had gotten axl the wrong brand of cigarettes and axl threw a fit and cut all of slash's guitar strings. That was one of the worse situations. Axl always came back in a good mood, I always wondered what he did on his time alone but I would never want to ask. His dissappearence this time worried us though. We have a gig in two days and we've barely practiced. If Axl doesn't come back before then, we'll have to cancel the gig. Izzy had worked so hard to make sure we could have a slot to play at the Whisky and I know we would all be dissapointed if it didn't work out.
To say that Axls moods were annoying would be an understatement,mind you, I still appreciated the hell out of him. He was an amazing writer and vocalist, and even though I don't like to admit it sometimes, he's an amazing friend. He always is there to make sure everyone stays on track (aside from when he occasionally dissappears). He's taken good care of steven,slash and I several times when we get too shit faced to function. I remember this one time, slash had gotten into an argument with some random guys at the bar, it was 3 vs 1 and the guys were all coked up and could barely feel anything slash was trying to do, Axl was the one who saved slash. He ran out to the back curb and grabbed a fucking stop sign and started swinging at the guys until they ran off.
Slash was too high to even remember that night, but I do.
I smiled to myself as I remembered another night where slash had pissed himself but he was really trying to get this girl.He was too embarrassed to go up to her since he had a huge stain on his pants so Axl made slash change into his pants and axl just wore his boxers. Slash ended up getting the girl.
I really hoped axl wouldn't be mad at me or steven when he got back. I planned on apologizing, if he did actually end up coming back.
-
I was currently perched on Astorias balcony with Bella, and some other girl that apparently went to high school with them named aryanna. She was small and busty with long brown hair. Cute really. Steven has been trying to woo her over but I don't know how that's going.
Astoria was currently working at the convenience store, slash had left half an hour ago to go "harass her" as he put it. I know that couldn't end well.
I really did like Astoria. It was funny seeing her drunk because she turned into a totally different person, she got very talkative and friendly when she was drunk. While she was sober, she usually kept to herself but we have managed to have a few good conversations. I also noticed that she blushes at practically everything. It's quite cute actually. Sometimes I challenge myself to see how many times I can make her blush in a night, Slash seems to always win without even knowing it. I can tell that she likes him and apparently the feeling is mutual, I don't know. Something about it seems wrong to me,maybe because I would love to do what slash gets to do to her, maybe I'm jealous that he gets to see her in such a vulnerable state and I don't.
I'll always remember the night she calmed me down from my anxiety. I mean it was less than a week ago but I can still feel her hand rubbing circles on my back. No one's ever calmed me down that fast, not even Izzy.
I think izzy is the only one who really understands my anxiety, the other guys know about it, they just don't know how to deal with it. I mean they all have problems of their own. Izzy is always there though. When I need to talk to him, I can just go to where he is and he will stop what he's doing to talk. It's honestly great having the friends I do,even though we may argue time to time.

"Are to guys excited for your show?" Aryanna pursed her lips and gave me a little smile.
No were going to suck because we haven't practiced and axl isn't even back yet.
"Yeah it should be alright" I mumbled while grabbing a smoke from my pocket and lighting it.
Aryanna replicated my exact actions and we both sat there puffing away at our cancer sticks.
Bella just continued to tan or whatever the hell she was doing.
The sound of a door opening and closing startled me and I turned to see Astoria opening the balcony screen door with a sketch book in hand.
My jaw dropped slightly when it saw axl standing behind her with a smirk on his face.
"Mind if we join you?"
She gave me a shy smile and then waved at the girls beside me.
"Yeah come on out, the weather is just fantastic" Bella had pushed down her sunglasses so she could see Astoria and Axl better.
"How was work Ria?" Aryanna shoved over in her chair so that Astoria could sit beside her.
"It sucked. Slash tried to steal a pack of gum as a joke so I tackled him to the ground, and while i was tackling him, some punk stole 3 lighters and a pack of fire crackers." She snorted slightly while lighting a cigarette with a match.
"But I had time to draw this, and you'll never guess what axl did" she pulled out her sketch book and flipped to a page, turning it to show us.
On the paper was a cross with lots of line work. On each end of the cross was a skull.
"Is that me?" I pointed to the skull with blonde hair,a bandana, sunglasses and one of my cross earrings.
"Yeah" she giggled slightly and my eyes continued to wander the page.
Steven had his fluffy hair, axls hair was bright red and he had his police cap on, izzy had his dark hair and a cigarette in his mouth and slash had his top hat and a cigarette as well.
"Slash wanted me to make his hair look smooth" Astoria rolled her eyes and Axl chuckled beside her.
"This is fucking amazing" I couldn't stop staring at it. It just looked so good, it made me proud of my band.
"You'll never guess what axl did though." I glanced up and made eye contact with him.
He didn't look mad. The look he gave me seemed to say thar he had already forgiven me.
"I got it tattooed" Axl revealed his arm to us all and I gasped.
"That's so fucking cool" I reached out and ran my finger along the plastic wrap that covered it.
"Did it hurt?" I glanced up to see axl smirking proudly.
"Nope, I'm tough"
"Sure. I bet you cried"
" like you did when slash ate your gold fish?"
Oh right I completely forgot about that.
So one night slash and I had gotten super drunk and I thought, hey! I should get a pet. Anyways, long story short, steven ended up daring slash to eat it and he did, yes I cried. End of story.
"Shut up" I smirked, throwing my cigarette off the balcony.
"So who's this" axl nodded towards aryanna and I could already see the interest in his eyes.
"I'm aryanna, I went to school with Arabella and astoria"
"Damn all your names are the fucking same. I'm axl" axl reached his hand out across my shoulder so that he could shake aryannas hand. I noticed his hand lingered on hers for longer than normal and I glanced over to see Astoria looking at me with an amused expression as she shook her head.
-
The guys and I had been in our apartment practicing for hours now. Our gig was tonight and I was getting pretty nervous. We didn't sound as bad as we had earlier thanks to axls triumphant return but we still weren't the greatest.
Astoria,Bella and Aryanna had gone to put up the posters that Astoria had made. She had drawn us all standing up behind a wall, surrounded my roses and two pistols. They looked pretty badass. They had all the information printed neatly on them along with the phrase "they live fast and they'll die young, see them now!" Axl had told her to add that in of course.
"We should probably pack up our stuff. We get on stage around 9" Izzy mentioned while fiddling with his guitar.
I got up and grabbed my case. It was currently covered in empty bottles of vodka and some pizza boxes.
I swatted a cockroach off of it and lifted it up, bringing it over to the couch where my bass sat.
At the show tonight we were playing some original stuff axl had written and a few covers, along with a song I had written a few weeks back when I was seeing someone else.
I shuddered at the thought of Casey. She was brutal to me but some things you have to leave in the past.
I stuffed my bass in the case along with a few random pills I had found in our bathroom cabinet.
I think they were stevens but I'm sure he wouldn't mind.
It was 6:39 right now and I could feel my stomach rumbling.
Either nerves or hunger, might as well drink some vodka.
-
Astorias pov
Bella, aryanna and I had finally managed to make it to the show. Bella was a perfectionist when it came to getting ready so that was what accounted for us being semi late.
We all looked fantastic however. Bella wore a black miniskirt and a tight leather cropped top.
Aryanna was wearing high heeled leather boots with a low cut red dress to show off her bountiful cleavage and I wore a black longsleeved v neck dress with some fishnets. We all wore red lipstick. Bella had told us that we had to play the part since we were going to a gig.
I shook my head at that.
We entered the Whisky at around 8:45. 15 minutes before the guys came on stage. The place was pretty packed and I smiled when I saw someone holding one of the posters I had made up.
The gals and I got our drinks and made our way to the front of the stage area, getting a good spot.
The lights soon began to dim and i could hear people cheering.
This had to be my first time ever going to a real concert. I could feel my stomach doing little flips. I hadn't seen the guys all day and I was eager to hear what they sounded like.
Of course I had heard them play their instruments separately, I'd even heard steven play guitar (I was suprised to hear that he was the drummer).
I had also heard axl sing a few notes but I had never heard them together.
I watched as the stage went pitch black and then the lights came on.
I almost spilt my drink when I saw them all come out.
Axl. Oh axl. What have you done to your hair!
Axls hair was teased to the nines and to be perfectly honest, after the shock died down, I realized how good he looked.
All the guys wore makeup and leather.
Slash wasn't wearing a shirt, just leather pants and a top hat. Typical.
Izzy wore his paperboy cap and a silky black shirt that was unbuttoned revealing his pale abdomen.
Axl wore a pair of suspenders and a massive belt with leather pants. I still can't get over his hair.
Steven wore a jack Daniels shirt that he had cut so his chest hair could be set free along with a pair of (you guessed it), leather pants.
Duff was wearing a black blazer with nothing underneath and I let my eyes wander his naked torso. He looked good. Really good. His hair was also teased like axls but not as crazy and he wore a bandana, like the one I had drawn him wearing in the picture.
Izzy and steven started off the set with a beat and a rhythm and I immediately recognized the song to be "smoking in the boys room" by motley crue.
The girls and I danced along to the song, sipping our drinks and enjoying ourselves. Duff had looked at me several times and I felt my cheeks heat up as he gave me a wink.
The song came to a close and I could already feel the sweat on my forehead.
The next song they played I recognized to be one of their own songs. Axl said he had written the words to it while he was out on one his little escapades and he called it 'welcome to the jungle'.
Slash had a stroke of genius while coming up to the opening rift to the song while he was sitting in my appartment a few days back.
The opening rift began and I could feel my heart begin to race. Maybe because of the drugs and alcohol, but definitely because of the music.
"Oh my god" axl moaned into the microphone causing a few ladies behind me to scream.