Grunge Days /// Book Two! of Summer Break

Crossroads

————
1990

"I don't think i should go dude" Slash nervously said to Duff.
Duff had pulled the "guns n roses" card on the ticket manager earlier that day... before everyone bailed on him, so now here he stood in Slash's house, asking him to come along with him.
"Y'know you weren't my first choice Slash" Duff said, "But everyone else bailed on me! So now you have to come"
"Thanks for making me feel so welcomed" Slash mumbled to himself. "What if it's awkward?" He asked
"Well of course it's gonna be awkward!" Duff said "But it's better to get it over with now"

Shit, Slash thought, he's right. "Okay fine I'll go, what time does it start?"
Duff checked the time on Slash's wall, "In like 6 minutes"
"Jesus fucken christ, let's go" Slash said as he got up from his couch, Duff stumbling behind him as he was already drunk.

They made it to the Troubadour right as the band went on stage, hearing a male voice speaking through the microphone.

A woman's (Who they later figured out was AIC's manager) eyes widened as she saw the pair in the backstage area (they had gone through the back door).
She quickly made her way to them, grabbing Duff by the arm, "Y/ns brother right?" She said
"Yup, that's me" He drunkly smiled as Slash just awkwardly stood there.
"Okay you need to come with me" She said motioning the two men to follow her.
She walked them over to the left side of the stage, where you couldn't really see anything from the stages point of view.
"I'll come get you two after the show. Stay put." The lady said as she walked away from the pair.

Duff glanced over at Slash "Jeez what's her issue"
Slash just shrugged at him as his eyes went back to the stage, by now Alice was midway through their first song on the set, 'Bleed The Freak'.
The two men's eyes stayed on Y/n as she played and sang many of the background vocals and harmonies.
It was like the summer of '86 never even happened, now they were just enjoying the show and occasionally whispering to each other how good the band was.

Well except for when Duff mentally (okay lie, it was written all over his face) cringed when Y/n took off her black long sleeve, leaving her only in a her bra and baggy jeans. That's when reality hit him again and he remembered that it was his sister on stage.

The band played their last song, which was currently the bands biggest hit, 'Man in the box'.

The crowed cheered for them as the song ended, and Y/n went up to the mic to finish off the show.
"I wanna thank you guys for coming out" Y/n breathlessly spoke into the mic, being cut off by everyone cheering for them again. "Hope you guys enjoyed yourselves! until next time, goodnight from Alice in Chains. " she said throwing up her hand, walking off stage along with the rest of the boys.

"Dude we fucken killed that!" Jerry, their bassist said as he threw Y/n over his shoulder, Layne laughed as he looked at Y/ns annoyed face, knowing she hated when Jerry did that.
"um dude how about you put me down? i have to go find my fucken shirt"

"You mean this shirt?" Sean said as hung the shirt over Y/n's face, she tried to grab it, but the asshole threw the shirt over to Layne.
"Give me my shirt Layne!" Y/n said trying to get out of Jerry's grasp, they were playful little dicks alright, never a moment where they weren't fucking around.

"Y/n your-" Their manager called walking into the dressing room with Slash and Duff, cutting herself off mid sentence as saw Y/n over Jerry's shoulder, and Sean and Layne tossing her shirt like if it was a football.

Jerry quickly turned around to face their manager, almost giving Y/n whiplash as he spun her around. So now Jerry was facing Slash, Duff, and Susan (their manager), and Y/ns face was quite literally on Jerry's ass, being unable to see what was going on.

The room suddenly turned quite as the rest of the Alice guy's eyes widened at the sight of Y/ns brother.
"Hey! what the fuck is going on and why haven't you put me down Jerry" Y/n said as she heard nothing but pure silence, trying to get a glimpse at who else was in the room, only able to see their shoes.
"Oh right, sorry about that" Jerry said, letting out an awkward chuckle as he put her down.

Y/n turned around to look at what her bandmates were looking at. Being not so shocked to see Duff, but definitely being caught off guard as she saw Slash standing right next to him.

Look, now she knew she was obviously gonna come across Duff, but Slash? there was still a whole bunch of weird tension between the two, especially since this is her first time seeing him (And Duff too, but it's different) in the longest, and she definitely didn't think Duff would bring Slash with him, to see her.

"Hey" Y/n said as calmly and non-awkwardly as she could.
"Hey Y/n!" Duff excitedly said as he went up to hug her.
The girl cracked a smile and hugged him back, making eye contact with Slash before he quickly looked away.

"These are my band mates, Layne, Jerry and Sean" She said after she let go of their embrace.
"Guys this is Duff, and Slash" She said, nodding her head towards the curly headed boy who awkwardly stood there.

He hadn't even said one word, the show was fun, but now this was just emotional torture to him. The fuck should i say? He thought.

Duff quickly sparked up a conversation with the Alice boys, turning his head over to Slash as he spoke,
"Slash, it's rude not to greet people" He giggled at his friend, still totally wasted.
Slash smiled and shook his head, going up to properly greet the boys. They talked for a tiny bit until Slash just quietly stood there, quietly laughing along to whatever they were saying

"Bold of you not to say Hello to me" The curly head heard behind him.
Slash turned around to see Y/n looking at him, her hands bringing up a cigarette to her mouth.
Slash cleared his throat before speaking, "I think i need a few drinks before i'm able to talk to you"
Y/n laughed as she exhaled some smoke "No, i don't think you do"

She walked away from him as she finally was able to snatch her shirt from Sean's hand, putting it on while she walked over to a dirty old couch, sitting on it as she grabbed a beer from the table in front of her.

"Who wants beer" She said aloud as she ashed her cigarette.
She heard the boys walking over to where she was sitting, all of them taking a seat. All except Slash.

"Y'know i have a nickname now" Duff said as Y/n passed over a beer to him.
Y/n opened up the bottle, "Oh really? And what would that be"
"The king of beers" Duff spoke proudly
Y/n let out a laugh as she shook her head at him, "That's quite a fucken name"

Slash watched as everyone talked and laughed, shaking his head to himself as this was quite literally the most humiliating thing to him. I mean shit he felt more left out then he did in high school!

He turned around as he walked out, thinking to himself that he probably deserved to not be included in their fun. Especially after what happened that summer.

But he had a glimmer of hope that maybe him & Y/n would be able to move past that, just like him and Duff did. He just didn't know how he was going to do it.