Carolina ~ A Slash Love Story

Showdown (Riot on Sunset)

"I'm mad because you're being a bitch about this!"

"I'm being a bitch about it because I know what I want! I don't want to do that song tonight, that's the end of it."

"What's it about now?" Nikki asked, sitting beside in the hall me with an eye roll.

"Well, Axl and Izzy are fighting about the 'set list,'" I mumbled with air quotes. "I don't know why they're fighting about it anyway; they never even use the lists that they make- they just give them to fans or let the roadies keep them."

"They've got a disjointed chaos going, but it works for them, I guess. So... you, uh, talk to your brother yet?" he asked, playing with his necklace.

"Nope; I was waiting until we're about to go home. Like, when I'm getting off the bus."

"That doesn't leave much time to talk about it."

"True, but we have each other's numbers and stuff. I want him to have time to think out what he'll say so that he doesn't implode under pressure, y'know? He shuts down."

"Yeah, I gotcha. He'll probably ex-plode on me when he finds out I told you."

"What are you talking about? I figured it out myself," I said, shooting him a wink, reassuring him that I wouldn't rat him out.

"Thanks. Are you sure you want to wait to ta-"

Izzy rushed out of the green room in a whirlwind of anger, slamming the heavy door behind himself.

"Don't talk to Axl; he's a stubborn asshole," he barked at me, rushing away.

"Add that to the list of things we already know," I mumbled to Nikki.

"Well, I was going suggest talking to him now, but I now see that that would be a terrible idea. Good luck, kid," he said, patting my thigh before getting up and heading to Tommy's dressing room to join the pre-show party.

I sank down in my chair, rubbing my face as I tried to think of how I would bring it up. It wasn't as hard as I was making it out to be, but I wanted a deeper conversation than just 'hey, I know you're on heroin.' I didn't want it to turn into a fight, but it would be what it would be. I just wanted him to be the best person that he could be- without the drugs. It was highly hypocritical of him to freak out on me over drugs when he was doing the same thing, and it was my turn to put it to an end.

°°°°°°

As per usual, Guns N' Roses killed their set, and afterward, we sat together as a group and watched Mötley Crüe's set for the final time. The tour had been an adventure for sure, full of experimenting and trouble-making, and although we were sad to be going home without promise of another tour in the next few weeks, we were ready to be in our own beds.

Fortunately for us, we had become good friends with the Crüe, and they helped us out; we were flown back to Nevada, where a bus picked us up and took us home to Los Angeles, shortening our trip in a big way. Instead of taking an annoying number of days, we only took two, which was still long considering the fact that we were burned out on each other's company- except for me and Slash of course.

"Ten minutes," the driver shouted as we got closer to my apartment building.

"Ready to go home?" I asked Slash, who busied himself by playing with the ribbon that I had stuck in my hair.

"You know it, baby."

"Wait, what?" Izzy asked, suddenly realizing what was going to happen. He looked up at me, his hazel eyes wide- although his pupils were tiny.