Patience

Three

I woke up this morning to the sun shining on my face, and to the smell of a freshly lit cigarette. I sat up and turned around to see Axl standing out on the small balcony of his apartment, which happened to be right by the couch.

I rubbed my eyes, wincing at the pain because I forgot I had a bruise right underneath my eye. I held my hand over it for a moment, waiting for the pain to die back down. Once it did, I pulled the blanket off of me and threw my legs over the couch and sat up.

"Morning, lovely Lucy," Axl greeted me, turning around, "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, I slept fine," I muttered at him, standing up. I started to make my way to the bathroom, but Axl stopped me by talking.

"Your bruise looks better, if you were wondering," Axl told me.

I folded my arms in front of my chest. "I told you it would get better. That's what they do."

"Want one?" Axl asked, offering me a cigarette.

I let my arms fall back down to my sides. I felt my muscles relax a little. I didn't realize I was so tender up. "Um, sure," I said, walking past the coffee table and onto the balcony with Axl. He handed me one and then held up the lighter for me.

I blew some smoke out of my mouth and turned to Axl. "Thank you for letting me stay here, but I really need to get going," I told him, letting my guard down a little. I knew I was lucky to find someone as kind as him to let me stay with him.

"Get going? Where? You just woke up, don't you want something to eat first?" Axl replied, somewhat frantically.

As much as I wanted to say yes, I declined his offer. I've said yes to him too much already. "No, Axl, I have things I need to do, and things I need to get under control," I said, walking over to the other side of the balcony. I looked down at the streets below and closed my eyes. I was trying to come up with a plan of what I was going to do next.

Axl followed me. "You mean you don't want me to take you out to the best diner in downtown Los Angeles to get some breakfast? And you don't want to hang out with me until my show tonight?" He asked.

I reopened my eyes and perked up a little. "Show? Could you elaborate a little?" I asked.

"I have a band, Lucy, and I'm the singer. Don't you want to hang out with a rock star all day?" Axl asked me with a smile. Charming, I thought. He really wasn't going to give up.

"Oh, really? What do you call yourselves?" I asked.

"Guns n Roses," He replied.

"Guns n Roses," I repeated, blowing smoke out of my mouth. It had a ring to it.

"Yeah, we're working on our first album, you know," Axl said.

"So, your band is like, a serious thing?" I asked. I was serious.

"Where do you have to be today, anyway?" Axl asked me, quickly changing the subject. I feel as though I might have offended him by accident.

I just dropped the previous subject, though. "I need to stop by my ex boyfriend's and get my clothes," I said.

"Why would you go back there? Look at your face! Not that there's anything wrong with it, it's just- like the- the bruise, I mean," Axl said quickly. He fidgeted a little.

"To get my things," I repeated, somewhat irritated. I wasn't irritated with Axl, even thought it may have come across that way. It was a touchy subject.

"Then what?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"Where will you go after that?" Axl asked me.