Carolina ~ A Slash Love Story

Welcome to the Jungle

Over the last few days at home, the boys had shot the video for 'Welcome to the Jungle,' and were now waiting for the video to circulate on Mtv. The day after the video was sent out- complete, and edited, we were back on the road with Mötley Crüe. For some reason, Izzy was being more protective- which made Slash and I wonder if he was on to us, but our paranoia wasn't strong enough to keep up from fooling around.

It had only been nine days; tonight we were in Boston, and they were heading out to adventure through the city before the show. They were either looking to stir up some trouble, or hoping to score some cheap- or better yet, free, drinks, drugs, and girls. Izzy was not having any part of the idea that I should be going with them.

"For the love of God, just stop arguing and let her come with us," Axl groaned, hanging his head off of the end of the couch.

"Stay out of it, Rose," Izzy snarled, staring at me. "I'm in charge of my sister; you can worry about everything else."

"Jesus, why don't you listen to Axl? I'm-"

"You're staying here, and that's final," my brother stated flatly.

"No, Izzy! I'm and adult, and I can go where ever I wa-"

"No, you are not. I don't care if you're an adult or not, you're safer here."

"Try to fuckin' stop me, you hard ass!" I challenged.

"I will block the damn door if I have to! I said no!"

"Fuck you! Kiss my fuckin' ass," I screamed as I stormed off of the bus, patting down my pockets for cigarettes, which, to my dismay, were not on me at the moment. With a groan, I dropped back against the bus, closing my eyes as I tried to calm down.

"You look like you could use one of these," Slash said, making me jump as he offered me his pack of Marlboro reds.

"You got that right," I grumbled, gratefully taking a cigarette, which he lit for me.

"What was that all about?"

"He's an asshole."

"I figured that would be your answer... Now, what's the initial cause?" he asked, a smart ass tone clinging to his words.

"I- he thinks that I should stay on the bus. I told him that I wanted to go hang out with you guys and he flipped."

"Doesn't he usually make you go with us?"

"Yeah, so what the fuck changed?" I asked exasperatedly.

"Eh, maybe he's crazy," he said with a laugh.

I shot him a glare, and he quieted down, but there was still pure amusement in his eyes. His silence ended once we heard Izzy and Axl begin to argue, as their fighting would 'camouflage' our conversation.

"Do you think he's guessing?"

"No; he would have said something by now," I said, brushing a fallen eyelash off of his cheek.

"Then why the fuck is he being so paranoid about you?"

"I have no idea. Did he say anything to you?"

"Just that he was worried about you getting into more trouble. He's worried that Adler's gonna influence you," he guessed.

"He needs to worry about himself," I mumbled, seeing Slash's body language change out of the corner of my eye. "What was that?"

"What?"

"That," I said, motioning to him. "You just got weird."

"What do you mean?" he asked.