Carolina ~ A Slash Love Story

Carolina

"Do me a favor and stop arguing."

"No. I'm not just going to sit here-"

"You're going to do whatever I tell you to right now- you and I both know that I'm only trying to do what's right for you. This is an age old argument with you- you either refuse to do something for me or you insist on doing what I don't want you to do. I'm not hearing it."

"Izzy-"

"Just humor me."

"No."

"It isn't a question, Carolina; Nikki and I both agree that you need to stay with someone at all times while you're getting back on track. We're leaving, and you're staying here with Slash."

"Bu-"

"Not arguing. Have fun," he said as he closed the bus door behind himself.

"It's hard to have fun when I'm being treated like a fucking prisoner!" I screamed, dropping into a seat with a heavy sigh. "Why the hell am I being held as a goddamn captive?" I whined, frowning as I held my pounding head.

"You know why," Slash mumbled softly. "You've made a few bad choices and your brother wants to make sure that everything is going to be okay with you. He wants to know that you can come back from the edge."

"What do you mean?"

"It's his way of making sure that you have control of yourself. Like... okay," he said, leaning forward to grab his acoustic guitar, "he wants to make sure you can be your own person; We can tell you're not under Nikki's thumb, so it's all your decisions, but heroin?" he asked softly. "That will fuck up your mind so bad- we all want to make sure you can come back from that."

"Who cares," I mumbled under my breath.

"Well, I do. Your brother does. All of us- even Axl."

I stared at the floor, feeling somehow embarrassed that he had heard me. For the next ten minutes or so, we sat without speaking as he quietly played his guitar. I stared at his fingers, which moved quickly, but delicately as he played, discreetly looking through his hair at me.

"What?" he asked.

"Just watching you... is that okay?"

"Sure, whatever you want."

"Okay. What are you playing?"

"What do you mean?"

"What song is that? Or is it a song at all, I guess is the real question."

"Nah, I'm just making it up as I go."

"Wow. That's really good, Slash."

He stopped playing, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I'm Slash again?" I tilted my head in confusion. "Not Hudson? What happened?" he teased.

I looked at the floor, realizing that I had been a total asshole.

"Hey, I'm just messin' with you, you know that, right?" he asked as he put the guitar down.

"Yeah," I whispered.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," I mumbled a little louder, faking a smile.

"Liar."

"Don't worry about it."

"You're not getting off that easy, Missy," he said, sitting on the floor beside me.

"I'm fine, really," I lied, laughing softly. "Stop looking at me like that... it's like you're trying to read my mind and it's weird."

"Okay, I'll stop scrutinizing you," he joked. "So, I was thinking about what you said the other night-"