This I Love

Chapter Eighteen, Trust Me

 A knocking on the door woke me up and while I would've been annoyed with it, finding Axl shuffling around his record player to drown the sound out was a bit of a welcomed sight. Seeing him so casually glaring at the door like it was bothering him too made me feel a little less disgusted with the offender. "Go away," he called over a WASP record.

"Dude, where's Scar?" questioned Izzy's muffled voice.

"Here," I mumbled, sitting up on the bed. Axl's eyes shifted over to me for a split second.

"She's fine," he yelled back. "Just go."

"I hafta take her back to Erin's!"

"She's fucking fine!" Axl snapped back. "She'll BE fine. Don't worry!" Izzy let out a loud groan from the other side of the door before Axl carefully brought the music down to a tolerable decibel and joined me on the bed. "Good morning," he greeted brightly.

"Morning," I murmured. I waited for Axl to say something but he didn't. His eyes gazed at me intently and for a fraction of a moment, I realized just how blue they were. The longer we sat in silence, the more shy I started to feel so I pulled the bed sheets up around me to hide in. "These smell nice," I said awkwardly.

Axl cocked his head a little. "That's impressive," he said with a little awe. "I...don't actually remember the last time I washed them."

"That sounds sanitary," I laughed, earning a chuckle from him too. "So if Izzy's going to drop me off later, do you have plans for the day?"

"Yeah. Slash got you an interview at Tower Video today so I'm gonna take you there. Then I thought we could go to the Troubadour."

"What's at the Troub?" I wondered.

Axl sent me a wink. "Stuff," he mused. "You don't need to ask questions, just trust me alright?"

"Okay? Well, if I'm going to an interview I should look presentable. Which means I need a toothbrush, a shower, and some clothes," I pointed out.

He shrugged. "Your morning breath doesn't suck and your hair doesn't look that bad," he smiled. "You just need a shirt!"

"Fresh underwear and socks don't really hurt."

"So whiny." At first, I thought Axl was getting fussy but then I heard yet another laugh come out of him. He was weirdly giggly today.

"You're in a good mood," I noted.

Axl swatted at the air before reaching into his back pocket for a pack of cigarettes. "No point in being so angry all the time," he informed. "Especially after last night. I realized you were right and there wasn't anything I could've done so instead of living in the past, I'll focus on what's going on right now."

"That makes sense," I agreed. I picked at my lip for a moment before glancing back at him. "I wanna ask you something but you don't have to answer me if you don't want to." He locked curious and slightly dangerous blue eyes on me before giving me the go-ahead. "You don't like being called the B-word," I said awkwardly. I wasn't sure if I should openly say "Bill" or not but Axl seemed to understand what I meant. "Does that...is that related to all the stuff you told me about last night?"