This I Love

Chapter Eleven; Enter Erin

*How much do you love me? Enough to check out MusicFic24's unreasonably amazing story Reconnoiter? Do you love me enough to let that just obliterate your brains? :O (it's completed blown mine to pieces) Find it, love it, thank me later :3* 

"Hey, you okay?" My head spun, the light in the bedroom semi-blinding me as a brunette rubbed my shoulder. "You hit the bar pretty hard last night", said the beaming face of Madison. I sat up in what I assumed was her bed and rubbed my eyes. "I brought you some aspirin."

"Not necessary", I yawned. "Is this your place?"

Madison nodded, still smiling. "Yeah. My roommate and I brought you back last night. You were hanging out at one of the clubs and were pretty plastered. You kept talking about some guy?"

"I don't remember", I groaned. God, I felt sick.

"It sounded like an ex and he sounds like a douche", Madison said matter-of-factly. "It's alright. You can stay with us! Here, I'll make us breakfast, cool?"

She stood up and headed for the door so I (tried) to follow. Quietly, I stumbled out into what looked like a great room, the kitchen right in front of us with a bar style counter separating us from the living room. On the couch painting her toe nails was a remarkably pretty girl with big brown waves and a natural, almost cherub like face. "Hey, you're Scarlette?" the pretty girl greeted, hardly looking up from her red toes. "I'm Erin. Erin Everly. Maddie's room mate."

Erin. Everly. Her name bounced in my head like a rock from a slingshot. Shit. If I was a guy, I'd be pissed about her dumping me too. She was gorgeous with a nice, sugary, soft spoken voice. Erin glanced up carefully with blue eyes that would so perfectly match Axl's. If I could get lost in that sky blue, there was no way in Hell he couldn't. "Do you want to come sit down?" she asked. My feet carried me to the spot of the couch she gestured to where I gingerly sat down, like any movement from the couch would shatter her. "Do you feel better?" she wondered.

"Yeah, I'm fine", I lied. Maybe it wasn't a lie because physically, I DID feel better. But emotionally, mentally, I was lost.

"Cool", Erin smiled.

"I called us both out of work, by the way", Madison called from the kitchen. "I didn't know how long you were going to be out."

"Thank you", I murmured.

"We should do something fun today", Erin suggested. "From the sounds of it, last night wasn't a good night for you and I've been having a pretty sucky week too."

"Because of that creep", Madison said with disgust.

"A creep?" I asked.

Erin waved her hand in the air. "Yeah, it's kind of a long story but the short version is my ex husband keeps trying to come over and it's just not working out."

"Ex husband", I repeated.

The pretty girl nodded. "I was married to this guy Axl who was super abusive and we got annulled. And it probably should've been a hint when he proposed by saying I could either marry him or he'd kill himself. Weird right? Then he goes around cheating with Izzy's girlfriend, with Slash's girlfriend, with Steven's girlfriend. Anyone he could find. And he just flew into this rage all the time and I just couldn't take it." Erin sighed. "But we all make mistakes, right? I mean, we're annulled now."

"Y-yeah. Way to go!" I agreed.

Erin capped her nail polish before running her hand through my hair. "You're really pretty", she said. "That's what we can do! Maddie, we can go shopping! And go to that place that does the glamour shots! I wanna dress you up like Jamie Lee Curtis!"

"Don't cut off her hair!" Madison argued.

"I don't have any money", I interjected before they could go any further. Madison walked around the bar top to show me a plastic card with the name Alexander Johnston on it.

"We have a credit card, sweetie", Madison beamed. "Daddy gave it to me when I moved out here. We can put as much as we want on there and pay it all off later."

That sounded like a terrible idea. Credit cards were an easy way to find yourself in a hole. "I don't want you to pay for me", I stated. "I-"

"No, no. This is our treat! My treat!" Madison proclaimed. "Now go get dressed! Erin might have some stuff you could wear!"

"Because your boobs are so big", Erin scoffed, pulling me off the couch. I followed the pretty brunette to a different bedroom where she started eyeballing me and throwing things around. I watched as lace, cotton, denim, and silk flew by in a whirlwind of colours onto the bed. "We could make you look like Michelle Pfeiffer!" she gasped, throwing me a black blouse with dark washed, tight jeans. "Here, you get dressed in here. I'm going to go raid Maddie's make up kit. Your lips should be red. It'll draw attention to those blue eyes!"

I waited awkwardly for Erin to leave the room. Silently, I slipped out of my t-shirt and cut off shorts, the same shorts I'd worn to the Hell House. My clothes were so trashy compared to Erin's. Maybe that's what I could do? I mean, Nikki was right. I was pretty much a groupie. With Erin and Madison's help, maybe I could learn to dress smart and get a normal job as a receptionist or something, like Axl had suggested. At 21, it was probably time to grow up and give up on the party scene. I liked that idea. That's more than likely why everything was happening. I was just hanging out with children.

My mind considered possibilities while I looked around the room. As I buttoned up the shirt, my eyes found a stack of papers on the dresser. Curiosity got the better of me and before I knew it, my hand was shuffling through them, occasionally stopping to adjust a button as I began reading poems and love letters. In harsh, sharp, capitalized print were the memories of Axl Rose, strewn over Erin's dresser like faxes or bills to be paid. A knock on the door forced me to shove everything back into a neat pile before Erin came bursting in.

"Ma belle, we are going to make you look amazing!" Erin beamed, waving a brush in the air. "If we see your ex today, he's going to be so fucking pissed he let you slip through his fingers!"

"We'll see about that", I laughed. Erin smiled and immediately set to work, covering my face in products I couldn't recognize (half of them, I couldn't pronounce). I wasn't allowed to see what she came up with until she'd also finished my hair, something I didn't realize we were going to do. Erin pulled and tugged and brushed and sprayed before I finally figured out she was just teasing it. After deciding she was okay with the look, Madison came bursting in which prevented me from seeing the fully finished product. Instead, I got pushed outside to a small red Pontiac and chauffeured to the best mall the two girls could find.  

**Already working on part 13 ;P sorry, this so doesn't feel on par anymore**