Where There is a Flame Someone's Bound to Get Burned

Concussions

Duff

The past twenty four hours have been made of pure hell. I woke up to the sound of fighting and yelling going on in the kitchen followed by someone running up the stairs and then shit starts banging against the walls in the hallway. The noise sounds like it's coming from Izzy and Slash's room? What the hell? Those two are arguing that badly? I've never seen them that angry at each other, usually they're so disgustingly in love you want to puke. The angriest I've ever seen them is the night that Izzy slammed the dressing room door in Slash's face after Axl felt Slash up onstage.

I groan and get out of bed and open the door into the hallway and look out. Shit is flying out of Izzy's door and into the hallway, it looks like it's all of Slash's stuff. I step out of my room and walk down the hall and step into Izzy's doorway only to be confronted by Izzy who has Slash's guitar raised above his head getting ready to smash it into the floor. "Izzy what the fuck is going on?!" I ask him.

He looks up at me; tears are streaming down his face and his eyes are fucking crazy. He just stands there, guitar raised above his head, staring at me like he doesn't know who the fuck I am or what in the world I'm doing there, maybe he doesn't know who he is. I walk over to him and take the guitar out of his hands and lay it down on the bed. "Izz, what happened, why are you crying and trying to destroy Slash's guitar? He loves that thing almost as much as he loves you!"

"He doesn't fucking love me! I just caught him fooling around with Axl in the kitchen! Fuck him!" Izzy yells and then sinks down onto the floor sobbing. I just stand there for a second trying to process what Izzy said, Slash was in the kitchen fooling around with Axl? Somehow I don't believe this but obviously something happened because Izzy's losing it. I sit down next to him and try and put my arm around him but he shrugs me off. "Duff, go down to the kitchen and check on him, I slammed his head into the refrigerator really hard, I don't know if he can get up," Izzy sobs. "Please, I think I really hurt him. Maybe Axl too, I don't know, I beat up both of them."

"Ok, I'll go check on them," I tell Izzy. I stand up and hurry down to the kitchen where I find Slash laying on the kitchen floor with a busted nose and lip. "Slash, you ok?" I ask kneeling down beside him. He doesn't answer. I guess Izzy did slam his head into the fridge really hard because Slash is completely knocked out. There's another large puddle of blood in the floor and shit is thrown all over the kitchen counters, I'm guessing that means Axl was ok enough to leave the kitchen. I feel the back of Slash's head and there's a huge knot there so I stand up and make an ice pack and sit back down and pull his head into my lap putting the ice on the wound. I smack his face a couple of times trying to get him to wake up and he comes around a little and asks for Izzy and says he didn't do anything with Axl and then tries to get up so he can go to Izzy but he passes out again before he's even all the way off of my lap.

I end up taking him to the ER so he can get his head looked at and he has a pretty bad concussion but is otherwise fine. I bring him home after several hours and put him to bed and go to check on Izzy and find out what the hell really happened this morning. I got Slash's version on the way home but he's pretty in and out from the pain killers they gave him in the hospital.

I knock on Izzy's door but he doesn't answer. "Izzy, it's Duff!" I yell but he still doesn't open up. I end up popping the door lock and Izzy's just sitting on his bed staring at nothing. "Izzy?" I say as I walk towards the bed. His eyes move towards me but he doesn't say anything. Several littlel bags of heroin are sitting on his nightstand along with a syringe and a spoon. "How much have you had?" I ask him.

"Enough," he says flatly. "Is he ok?"

"Slash?"

"Yeah," Izzy whispers.

"He'll be fine. You have him a pretty good concussion though. What the hell happened Izzy?" I ask him.

He sighs. " I walked into the kitchen and he and Axl...Axl was jacking him off!"

"Izzy, is that what you really think happened? He wouldn't do that! Axl's been after him for months and he never went for it, he loves you. I don't think that's really what was happening Izzy, he told me that he had just walked into the kitchen and was making coffee when Axl walked up behind him and covered up his mouth and stuck his hand down his pants. He had just let go of his mouth when you walked in the kitchen."

"Duff! He was fucking hard in Axl's hand! I heard him moaning right before I opened the door! Explain that!" Izzy spits out bitterly.

"Izz, you know we all wake up hard as a fucking rock. If he hadn't taken a piss yet like he said then it makes sense. He said he wasn't moaning either, that he couldn't breathe. He did really have to go to the bathroom once he was awake in the hospital. I don't Izzy, I just don't think he did it. He's so upset. You need to talk to him," I say.

"Not gonna happen," Izzy replies. "I don't have anything to say to him. I'd never be able to completely trust him again anyway."

"Izzy, how can you say that? He's been the love of your life for months! What do you mean you have nothing to say? How can you just leave it like this? What if he's telling the truth?!" I ask disbelievingly.

"He's not Duff. He's been the love of my life but I guess maybe I wasn't the love of his life. He's just upset because he got caught. Duff, why?" Izzy suddenly wails and curls up into a ball on the bed and sobs.

"Izzy, I'm telling you, you need to talk to him. If I loved somebody as much as you love him I'd have to talk to them," I tell him and rub his shoulder. "He's just as miserable as you are. I left in his room crying. He loves you Izz."

"I thought so too Duff," Izzy sobs. I sit there with him for a while until he finally sits up and goes to the bathroom to wash his face. I have no idea what to do with the two of them, unless I can get Axl to admit what happened...but no one has seen him since he and Izzy fought this morning. When I do find him though we're going to have a little talk; maybe he and my fists will have a little talk too. Izzy and Slash belong together, they're soul mates, rounding each other out perfectly. I'm not letting that red-headed weasel break them apart if what Slash is telling me is true. I don't know what Axl's fucking problem is but if he did what Slash said he did I'm going to fucking kill him.